Believe this, folks. There are those out there, especially on the right, who are the declared enemy when it comes to our advocacy issue, Single Payer Universal Health Care. In one example, a member had written to the political representatives regarding the aspect of universal health care, and specifically the HR-676 legislation from Conyers and Kucinich of the US House of Representatives. One wrote back and from the member’s comment was full of the proverbial bull feces regarding the aspect of HR-676. In essence this lying congress critter indicated that the costs of HR-676 would be astronomical and would create such a drain on the people in higher taxes, that is would not be feasible.

Strange, in every single industrialized nation, except for two, there is a comprehensive single payer universal health care system in place, and they all cost their governments and the people, less than half what ours costs us. Plus, and this is a real “gotcha” the citizens of these countries actually live longer, healthier lives than we do. Oh yeah, by the way, that other country without a sp-uhc program? South Africa!!!! Don’t that just make your heart swell with pride that the United States and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that still treats its citizens as so much cattle with regard to health care?

We have been working on contacting other organizations with similar beliefs in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care and believe that the implementation of HR-676 would be a great start. Among these organizations are the http://www.pnhp.org Physicians for a National Health Program an organization of doctors who strongly support the idea of a SP-UHC program.

There is also the California Nurses Association and their support for this program, their web site is at: http://www.calnurses.org/

These are but two of the health care professional organizations, now couple that with the plethora of other groups and it becomes readily apparrent that this type of legislation is needed now. The new Congresss could do a lot worse than please a huge majority of the people by passing this legislation into law.

But we must be constantly vigilant because there are any number of congressmen, lobbists and the major health care industry players themselves who would not balk at all sorts of dirty tricks to savage the idea of a single payer universal health care program for this country.

Admitedly most of these enemy congresscritters are on the right side of the aisle and the Republican party has never made a secret of their preference for private business over the best interests of their constituents. However, don’t be surprised to find that opposition can come from the most unsuspected places. The beauty of all that, is that these opposition “enemy combatants” are in the extreme minority. They are loud, they are vociferous but they are in the minority. Some 75% of United States Citizens state that the time has come for health care for all, and that health care should come from a single payment source, the public sector. The private sector, in the opinion of these majoity folks, has had it’s chance and they blew it big time, through their greed, their insensitivity and their totally uncaring attitude for their very customers, you and me.

The idea behind the HR-676 is to combine the Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and VA programs into a comprehensive plan for health care delivery. Click on the HR-676 link to see the actual bill, it’s not that long, just 27 pages. Short by legislation standards.

This new approach will take these programs, expand the coverage and establish a health care plan for every single American and the program will be expanded to cover all medically necessary implements as well.

The Senior Citizens Consortium has been an avid supporter and advocate for the Single Payer Universal Health Care program for virtually all of our existance. We fully and unequivocably support Congressman Kucinich and Congressman Conyers in their efforts to bring the HR-676 legislation to the floor of the house for a vote.

We would, as an organization, encourage everyone to seriously consider joining with us in developing and acting upon a March of Washington for Health Care. It is never too late, and you are never too old or too young to get involved in advocacy issues such as this one.

My challenge to any and all who happen to read this blog post,,, contact your senator and congressional representative. ASK them directly, what their position is relative to the HR-676 legislation and the very idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care for all Americans and legal residents!

You may be pleasantly surprised, or you may be very unpleasantly surprised depending on the idological bent of your representatives.

Also, go to the President’s web site for citizen’s input and give him your opinion on SP-UHC and the HR-676 legislation. The web site is: http://www.change.gov. There is also a new section there called the Presidents Briefing Book. Go to that and leave your recommendation, opinion or comments. Let’s take advantage of the fact that this administration is at least willing to read what we have to say.

In my next blog entry, I will put up a listing of links to papers and other documents that we have accrued regarding this important topic.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, representing Ohio’s 10th District has been on the forefront of Single Payer Universal Health Care for over 5 years. Here is an article from his on web site speaking to health care. Pay close attention to the myth/fact section, it is very enlightening.

Universal Health Care
“Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right.” – Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Chicago Archdiocese

Our health care system is broken, and HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, is the only comprehensive solution to the problem. It is also the system endorsed by more than 14,000 physicians from Physicians for a National Health Program. Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage. In 2005 some 41% of moderate and middle income Americans went without health care for part of the year. Even more shocking is that 53% of those earning less than $20,000 went without insurance for all of 2005. In fact, the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.

The American health system is quite sick. Pulitzer Prize journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, in their stunning analysis of the health care industry, Critical Condition (2006 Broadway Books), insist that “… U.S. health care is second-rate at the start of the twenty-first century and destined to get a lot worse and much more expensive.”

Considering the following facts from Tom Daschle’s article for the Center for American Progress: “Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform”:

Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.
FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.

The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.
FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New Zealand.

Covering All Americans Will Lead to Rationing.
FACT: Same-day access to primary-care physicians in the U.S. (33%) is far less available than in the United Kingdom (41%), Australia (54%) and New Zealand (60%). Per capita spending for health care averaged $2,696 in countries without waiting lists and $5,267 in the U.S.

Global Competitiveness is Hampered in Comprehensive System.
FACT: “Health care costs are not just a burden and barrier to care for individuals; they are taking a heavy toll on American businesses.” The strain on employers in 2005 was staggering. “The average total premiums for an employer-based family plan was $9,979 in 2005 …” Most of our competitors in the world markets finance their systems outside corporate taxes and employer mandates. Without Medicare for Everyone, the U.S. will continue to hemorrhage jobs.

We Cannot Afford to Cover All Americans.
FACT: We already spend enough to have universal health care. “The truth is, we cannot afford to not reform the health system.” We spend about 50% more than the next most expensive nation and nearly twice per person what the Canadians do. On May 1, 2006 Paul Krugman explained in Death by Insurance how incredibly wasteful the current system is. The doctor he referenced has two full-time staff members for billing, and two secretaries spend half their time collecting insurance information on the 301 different private plans they deal with. This type of waste is easily 20%. Also consider that 98% of Medicare funds are spent on medical care.

IMPORTANT: The hackneyed — and inaccurate — mantra of Republicans when universal health care is introduced is to blame trial lawyers and malpractice cases for our lack of national health care. In fact, 0.46% of our total health spending is spent on awards, legal costs, and underwriting costs — about the same as Canada and the United Kingdom and about the same amount we spend on dog and cat food each year. While “defensive medicine” may drive up the price, it hardly accounts for our stunning health care costs. The belief that citizens should give up their right to fair legal redress for legally proven medical mistakes in exchange for lower health care costs rings as true as the promise that if we must give up our civil rights to be safe from terrorists.

Even those with coverage too often pay exorbitant rates. The current profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms and their bureaucracies, has failed.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance, “Enhanced Medicare for Everyone.” It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

Perhaps the clearest and most eloquent explanation of the Conyers-Kucinich National Health Insurance Bill was given on February 4, 2003, in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Marcia Angell in introducing H. R. 676. Backed by over 14,000 doctors, this is the future of American medicine.

“We are here today to introduce a national health insurance program. Such a program is no longer optional; it’s necessary.

“Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. We spend about twice as much per person as other developed nations, and that gap is growing. That’s not because we are sicker or more demanding (Canadians, for example, see their doctors more often and spend more time in the hospital). And it’s not because we get better results. By the usual measures of health (life expectancy, infant mortality, immunization rates), we do worse than most other developed countries. Furthermore, we are the only developed nation that does not provide comprehensive health care to all its citizens. Some 42 million Americans are uninsured (nearly 46 million today — updated figure) — disproportionately the sick, the poor, and minorities — and most of the rest of us are underinsured. In sum, our health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Why? The only plausible explanation is that there’s something about our system — about the way we finance and deliver health care — that’s enormously inefficient. The failures of the system were partly masked during the economic boom of the 1990’s, but now they stand starkly exposed. There is no question that with the deepening recession and rising unemployment, in the words of John Breaux, ‘The system is collapsing around us.’

“The underlying problem is that we treat health care like a market commodity instead of a social service. Health care is targeted not to medical need, but to the ability to pay. Markets are good for many things, but they are not a good way to distribute health care. To understand what’s happening, let’s look at how the health care market works … ”

“Mainstream” writers like Ph. D. economist and columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman now agree with those doctors and Dennis that “covering everyone under Medicare would actually be significantly cheaper than our current system.” They all recognize that we already spend enough to provide national health care to all but lack the political courage to make the tough decisions that doctors, nurses and medical professionals must run our health care system, – not “for profit” insurance companies who make money by denying health care.

It is time to recognize that all the civilized countries have a solution that we must adapt to this country. American businesses can no longer be competitive shouldering the entire cost of health care. Health care is a right that all Americans deserve.

With the rising unemployment, company cash flow problems, and the stock market sinking ever lower with each passing day, there has never been a better time for us to begin raising our voices to the incoming government about Single Payer Universal Health Care. Or as Mr Kucinich and Mr. Conyers, sponsors of HR-676 term it, National Health Care Program.

With the new government starting up in a few days, we have a prime opportunity of telling them what we the people want to see in our world. A great hue and cry should emanate from all the people to the halls of Congress and the rooms of the White House. We showed the politicians in November that we were tired of the same old stuff and that we wanted to see CHANGE. Well, the time has come, to put up what was stated all during the interminable campaign.

We have been seeing the effect of the for profit motives within the health care industry. Higher and higher rates for group coverage to our business entities, entire families being thrust into bankruptcy because of a lack of proper health insurance and medical bills that are astronomical and patients having to forego their critical medications because they cannot pay for them.

We, the people of the United States of America are the ones who are paying for the current broken health care system. Every day our money goes to cover health care, either directly thorugh cash payments to doctors, clinics, pharmacies, or through our co-pay amounts and our premiums for group health care insurance. Even the emergency care health access that the uninsured people of this country is actually paid by every single American citizen.

The idea that a Single Payer Universal Health Care program would be too expensive is simply a well worn mantra issued by the health care industry, and repeated by their shills until a portion of the American public actually believes that tripe. The fact is folks the United States health care costs from two to three times what BETTER health care costs in other countries. We pay out almost 7,000 dollars a year for every single person in this country. France on the other hand shells out less than 2200 dollars. Their people live longer, have healthier lives, their medical treatment outcomes are better and their infant mortality rates are far lower. What’s wrong with this picture?

Interest is Growing

Two years ago, when I first got involved in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care, it was difficult to find anyone who had even considered it, let alone would support the idea. Now, across the country, interest groups, professional organizations, union assocations, and senior citizens groups are beginning to advocate for a Single Payer Universal Health Care program across the USA. In fact, now, recent statistics show that over half the physicians and health care workers in the USA fully support the idea of this approach to health care access. OVER HALF of the medial professionals are in favor, and many others have simply not been appraised of the benefits to them and their practice.

How’s this for one benefit for doctors and other medical practitioners, a guarantee of claim payment within 30 days. My goodness, from the medical folks I have spoken to over the past 24+ months, if they got their reimbursement within 180 days it would be a miracle. Yet here is a program that guarantees reciept of payment wtihin 30 days. What’s not to like if you are a medical professional?

The Naysayers

There is of course a rather large group of naysayers regarding the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care. Most of these folks simply repeat what they heard someone else say, the majority who have never performed any research on the subject matter at all. I also refer to these people as the “DENIERS” because they issue such marvelous claims that “you will never see government run health care in our nation”. But they forget that we already have that, with Medicare, Medicaid and the VA health care systems. All are run by the government and franklyl all are working considerably better than the “for profit” side of the equation.

Of course it is quite easy to be a Naysayer or Denier, simply take a stated position and deny it. Remember you really don’t need any facts, just a constant denial or naysaying attitude will suffice.

What these naysayers and deniers don’t think about is the over 42 MILLION Americans who are without access to health care. Within that group are more than 8.5 million Children!!! 8 out of 10 in that group are gainfully employed and go to work every day. But their health care consists of putting off a problem until it is critical and then using the hospital emergency room, because in most of these facilities they know that they will recieve treatment.

Entire families live on the brink of an abyss with regard to health care, millions of your neighbors are praying every day that they can stay well just one more day. Any illness or injury will bring them to financial crisis immediately because the have no recourse.

These are our fellow Americans folks and the current thrust is to implement MANDATORY insurance coverage. Yep, that will work, you bet, that’s the ticket… FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES. Not for the working poor citizens who make JUST enough to be excluded from any government supports under these plans.

But the insurance companies, the administrative HMOs well they are really for this approach, because by golly their risky participants will be paid for by the government and the last big risk will be removed from their bottom lines. But the Naysayers and the Deniers will accept this plan, because the GOVERNMENT is not running the program!!

Let our new President Know

Our incoming president, Barack Obama has created a web site that solicits your suggestions and comments. There is a lot of focus on health care issues with his administration and his transition team. The site is at a URL named Change.gov and there is a facility for you to submit your idea for the new administration and our incoming government. Go out to his web site and let him know how you feel about the issues that matter most to you. While you are there, please also give him your input on the health care crisis in our nation today. Also suggest that he might take a look at the HR-676 legislation while the government is still brand new and his party has a majority.

More Organizations are getting involved

As I peruse the various discussion forums, organization and association web sites, I find that more and more each day, interest in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care continues to grow. We see physicians groups, nursing and clinician associations, medical technicians union associations, senior citizens groups, and state governments are all starting to get behind this idea of a national health care program.

They are starting to discuss the possibility of moving toward this type of health care access program. Perhaps it is due to the excitement of the Obama Administration taking control in 2009, or perhaps it is just that so many people have realized that what we currently have is not working at all anymore. I don’t know what the impetus is behind this awakening, but I for one am darn glad.

Small business is starting to get involved, because they are impacted significantly by the rising cost of health insurance for group coverage. These small companies cannot keep pace when the coverage premiums increase by 20 to 40 percent each year. A severe drag on their bottom line and many of the small business organizations are begining to join in the cry for total reform of the health care delivery system.

An article in the New York Times a few days ago (December 23, 2008) described a “House Party” at the home of a Vienna, Virginia couple regarding health care. These small gatherings in homes are part of the Obama approach to getting people involved in the decisions of the country. It does appear that they are serious. The link to the NYT article is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/health/23health.html?_r=2
Bear in mind this gathering did not discuss the aspect of Single Payer Universal Health Care, but there was some talk that would indicate a willingness by all gathered to consider positively such a program. There was discussion about the Obama proposal to create a “public health care program” that in essence would compete with the private sector insurace plans. While close, it is still not the cigar as yet.

Demonstrating our Commitment

I have, for the past several months, been engaged in attempting to get some organizations interested in a March on Washington For Health Care. For months on end, it seemed that no one was home to my repeated knocks (emails and postal letters). A good friend suggested that I not be disheartened, that most likely all the groups were more focused on the elections and just didn’t have the time to respond. So, based on that, the ELECTIONS ARE OVER and here comes the lettes and emails again folks.

Hope someone is at the office and has some time to read. The idea is to make our government representatives understand that we are not fooling around anymore. We want them to listen to the people who voted to put them in office, not the health care industry including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and the like. Oh I realize that for us to start down this road is like David challenging Goliat or the Marshall High School Football Team challenging the Super Bowl Champion NFL Team.

But hey folks, if we don’t try, what does that say about us?

So any of you who may read this blog entry, if you know of an organization that has any advocacy leanings, and you think that they might be interested in hearing about this idea of Marching on Washington, please let me know. I can be reached at executivedirector@seniorcitizensconsortium.org

And I will be very happy to send along any information they might wish about the plans. I am also willing, within reason, to make the journey to speak with them face to face. But remember, every nickle of that travel will come out of my pockets, we have no advocacy funds in the SCC. I don’t mind spending the money to visit, IF there is interest so let us know.

We are also trying to establish a group of interested folks who can help organize, communicate and assist with the planning for this demonstration of our desire for a national health care plan. If you have any interest at all, please feel free to contact me either at the email listed above, or on our member forum.

The Senior Citizens Consortium had adopted the Single Payer Universal Health Care program as one of our advocacy issues As an advocacy issue for our organization of caring seniors, we look forward to finally getting the United States of America on a reasonably even par with the rest of the world regarding access to health care. When we first began to explore the aspect of Single Payer Universal Health Care (SP-UHC) we found very little discussion of this subject in our nation.

However, over the past year or so, we have noticed that our voices are no longer simply a small cry in the wilderness. We see more and more evidence of the American People’s will issuing a demand for Single Payer Universal Health Care. From various state legislation to member directed organizations we hear more ane more people saying that they want to have a nation where EVERYONE is provided with access to health care.

However, there is a real danger that this growing momentum will be drowned out by the people and corporations who are vehemently opposed to any sort of SP-UHC in this country and they are well funded as usual. We must stay active and must let our voices be heard loudly and consistently that this country MUST implement a SP-UHC plan for all of our citizens.

We were sorely disappointed when the presidential candidates presented health care programs that did nothing to ensure access for all people to a health care system that took the insurance companies and hmo organizations out of the mix. None, save the Representative from Ohio, Mr. Dennis Kucinich offered up a plan that would put health care decisions back in the hands of the doctor patient relation and take it out of the hands of some administrative claims manager thousands of miles from the situation. The closest of the top three beauty pageant stars (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) to a similar plan is John Edwards and his plan is a long long way from a SP-UHC. Clinton, Obama and Edwards all three tout a universal health plan but their plans simply put more money into the coffers of the health care INDUSTRY, they do nothing to improve the access for citizens other than make participation mandatory.

Mr. Kucinich, along with Mr. Conyers co authored a bill known as HR 676 which essentially takes the program currently used by us seniors Medicare, and expands the services and extends it to cover ALL Americans. This program would be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services through the auspices of the CMS which currently administers the Medicare program. Under the HR676 or the National Health Care Plan would replace the existing programs for Medicare A, B, C and D along with the State operated Medicaid.

The top countries in the developed world for universal health care are France and Germany. But every single developed country in the entire world, EXCEPT the United States of American has a single payer universal health care plan in place and the medical outcome statistics PROVE that these plans provide citizens with a better, healthier, and longer life. We will have white papers and other fact pages available for review in subsequent postings, both here on the SCC web site and links to other web sites where data will be made available.

I will say a lot more about this program and the aspect of Universal Health Care under a single point of payment in another blog but this particular blog is focused on the aspect of bringing more attention to the idea of SP-UHC. In poitn fo fact, there are several blog entries earlier that address SP-UHC.

After a number of online discussions with various people, and following our question to the AARP about SP-UHC (they are against it), we all came to the conclusion that it was time for the Senior Citizens to once again let the powers that be in Washington know of our displeasure. As you will recall, several years ago, a group of seniors known at the Gray Panthers marched and frankly scared the hell out of the politicians.

Well we say it is time for the old gray hairs among us to get our sneakers laced up, our walking clothes on and once again tell the congress, the administration and these wannabe’s running for office that it is time to stop catering to the big money people and actually listen to the people who VOTE.

We are planning, over the next few months to contact senior organizations across the country to see if they would care to join in our March on Washington for Health Care. We will also reach out to the various organizations that have been active in promoting health care access changes, and the single payer aspects.

So we will be reaching out to solid senior issue organizations such as the Alliance of Retired Americans, to the Gray Panthers, and to other organizations. We would encourage the Divided We Fail and the AARP to join in this advocacy, but they have already made their position clear and have stated clearly that they do not support the idea. However, the Alliance of Retired Americans do support it.

We will also request that reasonable political personages participate, including Messrs Kucinich and Conyers. We will request that other notable persons join in this effort to bring the attention of the entire country and our politicians to this important subject.

More will be posted on this blog, and on the SCC web site. We may, if conditions warrent, put up a special web site for communications in the near future.

Care to join us? We will welcome all serious assistance. Simply contact us either through this facility or send and email to the SCC Executive Director at

executivedirector@maturecommunications.org
or
spuhc@seniorcitizensconsortium.org

and we will respond immediately to your serious inquiries.

Thank you for your consideration,
The March on Washington for Health Care Committee.

This morning as I arose from my bed to prepare for a day at work, I paused to reflect on the situation that many of us in this SCC organization find ourselves. That is the situation of growing a tad older. Yep, believe it folks, there are many of us who are, dare I say it? Becoming ELDERLY.

But as I say to THE BRIDE, as long as I can look in the mirror and see a reflection staring back, I KNOW that I still am alive. And to that end, I then resolve to make the very best of each day. Most of us are in relatively decent health and we are, quite frankly, still young. Aches and pains are part of growing older, a slightly slower pace may be the result for some. However, we all know that as society ages, our focus on being elderly continues to slide further back. The 65 of today was the 45 of a few years ago. We are actually living longer and we must ensure that we have a decent ability to live that longer life with dignity and respect.

Consider this, the 65 year old today is better physically fit and we are a lot more active than the 45 year old a few decades ago. So, basically, when you consider things from that point of view, many of us are simply in a new level of Middle Aged People. Not elderly at all!!

Now, how do we take advantage of that aspect? Well we could simply sit on our patoots, flipping through the 100’s of channels on the cable television system, or we could get out and about, becoming active in our community. How does one go about making a difference in our community? We volunteer to do things that need doing.

Join your local elections board, they are always screaming for more volunteers to assist in the elections process. Hey, good way to keep an eye on the process and keep it honest!!

Find a political candidate that supports the things you care about and help his or her candidacy. They can always use people to help out. Stuff envelopes, hand out flyers, bumper stickers, hold down a seat on the call center. There are many ways to get involved, outside of simply sending in a contribution (although that is VERY important in today’s climate).

Here’s a great thought… Join the March on Washington for Health Care organizors and lets get this important program off the dime.

But don’t just sit in your chair musing about being elderly… Active seniors are NOT elderly, we are Mature….

George W. Bush stood in front of the public, through the press and stated that the Iranian government was moving forward with their nuclear weapons programs and that failure to act would bring World War Three. He said these words in the middle of the month of October, this year. Does the scare tactic seem familiar? Does the reference to nuclear weaponry not smack of his administrations lies in 2002-2003 about the “mushroom clouds” from Iraq’s nuclear weapons programs? Who is this person who sits in our nation’s White House and lies to the American people constantly. Who is this person who allows someone with the most evil of intentions such as Richard B. Cheney, to technically rule the country’s run up to war again?

Mainly, where were the people who were stupid enough to vote for this cretin, not once but twice?

Now we find that Bush knew that the Iranian nuclear weapons programs had been halted almost five years ago and he still, even with that knowledge in hand, stood before the television news cameras and the print media people and LIED to the NATION about Iran!

Our congress issued a bill of Impeachment against President William Jefferson Clinton for lying to a civil court process about a personal situation with a woman. And our congress stands by and does nothing while George Walker Bush lies about war and the reasons of war? He lied and we lost over 4000 of our young men and women in a war that we started ill prepared and ill equipped and with the World opinion against our actions. He lied about his actions agains ANYONE in his administration being fired for exposing the identity of a CIA secret agent! He lied when he vetoed the S-CHIP bill and the other bills that he has vetoed ever since the Democratic Party took the majority away from his lap dog congress.

Yet, we do nothing. We don’t even offer up a bill of CENSURE against him and his cohorts in this unholy cabal. Even a bill of CENSURE is too frightening for our wimps sitting in their cushy jobs on Capitol Hill.

In his news conference relating to this subject, he lied again and once again he also allowed his total contempt for the American people to shine through. This president is beyond a doubt the worst or if not THE worst among the 2 or 3 worst presidents in American history. We have only 12 more months to put up with this cretin. May our nation survive and we can all hope and pray that the next person who sits in the Oval Office is at least respectful of the Americans who put him or her there.

We can only hope against hope.

More states are coming around to the idea of a single payer health plan for all citizens.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessioncurrent/bills/HB1688_.htm

Now coupled with the activity in Colorado, California and other places around the country, we might actually see a Single Payer Universal Health Care program in our lifetime. Or maybe not.

Frankly, it depends on you, the public, you the American citizen, and you the American Voter to make this happen. Trust me, left to their own devices, our congress critters will NEVER move legislation for SP-UHC off the dime. They will gnash their teeth, beat their breasts and shout out how they want to do good things for their consitituents. Then they will take a few hundred thousand in “contributions” from the Health Care Industry and we will get the short end of the stick.

When the United States has the lowest ranking among the major industrialized nations in health care across the board, doesn’t that make you want to get angry? It certainly does me!!! We rank below every single nation in Europe, and a number of countries around the world. Why you are ranked 37 in the world for health care and you are supposed to be the richest, most powerful country, what does that say about our government, our elected officials and more importantly, about our people.

Tired of being subject to the profit hogs of the Insurance and Health Care Industries? Sick of being denied care prescribed by your physician because some jake legged clerk or accountant, several thousands of miles away, decides to delay or refuse simply to keep more profits coming into their organization? Makes this old man madder than a wet hen!!.

It is time for the American people to stand up, shout out loud and clear that we want, at minimum, action to pass HR676 and make it the law of the land NOW!. It is time for us to take responsibility for our country’s dire position regarding health care access. I frankly am sick and tired of hearing the right wing armchair slugs deriding the provision of Single Payer Universal Health Care as SOCIALISM. It is NOT!

And anyone who continues to make such a statement is a bald faced liar!

Worse, they are criminally negligent every time a child dies in this country because of a lack of access to health care.

Don’t like statements like that? Then get up off your ass and do something about it!

This will be the first and could be the last, blog entry where I discuss items specifically related to the Senior Citizens Consortium organization. However, it was a request from one of our organization’s officers and I felt that the request was reasonable, so here it is.

The 2007 SCC Conference

Nashville, Tennessee – home of the Tennessee Walking Horse, Jack Daniels Whiskey and the Grand Ole Opry. Oh yeah, it is also the home of Country Music. To this storied land, the SCC members came to meet and greet. To have face to face interactions after so long of simply being cyber friends. All in all, even with the significantly reduced participation, it was a very good meetup, everyone was enjoying each other’s company and we had a couple of reallyl good meals to share and hold great conversations. What’s a conference meeting for, if not that? A tour on a river boat, a shopping expedition and a visit to the saloons on Broadway to hear live country music were among the fun things.

Those members who attended all agreed that we would really like to make the 2008 Conference a much bigger and better set of sessions. So, we are going to start now, working on a location and venue for the next conference. We hope to be able to encourage more people to attend.

Oh yeah, at the Nashville Conference, we also conducted some SCC business. The very first SCC official business strategy meeting was held on Friday afternoon. The original SCC agenda, created when we thought we would be many more in attendance, was scrapped and we had only two items on the agenda for the Annual Business Meeting. These were:

Establishing a formal organizational structure
Establishing a formal membership organization

I will present a summary of these items on this blog entry, but will have a more detailed presentation in formal documents available on the SCC Home Page.

Membership Organization

First the membership organization is the most important. We have had a significant number of people come to our SCC web site, participate on our members forum and on our BLOG. Some counts are in the neighborhood of 90 to 92 actual members. We had a couple of duplicates and two “management” userids. But in the end, we were over 90 people strong. This has changed over the past few months and we have had several members leave our organization for one reason or another. Some, thankfully, have returned with our new SCC2008 focus and member board forum.

With regard to those members who we have lost, we were concerned about them personally and had no knowledge of why they left. Considering that we had one member pass and we were grieved, we were thinking along the lines of how to maintain contact with our members and friends without being intrusive, yet being able to contact them after a prolonged absence to make sure that they were alright.

A more detailed description of the Nashville Conference discussions are found in the Proceedings document which is posted on the SCC Home Page under Administration.

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Formal Organization Structure

As an adjunct to the membership approach, we would also establish the formal organizational structure for the SCC and would develop and publish a set of organizational documents. These have been completed and are in final edit review. Once the reviews are completed, these documents will be available for viewing by the general public. Our official documentation includes, Mission Statement, Charter, and By-Laws.

These documents will also be posted on the SCC Home Page under Administration.

All documents will be available for viewing by November 1, 2007.

To those who were orginally planning to attend but for one reason or another could not, we would encourge you to start planning now to attend the next conference. We promise a great time and a learning experience.

The new message board is up and running thanks to Harvey Hodges.  Several of our old friends are back posting again.  We have been having a wonderful time discussing issues, informing each other of new current events and just generally enjoying friendly conversation.  Any of you who haven’t signed up yet, please do so.  Come have your morning coffee and conversation with your Cyber friends on the SCC board.

Six years ago this morning exactly, two airliners flew into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City. Shortly after these two aircraft hit the towers, a third flew into the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. On that day, our lives were irrevocably changed.

American Airlines Flight 77 held particular significance for me, not just because it crashed into the Pentagon and I was but a short distance away. No, it was more personal and profound. For a year prior to that time, I had flown AA Flight 77 from Dulles to LAX every month for a consulting task that I was working up in Thousand Oaks, California. I came to know this fine, extraordinary flight crew, pilot, copilot, and flight attendants on sight. I was understandably shocked the next morning when I saw the photos of the crew in the Washington Post and realized that they were the same people that I had flown with for those many months. Then it dawned on me that due to the program completion just three weeks prior, I was NOT on that aircraft on that fateful day.

Across the oceans, in a miserable plot of land called Afghanistan, a bearded fanatic, Osama bin Laden cheered his organization’s success in striking a blow against the infidels of the West. Over three thousand people died on that cataclysmic day and we do not count the scum who were responsible for the flights, the 19 Arab men. They, in my honest and fervent belief, will spend their eternity burning in the same fires that they ignited, and being tormented by demons every moment of their miserable existance.

If there is any justice in the universe, these 19 individuals (to refer to them as men would bring dishonor on even the worst examples of the male human), will be tormented by having the demons who torture them for eternity be pigs considering that the Islamic fundamentalists have such an aversion to pork of any fashion.

With the horrific events of 9-11-2001, this nation, the United States of America came together as we have not done since December 7, 1941 after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. We were horrified, angry and shocked at the violence visited on our country, our people and our culture by a group of rabid fanatical theocrats. America recieved an outpouring of sympathy and support from almost every nation in the world, save a very few radical regimes. Our subsequent retribution actions were not only applauded but supported with personnel and materials by these countries when we responded to the Taliban of Afghanistan and the al Quaeda fanatics. Our actions in Afghanistan were understood, supported and aided by the world and we were able to drive these fanatical bastards out of power in that country.

There is no justification in any religion for the horrible acts this group of rabid, fanatical Moslem men perpetrated on this country and on our people.

On this very auspicious day, let us all pause in rememberance of these wonderful souls whose lives were cut short by an act of fanaticism and evil. Let us come together in remembrance of these individuals and their families who continue to live with the horror of that day.

But also, let us ensure that the political prostitutes are not successful in using this day of honor for their nefarious ends.

May all the fallen be welcomed into the light of eternal peace.