tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90759976102975025552023-08-07T04:32:37.222-07:00Ellen Shaffer's blogEllen R. Shaffer and Joe Brenner are Co-Directors of the Center for Policy Analysis, a source of thoughtful, reliable information on social & economic policies that affect the public's health, and a network for policy makers and advocates. Projects: *The EQUAL Health Network, for: Equitable, Quality, Universal, Affordable health care www.equalhealth.info * Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign www.oursilverribbon.org * Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health www.cpath.orgEllen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-80492152837467518202016-10-16T07:59:00.000-07:002016-10-16T07:59:12.206-07:00Dylan's NobelI know Dylan is The Seer to many. Not just...guys. I caught the early, nasal years. Some things struck me: 20 years of school and they put you on the day shift; William Zanzinger. But who was he imagining when he warned:<br />
<br />
"Go away from my window.<br />
Leave at you own chosen speed.<br />
I'm not the one you want, babe.<br />
I'm not the one you need.<br />
<br />
"You say you're looking for someone<br />
Who's never weak, and always strong.<br />
Someone to defend you and protect you<br />
Whether you are right or wrong,<br />
Someone to open each and every door...<br />
<br />
"Well it ain't me babe!"<br />
<br />
Geez, I hope not. In any case, I didn't linger.<br />
<br />
I marvel at Joni Mitchell lyrics, rhythms (dug up the records - yes, records! after a recent move): <br />
<br />
"Just before our love got lost<br />
You said 'I am as constant as the Northern Star,'<br />
I said<br />
'Constant in the darkness, where's that at?<br />
If you want me I'll be in the barn..."<br />
<br />
Sippie Wallace via Bonnie Raitt ("Give It Up or Let Me Go"), Randy Newman ("Rednecks," "Sail Away..."). Plenty more. Well, congrats to Bob and fans.<br />
<br />
There's a class on Dylan at Harvard. Where, in doubtless unrelated news, the food service workers are on strike.<br />
<br />Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-55601849832626134262016-05-31T19:46:00.000-07:002016-05-31T19:46:00.259-07:00Thank You For Patiently Waiting<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
“The TPP* will bring us into the 21at century… Global supply
chains…Winners and losers…” Pres. Obama</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/sports/basketball/golden-state-warriors-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba-playoffs.html">The
Warriors, a Team Beyond <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Comparison</span><o:p></o:p></a></span></div>
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By Harvey Araton, NYT 5-31-16 <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Golden State has drastically
extended the standard scoring range, which makes comparing it with storied
N.B.A. teams of yore like distinguishing between a smartphone and a land line.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>First try: 10
a.m. <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: Hello, AT&T?
I just moved, and there’s supposed to be a forwarding message at my old
phone number to my new number. But I
just called my old number, and my old answering message is still playing. Also, my password no longer works at my old
number, so I can’t tell if anyone’s left me a message at the old number. Can you help, please?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: Hello. Thank
you for calling AT&T. No worries, we
will take care of your problem. Will you
please tell me your current phone number and the 3-digit code at the end of
your bill?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: Sorry, I just moved and I don’t have by old bill
handy. I can tell you the amount of my
last bill, though, for identification.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: No worries. Can you please tell me your current phone
number and the 3-digit code at the end of your bill?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: No, I don’t have my paper bill with me, I just moved,
but I can tell you the amount I paid on my last bill, since it’s written here
in my checkbook.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: I’m so sorry, let me understand. Do you need new service?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Second
try:10:15 <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: Hello, AT&T?
I just moved, and there’s supposed to be a forwarding message at my old
phone number to my new number. But I
just called my old number, and my old answering message is still playing. Also, my password no longer works at my old
number, so I can’t tell if anyone’s left me a message. Can you help? Please?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: That is a different department. No worries, we will take care of your
account, Miss Ellen. Can I put you on
hold while I contact the other department?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10:25<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: Thank you for
patiently waiting. Miss Ellen, can you
tell me the 3-digit code at the end of your phone number on your bill?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Third try: 10:30<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: [allow your imagination to run wild]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: Let’s see, the problem is that your old number isn’t
due to be discontinued until the first of the month, which is tomorrow. I checked, and there’s no way to move the
date up today. But that disconnect will
happen tomorrow. Then your callers will
get an automatic message, telling them to call your new phone number.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me: Thank you, that
is very helpful. But the other problem
is that my password for the old number doesn’t work, so I can’t tell if
anyone’s left me a message there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent: I see. Let me
get our technical team on the line, to reinstate your password for the
day. I’m going to put you on hold, and
we’ll get someone on the line who can help.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[I am on hold. I go
to iTunes to try to download some music.
iTunes tells me I am no longer subscribed to whatever part of their
service I need to get a new song to play.
Would I like to download the new program? I click on the icon to download the updated
program. Meanwhile I listen to the tunes
I already recorded: Judy Collins “We
Want a Revolution” suite from Marat/Sade; “You Don’t Own Me,” Leslie Gore; “The
Longest Time,” Billy Joel; and on to Katie Goodman, Kweskin Jug Band, Taj
Mahal, and Tom Lehrer.]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>10:45<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[Recording]: You’ve
reached the repair department at AT&T.
Due to heavy volume, your call may not be answered for up to 4 minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[The Comcast tech couldn’t find the connection to the
internet in our new place, so we’re working off of borrowed wireless until we
can get real Ethernet service, next week.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[iTunes sends a message that there has been an error in
downloading the updated program. I can
try again later. Meanwhile, it would
like to add or update service from Apple, Quicktime, and other programs. I think about “The Golden Notebook,” and get
up to unpack.]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>*TPP = Trans Pacific
Partnership<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-87168182451860203192015-06-10T14:44:00.002-07:002015-06-10T14:44:51.188-07:00<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.6000003814697px;"><b>Escalating Drug Prices Likely from Secret “Fast Track” Trade Bill</b></span><br />
<br />
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Congress could vote this week on a “Fast-Track” trade bill that would dump a double whammy on the many Americans whose health and finances are <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2014/09/some-americans-take-risks-with-needed-drugs-due-to-high-costs/index.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">already hit hard</a> by the high price of prescription drugs. Wikileaks and the NY Times today <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/business/international/us-shifts-stance-on-drug-pricing-in-pacific-trade-pact-talks-document-reveals.html?_r=0" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">published a draft chapter</a> on drugs, negotiated entirely in secret as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). </div>
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If it approves proposed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/business/obamas-push-for-trade-deal-faces-bipartisan-peril-in-house.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">“Fast Track” rules</a>, Congress would surrender its ability to amend this chapter, and whatever remaining secret text that the secret negotiations produced.</div>
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The leaked <a href="https://wikileaks.org/tpp/healthcare/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">trade chapter</a>, entitled Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Devices, was presented in December, 2014, to the 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It could derail present programs that offer access to affordable prescription drugs in the U.S. and abroad, including Medicare and Medicaid, and stymie future progress. </div>
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How to create and produce affordable medicines, and assure wide access to the resulting products, is a critical, life-and-death concern for both the public and the drug industry. A new treatment for Hepatitis C can transform lives, but the price tag of $80,000 a year will condemn too many to go without it. Existing U.S. laws that rely on competition from copycat generic drugs to achieve affordability will be less effective in the case of new drugs classified as biologics, which are far harder and in some cases impossible to copy. The TPP text reveals threats to existing and proposed systems that cover and finance access to medicines in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, and will increasingly have to address these emerging products, including policies on:</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Direct-to-consumer advertising</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Rules on the extent and timing of drug industry participation in government decisions about the selection and pricing of covered prescription drugs</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>The treatment of medical devices</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>The grounds for a drug company to initiate a trade charge against a country’s drug coverage and pricing systems</div>
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These threats and ambiguities are the inevitable result of misguided efforts to determine critical health, economic and social policy issues through the secret process of trade negotiations, dominated by commercial interests, while explicitly excluding and silencing other experts, consumer advocates, public officials, and the public at large from the debate. The few non-industry participants on trade advisory committees are prohibited from revealing or publicly discussing the contents of privileged negotiating text. Such a process cannot succeed in a democratic system.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Open public debate reveals and helps to determine where agreement is possible, and which issues will remain contentious. It is the only basis for providing reliable assurance to our trading partners that the negotiations reflect what the U.S. will actually stick to.</div>
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Congress must vote No on Fast Track/Trade Promotion Authority.</div>
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- Ellen Shaffer, CPATH</div>
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-36669780056156240572014-05-16T02:06:00.001-07:002014-05-17T01:57:40.951-07:00Hobby Lobby's Religion: Boko Haram<div class="mceTemp">
<br /></div>
<div class="mceTemp">
<img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-1761" data-mce-src="http://oursilverribbon.org/wp-content/uploads/House-of-Reps-All-Male-Hearing-on-Contraception1-300x193.png" height="193" src="http://oursilverribbon.org/wp-content/uploads/House-of-Reps-All-Male-Hearing-on-Contraception1-300x193.png" title="House of Reps All-Male Hearing on Contraception" width="300" /></div>
<div class="mceTemp">
<em>House of Reps. all-male hearing on contraception, 2012</em></div>
<div class="mceTemp">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
Hobby Lobby today announced that although it is a corporation, it does indeed have a religion: Boko Haram. When its Christian owners <a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/?p=1710" target="_blank">argued before the Supreme Court</a> to assert their right to deny insurance coverage for 4 types of birth control on the basis of the corporation's religious beliefs, Justice Sotomayor questioned "How does a corporation exercise religion?" The Corporation itself has so far been silent on its actual religious affiliation.<br />
<br />
<br />
"With so many of our successful practices under attack around the globe this month, we felt it was time to speak publicly in defense of our faith. On May 6, a <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/05/boko-haram-claims-nigeria-abductions-201455134957975542.html" target="_blank">Boko Haram leader claimed responsibility for abducting hundreds of Nigerian school girls</a>, planning to sell them. In the U.S., with legislation in Missouri and Louisiana aiming to strip abortion providers of their right to practice, and proposals advancing in Congress to ban abortions after 20 weeks, when low-income women and women with medical abnormalities are most likely to need them, our staunch doctrine of assuring the long-term, structural subservience of women has been making enormous strides.<br />
<br />
<br />
"The firing of Jill Abramson for her 'brusque' management style as NY Times editor, to be replaced by the man who had responded entirely appropriately by punching a hole in the wall at the Times, was simply more than we could have hoped for.<br />
<br />
<br />
"This cascade of previously unimaginable successes has of course inflamed uncontrollably whiny, emotional, and humorless feminist apparatchiks around the globe, from groups like a <a href="http://www.onebillionrising.org/" target="_blank">Billion Rising</a>, and the <a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/" target="_blank">Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign</a>. These modern women and their supporters would convince the US Supreme Court that it's time to set the record straight and dismiss Hobby Lobby's arguments, simply because they reflect the last gasp of the backwards, fringe mentality we represent. And frankly, the recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/africa/abduction-of-girls-an-act-not-even-al-qaeda-can-condone.html" target="_blank">denunciation</a> of Boko Haram by Al Quaeda contributed to prompting our declaration. By coming out publicly to claim our corporation's religious affiliation with Boko Haram, we intend to put all such diversions to rest."<br />
<br />
<br />
(The corporation went on to explain how this unique circumstance entitled it to claim its independent right to assert that Plan B should not be covered by Hobby Lobby because it is an abortifacient, which is otherwise labeled by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/health/research/morning-after-pills-dont-block-implantation-science-suggests.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">mainstream scientific</a> evidence as "absolutely without any foundation whatsoever.")Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-76594081738788245502013-12-13T08:54:00.000-08:002013-12-13T08:54:57.376-08:00Tobacco: Symbol of Corrupt Trade PolicyThe deadly tobacco industry increasingly deploys trade charges intended to bludgeon countries from Uruguay to Australia into abandoning policies that keep kids from getting addicted, and help smokers quit, as well documented in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/health/tobacco-industry-tactics-limit-poorer-nations-smoking-laws.html?hp" target="_hplink">today's NY Times</a>.<br />
<br />
The U.S. Trade Representative should fix this problem during negotiations on the proposed 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). But stalemates in U.S. trade policy are perpetuating this obvious injustice. <br />
<br />
Trade ministers derive priority status within governments based largely in outdated beliefs that they will magically conjure prosperity by conspiring in secret, allegedly to eliminate trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas which in fact have long go been substantially reduced. The predominant business of agreements like the TPP is actually reducing "technical barriers" to trade - that is, democratically adopted laws and regulations that protect the public's health, environment, labor standards, and financial transactions.<br />
<br />
In the secretive, rarified world of trade negotiations, even when public health succeeds in getting a proposal to the negotiating table on an issue like tobacco, it is subject to be traded away at any moment by a trade minister who views it primarily as a bargaining chip for deals on more important concerns, like sugar, cars, or financial derivatives.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cpath.org/id59.html" target="_hplink">The Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) has systematically documented</a> how tobacco industry trade challenges threaten public health's rights to implement tobacco control measures. Medical and public health leaders in the U.S. and worldwide have echoed the call to "carve out" tobacco from trade agreements. <br />
<br />
Malaysia presented a carve-out proposal at TPP talks in August, The USTR has advanced two increasingly weak compromises. Legal analysis from Georgetown [R. Stumberg, Safeguards for Tobacco Control: Options for the TPPA. America Journal of Law and Medicine, 39 (213); 382-441] has confirmed in irrefutable detail that compromises short of a "carve out" would be virtually ineffective.<br />
<br />
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide, claiming 6.3 million deaths a year, including 1,200 Americans daily, and draining almost $200 billion a year in U.S. health care costs and lost productivity. Tobacco is barely a blip in the U.S. economy, and less than a fraction of a percent of our exports.<br />
<br />
But the tobacco industry has made it clear that it will oppose any restriction on its rights to continue to appropriate trade rules. They've bought a box seat to the hermetically sealed, secretive trade negotiations, and the solid complicity of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<br />
<br />
Public health has no such advantages. Interestingly, though, we have the truth. And in this possibly unusual case, the truth is increasingly difficult to ignore.Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-24221148968540729802013-11-20T09:22:00.001-08:002013-11-20T09:24:33.739-08:00Report Back: CPATH to USTR - U.S. Must Protect Public Health in the TPP<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
The U.S. Trade Representative gave new meaning to the phrase, "magical thinking" at a Nov. 18 talk in San Francisco. And new urgency to the demand for an honest debate on the economy and on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).</div>
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Last week, <a href="http://wikileaks.org/tpp/" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Wikileaks released</a> the most detailed report of the proposed trade agreement to date It reveals the full text of the controversial intellectual property chapter, that would govern fundamental rights including <a href="http://keionline.org/node/1825" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">access to medicines</a>, <a href="http://www.citizen.org/access." style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">internet freedom</a>, and <a href="http://cpath.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/Malaysiapressrelease8-26-13.pdf" target="_blank">cigarette package warning labels</a>. In addition, it shows which countries support which versions of the proposals.</div>
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The U.S. does not look good. The leaked documents delineate that the U.S. would allow corporations including Big Tobacco and Big Pharma to rake in enormous profits while exposing the public's health to continued havoc by challenging tobacco control regulations, extending patent and trademark rights that would raise the prices of medicines, and raise the cost and availability of health care through <a href="http://bit.ly/19zyYku" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">patenting surgical techniques</a>, for example. Disturbing enough.</div>
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Scores of<a href="http://cpath.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/HouseTPPtobaccoLtr10-30-13.pdf" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> members of Congress </a>had already signed letters denouncing these proposals, and pledging to block them. <a href="http://cpath.org/id51.html" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Public health and medical organizations</a>, and entire nations, have urged the U.S. to curb these abuses.</div>
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But on November 18, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack engaged in a discussion at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, moderated by the Club's Greg Dalton. When Dalton specifically asked U.S.T.R. Froman to address concerns regarding the trade pact's limits on internet freedom and access to medicines, he got back the same happy talk the Administration has been babbling all along.</div>
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In a breath-taking effort to imagine that the entire population had lost the capacity for literacy, Froman asserted, "What we're trying to do with the TransPacific Partnership is open up markets in some of the fastest growing regions in the world, raising standards on labor, the environment, access to medicines, intellectual property rights, and create new disciplines for the 21st century global economy."</div>
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He went on to claim both that the TPP was the most transparent trade agreement ever negotiated, in view of the USTR's many consultations with every sector of American society, and that the American people would only fully understand how beneficial the TPP is once the negotiations are concluded and the public sees the final product.</div>
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Just prior to the public event, San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar and Co-Directors of the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH), met briefly with Ambassador Froman, and urged him to protect public health and rein in Big Tobacco in the TPP trade negotiations.</div>
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Supervisor Mar presented USTR Froman with a letter expressing his deep concerns that the provisions of the recently leaked Intellectual Property Chapter of the TPP "may undermine the right and ability of local, state, and national governments of participating countries from exercising their domestic sovereignty in order to adopt or maintain measures to reduce tobacco use and to prevent the harm it causes to public health." The letter posed key questions on U.S. proposals related to intellectual property rights and the tobacco industry, and requested a written response on how U.S. proposals will ensure that the United States and other TPP nations will be able to fully implement and enforce strong tobacco control legislation.</div>
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CPATH Co-Directors Ellen R. Shaffer and Joe Brenner articulated the concerns of <a href="http://cpath.org/id51.html" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">major U.S. medical and public health groups</a>, which are calling on the U.S. to take a leadership role to protect the public's health from tobacco-related disease and death, and to carve-out tobacco from the TPP negotiations. They presented a binder of letters and statements from CPATH, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Public Health Association, CA Health Officers Association, California Council of Local Health Officers, and the Public Health Institute, CA-Public Health Association-North, and Alameda County Public Health Commission.</div>
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During questions from the public, CPATH Co-Director Joe Brenner asked, "San Francisco and California have taken effective action to reduce tobacco-related disease and death. When California attempted to ban the carcinogen MTBE from gasoline to protect health for years ago, a Canadian company, which made a component, filed trade charges against the U.S. and sued for $970 million for lost profits under "investor-state" provisions in NAFTA. The U.S. is proposing to give corporations these same rights in the TPP, including to challenge local tobacco control regulations. Why?" USTR Froman responded that the U.S. has never lost a court challenge under these provisions, and that new TPP provisions are different. Wait 'til we see it.</div>
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"The ongoing efforts to usher through in secrecy a pact with nations representing 40% of the globe's gross domestic product is corroding our democracy," says Shaffer. "For example, an editorial in <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/obama-s-secrecy-is-hurting-free-trade-talks.html" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #0088c3; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> erroneously equated the secrecy of the TPP with the embattled but entirely transparent Obamacare health care reform program.</div>
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"To be clear: Trade negotiations have been a corporate-controlled subterranean process for decades. The Obama Administration didn't start this. But it has utterly abandoned the responsibility to change it. It is an anomaly in our democracy which we can no longer tolerate. <strong style="border: 0px currentColor; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The technical details matter, and we have a right to understand the fine print as well as the broad strokes. </strong>The United States must lead the way towards a 21st century trade agreement, that starts, proceeds and ends with a fully public debate."</div>
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Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-49060673433568778002013-11-09T07:42:00.001-08:002013-11-09T07:42:24.474-08:00NYT: Why Some People Can’t Keep Their Insurance Plans<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/30/us/why-some-people-cant-keep-their-insurance-plans.html?ref=politics">http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/30/us/why-some-people-cant-keep-their-insurance-plans.html?ref=politics</a><br />
<br />
<span class="summary">Despite repeated assertions by
President Obama that people who like their health insurance will be able to keep
it under the new health care law, many people who bought insurance on their own
— a small fraction of the insurance market — will have to buy new plans.</span>
<span class="noWrap refer"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/us/politics/obama-defends-health-law-in-Boston-speech.html">Related
Article »</a> </span><br />
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<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai1" style="left: 334px; top: 39px; width: 150px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
Medicare, Medicaid,</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
military coverage</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai2" style="left: 68px; top: 71px; width: 200px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
Share of people with</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
employer-sponsored</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
insurance</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai3" style="left: 380px; top: 89px; width: 59px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle1">
29%</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai4" style="left: 139px; top: 143px; width: 59px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle1">
49%</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai5" style="left: 400px; top: 155px; width: 85px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle0">
Uninsured</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai6" style="left: 295px; top: 167px; width: 51px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle2">
5%</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai7" style="left: 413px; top: 183px; width: 59px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle1">
16%</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai8" style="left: 250px; top: 260px; width: 136px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle3">
Individual market</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai9" style="left: 252px; top: 281px; width: 133px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle4">
10-15 million people</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai10" style="left: 72px; top: 344px; width: 440px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
Policies must meet new standards ...</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
Beginning Jan. 1, new policies issued must cover a
minimum share of health care expenses and offer 10 “essential health
benefits”:</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai11" style="left: 78px; top: 451px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
1.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai12" style="left: 103px; top: 451px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Outpatient care</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai13" style="left: 314px; top: 451px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
7. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai14" style="left: 338px; top: 451px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Rehabilitative and habilitative</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
services and devices</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai15" style="left: 78px; top: 471px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
2. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai16" style="left: 103px; top: 471px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Emergency room visits</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai17" style="left: 78px; top: 490px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
3. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai18" style="left: 103px; top: 490px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Hospitalization</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai19" style="left: 314px; top: 490px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
8. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai20" style="left: 338px; top: 490px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Lab tests</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai21" style="left: 78px; top: 510px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
4. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai22" style="left: 103px; top: 510px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Maternity and newborn care</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai23" style="left: 314px; top: 510px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
9. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai24" style="left: 338px; top: 510px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Preventive services and</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
chronic disease care</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai25" style="left: 78px; top: 529px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
5.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai26" style="left: 103px; top: 529px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Mental health and</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
substance use treatments</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai27" style="left: 306px; top: 548px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
10. </div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai28" style="left: 338px; top: 548px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Pediatric services, including</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
dental and vision</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai29" style="left: 78px; top: 568px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
6.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-layer_1 nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai30" style="left: 103px; top: 568px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle7">
Prescription drugs</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai31" style="left: 64px; top: 621px; width: 457px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
... unless a plan is grandfathered in ...</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
If a policy was in effect when the law passed in March
2010 and has not been changed significantly, people already on the plan could
remain on it, and the plan would not have to meet the new requirements.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai32" style="left: 63px; top: 725px; width: 457px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
... but many people will need to purchase a new plan
because: </div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
• Many plans do not currently meet the law’s standards
for coverage.</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
• Most people in the individual market do not keep their
policies for more than a year, so most would not be eligible to be
grandfathered.</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
• Insurance companies cannot change grandfathered plans
or sell them to new customers, so they have incentive to cancel the
policies.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai33" style="left: 86px; top: 879px; width: 411px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
Some people will also move to Medicaid coverage.</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
More than one million low-income adults currently in the
individual market will be newly eligible for Medicaid in 2014 because they live
in a state that has decided to expand the program.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai34" style="left: 80px; top: 1007px; width: 424px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle8">
Why Rates Are Increasing for Some People</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai35" style="left: 27px; top: 1038px; width: 531px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
The total cost of policies will be higher on average
...</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
Many plans offered on the individual market will have
more benefits and more consumer protections than they did before. The pools will
also cost more for insurance companies since they cannot deny people with
pre-existing conditions.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai36" style="left: 352px; top: 1149px; width: 194px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
In the individual market,</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
on average, rates for group will:</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai37" style="left: 51px; top: 1193px; width: 307px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle10">
... but people will be affected differently
...</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai38" style="left: 355px; top: 1198px; width: 78px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle11">
INCREASE</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai39" style="left: 458px; top: 1198px; width: 82px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle11">
DECREASE</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai40" style="left: 51px; top: 1209px; width: 227px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle12">
<span class="nytg-kicker">SEX</span> The law bans
insurers from charging women higher premiums than men of the same age.
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai41" style="left: 371px; top: 1286px; width: 46px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
MEN</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai42" style="left: 466px; top: 1286px; width: 65px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
WOMEN</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai43" style="left: 51px; top: 1277px; width: 227px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle13">
<span class="nytg-kicker">AGE</span> The law bans
insurers from charging older adults more than three times the amount they charge
younger adults.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai44" style="left: 364px; top: 1380px; width: 60px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
YOUNG</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai45" style="left: 477px; top: 1380px; width: 43px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
OLD</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai46" style="left: 51px; top: 1397px; width: 227px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle14">
<span class="nytg-kicker">HEALTH</span> The law bans
insurers from charging people with health problems more.</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai47" style="left: 359px; top: 1474px; width: 69px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
HEALTHY</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai48" style="left: 456px; top: 1474px; width: 86px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle9">
UNHEALTHY</div>
</div>
<div class="nytg-2_6_col_box nytg-aiAbs" id="nytg-ai49" style="left: 50px; top: 1516px; width: 484px;">
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle5">
... and many people will be eligible for government
subsidies.</div>
<div class="nytg-aiPstyle6">
An estimated 48 percent of people on the individual
market will be eligible for tax credits to reduce their costs, based on their
income level.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-49681402443210347362013-11-09T07:15:00.000-08:002013-11-09T07:28:37.529-08:00Obamacare: Making Lemonade<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="width: 370px;"><tbody>
<tr><td width="370"><div align="left" style="color: #ff3300; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 0px; padding-top: 15px;">
<span style="color: black;">Responding to:</span></div>
<div align="left" style="color: #ff3300; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: bold 9px/normal arial, sans-serif; margin: 5px 0px; padding-top: 15px;">
PERSPECTIVE</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td width="370"><div align="left">
<a alt="The ACA and High-Deductible Insurance — Strategies for Sharpening a Blunt Instrument" href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMp1309490?query=NC" style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal times new roman, serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="The ACA and High-Deductible Insurance — Strategies for Sharpening a Blunt Instrument">The ACA and High-Deductible Insurance — Strategies for Sharpening a Blunt Instrument</a></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td width="370"><div align="left">
<span style="color: #666666; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 10px/15px arial, sans-serif;">J. F. Wharam and Others</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td width="370"><div align="left">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 10px/15px arial, sans-serif;">N Engl J Med 369:1481, October 17, 2013</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The authors point out the real and predictable failings of a market-based health care system: it costs too much (duh). And they suggest more market-based reforms to fix the problems of unaffordably high deductibles and co-pays in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges (premiums could be lower too). California is perfectly poised to leverage the situation by taking the obvious next step towards a single payer system (a goal for 2017): authorize the elected Insurance Commissioner to set the prices of the health insurance plans. The legislation's been introduced and almost passed several times. The Exchanges have already whittled down the insurance plans to only a few left standing, and set compulsory enrollment, and standardized benefits. Chopping their rates and profits gets pretty close to the role health insurance plans already now play in Medicare, as third party administrators. Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-79310984102400798692013-10-06T16:51:00.000-07:002013-10-06T16:51:33.345-07:00Ellen Shaffer in the Media<a alt="audio link" class="inpage" href="http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/newsradio/audio/201310/r1181600_15113086.mp3">Dr Ellen Shaffer reacts to the United States Government being shutdown</a> <br />
<div class="description">
Cameron Green speaks to Co-Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis Dr Ellen Shaffer<br /><span class="date">ABC NewsRadio Afternoons - Last updated 16:07 Duration 7:12</span></div>
<div class="description">
<span class="date">ABC Australia 9-30-13</span></div>
<div class="description">
<span class="date"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/listen/">http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/listen/</a></span></div>
<div class="description">
<span class="date"></span> </div>
<div class="description">
<span class="date"></span> </div>
<div class="description">
<span class="date"><h1>
Impact of the Shutdown! Economic and Healthcare</h1>
<div class="program">
<a href="http://kzfr.org/programs/thepointis">The Point Is</a></div>
<div class="content_info">
<div class="user">
<a class="user_link" href="http://kzfr.org/profiles/Sue">Sue Hilderbrand</a>, KZFR, Chico, CA</div>
<div class="user">
<a href="http://kzfr.org/broadcasts/view/328">http://kzfr.org/broadcasts/view/328</a></div>
<div class="date_time">
6:00pm, 10-2-2013</div>
<a class="comments_link" href="http://kzfr.org/broadcasts/view/328#comments"><img src="http://kzfr.org/img/icon_comments.png" /> comment</a> </div>
<div class="text">
The government shutdown will be the topic of conversation from the economic impacts to how long it may last. Christian Dorsey, of the Economic Policy Institute, will talk about how the shutdown effects the lives of real people (as opposed to politicians and the next election) and the politics behind it. Dr. Ellen Shaffer, UCSF, will talk about how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is being impacted, if at all, and how the ACA will impact the lives of millions of currently uninsured Americans. </div>
</span></div>
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-55900569108226717322013-02-14T22:49:00.002-08:002013-02-14T23:07:05.764-08:00Shaffer in AJPH on the Affordable Care Act: The Value of Systemic Disruption<span style="color: #0066cc;"><a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/wp-content/uploads/AJPH.2012.301180.pdf" target="_blank">AJPH: The ACA; Value of Systemic Disruption – Ellen R Shaffer</a></span><br />
<br />
It is important to recognize the political and policy accomplishments of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), anticipate its limitations, and use
the levers it provides strategically to address the problems it does not resolve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Passage of the ACA broke the political logjam
that long stymied national progress toward equitable, quality, universal,
affordable health care. It extends coverage for the uninsured, who are
disproportionately low income and people of color, curbs health insurance
abuses, and initiates improvements in the quality of care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, challenges to affordability and
cost control persist.<o:p></o:p><br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Public
health advocates should mobilize for coverage for abortion care and for
immigrants, encourage public-sector involvement in negotiating health care
prices, and counter disinformation by opponents on the right.<br />
<br />
<em>Tables in the article summarize major changes in coverage, insurance company protections, and quality/affordability.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
(Am J Public Health.
Published online ahead of print <st1:date day="14" month="2" year="2013">February
14, 2013</st1:date>: e1–e4. doi:10.2105/ AJPH.2012.301180<o:p></o:p>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-10935609017704455082012-10-16T19:52:00.001-07:002012-10-17T00:19:24.876-07:00Best tweet of the nightMR summary: Mexican drug lords use Obamacare 2 buy guns frm Libyan terrorists 2 sell 2 single moms who dont have time to make dinner<br />
<br />
Arrogant, racist Romney could not believe that the President actually remembered accurately his own statement in the Rose Garden labeling the Libyan incident an act of terrorism. And still didn't believe it til Candy Crowley confirmed it. (He didn't ask if she was married.)Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-21798293501684672792012-08-25T07:56:00.003-07:002012-08-26T07:49:17.252-07:00Women, Choice and PowerTurns out, women are a key voting bloc in the upcoming election. It's up to us not only to get each other engaged, and voting. but to demand credible commitments that address our concerns.<br />
<br />
Here are our choices heading into the political conventions:<br />
<br />
A Republican Party fueled with unprecedented gushers of corporate cash that draws political life support from the medieval wing of several fundamentalist religions, whose fantastical beliefs about women's biology are rooted in their ironclad devotion to patriarchy.<br />
<br />
A Democratic Party also overly dependent on the parasitic finance sector, that is now reaching back to the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009 to symbolize its commitment to women's economic empowerment. It depends for political fuel in no small part on the indisputable fact that the Republicans are profoundly scary.<br />
<br />
Polls show the 2 running neck in neck.<br />
<br />
In fact, this election offers women a clear choice. The Republican platform would make criminals of the 30% of American women who've had an abortion (including me, once because of a fetal anomaly diagnosed in my second trimester). The Affordable Care Act, which Paul Ryan has voted repeatedly to repeal, assures more affordable birth control and extends Medicare's financial health, in contrast to Ryan's proposal to privatize it.<br />
<br />
But it's not enough to debunk the opposition's lies, or to point out that they rely on stoking fear and anger. Some recent polls of women who are not politically active show that they do react viscerally to the demeaning insults slung by decision-makers they perceive as "mean, old, white men." But they are living difficult lives, bounded not only by state legislatures that snatch away their birth control and penalize them for their reproductive decisions, but by extensive financial hardship. One quote: "I'm happy this month that I haven't had to sell plasma to feed my children."<br />
<br />
So here are some things to call for in Charlotte:<br />
<br />
1. An iron clad commitment to preserving and protecting Social Security and Medicare. These two programs form the bedrock of women's financial security as we age. They are under attack explicitly by the Republicans. And too frequently for comfort, our side also periodically lip synchs the lies about the needs to reform these "entitlements." Let's hear Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid and future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirm that the programs are solvent, and that they will not compromise on preserving and improving these programs.<br />
<br />
2. It's great that Nancy Keenan of NARAL and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood will be speaking. Women's rights to make their own decisions about their reproductive health are fundamental to our economic and personal wellbeing, including access to legal, affordable birth control and abortion. We hope their introductions will include words of support from HHS and the Surgeon General.<br />
<br />
3. Finally: Lots of women. On the podium, speaking, in charge, active, visible, and vocal. Women of all races, and for that matter, candidates for races. We know who the top ticket nominees are. Let's give a boost to the EMILY's List all-star roster of pro-choice Democratic women candidates, people like Maggie Hassan for governor of New Hampshire, Congressional candidates like Grace Meng, Christie Vilsack, Val Demings, and Tammy Duckworth, and Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin for Senate, and of course, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill. Since Canadian-born former governor Jennifer Granholm can't run for president, nominate her now for a Cabinet post, if she wants one, and give her air time.<br />
<br />
We're going to write checks, emails and op eds, as well as getting out the vote. We have power. Let's recognize and exercise it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-70213021554049874462012-08-11T08:38:00.000-07:002012-08-11T09:11:26.285-07:00Paul Ryan: Marching Backwards on MedicareLet's get one thing perfectly straight: Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare.
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
His <a href="http://paulryan.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=56750" target="_blank">2012 proposal </a>is less straightforward about it than
his <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2011/04/gop_budget_plan_would_end_medi.html" target="_blank">2011 proposal</a>.</div>
<br />
It would, nevertheless, end Medicare. And the Affordable Care Act.<br />
<br />
Single payer/Medicare for All? Fuhggedaboudit.<br />
<br />
Here's quick back-of-the-envelope on how it shapes up:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: currentColor; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> Features</o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Medicare Now<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Old Ryan Plan<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"New" Ryan Plan<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Age you are eligible<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
65<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
67, increase starting 2023<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
67, complete by 2034</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Privatization initiatives</div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Drug plan, Medicare Advantage</div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
Vouchers for
everyone<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Vouchers phased in<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Extra costs to seniors<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Baseline<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
$6,000 a year<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> ?</o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Medicare as % of Federal expenditures<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
6.5%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> ?</o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
4.5%</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Savings mechanisms<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
ACA: IPAB,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>primary care, EMRs, ACOs<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Vouchers: Individual seniors control costs through purchases</div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 110.7pt;" valign="top" width="185"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Vouchers: Individual seniors control costs through purchases</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<strong>+</strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Insurance industry competition<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Do we need to do more to improve and expand Medicare? Indeed. But Ryan would double down on disaster.<br />
<br />
On Medicare for All, he had th<a href="http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2011/06/13/ryan-questioned-on-medicare-for-all/%20%20June%2013,%202011" target="_blank">is exchange</a> with reporter Sam Husseini, published June 13, 2011:<br />
<br />
Sam Husseini: If you’re a fiscal conservative and you want to provide a safety net, why wouldn’t you be for something like a single-payer health care system?<br />
<br />
Paul Ryan: I think a single-payer health care system would be a disaster for people who need health-care the most. I think it would cause rationing, waiting lines. I think it would be a fiscal house of cards, I think it would help accelerate a national debt crisis and hurt the economy.<br />
<br />
Husseini: Wouldn’t it <a href="http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_system_cost.php?page=all">save a lot of money and cover everybody</a>?<br />
<span id="more-313"></span><br />
Ryan: Absolutely not. I totally and fundamentally disagree with it. I believe that you can have affordable access to healthcare for all Americans, including people with pre-existing conditions, without a government takeover of the healthcare sector. If we actually have government-run healthcare, what I think you’ll have is government managing, government-rationing healthcare. I think that will be a fiscal disaster, I think that it would accelerate a debt crisis that would slow our economy and take jobs and economic growth from those people that need it the most, which are people who are out of work.<br />
<br />
Husseini: Doesn’t Medicare have a much lower — 2 or 3 percent — <a href="http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#bureaucracy">overhead compared to the insurance companies</a>? Which — insurance companies –<br />
<br />
Ryan: — That’s an apples and oranges comparison. If you take a look at Medicare itself, Medicare is going bankrupt.<br />
<br />
Husseini: <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2011/0414/Medicare-s-not-the-problem.-It-s-the-solution." target="_blank">That’s the healthcare system in general that’s going bankrupt</a>.<br />
<br />
Ryan: There are three facts about medicare that you simply can’t dispute: 10,000 seniors are retiring everyday with fewer workers going into the workforce to pay for them; healthcare costs are skyrocketing at about four times the rate of inflation, which threatens medicare’s ability to give affordable care; and number three, the non-partisan experts agree that Medicare is going bankrupt. So Medicare’s status quo is bankruptcy and that threatens healthcare not only for current seniors but obviously for future seniors, so I believe a patient-centered healthcare system — reforms that put the patient at the center of the healthcare system, not the government — are the best for people who need healthcare and they’re best for the economy, and they’re the best way to avert a debt crisis.<br />
<br />
Husseini: But isn’t the problem with healthcare fundamentally the corporate structure? I mean your <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2010&cid=N00004357&type=I">biggest funders</a> are a who’s who — Northwestern Mutual –<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ryan: — Which is a big employer in Milwaukee by the way — </span><br />
<br />
Husseini: — Aurora Health Care, Abbott Laboratories, Credit Suisse — the insurers — [see "<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/04/paul-ryans-health-industry-ties.html">Paul Ryan's Health Industry Ties...</a>" Humana Inc., Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Aetna]<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
Ryan: — Government-run healthcare doesn’t work. Wherever we’ve seen government-run healthcare, it’s failed.<br />
Husseini: You think that people are worse off in France and Canada?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ryan: I think we’re worse off if we go with a government healthcare system that will cost us jobs, it will increase our deficit and our debt and I do believe, and I put ideas on the table that show, that we can get to a patient-centered healthcare system that helps create jobs, that helps get healthcare costs under control, and gives everybody affordable healthcare coverage for everyone regardless of income or pre-existing conditions.</span><br />
<br />
Husseini: You think <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082101778_pf.html" target="_blank">poor people in Europe are worse off than poor people here</a>?<br />
<br />
Ryan ends questioning here.</div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-63777313877243398222012-07-01T07:15:00.000-07:002012-07-01T07:15:52.813-07:00Mr. President: Campaign on Health Care Reform!Dear Mr. President:
<o:p> </o:p><br />
You won on health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Campaign on it.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
You won historic legislation in 2010. Your advisors told you
to change the subject and campaign on the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You lost the mid-term elections, big time.</div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
You won a victory in the Supreme Court this week. The same
advisors who counseled you then are at it again. I don't know what economic
accomplishments they think you should run on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know a few things about what you've done in health care.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The Affordable Care Act instituted system reforms in how we
pay doctors, and how they practice medicine, that are reducing the actual cost
of health care. This is tremendous news. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not showing up yet in reduced insurance
premiums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But your law makes it possible
to do so.</div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Health care spending growth has
slowed from double digits to 4% or lower. Further, hospital admissions are
down, even among insured people. Writing in Health Affairs in April <a href="http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/04/13/bending-the-health-care-cost-curve-more-than-meets-the-eye/"><span style="color: blue;">Kenneth
Kaufman states</span></a> that<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt;"> </span>"independent
of the recession, other fundamental and structural changes are likely
contributing to the flattening of the cost curve, and further, these changes
have the potential to significantly alter the curve’s path into the future."<o:p></o:p><br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Kaufman quotes Jeff Goldsmith,
Ph.D., President of Health Futures, Inc., who "suggests that the makeup
and organization of the nation’s physicians is one source of the slowing cost
growth. Physicians of the past 30 years typically practiced in solo or small
group practices. Under the fee-for-service system, they were incentivized to
work long hours, see as many patients as they possibly could, and buy into
labs, ambulatory clinics, and specialty hospitals. As a result, they tended to
be high users of inpatient and outpatient services. These more entrepreneurial
physicians are now reaching retirement age and many tens of thousands are
opting to exit the workforce. Replacing them are physicians of a new
generation, which has different work and lifestyle expectations. For many
younger physicians, owning a practice is not as important as having time to
spend with the family and a steady, predictable income.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"One effect is that physicians
have sought employment by hospitals...and in larger group practices, many of
which now employ hundreds of doctors. They are practicing medicine in ways that
remove utilization and cost from the system. Protocols to reduce variation in
care delivery, chronic disease management, case management, and other approaches
are increasingly being adopted by physicians nationwide. Larger practices owned
by hospitals and other entities will have the capital and human resources
required to successfully reduce care costs through such approaches, slowing
health-spending growth going forward."</div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Other efforts include "moving
from an activity-based business model that incentivizes utilization of services
to a value-based model that incentivizes population health management across
the continuum of care," <br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Why aren't we seeing lower
insurance premiums, then?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
First, the insurance industry isn't
yet sufficiently regulated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Exchanges starting in 2014 will make regulation more likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>States can use the ACA now to regulate on their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A progressive new Congress could create a
competing public option, and allow states to create entirely public financing
systems like Medicare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly, the
system reforms are not yet universal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, some physicians are turning to "boutique" practices where they
can take only wealthy patients who will continue to pay whatever high fees the
docs require to maintain their incomes.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The political good news is that the
opposition program will clearly hurl us right back into the days of
double-digit health care cost inflation, while cutting seniors and others out
of access to care. Surely impressive information for the American people.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The Ryan/Romney proposals would
turn Medicare and Medicaid into voucher systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every person would get a coupon worth a
certain dollar amount, and go out and look for the best deal from doctors,
hospitals, and drug companies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
means bringing the kind negotiations from the car dealership to the hospital
every time we and our families get sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For most rational Americans, not an appealing prospect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is certainly the end of Medicare.</div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
The opposition hounded Dr. Don
Berwick out of his position as administrator of the Medicare program, precisely
because of his expertise in the kind of system reforms that are now working.<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Mr. President, you need to stand
with the many patients already benefiting from the improved coverage and
consumer protections provided by the ACA, and fight for a second term that will
propel us forward towards universal, affordable health care. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-66207727693531382452012-04-02T06:40:00.000-07:002012-04-02T06:47:39.035-07:00Single payer declared as Supremes nix mandateOn the heels of the Supreme Court decision on June 15, 2012, invalidating the individual mandate provisions of the health care reform law, the President and Congress took swift action to implement a Single Payer system. Asked to define a single payer system, the President said, "Well, you know, sort of like Medicare." <br />
<br />
Long time health policy analyst and reform advocate Ellen Shaffer noted that the surprising transition had occurred subsequent to the following events:<br />
<br />
Massive demonstrations now known as the Grrl/Geezer/PanEthnic Spring erupted throughout the country, responding to the failure of the U.S. political system to take effective action in the face of shifts in the global economy, devastating losses of jobs and income security, demographic changes, and the degradation of human and environmental health.<br />
<br />
Shocked by racially motivated police actions, the laser-like focus of increasingly unhinged legislators on humiliating women in the name of ending "government tyranny," and the closure of community colleges, the cross-generational coalition used phone trees and social media to call on the Fed Up across the political spectrum to exercise personal responsibility by showing up and uniting.<br />
<br />
The uprising derailed widespread expectations that a negative decision on the mandate would likely add momentum to the information-free right wing, relegating further effective health care reform to the back burner for decades.<br />
<div class="divider-doodle">
</div>
<div class="article-body" id="body">
The reform program demanded identifying and implementing the best practices from around the world for economic innovation and growth compatible with human health and environmental sustainability, including models in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, Argentina, China, and India, and an end to energy dependence on oil. The new health care system will draw from the effective Cuban model of primary care available in schools, communities and workplaces, using U.S. information technology to coordinate care, implemented by professionals in non-hierarchical categories, who reflect the populations of their communities. Health care and education - including for health professions - will be entirely publicly subsidized, and housing prices stabilized at 1990 levels.<br />
<br />
Communications were transferred to the Stewart/Colbert/Maddow network, in partnership with Our Bodies Ourselves, radio KKCR /Kauai and radio KPOO/San Francisco. The Defense Department was eliminated, with the resulting financial windfall redirected to the lifetime care of military veterans.<br />
<br />
The top .01% of the U.S. wealthy were given the option of life at sea with video simulation games stroking their egos, and periodic air-lifts of supplies; or 5 years of pro-bono work as classroom assistants in newly revitalized elementary schools.<br />
<br />
Opposition to the health care program was promptly abandoned by the health insurance, hospital, medical, drug and information technology industries, as well as by the labor movement and its trust funds and by the Chamber of Commerce. Karen Ignani announced her retirement, and PNHP admitted that it wasn't really all Liz Fowler's fault, energizing an explosion of critical and strategic thinking.</div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-85350323527862890462012-03-26T01:02:00.000-07:002012-03-26T11:33:40.084-07:00Supreme Court Hears Challenges to Affordable Care Act - Your Comments?The Supreme Court hears challenges to the Affordable Care Act this week. Below, the Court’s links to hearing the proceedings; and a summary of the questions at issue from the NY Times. Please use the Comments space below to post your own succinct, relevant and illuminating comments on this historic debate, and links to other resources.<br />
<div class="entry-content">
<div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/viewpressreleases.aspx?FileName=pr_03-16-12.html" target="_blank">http://www.supremecourt.gov/<wbr></wbr>publicinfo/press/<wbr></wbr>viewpressreleases.aspx?<wbr></wbr>FileName=pr_03-16-12.html</a></div>
The Court will hear argument in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act cases on March 26, 27, and 28. Because of the extraordinary public interest in those cases, the Court will provide the audio recordings and transcripts of the oral arguments on an expedited basis through the Court’s Website.<br />
<br />
The Court will post the audio recordings and unofficial transcripts as soon as the digital files are available for uploading to the Website. The audio recordings and transcripts of the March 26-28 morning sessions should be available no later than 2 p.m. The recording and transcript of the March 28 afternoon session should be available no later than 4 p.m.<br />
<br />
Anyone interested in the proceedings will be able to access the recordings and transcripts directly through links on the homepage of the Court’s Website. The homepage currently provides links to the orders, briefs, and other information about the cases. The Court’s Website address is <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/" target="_blank">http://www.supremecourt.gov/</a>.<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/19/us/guide-to-supreme-court-challenges-to-obama-health-care-law.html?ref=background" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/<wbr></wbr>interactive/2012/03/19/us/<wbr></wbr>guide-to-supreme-court-<wbr></wbr>challenges-to-obama-health-<wbr></wbr>care-law.html?ref=background</a><br />
<div>
<h1>
A Guide to the Supreme Court Challenges to Obama’s Health Care Law</h1>
Over three days starting March 26, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in an appeal from a decision largely ruling for 26 states, a business group and several individuals who contend that the 2010 health care law, President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, is unconstitutional. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/us/politics/at-center-of-health-care-fight-roscoe-filburns-1942-commerce-case.html" target="_blank">Related Article »</a><br />
<br />
<strong>The Question: </strong><strong>Is it too early to consider this case since the health law’s penalties do not start until 2014?</strong><br />
<div>
<br />
The central provision of the health care law, often called the individual mandate, requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or, starting in 2014, face a penalty.<br />
<br />
A 19th-century law, <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7421" target="_blank">the Anti-Injunction Act</a>, forbids challenges to tax assessments until they are due, barring suits “for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax.” The Supreme Court had interpreted the term “tax” very broadly for purposes of the law, and it has suggested that the act is “jurisdictional,” meaning that courts are powerless to hear suits barred by it even if both sides agree to proceed.<br />
<br />
If the Supreme Court considers the individual mandate a tax under the Anti-Injunction Act, it may conclude that it cannot hear a challenge until April 15, 2015, when the first penalties become due.<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/health/policy/09virginia.html" target="_blank">The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/health/policy/appeals-court-upholds-health-care-law.html" target="_blank">a dissenting judge</a> on the District of Columbia Circuit agreed that the act requires courts to defer consideration of the challenge to the individual mandate.<br />
<br />
The federal government initially argued that the act applied to bar the challenges, but it has changed its mind and now asks that the suits be allowed to proceed, agreeing with its opponents on this point. The states challenging the law say the act does not apply to them, as opposed to individuals, in any event. Because all of the parties agree that the Supreme Court may hear the case, <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/supreme-court-names-two-lawyers-to-argue-points-in-health-care-law/" target="_blank">the justices appointed a lawyer to argue</a> that the act applies.<br />
<br />
Among the questions the Supreme Court is likely to consider in connection with the act are whether a challenge to the mandate is the same thing as a challenge to how it is enforced, whether the penalties imposed by the health care law are taxes and whether the act is an inviolable jurisdictional command to courts.<br />
<br />
Congress remains free, now or later, to amend the act to allow challenges to the health care law.<br />
<div>
Date of Hearing: March 26<br />
Time Allotted: 90 minutes<br />
<div>
40 min.: Robert A. Long, friend of the court, appointed to argue that the suit is barred.<br />
30 min.: Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. says the challenges may go forward.<br />
20 min.: Gregory G. Katsas, representing the National Federal of Independent Business and other private parties, agrees with the government on this point.</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<br />
<strong>The Question: </strong><strong>Is the individual mandate constitutional?</strong><br />
<div>
<br />
This is the heart of the case. The lower courts issued conflicting decisions in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/13/us/politics/challenges-to-the-health-law.html?ref=us" target="_blank">the numerous challenges</a> to the health care law, and the Supreme Court agreed to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/us/supreme-court-to-hear-case-challenging-health-law.html" target="_blank">hear an appeal from only one of them</a>, from the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta. That decision <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/us/13health.html" target="_blank">struck down the mandate</a>. In contrast, the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, and the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law, while the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., said the constitutionality of the law was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/health/policy/09virginia.html" target="_blank">not yet ripe for review</a>.<br />
<br />
The federal government argues that Congress was authorized to enact the individual mandate under two provisions of <a href="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html" target="_blank">Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution</a> — its power to regulate commerce and its power to tax. The leading Supreme Court precedents support the mandate, too, the government says, because the health care law addresses a pressing national problem that is economic in nature.<br />
<br />
Opponents of the law say that the requirement to buy a product or service is unprecedented, regulates inactivity rather than activity and would allow Congress essentially unlimited power to intrude on individual freedom. They say the government cannot articulate a principle that would limit its power were the law upheld.<br />
<div>
<br />
Date of Hearing: March 27<br />
Time Allotted: 2 hours<br />
<div>
60 min.: Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. defends the law.<br />
30 min.:Paul D. Clement, representing 26 states, challenges the law.<br />
30 min.:Michael A. Carvin, representing the private parties, challenges the law.<br />
<div>
<div>
<div>
<br />
<strong>The Question: If the individual mandate is ruled unconstitutional, must the rest of the health law fall as well?</strong></div>
<div>
<br />
Should the Supreme Court strike down the individual mandate, it must decide whether some or all of the balance of the law must fall as well.<br />
<br />
Though the lower-court ruling issued by the 11th Circuit determined that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/us/13health.html" target="_blank">Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority</a> in enacting the individual mandate, it said the balance of the law survived. Neither side agrees. The government argues that two provisions requiring insurance companies to accept all applicants at fixed rates are intertwined with the mandate and must fall along with it. <br />
<br />
Opponents of the law say the mandate is its keystone, meaning that no part of the law can survive without it. Here, too, the Supreme Court <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/supreme-court-names-two-lawyers-to-argue-points-in-health-care-law/" target="_blank">has appointed a lawyer to argue a position</a> that neither party advances – that the mandate may be surgically removed if the court holds it unconstitutional.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Date of Hearing : March 28<br />
Time Allotted: 90 minutes<br />
<div>
30 min.: Paul D. Clement, representing 26 states, argues that the entire law must fall.<br />
30 min.: Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler argues that most of the law should survive, even if the mandate is struck down.<br />
30 min.: H. Bartow Farr III, friend of the court, appointed to defend the ruling that struck down only the mandate.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<br />
<strong>The Question: Was Congress entitled to impose conditions on the states in expanding the Medicaid program?</strong></div>
<div>
<br />
The sprawling 2010 law contains many provisions not directly in front of the court. But the justices did agree to hear a challenge to a provision relating to Medicaid, a challenge by the 26 states that argues that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority by expanding the eligibility and coverage thresholds that states must adopt to remain eligible to participate in the joint federal-state program that provides health care to poor and disabled people.<br />
<br />
The problem, they say, is that Congress did not tie the law’s new conditions only to new federal money but rather made the new terms a condition of continued participation in Medicaid, threatening states with the loss of all federal Medicaid funds.<br />
<br />
The federal government argues that such shifting conditions are routine in all sorts of federal programs and that the Medicaid program itself specified at the outset that the rules could change.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Date of Hearing: March 28<br />
Time Allotted: 1 hour<br />
<div>
30 min. Paul D. Clement, representing 26 states, challenges the law.<br />
30 min. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. defends the law.<br />
<br />
Links to Briefs:<br />
<a href="http://www.americanbar.org/content/aba/publications/preview_home/11-398_Anti-InjunctionAct.html">http://www.americanbar.org/content/aba/publications/preview_home/11-398_Anti-InjunctionAct.html</a><br />
http://www.americanbar.org/content/aba/publications/preview_home/11-398.html (minimum coverage)<br />
http://www.americanbar.org/content/aba/publications/preview_home/11-5683.html Medicaid expansion; consolidated<br />
<br />
The Court heard arguments today, Monday, March 26, 2012, on the Anti-Injunction Act issue of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act cases. (Dept. of H&HS v. Florida, 11-398) The audio recording and unofficial transcript of the oral argument on the Anti-Injunction Act issue are available at this link: <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_audio_detail.aspx?argument=11-398-Monday">http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_audio_detail.aspx?argument=11-398-Monday</a><br />
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<br />
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</div>
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</div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-33614518878730225392012-03-24T12:09:00.000-07:002012-03-26T12:12:03.112-07:00For Trayvon Martin: Now Imagine<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/quotes">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/quotes</a><br />
<br />
From "A Time to Kill," 1996. Matt McConaughey as lawyer Jake Tyler Brigance, presents the summation defending his black client for attacking his daughter's rapists:<br />
<br />
Jake Tyler Brigance: [in his summation, talking about Tonya Hailey] I want to tell you a story. I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. Go ahead. Close your eyes, please. This is a story about a little girl walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon. I want you to picture this little girl. Suddenly a truck races up. Two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field and they tie her up and they rip her clothes from her body. Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they're done, after they've killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice. They start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones. Then they urinate on her. Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose going tight around her neck and with a sudden blinding jerk she's pulled into the air and her feet and legs go kicking. They don't find the ground. The hanging branch isn't strong enough. It snaps and she falls back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck and drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge. Pitch her over the edge. And she drops some thirty feet down to the creek bottom below. Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. <br />
<br />
Now imagine she's white. <br />
<br />
<br />Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-27329707323160631072012-01-04T12:53:00.001-08:002012-01-04T13:04:45.036-08:00Trust Women Week and the San Francisco Banner Project<span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">The majority
of Americans believe that women should have access to basic health care
services and that decisions about reproductive health care including family
planning and abortion should be left to each person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in 2011, extremist politicians elected with
a mandate to fix the current economic crisis instead chose to divert the
public's attention with policy battles about these private decisions. They have
declared a “War on Women.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S.
House of Representatives and state legislatures have particularly focused on
eliminating access to basic health care services and contraception as well as
abortion, with severe consequences for the most vulnerable.<o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00009b; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><div class="Section1">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;">Banners on </span><st1:street><st1:address><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;">Market Street</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>aim to spark conversations and to help build
momentum and solidarity among supporters of women’s rights, equality and autonomy
and access to comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care
services. see photos:</span></span></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/117112844015109646967/ReproductiveJusticeBannersInSanFrancisco">https://picasaweb.google.com/117112844015109646967/ReproductiveJusticeBannersInSanFrancisco</a>#<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">During Trust
Women Week, January 20-27, we will engage the public in a Virtual March, with
MoveOn, to express their support online for reproductive health, rights and
justice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Trust
Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign is a coalition of 42 national and local
organizations. We include the groups represented on the banners: the Bay Area
Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR), Catholics for Choice, NARAL-ProChoice
California, Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific, and SisterSong/Trust Black </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" style="mso-comment-date: 20120104T1231; mso-comment-reference: SY_1;"><span style="font-size: small;">Women</span></a></span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9075997610297502555#_msocom_1" id="_anchor_1" language="JavaScript" name="_msoanchor_1">[SY1]</a><span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: -1.0pt; position: relative; top: 1pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">The main
banner messages are:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Her
Decision, Her Health<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Most women spend about 30 years trying not to
become pregnant and only two years trying to become pregnant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether and when to have a child is a
personal decision that every individual has the right to make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A healthy pregnancy is more likely for women
who have access to basic health care services. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><st1:country-region><st1:place><b>U.S.</b></st1:place></st1:country-region><b>
Out of My Uterus</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 2011,
a record numbers of bills were introduced or passed by state legislatures and
the U.S. House of representatives restricting women's access to: basic health
care services, family planning, and safe abortion care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been called a "War on Women,"
Many women are shocked and dismayed by these attacks and want to send a strong
message to policy-makers: Government should stay out of making decisions about
what happens in my womb. I have self-determination, autonomy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Fix
the Economy, Support My Autonomy<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Many people are suffering due to the downturn
in the economy, and are looking to our elected officials for real solutions. Too
many policy-makers focus on whipping up divisions on social issues(such as restricting
women’s rights) instead of creating jobs. Government has an important role in
supporting and assuring the conditions for a healthy life. In these hard
economic times, women's ability to conduct productive, independent lives depends
on government support for fixing the economy, and providing the education needed
to secure rewarding jobs and affordable health care, including reproductive
health care.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size: small;">·</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Reproductive
Rights are Human Rights <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">If women do not have the ability to decide
what goes on in their bodies, then they are second class citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human rights describe the obligations of
governments to create the conditions for all people to be as healthy as
possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This includes respecting
individual rights about our reproductive health and assuring access to
affordable and comprehensive reproductive health care services.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>
</b></span><st1:city><st1:place><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">San Francisco</span></b></st1:place></st1:city><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> is Pro-Choice<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The majority of
this country supports reproductive rights and feels that the decision about
abortion should be left to the individual.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="_GoBack"></a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
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<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Partner banners:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></div>
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</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Catholics for Choice<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Legal Abortion is a
Human Right: United Nations - BACORR<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Freedom, Privacy,
Choice - NARAL </b><st1:state><st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">California</b></st1:place></st1:state><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="FreeForm" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><st1:city><st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">San Francisco</span></b></st1:place></st1:city><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Supports Planned Parenthood Shasta/Pacific<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">We Trust Black Women,
Do You? - Sistersong<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">for background on women's reproductive health and on reproductive justice, see:</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/banners2-and-trust-women-week-background.pdf" target="_blank">http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/banners2-and-trust-women-week-background.pdf</a><br />
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</span></span></span></span>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-43342154319995014022011-12-08T07:32:00.001-08:002011-12-08T07:36:18.261-08:00We Are All An 11 year old girl - and she is pretty annoyedWomen are the last remaining voting majority who are treated like a splinter group. It will stay that way until we stand up for ourselves, together, and demand power.<br />
<br />
The Democrats drove us away from the polls in 2010, and they're getting ready to do it again. It's ok, though. They need to focus on creating jobs. We don't want to disturb them with anything controversial.<br />
<br />
The Republicans don't care whether or not we experience regret after our abortions. They want to pump up the fanatic religious extremists who they hope will give them control of the Senate and the White House in 2012.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/AAP_SAHM_ACOG_release_EC_FDA_Final_12.7.11_1.pdf" target="_blank">The Pediatricians, Gynecologists, and Adolescent Medicine doctors</a> deplore the decision yesterday by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to override "an evidence-based decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve an application for over-the-counter access without age restriction to the emergency contraception (EC) product Plan B One-Step. This move defies the strong data that EC is safe and effective for all females of reproductive age.<br />
<br />“As advocates for the health and well-being of all young people, the AAP recommends that adolescents postpone sexual activity until they are fully ready for the emotional, physical, and financial consequences of sex,” said Robert Block, MD, FAAP, American Academy of Pediatrics president. “However, as physicians who care for our nation’s children, it is our responsibility to protect the health of our teenage patients, and an unintended pregnancy can have significant implications for adolescents’ physical and emotional health.”<br />
<br />
Presumably Sec. Sebelius was following orders from her boss, already jittery because the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is offended that HHS has had the temerity to acknowledge that contraception is a preventive medical service, and should be covered without additional co-payments just like Pap smears.<br />
<br />
You can join lots of important efforts to call the White House or sign petitions, including sites for NARAL, the National Women's Health Network, and the Feminist Majority.<br />
<br />
Maybe, also, we can snatch some tactics from AIDS activists. Maybe we need to start bird-dogging policy-makers who have difficulty living up to their promises. And working in communities where people who don't have jobs are being convinced to turn their anger against women who don't have rights. Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-77866810894005551912011-11-17T23:19:00.001-08:002011-11-17T23:56:47.384-08:00God to Congress: OK to Gang Up on Women's Rights<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"It is not our job as Catholics to tell God what we
should do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our job to learn and
follow his teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conscience is not
convenience. We must enforce the laws of God." Rep. Tim Murphy, Republican
of Pennsylvania, having ascertained that the supreme deity is male, explained
why Congress should deprive the employees of Catholic schools, hospitals and
charities of the right to purchase affordable birth control, regardless of the
employees' own beliefs or practices. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hearing of the Health Subcommittee of the
House Committee on Energy and Commerce took place on <st1:date day="2" month="11" year="2011">Wednesday, November 2, 2011</st1:date>.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Republicans in Congress are truly on the warpath against
women's rights, and in many cases against reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Just a few points here about women and contraception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For starters, while it usually takes two to
conceive a child, only women get pregnant. The right and ability to make
independent decisions about whether and when to become a parent are fundamental
to every other aspect of a woman's life: whether society recognizes women as
autonomous, independent, responsible and competent; and whether women
themselves experience the same opportunities as men to acquire education and
employment, and to construct a meaningful life based on loving relationships. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Cost is a barrier to purchasing birth control for
lower-income women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More effective forms
like new, safe intrauterine devices (IUDs) cost more than birth control pills
or devices like diaphragms that can be bought in smaller, cheaper quantities, but
also are less reliable. The rate of unintended pregnancies is soaring among
low-income women, and at 132 per thousand (women aged 15-44) is 5 times higher
than the rate for higher income women (those over 200% of poverty).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Low income women are more likely to have
unplanned births. The costs of contraception are minute compared to the costs
of pregnancy and delivery, in dollars as well as in human health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The new health reform law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), calls
for covering preventive health care services without requiring copayments,
effective in 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Copayments are fees
individuals must pay when they go for care, in addition to their premiums, and
are intended to discourage health care visits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem is that they discourage people from getting care they need,
particularly low-income people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Preventive health care services like flu shots can protect health by
avoiding illnesses entirely or catching them early, and also save money. The
ACA eliminated these copayments for prevention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Except in the case of contraception.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
In 1968, despite the recommendation of the majority of
Catholic bishops, the Pope adopted the minority recommendation to declare that
using birth control was inconsistent with the Church's beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, U.S. Catholics continue to use
birth control, to the same extent as other Americans. The U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops has grown increasingly insistent on enforcing the birth
control ban. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Virtually all heterosexually active couples in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
of child-bearing age use birth control at times, including Catholics.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
As of August, 2011, after a year of studying whether or not
contraception is a preventive health care service, the federal Department of
Health and Human Services ruled that birth control would count as a preventive
health care service. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
In covering contraception as a preventive service without
copayments, <st1:stockticker>HHS</st1:stockticker> granted an exception for
actual churches who provide health insurance to their employees, but required
all other religiously sponsored institutions such as hospitals that offer
health benefits to follow the rule.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Catholic organizations have gone to court in the past to
avoid state rules that require including coverage for birth control in the
health care plans they provide for employees, and failed every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church sponsors large organizations
including health care providers, universities and social service agencies, as
well as churches. They employ millions of Americans, many of whom are not Catholic.
Their work generates the funds their employers use to pay for health
insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most economists assert that
the costs of employee health benefits are reflected in lower pay; that is,
employers calculate benefits as a form of compensation, and many reduce wages
accordingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, the money that
pays for health insurance is really money that employees generate, and belongs
to them. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Not good enough for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
and the extremist Republicans running Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While dire economic threats face many Americans, Rep. Joe Pitts of <st1:state><st1:place>Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:state>
decided to change the subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He called
a hearing entitled “Do New Health Law Mandates Threaten Conscience Rights and
Access to Care?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/file/Hearings/Health/110211/Memo.pdf]</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Now let's be very clear here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Republicans and the Bishops are claiming
that institutions have a conscience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
a policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A conscience. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Here is Joe Pitts' description of his concern [and my
comments in brackets]:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
"Many
entities feel that it [the proposed policy] is inadequate and violates their
conscience rights by forcing them to provide coverage for services for which
they have a moral or ethical objection. The religious employer exemption
allowed under the preventive services rule -- at the discretion of the HRSA
[Health Resources Services Agency] -- is very narrow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
"And
the definition offers no conscience protection to individuals," [there is
no involvement of any individual employer in this matter, or any issue of an
individual's conscience except that of employees deciding to purchase and use
contraceptives] "schools, hospitals, or charities that hire or serve
people of all faiths in their communities. It is ironic that the proponents of
the health care law talked about the need to expand access to services but the
administration issues rules that could force providers to stop seeing patients
because to do so could violate the core tenants of their religion."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[The rule requires employers' health plans to
cover contraception without any additional copayment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three parties involved here:
employers, employees, and health plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No provider or caregiver is involved, nor is any patient, student, or
recipient of charity. At the most extreme, every Catholic institution could
claim it will close their doors absent this exclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far no such institution has done so where
state requirements are in effect, and when Rep. Jan Schakowsky asked representatives
of Catholic institutions at the hearing if they would close, they affirmed that
they would not.] </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Rep. Gingrey, GA, opined: "Imposing the dictates of the
state on the will of employers sounds un-American to me."</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
And another gem: "Should we force religious employers
to violate their consciences?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
recognize same-sex marriage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will we
ethically neuter health care professionals?"</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Articulate Democrats on the committee - Henry Waxman, Frank
Pallone, John Dingell, Lois Capps, Tammy Baldwin, Jan Schakowsky, <st1:place><st1:placename>Edolphus</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Towns</st1:placetype></st1:place>, Eliot Engel - to a person
challenged this tripe.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Tammy Baldwin: "This is a war on women."</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Lois Capps: "An employer is not a person. Your boss'
conscience is not your own."</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Witnesses Jon O'Brien of Catholics for Choice and Dr. Steve
Hathaway were articulate and brilliant in defending the truth.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
But Rep. Tim Murphy, a psychologist in his fifth term in the
House, was on fire:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"Conscience is at the core of Catholic teachings... and
it is not left up to individuals to decide, thank goodness. Father Anthony
Fisher tells us that ...there is an objective standard of moral conduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vatican II teaches us that the moral
character of actions is determined by objective criteria, not merely by the
sincerity of intentions or the goodness of motives. It is not, I repeat, it is
not our duty as Catholics to tell God what he should do or what image he should
adhere to, or what he should think, but it's up to us to shape our conscience
to conform with the teachings he's given us.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"Conscience, sir, is not convenience.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"Conscience is formed through prayer, attention to the
sacred and adherence to the teachings of the church, and the authority of
Christ's teachings in the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
asking a group in a survey whether or not they have ever acted or thought of
acting in a certain way that runs counter to the Church's teachings is no more
a moral code than asking people if they ever drove over the speed limit as a
foundation for eliminating all traffic laws.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
"I end with a quote from John Adams, in 1776, when he
was writing our Declaration of Independence of the United States:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'It is the duty of all men in society,
publicly and at stated seasons to worship the creator and preserver of the
universe, and no subject shall be hurt, molested or constrained from
worshipping God in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own
conscience, or for religious profession or sentiments, provided he does not
disturb the public peace or obstruct others in their religious worship.' The
foundation of our nation is not to impose laws that restrict a person's ability
to practice their faith, sir."</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Well, actually, Tim: Exactly.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-43637564864694951432011-11-15T08:10:00.001-08:002011-11-15T08:11:57.201-08:00Best NYT comment on clearing OWSWell, the important thing is that now Jeff (642) can have a bench where he can
sit and relax while eating his lunch and contemplating which policy he would
like to have changed by exercising his right to vote. It was difficult to focus
on that with inappropriate behavior going on and no place to sit. But now that
the park has been cleared, and Jeff has his bench back, he can remember that,
after all, he was perfectly satisfied with the way things are, that there are no
policies he can think of that he would change, and that there isn't enough
mayonnaise on his tuna sandwich. <br />
<div class="count">
<a href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/nyregion/police-begin-clearing-zuccotti-park-of-protesters.html?permid=695#comment695" name="comment695"><span style="color: #004276;">695</span></a>, Susan</div>
<div class="userInfo meta">
<div class="location">
Houston, Texas</div>
<div class="date">
November 15th, 2011</div>
<div class="time">
11:01 am<br />
<br />
Thank you Susan!</div>
</div>Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-16252641996682291652011-10-07T07:57:00.000-07:002011-10-07T08:23:39.669-07:00Stand up for Our Rights?Here is what we are up against:<br />
<br />
28 Republican Senators have written to protest that the HHS decision to cover contraception as a preventive health care service interferes with the constitutional right of your religious employer to dictate whether or not you use birth control. (Technically, whether it should be a covered benefit and therefore affordable.)<br />
<br />
That’s right: these Senators are distressed because your employer, if it has a religious affiliation, should have a constitutional right to mandate your personal sexual behaviors and to trample on your reproductive health choices.<br />
<br />
The signers include, for example, David Vitter. His known use of the public funds that pay his salary for the support of sex workers might seem to contradict his right to dictate your own behavior.<br />
<br />
Some on our side say these loony extremist statements rile up the Republican base and turn out their vote. We should keep our powder dry and ignore them, because smart pro-choice voters are motivated more by economics and other issues. But these crackpot ideas are too often turning into crackpot laws. Seems to me it’s time to connect the dots: Our human, economic and reproductive rights are our rights, and no elected official will stand up for us until we stand up for ourselves. The extremists are attacking our economic wellbeing and our freedoms at every level. What do you think?<br />
<br />
J<a href="http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/johanns-letter-contraceptiion.pdf"><span style="color: #225e9b;">ohanns/Hatch letter on contraception</span></a>:<br />
In addition to Sens. Hatch and Johanns, the letter to Secretary Sebelius was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), Dan Coats (R-Indiana), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), John Cornyn (R-Texas), John McCain (R-Arizona), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), and Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire), David Vitter (R-Louisiana), Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma).Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-2174705218894627122011-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:002011-09-05T21:34:47.030-07:00What would Jesus say? (with Track Changes by Rick Perry)Justice: Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after <strike>righteousness</strike><strong> accumulation</strong>: for they shall be filled. [Matthew 5:6]<br />
<br />
Greed and Wealth: <br />
Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of <strike>greed</strike> <strong>public assistance</strong>; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. [Luke 12.15.] <br />
<br />
Truly, I say unto you, it will be hard for a <strike>rich</strike> <strong>poor</strong> man to enter the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 19:23] <br />
<br />
You <strike>cannot</strike> <strong>can</strong> serve both God and Money. [Matthew 6:24.]<br />
<br />
Community: Love your neighbor <strike>as</strike> <strong>when they do good unto</strong> yourself. .[Matthew 22:39] So in everything, do to others <strike>as you would have them</strike> <strong>before they</strong> do <strong>it</strong> to you. [Matthew 7:12.] <br />
<br />
If you would be perfect, go, <strong>take from the poor</strong>, sell what you possess and give to <strike>the poor</strike> <strong>a tax</strong> <strong>shelter</strong>, and you will have treasure in heaven. [Matthew 19:21] <br />
<br />
Equality & Social Programs: But when you give a feast, <strike>invite</strike> <strong>criticize</strong> the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they <strike>cannot re</strike> <strong>don't</strong> pay <strong>taxes</strong>. you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the <strike>just</strike> <strong>entitled</strong>. [Luke 14:13 &14.]Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-45325075982314871912011-09-03T08:34:00.000-07:002011-09-03T08:35:20.110-07:00Tobacco Control: FDA Warning Labels Get Support on the Eve of Trade TalksFive tobacco companies have filed suit once again to try to stop the federal Food and Drug Administration from implementing its rule to require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States beginning in September, 2012. According to the FDA, "These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking."<br />
<br />
Tobacco control advocates discussed this new round of tobacco company lawsuits on Aug. 19 with KPFA "Livingroom" host Kris Welch and Health Issues Producer Ellen Shaffer of CPATH - www.cpath.org , highlighting implications for African Americans, youth, and for upcoming negotiations for a U.S.-Pacific Rim trade agreement (Trans-Pacific Partnership) scheduled for Chicago, Sept. 6 -11. They discussed the lethal effects of tobacco and the need to move U.S. trade policy, which views tobacco as a legal substance to be promoted like any other, with guests:<br />
<br />
Carol McGruder, Co-Chair African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (www.savingblacklives.org), pointed out that tobacco use and related illnesses have disproportionately affected the African American community. While the smoking rate among all Californians has plummeted from 23% to 14%, a rate second only to the state of Utah, African American smoking remains the highest in the state at 21.4% of males and 17% of females. "The consequences for our community are sobering: Black men who smoke are 50% more likely to get lung cancer than white male smokers; Black men have the highest lung cancer mortality rate at 81%, compared to a mortality rate of 54% among white men; with 16.3 lost years of life per death compared to 12.0 for white males. Though tobacco related deaths continue to kill more African Americans than car accidents, violence, and AIDS, combined; these deaths have yet to be given the priority on the public policy agenda that they deserve. The great disparities in smoking related morbidity and mortality between African Americans and the general population of California is an open sore in California's tobacco control crusade."<br />
<br />
Danny McGoldrick, Vice President for Research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, pointed out that these lawsuits have failed in the past, but that the tobacco industry continues to deploy its vast resources to resist all attempts to restrain it harm. He noted that the warnings are important in motivating calls to public "quitlines," toll-free phone resources known to help adults quit smoking. <a href="http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/">http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/</a><br />
<br />
Chris Bostic, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) ash.org, which serves as the Secretariat of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) , www.fctc.org, noted the contradictory position of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is advocating for free trade in tobacco products and restrictions on warning labels. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution supporting the public health position during trade negotiation meetings in the city in July, 2010.<br />
<br />
Hear advocates for local and global public health discuss the FDA warning labels on radio KPFA: CPATH, CTFK, FCA, AATLC http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/72568 (go to minute 34:35)<br />
<br />
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9075997610297502555.post-89506049635963261312011-06-17T01:09:00.000-07:002011-06-17T07:47:12.631-07:00Utter MadnessWill this be the month that tips us into action?<br />
<br />
We can't get jobs, live in our homes, educate our kids. Get out of the way of the tornadoes. Or, apparently, influence substantially the policy decisions imposed by an increasingly vicious and mean-spirited minority.<br />
<br />
In California advocacy has been reduced to documenting the rubble. Medicaid is cutting doctors' visits to 7 a year, for the seriously chronically ill who can still manage to qualify. To his credit, I think, the Governor just vetoed a budget that has been a disaster for decades because no one can wrench control of the process from the 1/3 of the legislature whose most animating vision is to drown the government in a bathtub. We cannot add $70 a year to our car registration fees as a downpayment on staunching the demise. You might have missed this story because there was a sex scandal this week, and some baseball games. (I like baseball; not the point.)<br />
<br />
Other states are dealing with the crisis by fomenting mobs who probably do not quite get the biological links among contraception, pregnancy and abortion, but are convinced they're against all of it, whatever it is.<br />
<br />
Congress will not tax a cent of a billionaire's gains from gambling on the stock market, but voted to cut the Women and Infant Children program that gets som<span style="background-color: yellow;">e</span> minimum level of nutrition to indigent kids. The Administration of course is taking a strong lead in rallying the nation to hold off on arbitrary cuts to the Social Security benefits of the 50% of seniors who subsist on meager incomes, and to keep Medicare out of the clutches of the vampires in the insurance industry. Aren't they? I thought they were; or intended to; or might at some point; or will promise to if re-elected.<br />
<br />
Ok, it's not their job; when the people lead the leaders will follow. We are the majority, who support the idea of having an actual society, will lend our neighbor a hand, believe in the right to reproductive health care, above all know there's something terribly wrong when so many can't find work while so few bask smugly in obscene excess. I'll write again soon about the people, organizations and campaigns that are trying to corral us close enough to each other so that we can make a difference. We're out here. But right now, it's time to take a moment and call a travesty a travesty.<br />
<br />
<br />
Ellen Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13668557644146280423noreply@blogger.com2