Or, go straight to the source, and check out the White House’s own website at:
link

The White House even encourages citizens to call up with their questions and concerns at:
(202) 456-1414

thanks to everyone who came out for the event Saturday morning to ask questions, express support, express honest disagreement, and also, to those many people who honked their horns and gave us their thumbs up in solidarity. And thanks to the Chronicle for giving us this forum as a way to get the word out.

Having said that though, I am sorry that I inserted it in a commentary about the importaance of healthcare reform, since I wanted my message to be a positive one. I do feel that we can constructively deal with the different points of view on the subject and work together to find solutions.

More government regulation isn’t necessarily the best answer since it was government regulation that caused the problems to begin with. Why do people get healthcare through employers? Because of government wage controls during WWII. Don’t like your HMO? Those were created by Congress in the 1970s. Why have costs risen so much? Because they can — as long as someone is going to pay money for a treatment, there will be someone, somewhere offering it, regardless of it’s medical efficacy. Not to mention that Medicare rules outmoded all older hospitals, forcing hospital systems to go deep into debt with newer facilities ($250 million for a small 48-bed cardiac unit in Ann Arbor alone).

While there are some competitive pressures at hospitals, it’s illegal to open a hospital in this state without government permission, which to anyone familiar with the real world means bribes and lobbyists.

The whole “digital medical records” fiasco is just a massive tax on patients, with hospitals employing hundreds of expensive IT personnel and management instead of doctors and nurses.

Malpractice reform has been completely absent in the discussion even though most doctors admit that 20% of tests are done solely for legal reasons. Why? Because the Democratic party is owned by trial lawyers, just as the Republicans are owned by large corporations.

If nothing else, Congress should be forced to use whatever system they come up with and they should pay into it just like the self-employed. That may ensure at least a tiny bit of sanity in the system.

The Insurance Company/ Doctor/Provider/Pharma and ancillary businesses are by far the biggest bureaucracy we have, far larger and out bureaucratizing any government run health care program like Medicare. Everyone knows and admits that this private bureaucracy has done a poor job or caring for our health. Twice the cost of other developed countries with worse outcomes Health care is already rationed and controlled by these highly profitable businesses.

The current health care bureaucracy has far more to do with profiting from people’s misery than it does with making people healthy. How could the government do any worse?

Remove the profit motive from providing health care and we’ll all be in better shape.

Here’s the URL for the show:

link

You can listen to the story or download a transcript.

We decided to begin educating ourselves about the bill, and to share what we learned at the event Sat. Simple as that.

There is an excellent article in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine that explains that a big part of the reason the push for reform is losing momentum is because of a basic psychological fact: people are basically afraid of change, even if it is positive, good change.

Eli and I have organized this event for Saturday with a group of friends–regular people who do not represent any particular group or political party–to share what we have learned about the proposed legislation during this week of study, and also, to listen to what other people have to say, and learn from that, in the true spirit of mutual respect and community dialogue–much as this forum in the Ann Arbor Chronicle is set up to be–respectful, thoughtful, and, in the Chronicle’s own words, “generous.” I would challenge all of us who do come to the event tomorrow (which is by no means a “demonstration” in the way I think you are picturing that word) to also be what the Chronicle has taken up as their mission–open. We will not be able to make meaningful, needed changes in our society without being open to hear each others’ concerns, needs, fears, and beliefs, and together, only we have truly listened to each other respectfully, can we try to put together a version of the truth that can bring us to a better future. My truth, your truth–maybe neither one understands this issue completely. But together, we can join our perspectives and see things from a much larger perspective. This is the cornerstone of democracy.
That’s why I will be there tomorrow at 9:30 across from the Farmer’s Market, and I hope you will join me. I think you will find all of us there who are organizing it (which amounts to 10 people or so, again, who are just people) reasonable, open people who are willing to listen to what you have to say, if you say it in a reasonable, mutually respectful way. This is what our democracy is supposed to be, how it is supposed to work. And yes, there have been abuses, and this discussion has not always been straightforward on “both sides.” But I wouldn’t be bringing my kids there tomorrow if I didn’t believe the dialogue we are beginning there as a community won’t provide them with a positive, constructive role model of democracy in action–people talking together as neighbors who share a common fate, people trying to share ideas in a mutually respectful way.
And so I hope to meet you there with open hands and heart, with my very best regards,
Madeline