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How Many Dead Arizonians?
The budget crisis in Arizona means the Republican Governor Jan Brewer and her Republican legislature have decided some death is preferable to more debt. Human life has a very measureable price in Arizona, and those who look the other way as folks who might be saved die in Arizona can expect the same to come to their states sometime soon.
Many Republicans like to frame themselves as the party that protects human life from the moment of conception, no matter what. Many Democrats like to frame themselves as the party that protects the downtrodden and the working class folks.
So, where are any of these people when the sick in Arizona are preparing to die?
Here's one take on the news stories of recent days:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/
From that report: On Oct. 1, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System stopped paying for seven types of transplants that the state's GOP governor, Jan Brewer, and GOP-led legislature said they could no longer afford. The state faces a projected $1 billion program deficit by July 2011. They eliminated heart transplants for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, lung transplants, pancreatic transplants, some bone marrow transplants, and liver transplants for patients infected with hepatitis C. Arizona also restricted coverage of prosthetics, eliminated podiatric services, preventive dental services, and wellness and physical exams for adult Medicaid enrollees" So, we've decided in Arizona that the expendables are to be defined as adult Medicaid enrollees. The poor, often the working poor, are our expendables. I didn't hear anyone cry for them. I didn't hear anyone cry out for them. Two are dead already as they were denied transplants and 96 more are in the queue. And it does not lead the news even among those who advocate for universal healthcare or the public option or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or repeal or replace or whatever. The dead are expendable to all of us. We fought immigration discrimination in Arizona, but dead poor people are acceptable? Where are the protests? There are no protests today in Arizona because no one we care about is dead yet. If your liver stops working tomorrow, God forbid, do you think your own life is worth saving? Your child's? Your neighbor's? How about a little cancer that needs bone marrow treatment? If we had a progressively financed, single standard of care for all in this nation -- the kind of government protected care that, say, Senator John McCain of Arizona has enjoyed for all but four years of his life, it isn't that every treatment would automatically be covered and appropriate. But those kinds of choices would be determined based on medical necessity and effectiveness rather than being automatically not available to one group of adults -- like these adult Medicaid enrollees in Arizona. This is a travesty and a horror all at once playing out in Arizona. The only question we need ask ourselves is how many dead poor people are acceptable to us? We've finally gotten to the point of watching a bi-partisan killing field played out in full public view, and I don't know if we care enough to act. How many activists have booked their travel for Arizona to hold rallies and chain themselves to the governor's mansion gates or the hospital entrances where the dying have been given their death sentences? How many of Arizona's leaders will step up? Any national leaders? This doesn't bode well for our future ability to transform our healthcare system from one that values money over human life. If we cannot even gather our collective voice and courage to this trauma, we are more desperately selfish and greedy than we have accused those on Wall Street of so boldly displaying. We're just playing at healthcare justice.
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Show AllThis article is a labyrinth and a contorted rant. The White House, and the Congress, Republican, Democrat and independent, except a handful of lawmakers, are totally in league with big bank, big insurance, big pharma, big oil and big war. All of that is made possible by MEDIA CONTROL, which keeps us in the dark, thus too ignorant to organize effective resistance to fascism.
Wake me up when we're ready to focus exclusively on MEDIA CONTROL.
Yes, just like modern medicine, it's treating the symptoms rather than the problem.
I would add, however, this is not totally a problem of media control; but also a problem of corporate control of the FDA and, of course, the venality of the AMA.
Speaking of FDA, yesterday under the EPA article, there was a discussion on abolishing the FDA. Being all for it, I gave my reasons but the question that would still persist is "Replace the FDA with what?". I would bet that they would the same on AMA. They acknowledge that all is wrong and are yet afraid to call for the right action.
One of the posters yesterday had the nerve to tie natural alternative medicine to quackery and charlatans while ignoring the privilege of legalized theft that Big Pharma has. Other than the possibility that he works for Big Pharma or has a lot of stock in one or more of those big drug companies, it could be this conditioned fear of the unknown. If someone is given a bandaid "solution" for treating the symptom, then he or she knows what's next short term. On the other hand, aside from the fear that treating the problem is "too expensive", one could fear that some new problem will come up out of somewhere thereby making it too easy to blame treating the problem as the culprit.
Speaking of dead Arizonans, after hearing this hour's news report that Democrats are being slaughtered in Arizona, isn't it time for Obama to declare Arizona a failed state, send in Northcom and declare martial law ?
You can bet thats what would happen if AZ Senators McCain or Kyl got shot !
Given Americans have killed more Americans then any of those "suspected terrorist militants" being slaughtered by remote control In Pakistan , Americans have more to fear from one another then one of those they call "Islamofascists".
Speaking directly to the article again it mind-boggling that there no money for poor peoples health care but there plenty to pay those poor people to join the military to go overseas and kill people poorer then them.
Shadowdancer is 100 percent correct when he suggests that what has been created and called "The Civilized world" is in fact insane.
Ray and GWNorth, what happened to Giffords is absolutely sickening and beyond outrage. With prohibition/stifling of most forms of natural alternative medicine and Barrycare further moving us away from single payer, I fear that PTSD among the young in the USA due to both higher rising unemployment and losing the most lives in these bloody wars/occupations will only get worse from denial of unhappiness to senseless shooting of innocent bystanders. Beforkids had it right when she explained why the death of JFK in 1963 was a death blow for this nation. :(
Jennifer: Replace with what? is a good question if the FDA actually contributed in some way to our well being. Replace with nothing could not be worse and it would be better in numerous ways--e.g. the flourishing of natural medicine. What people don't realize is that we are living in a 21st century version of The Jungle and Michael Pollan could be Upton Sinclair if he just stopped thinking all we need is more of the same regulation.
With the internet, I certainly see the possiblility of "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" type evaluations and Consumer Reports type for alternative treatments. The problem so far is that if you go to WebMD, one othe top sites, you won't know it is designed to push pharmaceutical. Doctors would have to know what they were doing to their patients and pharmaceutical companies would have to take responsibility for the damage they do. There are private laboratories that test supplements like fish oil for contamination, oxidation and that the label amounts match the capsule amt. Some companies do their own testing. An emasculated FDA could list these types of things on a website or their mission could be to run the tests they say they need before they can "approve" treatments ythat have been used successfully for decades or centuries. Were we better off with organic food when California and Oregon were setting the standards or when USDA did? Kind of just rambling. I'd have to think more about this. I usually don't because I can't conceive of the FDA going away.
An example to the uninitiated: Mark Hyman, MD testified before Ted Kennedy's subcommittee that in their clinics and research, they reduce the cost of treating ADHD by 80% simply with diet changes, nutritional supplements and allergy testing and treatment. The FDA refuses to acknowledge this but they actively work to make these treatments illegal and/or non-reimburseable, as does the NIH.
The FDA just banned the production and distribution of pharmaceutical grade vitamin C used for IV administration. This product treats or cures acute viral infections and certain kinds of cancer. It could probably be used to replace some chemotherapies at a fraction of the cost. You cannot do this orally, the doses are far too high.
The best way to control the AMA is for states to pass laws limiting the ablity of State Medical societies to revoke or suspend licenses to situations involving damage to patients or ethical problems. Now they can do it for using "unapproved" treatments.
Thank you Cassandra for the profound feedback. The actions of the FDA keep getting harder to keep up from what you mentioned.
P.S.: Happy New Year albeit a little late. :)
And a happy new year to you too, Jennifer.
If you have the time and the stomach for it you can keep up with the FDA at www.anh-usa.org It's the Alliance for Health-USA as they are internationsl. They'll send you a free e-newsletter if you have room in your mailbox,
A thought-- the organ transplant patients and doctors should call out for the humanitarian group "Doctors without Borders"(providing the doctors are experienced organ transplant specialists).
Now, that would really shame the image of the repugs who supposedly support life from to conception to... Oh, hold that though...I think they just support the in utero moments only. Then on to rugged individualism once born.
A measure of any people´s greatness is how well they treat the least among them. It seems like Americans are more concerned with the oxymoron of "military superiority" than they are with caring for their own. Less than three days of the allowance that is alotted to the US military would pay for a year´s expenses of the health care of all the people in the US who cannot afford it and do not have it. Further, they are persuaded that wars can be fought against nouns. Their failed capitalistic ideology trumps their humanity. Their largest business is war, and wars are fought without reason or purpose, while their own cherished values are ignored and even trampled. Their democracy is a farce. Their credibility is in ruins. Cynicism reigns. They hold fast to their guns.
JORGE: Excellent post. I refer to the examples you've wisely configured as proof that in the U.S. "Mars (god of war) Rules!" If more writers would contrast the premise of defense with the actual erosion of our nation's (i.e. its people's) well-being, maybe more would catch on. Their pockets are being picked by the make-war state, while their bodies are being poisoned by the lax enforcement of EPA against massive industrial polluters ... meanwhile health care is rationed off to the highest bidders. With the entire economy being largely run like a casino, it's no wonder that only a few lucky ticket holders are in line to win the prize of medical treatment.
Perhaps whenever Obama enters a room they should not play "Hail to the Chief," but substitute the first movmement of Holtz's The Planets - Mars, the bringer of War.
Holst's "The Planets" is too magnificent a work to waste on Obama.
I suggest "Taps" instead.
Which is why most experienced politicians measure expectations. People expected too much and everything that doesn't meet expectation is disappointment.
That said, I would never vote Liberal in Canada - too much like your Dems!
No one mentioned gun control yet! People are more likely to survive knife wounds. Then again, each still requires medical care.
Things cost money. Canadians, for instance, pay higher taxes on everything, in large part, to cover those costs. So who's gonna pay the taxes to cover these costs in Arizona? Certainly not the rich. Certainly not the corporations. It can't be the forclosed upon living in the tent cities or the homeless beggers. That leaves the beleagured few in the middle who still have a job.
As sales taxes, lotteries and user fees are regressive, the poor pay proportionally more and whereas taxes on existing wealth and income are progressive, the rich pay proportionally more. Guess which is coming soon?
True, Canadians pay more in taxes, but when it comes down to what they pay for health care, they actually pay 50% LESS than we do. Their medical outcomes are in the top 5, ours are in the mid 30's of industrialized countries. We are NOT getting what we pay for, we are getting shafted TO DEATH. In fact, every industrialized country in the world pays less than we do, and a large number of their outcomes are far better than ours. Do you LIKE the fact that we have a higher infant mortality rate than Jamaica?
No other country in the world allows their citizens to go bankrupt from medical bills. No other country allows it's people to die for lack of care. We are SUPPOSED to be so "rich" but somehow we can't seem to find the money to even do the most basic care of our own people. But we can sure as hell put up military bases all over the world in places where we AREN'T wanted and keep them there forever. Our priorities are so massively skewed that we're nationally insane. There really is no other excuse. We have let the insane run the country, and somehow think that this is the way things SHOULD be. We've been fed a bill of goods that was a lie from word one. The instant Reagan said that we were all on our own, it was over. And now everyone seems to think that being part of a country is the WRONG thing to do. THAT is the real lack of morality in this country, not the gays, or the promiscuous, it's the complete LACK OF CARING about others. And that will be the downfall of this country, thanks to the right wing.
God help us all.
superfluous posting
I wouldn't mind paying 30% or more of my income in taxes if I were getting universal, single payer health care. What I am paying for is WAR. What I am paying for is a bail out of a wealthy oligarchy who wants more profit.
Alan Grayson was right, and Arizona proves it. Jan Brewer is one of the most insensitive people on the planet. Callous. She would just as soon that all those "consumers" (useless eaters) died and left her with that much more of the pie. What a selfish bad example of a human being.
Republicans ONLY value life when they can use it against someone. In fact, other than MONEY, republicans don't believe in much of anything, but they will use those things that others DO believe in as a weapon against us all.
This is what republicans WANT to happen. The more of us they can just let die, the more they get to steal from our survivors. These people are SCUM and need to be REMOVED from our society if we are to EVER have one again. They have turned us from a country into a collection of individuals who can be screwed at any time. That, in my book, is TREASON. May they be treated to what the constitution calls for traitors.
"We fought immigration discrimination in Arizona, but dead poor people are acceptable? Where are the protests? There are no protests today in Arizona because no one we care about is dead yet. If your liver stops working tomorrow, God forbid, do you think your own life is worth saving? Your child's? Your neighbor's? How about a little cancer that needs bone marrow treatment?"
Those quotes from Donna Smith, perhaps, sum up the situation best. They go along with yesterday's selective compassion story, on which I comment in my new-york-commoners-law.com and dons-review.com sites. Unfortunately, the human race is NOT empathic enough. I saw a 15-year-old football player in my senior year become paralyzed from the neck down, like Christopher Reeve, right there before me on the field. I felt sorry, but didn't have the imagination to communicate to myself what he was going through. That is part of it. Another part, is the Nancy Reagan-syndrome in which the rich and elite have great health coverage and either don't care about the masses ("They chose NOT to succeed" or "They are inferior") or can't imagine disaster until it happens to our particular Ronnie Reagan--a loved one (for Nancy). The U.S. embodies Darwinian evolution in which the fittest or most adaptable survive and others lag behind the herd and are culled out by lions.
Where is Arizona's money being spent? Where could they easily get the money to put these coverages back? Who is it that is choosing these burdens?
"We fought immigration discrimination in Arizona, but dead poor people are acceptable?"
Uh oh ! The border control freaks will come out screaming that illegal immigration will produce more poor dead people. They wouldn't want AZ to pass a universal health care plan of their own.
Figures you would turn an otherwise important discussion toward the pro-illegal agenda.
Anyway, Marco, AZ spends about $700M to educate and care for ~150,000 anchor babies. Some say with their Medicaid entitlement it could be $1B. (Pew Hispanic)
So you see some people in AZ do have "universal health care", and education. See how the game is played?
Tough choices lie ahead and now you're seeing the wedges being driven deeper. AZ is a precursor.
This will be my only post on this thread because it does not need to be ruined by pi$$ing contests.
"Figures you would turn an otherwise important discussion toward the pro-illegal agenda."
Nope, you already did that.
"Anyway, Marco, AZ spends about $700M to educate and care for ~150,000 anchor babies. Some say with their Medicaid entitlement it could be $1B. (Pew Hispanic)
So you see some people in AZ do have "universal health care", and education. See how the game is played?"
Typical rightwing bullshit on health care.
"This will be my only post on this thread because it does not need to be ruined by pi$$ing contests."
Translation, the annak creates her own "pi$$ing contests" and then plays victim. Typical rightwing liar.
Thanks Donna for keeping up with the issue and sharing your thoughts.
ABC News (from article): "Arizona also restricted coverage of prosthetics, eliminated podiatric services, preventive dental services, and wellness and physical exams for adult Medicaid enrollees"
This sentence foretells where this new "healthcare" bill is taking us. Politicians perhaps are going to be able to say that 32 million or so more people are covered (or mandated to ripped off by the insurance companies); however, so what if the coverage they will be paying for and receiving is a McInsurance version of healthcare coverage that covers less and less. The people who couldn't afford before the mandate certainly won't be able to afford paying for some sort of McInsurance supplement to get coverage they need. Meanwhile, Blue Cross of California announced plans to raise rates up to 59% this week (easy to verify with Google).
And I'll address the naysayers who say this is better than nothing. Wrong, this bill is a misallocation of resources as cheaper coverage could be provided under a voluntary cheaper not-for-profit program without the insurance company middlemen taking their cut of profit between our payments and the doctors.
PROGRESSIVE: Exactamente! It was another Obama give-away to big insurance (following after similar largesse shown to the MIC, and then generously extended to the ailing bankers' caste), covered up by the window-dressing that it would extend coverage to all those who couldn't afford the local insurance guy's extortion of funds. As if states, crippled by loss of revenue from what once were occupied properties paying taxes, or jobs gone missing, can suddenly find the funds to subsidize this latest insanity.
Note the similar play-out in how the tax cuts were extended (in a time of such contemptible deficits), by virtue of the seeming altruism expressed through unemployment benefits (a pittance in comparison) extended another year.
I just remind myself that all that wealth being held at the top of the pinnacle will cause the whole thing to collapse. It's UNNNATURAL, not to mention exposing a form of greed that makes the word psychopath look tame.
Just like Nazism and Soviet Communism were forms of repressive government too evil and unnatural to exist, so is what American Capitalism has become. Or at least I hope so.
This article was needed to be written. As for the statement,
"The only question we need to ask ourselves is how many dead poor people are acceptable to us," I don't think you want to see the answer to that one.
I think that we are getting the answer anyway. When one's own life is held so cheaply, it cheapens one's view of the life of others.
Just heard the breaking news - there is no Safeway when one no longer feels safe oneself.
Our goverment has killed almost 2 million Iraqi's, and have poisened our own soldiers with the same gas we accused Sadaam of killing his people with (just a better brand), they don't give a shit about a few poor Americans, trust me on this ! The American goverment/people are killers....we have the largest murder rate of any other industrialized country, by a huge margin, not just a couple points either. Our Military goes around the world and causes great sorrow. The World is getting tired of us !
Now someone has shot a congresswoman,and murdered several others. Who are we ? Why are Americans so violent ? On the otherhand, we are incredible....
My Dad used to say that one difference between the United States and the rest of the world was that life was cheaper in the rest of the world. He held that belief to the end of his days. But then, he was a scientist who believed in Creationism.
What this demonstrates is that in the fight to prolong life by any means such as organ transplants, money talks and bullshit walks. Oh, what a distorted and ill world we live when one tries to defeat one of the most natural of acts, death, at the expense of others all according to money.
People who elect Republicans get what they deserve.
Unfortunately to most Republicans, that are appalled at abortion, the unborn are more important than the sick and dying born!
I expect most readers here remember the prancing, posturing, and pontificating of that "every sperm is sacred" Republican crowd as it obsessed over the fate of that vegetating organism once known as Terri Schiavo. Those politicos in AZ absolutely disgust me.
I think that this was a Monty Python song.
Republicans want to push so that the only option is adoption. While there is nothing wrong with adoption, there is something wrong with policies that created more potential adoptees.
I predict that family members of people desperate for organ transplants will be forced to sell their own organs to pay the medical costs no longer covered by Medicaid. You want your child to have a heart transplant? Sell a kidney, Mom.
Meanwhile, in Louisiana: http://www.alternet.org/rights/149445/how_haley_barbour%27s_freedom-for-kidney-deal_makes_u.s._like_china/
Kidneys only sell for $35,000, and the transplants up to $250,000 ,good idea but not enough money ! It's a start.
Maybe they'd accept it as a down payment--- or, knowing the rightwing, I guess multiple family members would have to give up a kidney?
Apparently that list might now expand to Arizona politicians.
As always, the Right begins making the first move.
It's kind of interesting how much press the fake death panels got during the health care "debate", and how little the real death panels are getting now.
Another example of; Its OK I You Are Republican (IOKIYAR).
This is a highly ironic title, as i just read this after reading the newly posted news about the shootings in Tuscon grocery store, after democratic congresswoman announced a meeting there with the public. She was shot in the head.
And the fabric unravels further. I'll be interested to see the GOP response to the incident. Giffords is just the first casualty.
Well now Baner has something to really cry about.
Yep, their are 6 dead in Tuscon today...very sad. Arizona is a Political Hot Iron, they have been killing Mexicans, their hospital patients,and now one of them has gone nut's and murdered the Congress woman, and several others. When this stuff happens we All loose....Once again, it is a sad day in America !
razormirror and drone, read the posts at the article....
doing so now. we beat the staff to the punch in here..:)
Now they say the congresswoman is in surgery and is still alive...she was shot in the head though... :(
The guy in Tuscon talking to CNN is so casual saying.."We are just angry here in Arizona, and we need to tone that down" Well I guess so buddy ! If this is how their Leaders think, I can see why they keep hating, and screaming, and shooting Mexicans, and letting the sick die for dollars down yonder in Arizona ! MMMmmm