Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON, DC –  Just yesterday, the new First Family measured the drapes in the White House just blocks from where I write this piece.  It has been but a week since we saw history as my U.S. Senator Barack Obama was elected to be our next President.  But for some of us, the joy is tempered by a reality that just won’t abate.

If I heard the candidates refer to the pain on “Main Street” one more time, I thought I might explode.  While I think most Democrats come closer to “getting it” on issues of economic disparity than most right-wing Republicans, I don’t really believe anyone yet is capable of embracing people who have been damaged and bruised as a part of the “change” we need in Washington. It may come, but we’re not there yet or they’d be acting with appropriate haste.

It is now widely recognized that we are in a global recession of historic proportions, raising comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The failures of deregulated markets, whether in housing, banking or other industries, has become obvious to all. So far the private health insurance industry has not been called to account, but its day is coming soon.

Join the National Call in Day! Call your Congressional representative! Have your friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors call too! Call toll free: 1-866-338-1015. Find out if your representative is a cosponsor of HR 676 here. If so, thank them! If not, then follow this sample script: "Medicare has worked successfully for 43 years in providing quality health care to residents 65 years and older, while keeping administrative costs down. A single payer, guaranteed healthcare approach to reform is the only answer to the healthcare crisis in this country. Please sign on to HR 676 today!"

Don't be shy or embarrassed -- if you don't know who your representative is, just click here and find out: http://www.votesmart.org/

Join the effort to change America's broken healthcare system.

So you're uninsured.

But like so many, you're hanging in because, in a few years, you'll be eligible for Medicare.

Help has arrived. Finally, as a citizen of the richest country on the planet, you'll be able to access healthcare.

You'll be enrolled in Medicare, one of our most cherished social programs, a program designed to protect the most vulnerable among us, America's senior citizens.

 Not so fast, I'm sad beyond words to report.

You've watched to video at the beginning of this diary.  Now watch another video, heed the bleak words of the new president of the AMA, Dr. Nancy Neilsen.

Dr. Nielsen is ringing the alarm that the country is ''at the brink of a Medicare meltdown.'' To her huge credit, she's also naming names, and fingering those responsible for this latest healthcare atrocity.

The usual criminals as you might suspect. At the top of the list, the for-profit insurance industry (AHIP), and their political lapdogs. They are directing the money toward the private Medicare Advantage schemes, and sapping the lifeblood from traditional Medicare.

Ask Your Senators to Co-Sponsor S. 2785, the “Save Medicare Act of 2008” — 10.6% Medicare Physician Payment Cut to Go Into Effect July 1, 2008!