Given: As we grow older, our healthcare (and health insurance) costs increase.
Given: Baby Boomers are entering their Golden Years, and between 2010 and 2040, the US population over 65 years of age will double.
Given: Fiscal hawks at the state and federal level want to reduce, dramatically change, or eliminate government-backed health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), as well as social safety net programs (ie, Social Security, food stamps, and unemployement).
Given these facts: It is not difficult to see how the colliding forces of an aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and decreasing government support could create a perfect storm in US in the not-so-distant future.
Using statistical modeling, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University reported that without significant changes in risk factors or treatments, “…the aging of the US population will result in a sizeable increase in coronary heart disease incidence, prevalence, mortality, and costs.”
More specifically:
“…incident coronary heart disease [new cases] is projected to increase by approximately 26%, from 981,000 in 2010 to 1,234,000 in 2040…
“Prevalent coronary heart disease [is projected to increase] by 47%, from 11.7 million to 17.3 million.
“Mortality will be affected strongly by the aging population; annual coronary heart disease deaths are projected to increase by 56% over the next 30 years, from 392,000 to 610,000.
“Coronary heart disease-related health care costs are projected to rise by 41% from $126.2 billion in 2010 to $177.5 billion in 2040 in the United States.”
The public health and economic consequences of these projections are staggering– particularly if extremist Teapublicans like Congressman Paul Ryan and sheep-like followers (including Arizona’s own Jeff Flake) have their way.
Teapublicans– with the help of President Obama– want to fix the “deficit problem” by cutting entitlement programs WITHOUT cutting military spending or raising revenues or creating jobs (which would boost the economy).
If you think income disparity and greed are destroying our country now, just wait. If Teapublicans like Michelle “down with entitlements” Bachmann, Rick “minimum wage” Perry, Mitt “the oligarch’s baby” Romney, Sarah “cut NPR to balance the budget” Palin, Jeff “I was against austerity before I was for it” Flake*, and, of course, FOX “the poor need to pay their fair share” News have their way, there will be literally millions of sick, elderly Americans living at the subsistence level without healthcare services or medicine.
Is this the future we want?
The balanced budget deal passed earlier this month is the only one in history that includes cuts in spending and no increases in revenue. We need sanity in government, and I’m not sure we’ll get it from the Gang of 12.
We need to put people back to work– at good-paying jobs (not the kind Perry created in Texas)– so they can contribute to the economy and contribute to Medicare and Social Security through their paychecks. To control healthcare costs, we need universal healthcare– instead of this hybrid system that allows insurance companies to continue their rape of the American people. We need to eliminate the Bush era tax cuts for the rich and cut tax loopholes for individuals and corporations. We need to end the wars and cut military spending.
Yes, we need sanity in government.
* In all fairness, this is also the position of Senators Jon Kyl, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell and Congressmen John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
Members of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Tucson Chapter demonstrated their support for Medicare on the recent 46th anniversary of this important component of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and other social safety net programs were under attack by Congressional Republicans during the recent budget deficit/debit ceiling fiasco in Congress.
Extremist Teapublicans– including Arizona’s five Teapublican Congressional Representatives, Paul Gosar (CD1), Trent Franks (CD2), Ben Quayle (CD3), David Schweikert (CD5), and Jeff Flake (CD6)– brought the country to the brink of default by choosing to cling to their ideology, rather than thinking about what’s best for our country and voting with the majority of Americans.
For the final vote, Gosar joined Democratic Blue Dog Gabirelle Giffords (CD8) and voted for the compromise debt ceiling bill. Progressive Democrats Raul Grijalva (CD7) and Ed Pastor (CD4) voted against the bill– since it included no revenue increases and leaves Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid volunterable to future cuts.
Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, and Flake voted the straight Teapublican line on every vote– including voting against the debt ceiling deal because it didn’t include a balanced budget amendment.
In these tough economic times, it is disheartening that so many Congressional representatives are more concerned with ideology over the health and economic well-being of US citizens.
I must admit that two of the big reasons I moved to Tucson in 1981 were the blizzards of 1978 and 1979– that and the fact that my significant other said, “I can’t stand this. Let’s move!”
Since I heard that the Vermont Legislature has passed single payer health insurance, I find myself pondering snow again.
Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for later this week. From the Daily Kos…
While the silence from most of US mainstream media remains deafening, the print and online news publication for physicians published by the American Medical Association – American Medical News – reported yesterday May 16 that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for May 26 during which he will sign a bill approved by the Vermont Democratic-controlled legislature, with the state Senate voting 21-9 to pass it on May 3, and the House adopting it on May 5 with a 94-49 vote “that paves the way for the state to launch a health system approaching a single-payer model later in the decade and to create a state health insurance exchange”…
All Vermonters would be eligible for the plan, which would cover hospital services and prescription drugs.
Shumlin had pledged to enact a single-payer health system during his January 6 inaugural address, saying “Let Vermont be the first state in the nation to treat health care as a right and not a privilege.”
Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney are pushing the state-by-state patchwork “solution” to rising healthcare costs, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare). I think that’s a really dumb idea that is obviously driven by ideology and not common sense or fiscal responsibility. If you live in the United States, you live in the United States. Vermonters shouldn’t have universal healthcare while Arizonans have death panels.
People send me links to interesting articles all the time– hoping I will write about the issues– but I have a life beyond the TucsonCitizen.com and can’t write about everything. Here are several interesting stories you also may find worth reading.
TUSD’s Desegregation Funding Summary FY10-11
This is hard to read but still interesting. You can see salaries, program funding, and school funding. It’s difficult to parse out specifics because some categories are so vague.
TUSD’s Ethnic Studies Audit: Institute for Transformative Education
Tucson Independent Daily examines the TUSD Board report from May 3, 2011. This gives the budget for the Mexican American Studies’ summer institute and a bit about the speakers. It seems to me that the budget is incomplete, since it primarily focus on speaker fees and stipends for attendees and doesn’t include other standard conference costs (room fees, audio-visual, travel expenses, etc.) but who knows. I’m surprised the Star didn’t cover this. Yes, some consider this a right-wing blog, but I have not seen this material covered anywhere else.
Loretta Hunnicutt on Glenn Beck
OK– a little spooky– but you have to see what the right is saying in order to organize against them. If you bury your head in the sand and try to ignore them, they’ll kick you in the ass.
One in six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, but– except for a few politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca)– Congress doesn’t care. In fact, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives wants to increase unemployment and underemployment by laying off more federal employees and forcing others into furlough days. In fact, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) flippantly said if the budget cuts result in job losses “so be it!”
Back here in Arizona– the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature is following in their federal cronies’ footsteps and proposing draconian budget cuts– particularly in education and healthcare– which will result on more layoffs.
In a recent New York Times editorial, Paul Krugman writes that the US is “well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. According to Krugman, Americans want jobs… period… but the Republican-controlled state and federal governments are obsessed with cutting budgets and jobs– not creating them.
In addition, US businesses– who had record profits in 2010– are sitting on their cash and trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of scared employees who don’t want to be laid off. According to Ed Schultz, 50,000 factories closed or moved abroad since George Bush took office; 75 percent of these factories employed more than 500 people– a loss of more than 18 million jobs. Adding insult to injury, many US corporations added jobs in their overseas factories than in the US, and they are starting new factories abroad.
So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.
It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.
In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?
Part of the answer may be that while those who are unemployed tend to stay unemployed, those who still have jobs are feeling more secure than they did a couple of years ago. Layoffs and discharges spiked during the crisis of 2008-2009 but have fallen sharply since then, perhaps reducing the sense of urgency. Put it this way: At this point, the U.S. economy is suffering from low hiring, not high firing, so things don’t look so bad — as long as you’re willing to write off the unemployed.
Yet polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit. So it’s quite remarkable that inside the Beltway, it’s just the opposite.
What makes this even more remarkable is the fact that the economic arguments used to justify the D.C. deficit obsession have been repeatedly refuted by experience. [For the rest of this article, click here.]
Jesus with small children. (Image Credit: My Church Journey blog)
Bible-thumping politicians abound in Arizona and across the US. You know who they are. They’re the ones who fight valiantly for the rights of the unborn, speechify about their faith and guidance from God, and go to church regularly (or claim to).
Ironically, they also are often among those who push for the most dramatic cuts in social programs while promoting guns, military spending, draconian immigration policies, union-busting, and corporate welfare. I’ve often wondered: What’s up with that? Were they sleeping during church?
Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the Earth,” but, so far, it’s not working out that way.
This past Sunday, John Boehner (R-OH), Speaker of the US House of Representatives and one of those stingy Bible-thumpers, told the National Religious Broadcasters annual conference that cutting spending is the “moral” thing to do.
The ad comes just a few weeks after the [US] House [of Representatives] passed a budget that disproportionately cut programs that protect the poor and help lift them out of their poverty. The House budget includes significant cuts to programs such as Head Start, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and critical international aid programs.
The advertisement calls for Congress to defend:
- International aid that directly and literally saves lives from pandemic diseases
- Critical child health and family nutrition programs — at home and abroad
- Proven work and income supports that lift families out of poverty
- Support for education, especially in low-income communities.
“… Our faith requires us to preach Jesus’ love for the poor, and to declare our conviction that the budget must not take away support from Americans who live in poverty — millions of whom are working families with children seeking a way out of their desperate situation with help only the government can provide,” Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, which represents 45 million people and 100,000 congregations in the U.S., is quoted on the Sojourners’ website.
In an open letter to Boehner on his blog, Sojourners’ leader John Wallis further challenged Boehner and the cuts supported by him and other right-wing politicians.
As religious leaders, we don’t believe that our most vulnerable people should bear more additional burdens. Do you agree? Why are there deep cuts in budget proposals to some of our most important programs that prevent deadly diseases among children in Africa and provide critical nutrition for our poorest families right here at home? These are not only cost-effective, but also relatively low in cost compared to massive expenditures in our military budget, corporate tax loopholes, and subsidies to oil, gas, and agribusiness companies — just to name a few of the things that were protected in the proposals from your House Republicans. Is that fair? Is that right? Is that moral?
Mr. Speaker, do you really believe that every weapons system and line item of spending in the military budget is necessary to keep us safe? That every dollar sent to defense contractors is more important than money for bed nets to prevent malaria or vaccinations to save lives in the world’s poorest places or for early childhood development and good education in our nation’s poorest neighborhoods? And should teachers, police officers, and firefighters bear heavier burdens than bankers, corporate CEO’s, and hedge fund operators in the name of deficit reduction? Those priorities seem backwards to many of us.
Since Sojourners started challenging politicians to act like Christians– and not just talk about being Christian– more than 10,000 people have sent e-mails to their Congressional representatives urging them to support social programs for the poor, the sick, and the defenseless– people Jesus would have comforted and defended.
The Sojourners’ website has an e-mail form if you want to send mail to Arizona Senators and hawkish Christians Jon Kyl and John McCain or any of Arizona’s members of the House of Representatives, but I would suggest going beyond our federal representatives and asking Governor Jan Brewer and state legislature: What would Jesus cut? Here is their contact information: Brewer, AZ Senate, AZ House.
This 3-month-old baby and her six-year-old brother are among the 90,000 Arizona children on the Kids' Care waiting list. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)
Arizona Governor Hard-Hearted Hattie… oops… Jan Brewer gained national attention last fall when she dropped 97 people who had been eligible for transplants under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) off the list.
Arizona’s Death Panel quickly went viral– thanks to multiple news stories, including the front page of the New York Times, and open fund-raising for Arizona transplant patients on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The decision also secured the Scrooge of the Year title for Brewer.
Now, fast forward to February 2011, at least two of the transplant patients have died, waiting and hoping that the Arizona Legislature would change its mind and vote to fund transplants again. Although the Arizona transplant patients have become a cause celebre, they are by far not the only victims of Arizona’s Teapulbican government.
Brewer and her Legislative cronies want to knock everyone– 250,000+ adults– off of the AHCCCS list. Last summer, they wanted to shutdown the voter-initiated Kids’ Care program, which provides health care and early childhood development programs for small, low-income children, and steal the Kids Care money, but the voters said “no way” in the November 2010 election. The Legislature did cap enrollment for Kids Care, which now has a 90,000 (and growing) waiting list of children who have been denied AHCCCS coverage but may be eligible for Kids Care.
Now, I may sound hard-hearted here, but why would the Arizona Legislature care about 95 transplant patients when they don’t care what happens to 90,000 babies or 250,000 adults? Yes, all 95 of those people will most likely die without a transplant, but without health insurance coverage, a percentage of the 90,000 babies and 250,000 adults will also die or go undiagnosed and untreated.
When you’re on a Death Panel, you have to make tough decisions– like giving corporate tax breaks.
I was discussing this situation with a friend yesterday. He said, “All hell will break loose when the babies die by legislative decision.”
Arizona Legislators Anna Tovar (a former transplant patient) and Kyrsten Sinema (who voted to dump 250,000 people off AHCCCS) will hold a press conference and rally at the state capitol today, February 28, 2011, to draw attention to the 95 remaining transplant patients. I want to know why they are focusing on a small group of transplant patients and not on the 90,000 babies and 250,000 adults who need help.
On Friday, February 25, Derechos Humanos is sponsoring a demonstration to protest Arizona Emperor Russell Pearce’s omnibus SB1611 (nicknamed SB1070 on steroids) and other recent racist laws passed or considered by the Arizona Legislature. The protest will be held at 4 p.m. at the state building in downtown Tucson (corner of Congress and Granada).
SB1611 is so far-reaching that it forces citizens and institutions at multiple levels of society to become immigration officers. Radio, newspaper, and citizen journalists have decried SB1611 because it will force schools, universities, hospitals, and even homeschooling moms to verify citizenship of the people to whom they provide services. It also includes strict penalties for non-compliance; for a complete list, check this link.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union:
“This bill is miles beyond SB1070 in terms of its potential to roll back the rights and fundamental freedoms of both citizens and non-citizens alike,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona. “It demonstrates the lack of leadership, lack of priorities and complete lack of understanding by some Arizona lawmakers of what it really means to uphold the Constitution of the United States and Arizona.”
In addition to 1611, the Arizona Legislature has passed or is considering several other racist laws:
1225– targets forgery of documents used to rent, purchase or lease a dwelling in order to prevent drop houses that could hold undocumented people, but the law could be used to entrap and penalize innocent people who are knowingly or unknowingly helping friends who are not citizens.
SB1308– one of the so-called “anchor baby” laws which would change who is eligible to receive citizenship and a US birth certificate and regulate how the new Arizona birth certificates will work with US birth certificates (which would still recognize the 14th amendment).
SB1309– another “anchor baby” law which would dictate who is eligible to receive “Arizona citizenship.”
SB1405– restricts who can receive hospital services in Arizona and mandates that hospital personnel verify citizenship and call immigration– rather than provide services– when they discover an undocumented patient.
SB1509– increases the penalty for making false statements under oath.
Of course, this is far from a complete list of crazy and unnecessary bills being considered by the Arizona Legislature this session.
Ironically, in just a few weeks, the Teapublican candidates who campaigned on smaller government and more freedom have proposed more than 600!!!! pieces of new legislation that do nothing to solve the state’s problems or give Arizonans more freedom. If anything– except for loosening gun laws even further– the new bills restrict the freedom of Arizonans. For the most part these bills are: pro-gun, anti-women’s rights, anti-anyone-who-is-not-straight-and-white, anti-poor-and-sick people, pro-fetus-but-anti-children, anti-education, anti-federal government, anti-municipal government, and my personal favorite…authorization of half-a-billion in corporate welfare. Groan…
So, if you are fed up with Emperor Pearce’s shenanigans, come out tomorrow with a sign denouncing your favorite piece of Legislative nonsense and bring a friend!
This has been a banner year for sometimes-crazy and often-dangerous bills in the Arizona Legislature.
Several of these bills will be heard by the Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee on February 22, 2011 at 2 p.m. in Phoenix.
The Phoenix Urban Health Collective and migrant community groups are calling on doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, and concerned citizens to protest SB 1405, which would require hospitals to determine citizenship before providing medical care. The group is organizing a press conference and demonstration to speak out against this bill and others.
They are asking everyone who opposes this and other discriminatory Arizona legislation to attend the press conference outside of the Arizona Senate Building and sign up to speak at the press conference and/or in the Senate Chambers. Below is a link showing the agenda for the committee; several bills will be reviewed.
Here is the information about the demonstration and press conference.
We will be holding a press conference at 12:30 to let the nation know about this inhumane and dangerous bill. The conference will be held in a hearing room in the Senate Building and we will announce exactly where when we have this information.
We urge you to try to show up around 12:00 and plan to stay for the afternoon and perhaps into the evening as there are many items on the agenda for the hearing and we do not know in what order they will be heard.
If you are a healthcare provider we ask that you show this by wearing your scrubs or whatever you normally wear to work. Please encourage your co-workers to come as well, we need a huge turnout!
We encourage EVERYONE to sign up to speak during the hearing. There will be volunteers available to assist you at the kiosks in the Senate building.
We are also hoping for a large crowd outside of the senate building actively demonstrating against this and other bills under consideration that day.
There will be numerous bills before the Senate Appropriations Committee that are of great concern. While we are somewhat focused on SB 1405, we also feel that the other equally discriminatory, anti-immigrant, and anti-health bills need to be protested and spoken out against as well. Here is a list of the bills that concern us the most (subject to change as the list is updated):
SB 1308 – Interstate compact; birth certificates—seeks to issue separate birth certificates to those born in this country to undocumented and visa-holder parents.
SB 1309—Arizona citizenship—seeks to redefine the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to only allow those born in the US to one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident to become a US citizen.
SB 1405—Hospital Admissions; restrictions—seeks to require hospitals to verify immigration status of all emergency patients as well as patients who are admitted.
SB 1407—Schools; data; noncitizen students—seeks to require schools to identify and collect data on undocumented students.
SB 1519—AHCCCS; termination—seeks to terminate the state Medicare system AHCCCS. Monies will be redistributed and $900,000,000 will go to the state general fund
SB 1611—Immigration omnibus—this bill is still listed as “Pending Introduction, First Reading and Committee Assignment”. It requires watching.
Feb. 22 UPDATE: According to Random Musings blogger Craig McDermott, more than 100 people showed up for this demonstration at the Arizona State Senate’s Appropriations Committee Meeting, but the Senate stalled with floor business instead of having the scheduled committee meeting. Here is an afternoon update from McDermott…
What is almost unheard-of is the fact that the committee hearing room, SHR109, is locked tight and Capitol police have just cleared the hundred+ people waiting for the hearing. Most of the folks present are opposed to one or more of the bills on the agenda.
Everybody has been funnelled into SHR1, which is serving as overflow seating. It’s at least 3X the size of SHR109, and it is full.
Feb. 22 SECOND UPDATE: The Senate Appropriations Committee did start meeting– about 1.5 hours late, according to McDermott.
Since I wrote Disgusted? It’s time to organize a year ago, our state’s swirl down the drain has accelerated, and the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives is working hard for military-industrial complex– while ignoring the needs of the American people.
Liberals, who were only disgusted last year, are either: 1) angry about the destruction of our country by greedy corporatists and ready to take to the streets to protest capitalist dictators or 2) resigned to the destruction of our country and preparing for total economic collapse by buying some chickens, planting a garden, installing rainwater harvesting and solar panels, and living “off the grid”.
Living "off the grid": rain water cistern + loyal guard dog. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)
If you have been reading the news (1, 2, 3, 4) in the past year, you, too, are probably somewhere on that sliding scale of disgusted-angry-resigned.
Before you buy those chickens, try organizing. Trust me, right-wing Tea Partiers are not the only people who are fed up with business-as-usual government in Washington, DC and Phoenix.
On Monday, February 21, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will hold an organizing meeting in Tucson.
Political commentator Jim Hightower and Congressman Raul Grijalva will be the guest speakers at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Tucson PDA chapter. If you listen to KXCI, you have heard Hightower’s sometimes-caustic but always poignant political commentaries.
From his website, here’s a taste of Hightower’s tell-it-like-it-is style.
Corporate America’s idea of Patriotism
If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
More than an old adage, that’s a crucial operating principle of presidential leadership. Indeed, it’s a mark of political character, defining whether a president will stand up for the many, or be pushed around by the arrogant few.
In the past, when over-privileged corporate barons selfishly feathered their already-luxurious nests at the expense of America’s national interests, some U.S. Presidents had the moxie to get in their royal faces. Using what Theodore Roosevelt called the “bully pulpit” of the presidency, those White House champions of the common good confronted the greed of the corporate elite, rallying the larger public to bring them down to earth.
Barack Obama does not seem to have such presidential fortitude. Corporate America has been given a wealth of tax breaks, regulatory favors, and absurd levels of subsidies in recent years, amassing a stash of cash that now tops $2 trillion. But they adamantly refuse to invest that in American jobs and communities. Yet, in a recent meeting with these arrogant powers, Obama showed neither anger nor strength. Rather, he essentially begged them to consider “what you can do for America.” Pretty please. With sugar on it. “I want to encourage you to get in the game” of job creation, he pleaded.
Encourage? Why not demand?
And what did he buy with this genteel appeal to corporate patriotism? He got the corporate thumb jabbed in his eye. “Bottom line,” barked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief lobbyist after Obama’s plea, “The most patriotic thing a company can do is to ensure it is in business.”
What a perfect expression of today’s prevailing corporate ethic. It’s a perverse twist on John Kennedy’s appeal: Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what you can do for yourself. Why should any President want any part of that?
What:Organizing meeting for Progressive Democrats of America When: Monday, February 21, 7:00pm (Registration begins 6:30) Where: Tucson YWCA, 525 N. Bonita (just south of St. Mary’s Road, half mile west of I-10) Suggested Donation: $5 at the door.
Pamela Powers Hannley writes the Tucson Progressive blog on the TucsonCitizen.com and contributes articles to the Huffington Post and Salon.com. She has had more than 30 years of experience in written, visual, and electronic communication—including freelance writing, photography, graphic design, and consulting. In addition to blogging for the Citizen, she is the Managing Editor of an international medical research journal.
Hannley has authored medical research articles, print magazine and newspaper stories, and numerous cancer prevention and self-help publications.
She has been a blogger since 2006, joined the ranks of Tucson Citizen bloggers in October 2010, and started contributing to the Huffington Post in 2011 and to Salon.com in 2012.
Hannley holds a masters’ degree in public health from The University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a native of Amherst, Ohio but has lived in Tucson since 1981.
