the white house is sending out emails asking for input on health care...

[MrsBrady]

I didn't know if anyone else had posted this yet.

I thought it would be a good idea for all of us to send an email to the White House.
-- I know no one here has an opinion, right? ;) --

I signed up some time ago to get emails from The White House.
They are asking for suggestions.
I'm going to send in my opinion. How about you?
I'm for single payer/medicare for all.

Here's the link that is in the email
http://www.HealthReform.gov

you can make a comment here, and share your ideas, specifically on health care...
http://www.healthreform.gov/communityreports/comments.html

****************************************************************
Good afternoon,

You are receiving this email because you signed up at WhiteHouse.gov. My staff and I plan to use these messages as a way to directly communicate about important issues and opportunities, and today I have some encouraging updates about health care reform.

The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31.

We also have an unprecedented commitment from health care industry leaders, many of whom opposed health reform in the past. Monday, I met with some of these health care stakeholders, and they pledged to do their part to reduce the health care spending growth rate, saving more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years -- around $2,500 for each American family. Then on Tuesday, leaders from some of America's top companies came to the White House to showcase innovative ways to reduce health care costs by improving the health of their workers.

Now the House and Senate are beginning a critical debate that will determine the health of our nation's economy and its families. This process should be transparent and inclusive and its product must drive down costs, assure quality and affordable health care for everyone, and guarantee all of us a choice of doctors and plans.

Reforming health care should also involve you. Think of other people who may want to stay up to date on health care reform and other national issues and tell them to join us here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/EmailUpdates

Health care reform can't come soon enough. We spend more on health care than any country, but families continue to struggle with skyrocketing premiums and nearly 46 million are without insurance entirely. It is a priority for the American people and a pillar of the new foundation we are seeking to build for our economy.

We'll continue to keep you posted about this and other important issues.

Thank you,
Barack Obama

P.S. If you'd like to get more in-depth information about health reform and how you can participate, be sure to visit http://www.HealthReform.gov.

***************************************************************

[Robbien]

1. AFTER they have made all their deals and after they have talked to

Blue Dogs and GOPers

They put out a cya memo saying you little people can now have a say. It doesn't count, but if it makes you feel better go ahead and send in your little emails.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Good point.

What do we have to do to get treated with more respect than Cheney and his energy gang?

[magellan]

4. You put it nicer than I was going to. n/t

[Robbien]

6. Ha, there was a lot more

nastiness in my first draft but had second thoughts and edited before hitting post.

All this condescension for lefties coming out of this WH burns my butt.

[MrsBrady]

16. hey, i think what they are doing is a load of crap

I'm just making folks aware of the email.
Don't shoot the messenger.

I'm going to send info to them anyway.

Like I said, I know we all have our opinions.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I was wondering about that.

Something odd caught my eye.

You know how the pictures cycle automatically through the four subjects?

The first one is "Innovative Workplace Practices," then comes "Roadblocks to Health Care," followed by "Weekly Update on Health Reform," finally ending with "The Conversation Continues."

As each new topic pops up, the number on the left hand side moves over one, the title changes and a new pictures is displayed.

I know it was not on purpose, but the picture for "Roadblocks to Health Care" is of Kathleen Sebelius at a table talking with some women and there are four (excuse me) five plastic water bottles on the table. Roadblock indeed.

Just thought I'd share.

We have to get single-payer on the table and the plastic bottles off.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Not that it will help, but I sent them this

We need single payer. The hour is getting late, but we need single payer, period. Harry Truman was right in 1948, and it is right for the country right now. It is a fact that the system as it exists right now is on the verge of collapse. We have patients who are not taken care off. We have private hospitals shuffling patients to public ones, and forty eight million who have no insurance whatsoever. And of those insured, how many have insufficient insurance?

Is this the country we want?

We need single payer and all other excuses preserve a broken system of health care for profit. Health care is a right. If not, I would like to see every member of Congress sign up for the program forty eight million americans have, that is none whatsoever.

I saw some of this even fifteen years ago. I was a medic for the Mexican Red Cross in Tijuana, and you know what? We transported some Americans to the hospital in the United States, since they could afford the for pay American Ambulance.

We also had a patient in her seventies, diabetic, could not afford her meds... she came to our ER every month. We tried to get her social services, but could not. That was the tip of the iceberg of what we face today.

Oh and rationing, yes it will happen, It is called triage. Not every patient needs a heart transplant. We need to get over this idea that a seventy year old needs a heart transplant as much as an 18 year old. Just my view.

Sincerely,

[Hekate]

7. Good letter. You don't know if it will have an effect, but certainly without sending it there would

... have been zero effect.

Hekate

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. That's the only reason I bother

[The Hope Mobile]

9. I already responded to two of these emails and you get back

a nice form letter stating that they would like to answer all emails and thanks for your input kind of thing. Is there a more direct way to communicate the need for real health care reform not just silly promises from the companies that have been benefiting from the current system for so long?

[Hekate]

10. You could try writing the Prez and your Senators and Rep via the US Mail...

They get literally millions of emails every week. A letter written on paper provokes a reply in an envelope -- still a form letter, but you have the satisfaction of knowing someone had to open it and look at it.

Hekate

[JHB]

29. Yes there is.

You can donate hundreds of thousands of dollars from you personal acounts and from your large corporation to the campaign funds of a select number of politicians.

Or you can hire a lobbying firm, who can write off every expense in trying to influence politicians as business deductions. Or both.


Oh, don't have those? Can't afford that? Write "your" congresspeople and the WH, and hope enough other people do to get them to think about hedging their bets.

[The Hope Mobile]

32. Oh, what was I thinking? I'll get that out of my back pocket!! LOL

I do fax plenty of congress critters but it doesn't seem to be heard much. Just faxed all of Baucus' offices about single payer . . . shortly before he arrested MORE of the single payer advocates protesting. Hmmm. Not a quitter but I sure wish there was a way to get the message more directly to these guys.

[old mark]

11. Thank you for the links - I just emailed the President, not for the first time

since he was elected, and certainly not for the last. I never contacted Bush - I could think of nothing to tell him that would not get me arrested.


mark

[MrsBrady]

20. yep, I understand that about Bush n/t

[ThomCat]

12. "Reduce cost growth"

That term keeps showing up. That's worrisome.

This means that one one of the official goals isn't to cut the cost of health care, but to make the cost of health care increase more slowly.

:wtf:

There is some double talk in there. Be warned.

I'm sending in my letter too though. Hopefully it'll do some good despite the corporate double talk.

[MrsBrady]

15. letter writing and phone calls is about all we can do...

unless we have some kind of Civlil Rights style, heath care movement...
which I would support. Non-violent protest.

Those who were arrested in the Baucus committee meeting were brave.

[ThomCat]

27. Yes, they were very brave, and they should be treated like heroes.

:)

I hope a lot more doctors and nurses follow their lead. That is what will make the difference in this debate right now.

[corkhead]

13. I sent them my suggestion:

Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer! Single Payer!

[MrsBrady]

17. nnnniiiiiiicccceeeeee! n/t

[The Hope Mobile]

26. That's pretty subtle. They may have to read between the lines a bit!

:rofl:

[Triana]

14. what I sent...

Why do you bother with what is being called "health care reform"? Why not save your time and taxpayer money and just leave the broken for-profit (by denying payment for care) system in place? What, pray tell - is this "slowing cost growth" term that is being tossed around? Is that the same as cutting costs? Not in my language it isn't. It's a semantics game meant to fool people.

Without a PUBLIC, Medicare for ALL option from which to choose - an option that it has been made clear is NOT even being considered - then we DO NOT HAVE HEALTH CARE REFORM and you are WASTING YOUR TIME AND TAXPAYER MONEY.

We've heard time and time again about "cutting costs, streamlining technology", yada, yada - for TWENTY YEARS we've heard this bunk. EVERY TIME "health care reform" is discussed these same plug nickels are tossed out there to protect the for-profit health care INDUSTRY -- instead of anyone doing anything to PROTECT THE HEALTH OF AMERICANS and to offer THEM REAL CHOICE.

And the bottom line STILL remains:

Americans are collectively VICTIMS of a broken "health care" system that is primarily owned by greedy for-profit insurance companies who make their money by DENYING PAYMENT FOR CARE whilst collecting premiums and nothing about that has changed.

Americans are still collectively VICTIMS of a broken "health care" system in which greedy for-profit insurance conglomerates insert themselves between patients and their doctors, denying payment for care that is desperately needed, and most often NOT received due to the patient's inability to pay and/or the insurance company's refusal to pay. Americans will still continue DYING in droves and suffering financial ruin due to this broken system that the US Government REFUSES to change. And I mean CHANGE. Not a pretense of it.

Americans are still collectively VICTIMS of a broken "health care" system in which they have NO CHOICE except to either have "health insurance" from one of these greedy corporations - or NOTHING. Because a publicly-funded, government-run option that OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED - is STILL not an option for them in THIS one.

Why DO you bother?

Until and unless the US Government (that means YOU) can get OUT from under the control of the insurance industry and offer Americans REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM - including a viable, public, single-payer government-run option - don't bother.

Yet again this week, MORE advocates of a public, Medicare for All, single-payer option were *THROWN OUT* of the ever-arrogant and insurance- company-pwned Max Baucus's hearings on the matter. DESPICABLE, arrogant, unacceptable behavior on the part of the Finance Committee.

You all up there have made it very clear that you don't CARE WHAT AMERICANS want or need. You only CARE what the insurance companies want or need and you only CARE about protecting and providing for their profits - NOT protecting or providing for the health care of American citizens.

It's incredibly blatant and I ask you again: WHY DO YOU BOTHER - if you are not going to truly REFORM health care - to make such a transparent pretense of it?

This is not "change we can believe in" - it's the same plug nickel that has been tossed at us for over 20 years and called "health care reform".

PLEASE...either offer a PUBLICLY funded, government-run Medicare for All option - a GOOD one - or DO NOT call it "health care reform" - because without a public option - IT ISN'T.

Thank you.

[MrsBrady]

18. good n/t

[ima_sinnic]

21. great! I sent quite a rude response--didn't keep a copy--I should write when calmer

:(

[ThomCat]

28. Very nice.

Politicians seem to like to call anything "reform" that they know isn't. That's often a clue that you need to take a close look at what they're really doing.

[JVS]

19. Tell Baucus to stop having people arrested and listen to them

[MrsBrady]

34. that would be a start

:shrug:

[justabob]

22. what I sent

Until the profit motive is removed from the equation, our health care system is doomed to fail tens of millions of people. Period. What good is having insurance when the insurance company can deny prescribed treatment? What good is having insurance when you cannot pay the deductibles? Why should I bother going to the doctor when the insurance company can step in and say we will pay for this, but not that, when the doctor says "that" is what will save me?

We hear a lot about how single payer will cause wait periods and the like.... Um, excuse me but what about the millions of people who get no care at all because we have to wait indefinitely until we have money? How is THAT fair? "I got mine, screw you" seems to be the underlying attitude here. We need universal care NOW.

I haven't been to the doctor in over ten years, even during the brief window when I worked somewhere that provided insurance. In fact, the last time I remember seeing a doctor was a workers comp claim 12 years ago. It is simply too expensive. When you are working a job that pays less than ten dollars an hour the deductibles are out of reach, even if the deductibles are low.

As it stands now, if I contract anything more serious than a chest cold, I am doomed. Fortunately, I am relatively healthy and have a freakishly high threshold for pain, but how long can I depend on that?

[MrsBrady]

23. wow

that was great!

Hope whoever is reading these has some pull.

[WhiteTara]

24. sop

it's a nasty political game. They get the prizes and we get sop.

[bdamomma]

25. DONE

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

30. Obama promised transparency and everyone to the table, but he lied

I supporte Obama and canvassed for him during the primary, but we have to hold
his feet to the fire!

Obama promised health care hearings on CSPAN, everyone to the table,
Transparency.

Then we saw that Single Payer Health Care was not allowed a seat at the table,
as that would offend the big insurance company donors who own our govt.

[dflprincess]

31. "Health care reform can't come soon enough"

Is that why he's crawled into bed with the health insurance companies?

I hate it when "our" elected officials treat us like we're too stupid to see that they're selling out. Senator Baucus may be an asshole but at least, in strange way, he's honest enough to admit he's been bought. Obama keeps trying to play us.

[DU GrovelBot]

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