Nye-gateway To Nevada's Rurals Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 8 September 5 2009

September 5, 2009

Vol 1 No 8

Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals P o l i t i c a l

N e w s

a n d

C o m m e n t a r y

Dumping the Sick to Satisfy Investors

Inside Roping in the unwary about health care

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False claims 300k die if government runs health care

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We will regret failure of the public option

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Money driven medicine: A National Tragedy

Government for and by the Corporation

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Health Care for Members of Congress?

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Upcoming Events

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Wendell Potter is a former executive of CIGNA insurance. He left that position recently after seeing what the insurance industry is doing to consumers.

stock values. Potter explains it all in simple understandable terms so it is easy to understand.

There are three blog posts about Mr. Potter. He tells the inside story of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17 Bill Moyers interviews year-old girl in dire need Wendell Potter on PBS; of a liver transplant. Obama’s False Friends of CIGNA denied coverage Health Reform; and They saying they would not pay Dump the Sick to Satisfy for ―experimental" proceInvestors. dures. Under public presPotter explains how the sure CIGNA changed its insurance industry has mind to OK. But too late. manipulated their busi- Nataline died 2 hours ness models to rid them- later. selves of unprofitable customers in order to increase their profits and earnings to placate Wall Street and increase their

P a h r u m p ’ s Conservatives and progressives of Pahrump met outside the Town Office of Pahrump while the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met inside with Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo.

Then there is Concannon with myeloma, a rare cancer. His

Thomas multiple form of doctors

C o n s e r v a t i v e s a n d D e m o n s t r a t e I was told that the conservative demonstrators outnumbered the progressives 3-1. I didn’t see any firearms nor fights. I could hear some loud arguing going on, but other than that

planned to perform a bone marrow transplant. CIGNA announced it would not cover the operation. Those decisions weren’t made by ―government bureaucrats.‖ They were made by ―insurance company bureaucrats" all in the interests of their money interests. See Wall Street healthcare. Death panels anyone?

P r o g r e s s i v e s

there was no breach of the peace observed. I saw no cops. The two groups kept a respectable separation from each other.

reform.

There were also protesters carrying homemade ―Bury Harry‖ and ―Goodbye Dirty Harry‖ The conservative group signs. obviously doesn’t like Harry Reid or healthcare Read more.

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Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals

R o p i n g

i n

t h e

u n w a r y

There are so many misleading, false and deceptive practices involved in the current ―debate‖ or more aptly ―argument‖ about health insurance reform it is easy to get totally lost.

making sound judgments about whether or not to reform the medical care system in the United States it is getting downright dangerous. The following, from FactCheck.org, analyzes one more.

So many people are allowing their emotions to get in the way of

The Republican National Committee this week posted a ―Health

a b o u t

h e a l t h

Care Bill of Rights for Seniors,‖ which RNC Chairman Michael Steele and others have taken to the airwaves to publicize. It contains one new one that has some truth to it, and another fresh one that has very little.

c a r e

Michael Steele

Read more.

C o n s e r v a t i v e g r o u p f a l s e l y c l a i m s 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 w o m e n w o u l d d i e o f b r e a s t c a n c e r i f g o v e r n m e n t r u n h e a l t h c a r e

A conservative group with Republican ties called the Independent Women’s Forum (IMF) is airing an ad that says ―300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died‖ if our health care were ―government run‖ like England’s. FactCheck.org

We

The Independent Women’s Forum’s staff includes Lynn Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney, on it’s staff. My thanks to Joy, who commented on this post, for pointing that out.

―We Nothing like England’s system is being considered currently

says

w i l l

judge this ad’s main insinuation to be a false appeal to women’s fears.‖

r e g r e t

Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times, writes that— Health care reform may be defeated this year in part because so many Americans believe the government can’t do anything right and fear

f a i l u r e o p t i o n

that a doctor will come to resemble an I.R.S. agent with a scalpel. Yet the part of America’s health care system that consumers like best is the governmentrun part. Kristof points out that ―Fifty-six to 60 percent

o f

by either house of Congress anyway, as FactCheck has often pointed out. FactCheck judges this ad’s main insinuation to be a false appeal to women’s fears. Nothing new about using fear by the opposition to healthcare insurance reform. Read more.

t h e

of people rate government-run Medicare rate it at 9 or 10 on a 10point scale.‖ However lots of government run operations are socialized. Examples of socialized programs include: firefighters, police, education, postal

p u b l i c service and libraries. Read more.

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Vol 1 No 8

M o n e y

d r i v e n

Bill Moyer’s Journal on PBS aired a very informative segment about modern day healthcare and the impact of for-profit insurance coverage. You can view the video of the broadcast on this blog post complete with a transcript. The health care crossroads we currently encounter raises fundamental questions: Is health care to be afforded only to the

m e d i c i n e : Tr a g e d y

elite who can financially afford it? Or, is it to be accessible to all, regardless of economic social class? Have we, as a nation, become so materialistic and commercial, so profit driven, that we are willing to shed our ethics and morals a nd c o nf ine a c c es s to medical treatment to those that can afford it? If so, can we continue to claim our country is a

A

N a t i o n a l

Christian country? Those really are the fundamental questions with which we must deal. The story of how today’s marketdriven medical system gives Wall Street investors life and death control over our health care, turning medicine into a profit machine instead of a social service to meet human need. Read more.

G o v e r n m e n t f o r t h e C o r p o r a t i o n b y t h e C o r p o r a t i o n The Republican and Democratic party’s have become so entrapped by the flood of money from corporations and Wall Street that Congress doesn’t represent people anymore, they represent corporations.

H e a l t h

Corporate America has bought Congress and that if people want to regain control of their government they will have to acknowledge that situation and buy it back. I think about Wendell Potter’s admonition to

C a r e

What type of health insurance do members of Congress receive? Is it a single-payer, government-run system? The answer is: Members of Congress are covered by private insurance under the same system that covers all federal workers.

f o r

us all about how forprofit health care insurance company’s are fighting reform because of the deleterious effect it would have on their profits, at the expense of people. It appears that corporations may well

M e m b e r s

Members of Congress have good health insurance by any standard, but it’s not free and not reserved only for them – and it’s not government insurance. House and Senate members are allowed to purchase private health insurance offered through the Federal

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a n d

retain it’s grip on the American government. If so it will be a testament to the unwillingness of informed voters to retake control. Read more.

C o n g r e s s ?

E m p l o yee s H ea lt h B e n ef it s Pr og r am , which covers more than 8 million other federal employees, retirees and their families.

would be required to be covered under the new system. What, then would be arguments we would hear from our Senators and Congressmen/ women?

Dean Heller may have a point. Suppose that Would they take a differwhatever reform is ent stance or not? Read adopted that each more. member of Congress

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Special Offer MoveOn: The Movie is being offered for your viewing free of charge by Val Von Holt. To see it free just leave a $10 deposit with me, view the movie for 30 days, return it to me in good condition, and the $10 deposit will be refunded to you. Contact me at 1290 Bruce Street, Pahrump, phone (775) 537-1262 or e-mail [email protected] to make arrangements. I will need to know your name, mail address, e-mail address and phone number. Born out of a single email, MoveOn.org has spread through the Net to become one of the most powerful progressive players in American politics. With no central office and a small staff working from their homes, MoveOn.org grew to an organization with over 5 million members. Director Alex Jordanov followed this movement for 6 years; a movement built on the strength of its membership and best understood through their individual stories.

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September 2009

September 2009

Obama for America - Nevada Volunteer Leadership Summit

Nye County Democratic Central Committee September Meeting

When: Tuesday, September 08, 2009

When: Monday, September 28, 2009

Time:06:00—8:00 PM

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: Nevada State Democratic Party Headquarters, 1210 S. Valley View Blvd, Suite 114, Las Vegas

Where: Ruud Community Center, Pahrump

Host: Evan Sutton

Phone: 702-737-8683 This will be a presentation on volunteer leadership positions, and a chance for people to ask questions about the different roles. We hope you can join us.

RSVP: Obama for America

Agenda: Who knows? For information contact Bonnie Swadling at [email protected].