Watch the video to see how it all ends.

The following message was sent to me by Dr. Lora Chamberlain, whom I met at a recent congressional district town hall meeting.

Let’s get smart about this Health Care bill at this late hour in this process. Can’t you tell that we are being divided and fired up to attack each other by all the talk show hosts, pundits, corporate leaders and politicians. This divide and conquer technique has always worked for them but has never worked for us! Can we all agree on that fact, at least? Great!

So we will have to come out, right now, with some kind of unified mantra about this bill, in the middle of all this chaos, that will help all of us, conservatives and liberals, get more out of this bill and will lessen the destructive aspects of this bill.

My suggestion for this unified mantra is No Individual Mandates!

First, can we agree that in a perfect World, Health Care would be a Human Right and Not a Privilege? Really, we all have that level of compassion in us don’t we? So if we were flush with money in this country, everyone could be cared for, correct? Great!

Second, can we agree that this Health Care bill does not perfectly reflect that ideal? Great! See how we are moving along with this endeavor.

Now, a little about me, I am a populist/ progressive/ single payerite/ health care advocate/ physician but I want everyone to know that some of the arguments on the right actually make sense to me. This Health Care Reform bill is scaring me too! I am a Family Physician and 100% concerned for patients and their families. I do not own any investments in any health care related industries at all and I presently only have catastrophic health insurance because I am not working!

Here is my #1 concern about these Health Care bills: The Individual Mandates!

Forcing people to buy Health Insurance is not going to drive prices down. It has failed miserably in Mass. causing premiums to rise 25% in the first 2 years after enactment of their mandated insurance program in 2006. This program has driven Mass. to the brink of economic ruin. Now the safety net hospitals in Mass. which are so important to so many patients have been drained of their funding. These were the hospitals and clinics that were actually providing real health care to the lower income citizens and now the poor are left with their insurance policies and much less actual health care. Go to www.pnhp.org and see for yourself if you do not believe me. Health Insurance does not equal Health Care! Can we agree on that too? Great!

Many on the conservative side are complaining that the health care bill allows the IRS to get in their faces demanding proof of their insurance policies and the large, costly Fed. bureacracy that will be created around enforcing this individual mandate–I agree with them. If we just drop the individual mandates from this bill and allow this insurance reform program to stand on it’s own, (if it is going to be affordable then let it be actually affordable), we could then see if competition comes back into the insurance market. We can monitor whether the prices are affordable by how many people voluntarily opt into buying the insurance. People want access to health care, if it is affordable, give all Americans at least that much credit.

The Public Option does not even start until 2013 in these bills. If enough people can actually afford good insurance we can always go back and reevaluate the rest of this bill. This can be viewed as a multi step reform package. If the insurance companies do not lower prices enough, improve benefits and become ethical in their business practices, then we will have the back up of the Public Option coming down the road. We can then expand the Public Option into a viable Single Payer system if the companies have failed completely. Many more Americans will be willing to come on board the Single Payer train at that time, having the benefit of 4 years of spotlight on this issue. I personally do not believe that the insurance companies will comply to all the regulations, I believe they will fight it, corporations never give up profits willingly. It always takes a crisis to cause real change in bureaucracies like insurance companies, but we can wait and see!

If we drop the individual mandates then we won’t run the risk of a Mega-Federal Big Brother enforcement agency, which never ends up good for the people of this country and we can keep this expansion of the IRS out of our life. Lord knows I hate the IRS and it’s despotic control too!

So can we all agree, at the very least, to demand the dropping of the Individual Mandates? Great! Now everyone is free to argue for everything else that they want in or out of this bill, but at least if we are all saying No Individual Mandates we might not end up with a bill that does more harm than good!

A Doctor’s first goal is always, “Do No Harm”. Please help me with this effort, to do no harm to America in this Health Care bill, No Individual Mandates!

Sincerely,
Dr. Lora Chamberlain,
Chicago

What a scene it was that night in Denver at the Mile High Stadium one year ago today. People stood in line in the hot sun for hours to get a seat…and then that evening inside the stadium, the feeling was electric. Supporters–black, white, young, old, gay, straight and every other stripe–hung on Obama’s every word. Flags waved in the humid air. Thousands jumped to their feet, holding “Change” signs above their heads. Thunderous applause roared like none I’d ever heard. Hope, hope was alive. Can we get it back?

I’m guessing most people showed up thinking all the talk was going to be about health care reform, but much more was on the agenda. Everybody who had the patience found themselves watching Rep. Danny Davis hand out awards to constituents for their service to the district. While I wasn’t expecting all that either, it was kind of heartening to see the people who actually do work hard to improve conditions for their neighbors and others in the community. One was Phyllis Logan, Community Leader of the Year, who said she never looked to be “rewarded for what your heart and soul tell you to do–that’s help people.” Davis credited Logan, a real estate agent, for giving people straight-up advice about mortgage loans and guiding them through the foreclosure crisis.

Another fact that I didn’t know was how involved Davis has been in health care issues through the years. In moving toward the discussion that everybody was waiting for, he mentioned that he taught courses on public health at the University of Illinois-Chicago and is a former president of the National Association of Community Health Centers. In some ways it felt as though he was saying that he’s seen and heard it all already. He did throw the crowd a bone of hope when he said, “We’re going to get this health thing right” this time. A few of his other lines raised hope too among those who want to knock private insurers down a notch. He said when he takes to the floor of the House to debate whatever health care bill emerges, “I will be speaking for single payer.”

Davis repeatedly acknowledged the role “politics’ plays in everything Congress touches. “We’re in an era of professional politics,” he said, promising his constituents that “the only people who really convince me are those people I represent.” We shall see.

In trying to convince him to support the public option and single payer, constituents from around the district (which covers an area larger and more irregular than I imagined) lined up behind the microphone to ask some truly informed questions, give advice, urge passage of the public option and tort reform, describe their fights with private insurers, and recount their experiences with “socialized” health care systems in countries such as Japan. (I have to say when you witness people being their most sincere and most committed to a cause, it does make you feel however briefly that change can happen.)

One woman, who looked to be 50ish, said, “I have worked every day of my life since 16…and I don’t have health insurance.” Another woman cited the “unnecessary, poor quality [health Insurance company] administrators who wouldn’t listen” when she called to discuss a claim.

For a while Davis was out of the auditorium as the speakers offered their testimonies, but he returned and sat in the front row while his aides ran the forum and recorded the questions and comments. One of the aides wanted to cut off the comments, but Davis said he would hear them out. That was the right thing to do.

It was something to hear some people tell him and other Democrats to go ahead with reform “without Republican” support. One man pointedly asked Davis: “Would you be willing to give up your gold-plated [health] plan and enroll in [a public option plan]?” To that, Davis said, he’s in a plan that he was in before he became a congressman.

A man who lived in Japan, which offers a universal health care insurance system that covers all citizens, said the U.S. “cannot afford to have the majority of the population in a situation where they’re not covered.” Another person, decrying health care costs and the government and private waste, said, “We live in a dictatorship by money.”

The most impassioned health care reform supporter I encountered was a woman I met on the street, outside the meeting site, Dr. Lora Chamberlain, a family practice physician in Chicago who patiently and clearly explained to me the difference between single payer and public option, two terms I’m sure most people haven’t parsed for themselves. She handed me a five-page letter addressed to Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who earlier this year replaced Rahm Emanuel in Illinois’ 5th Congressional District. Her arguments for reform were among the best I’ve heard.

Her letter says, “The Health Insurance companies are going along with the reforms of their industry in the Congressional health care bills, (such as getting rid of the pre-existing illness clauses), because they want the business from those 48 million to 50 million Americans who presently have no insurance.” Her biggest argument is that the failure to pass a public option will result in the “Massachusetts plan,” which mandates that all people buy private insurance. Since the Massachusetts plan went into effect in Spring 2006, health insurance premiums have risen 25 percent, her letter states. And the number of uninsured also has gone up, “even thought there are rising penalties for not buying health insurance.”

Her points were so well-crafted, I just have to quote a few more here:
“Our Health Care system is so fragmented, so filled with fraud and abuse, so expensive, so corrupted by Big Pharma and Health Insurance corporations that to go in the direction that we need to go in, eventually, step by step, toward a healthy Single Payer system, which is coordinated, cost effective, accountable, and responsive to citizens, we can not be increasing the power of the corporations in this bill. That is a step back and dangerous to our health!”

Amen, Dr. Lora.

Another speaker who made a lot of sense was Lynn Allen of Oak Park, who presented a list of actions she’ll like to see Congress and President Obama include in a real reform bill:
1. Congress should go forward with health care reform without the Republicans. It is obvious that they will not vote for any real reform. We have a clear Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and only need 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster in the Senate after which we only need 50 votes plus Vice President Biden’s vote to break a tie.
2. There must be a public option that will provide baseline health and dental maintenance, sickness and emergency services.
3. It should NOT be employer based so people will not have to fear losing their coverage if they lose their jobs. Also, this would enable people to choose their own programs rather than their employers choosing the plan for all of their employees. The most I would recommend would be to require employers to give their employees a health care allowance, which the employees can take and purchase the plan they want.
4. The plan should be open to anyone and everyone who wants to sign up. I receive a good allowance from my employer for health care, but I would like to be able to see the doctors I want. Unfortunately my eye doctor is not in my employer’s system, so I have to either go to who they want me to see or pay out of pocket to be able to see the doctor who has given me care for the past 10 years.
5. Health care reform should begin in 2010, NOT 2013.
6. There should be a standard billing procedure and standard record keeping system.
7. Have premiums based on a sliding scale based on income.
8. Citizens should be able to buy supplemental policies that cover alternative medicine procedures such as chiropractic, naprapathic, acupuncture, etc.
9. Fair payments to doctors and health care providers
10. Timely payment to doctors and health care providers
11. Elimination of duplicate tests
12. Tort reform to eliminate the need for defensive medicine
13. Active medical review board that can be consulted and also back up doctors when they have legitimately done their best and what reasonably would be expected to do, but they could not be God. This will also help control frivolous malpractice lawsuits and eliminate ridiculous and excessive sympathy awards.
14. Add health surcharges (we can afford it!) to:
a. Fast food
b. Soft drinks
c. Tobacco
d. Alcohol
e. Junk food (candy bars, chips, ice cream, etc.)
15. Bonus pay for doctors in rural areas and inner cities.
16. Medical school debt forgiveness for doctors who serve in rural areas and inner cities.
17. Formation (encouragement/incentives)of more non-profit and/or teaching hospitals where doctors are salaried (like at Mayo Clinic)

Oh, this makes so much sense.

I love these thinking women who’ve given deep and serious thought to making health care reform real and meaningful.

And they did it without a lot of shouting. Brains before brawn is the way to go.

Are you listening, Mr. Davis, Mr. Obama?

America’s talking–and will be voting when the time comes.

Between March 2003 and July of this year, 4,200 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq, according to the Brookings Institution. To deploy one, just one, U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq costs a freaking $390,000, according to the Congressional Research Service. Can you ever imagine paying that much for your health insurance premium? So why does health care spending make people so angry? The real ripoff is military spending. Wake up and smell your hard-earned dollars burning in Iraq, taxpaying public.

Here are some other stats that should make you just a little bit angry:

After tolerating an administration that did nothing to boost American’s esteem, morale and quality of life, people are now so worried about a deficit that was dumped on them by that administration. An administration that focused its misspent energies on doing everything in its power to leave this country in a recession and deep, deep in debt. But the growing debt wasn’t a problem when the Bush folks were creating it. Now, Obama has no choice but to keep borrowing to fund our insane and hypocritical habits even as he makes the case that we need to control costs on the very expense that people are crying is out of hand: health care.

Don’t you wish Americans would start making sense?

A Chicago friend delves into her urban garden and discovers the pleasures of growing her own salads…

The offending language that ticked off some progressives was Mackey’s dismissal of American’s basic right to adequate health care. He wrote, “A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This ‘right’ has never existed in America.”

Mackey also blamed Americans for their health problems, saying a lot of ills are “self-inflicted” and could be prevented through “proper diet and exercise.” The kind of diet based on the food one can buy at Whole Fools, I suppose?

One eager boycotter sent said in an e-mail, “I spend easily $1000 a month in Whole Foods……Trader Joe’s for me too! BTW, do we know if Trader Joe’s supports healthcare reform before we initiate an exodus to a company that has similar leanings? Has anyone researched to confirm Trader Joe’s is the right alternative?”

That’s a great question to ask of every retailer that gets our hard-to-come-by dollars these days.

ABC News online is also reporting that Whole Fools shoppers from New York to California are threatening to boycott the grocer. One commenter on the Whole Foods forum wrote: “You should know who butters your hearth-baked bread, John. Last time I checked it wasn’t the insurance industry conservatives who made you a millionaire a hundred times over.”

In addition to more people being out of work right now and not piling on the consumer goods, American workers didn’t get a stimulus check to spend this summer. So it’s not surprising they’re skittish about buying stuff. The Wall Journal headline “Retail Sales Fell in July Despite Clunkers Program” makes you wonder what its editors are smoking, too. How many people, realistically, qualify for that program, which effectively puts you more in debt if you have to finance the car’s purchase? Unless you feel super secure in your job, going into more debt is probably not a smart move right now.

One economist plainly came out and said they need to go “back to the drawingboard” on their assessments of the economy. “Any optimism we had for a decent back-to-school selling season faded fast with today’s data. In making this assessment, we largely ignored the furniture and building materials weakness as being housing-driven, and focused on electronics, apparel, and sporting goods, the combination of which showed little in the way of positive indications,” he wrote on a Journal blog. Duh!

I know you economist guys and gals are smart, but sitting in your ivory tower crunching numbers with your PhD don’t mean a thing if you aren’t out there talking to real people with no jobs.

Voters (YOU/ME/US) spoke loud and clear last November. We were saying we rejected years of influence peddling in Washington, inefficient government, politicians that want our votes but forget about us until the next election. We wanted change. And one of the biggest changes we wanted was in our health care system.

Now here we are with a president who is trying to reform the system. OK, it’s not pretty and the administration is caving on some areas where it should be taking a stronger stand (the public option), but something is happening. Congress has drafted some proposals and members are now back in their home districts to hear from us. I’d like to believe that most of them will truly listen to the people. But some of us are acting so uncivil and so ugly that two House leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority leader Steny Hoyer, have called the effort to derail the debate “un-American.”

Let’s go back to Nov. 4 for just a moment and rekindle the hope we felt that day. When we were civil with each other and excited and committed to making change for the better. What’s the point in remaining stuck, in going backward even? I mean really, isn’t change what we wanted?

If you live in the Chicago area, I invite you to attend one of the Public Square’s Cafe Society discussions this week on health care reform. The discussion is titled “Health Care Reform: Can We Work It Out in the Heat of August?” Some of the questions we’ll discuss are: What do you think about the media coverage on health care reform? What can you say about your own congressional representative’s position on health care reform? Can health care truly be reformed? Why or why not? Who do you think most has your health care interests in mind, President Obama or your congressional representatives? Are you satisfied with the kind of health care you receive? Can you distinguish fact from fiction in the current debate on health care?