Thursday, September 19, 2013

Working over Obamacare

Tuesday Sept. 24 New York Times opinion page has an article on the lies/distortions currently in the media on Obamacare better elucidated than my column: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/sabotaging-health-care-one-lie-at-a-time/
Here is my column, with Links and additional commentary missing in The Big Horn County News, in italics:
It's hard for me to imagine that citizens of Big Horn County are as confused as many in the rest of the country over Obamacare.  If they are, I'd like to do my part to help clear things up.  
The mixed messages we're getting from media, politicians, and our fellow citizens could leave anybody's head spinning (and not from lack of medicine).  Last month I saw a news picture of Tea Party demonstrators carrying signs that said "Hands off my health care" and "No socialized medicine."  At first this seemed consistent with the familiar conservative message of reducing government intervention.  Except, it turns out they weren't protesting expansions in government-subsidized health care.  They were actually expressing their opposition to the proposed $500 billion cut in Medicare.  Huh? 
Then at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville last month, a middle-aged man in a red golf shirt stood raptly at a booth labeled "Kynect." He was receiving services through Kentucky's state-run program to help citizens access the new health benefit exchanges (similar to services that will be available here in Big Horn County next month). The man was impressed. "This beats Obamacare I hope," he mutters to one of the workers. See  http://kynect.ky.gov/ for a detailed report, and for further analysis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/kentucky-obamacare_n_3801054.html
"Do I burst his bubble?" wonders Reina Diaz-Dempsey, overseeing the operation. She doesn't. If he signs up, it's a win-win, whether or not he knows it's really Obamacare. Yes, "Kynect" is the Republican-initiated program written ten years ago for Massachusetts.  It was adopted with few changes by the Obama administration and dubbed "The Affordable Care Act." This program got lots of bipartisan support because it will significantly improve the average citizen's access to private health insurance, while potentially increasing health industry profit margins.  So what's the problem with affordable and profitable health care? Is it all in the sound of the label "Obamacare," eliciting media-promoted emotional reactions nationwide?

Some people may prefer to be misinformed.  After all, we're living in a world of sound bites and unexamined beliefs we like to call "facts." However, I think we're better than this here in Big Horn County.  I want a little more straight talk and I believe you might, too. Let's take a look at some of the misinformation floating around about Obamacare.
 1 Obamacare cuts $500 Billion From Medicare:  Why would the same people trying to eliminate virtually all family support programs, also not want to reduce Medicare costs?  It turns out that the health insurance companies are determined to keep their cash cow program, "Medicare Advantage," pouring tax money into their private coffers.  The proposed cuts are not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or current benefits.  Changes to the "Medicare Advantage" private insurance-run programs will lead to substantial saving for taxpayers over the next ten years. Of course, it will be cutting some government handouts to insurance companies.
 Why would they suddenly promote this program benefiting primarily the poor? Obama wielded the same rhetoric against the Republicans: 
Nevertheless, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those getting benefits will continue getting their benefits. But it's also true that Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) will have fewer options for add-on benefits that really bankroll more profit for private insurance companies. The bill aims to reduce rising costs from Medicare Advantage plans that simply hand over Medicare funds for corporate insurance administration.
These insurance administration costs have risen much higher, compared with the regular fee-for-service government-administered Medicare. But because congress has consistently stopped real medicare reform, it has inadvertently or not cultivated the resultant criticisms of medicare's problems. Medicare Advantage plans run by insurance companies have been quick to step into the gap, insurance companies have reaped increasing profits, and we citizens have sheepishly picked up the tab to pay insurance companies instead of the government (see how government messed up Medicare?) for the increased cost.

2. It will pay for illegal immigrants' health care:  The Affordable Care Act doesn't provide health care for undocumented immigrants. In fact, there are numerous provisions that specifically require exclusion of undocumented immigrants.  But whoa! Perhaps we should let immigrants pay into the pool. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/09/the_case_for_insuring_illegal.html
This lie was launched to prominence with the help of a false accuser, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously heckled President Barack Obama during an address to a Joint Session of Congress by yelling "You lie!" after the president had mentioned that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the credits for the bill's proposed health care exchanges.
Undocumented immigrants are younger, healthier, and prone to work harder than most of us long time citizens. With 7 million of these potential insurance premium payers in our country, they would definitely lower insurance costs for all of us.

3 It's a Jobs-Killer: Some pundits pronounce anything that the Obama White House does—from regulating pollution to flossing after meals—as something that would "kill jobs." The Affordable Care Act is no different. There's no real evidence to support this familiar diatribe. Come on guys, get a new slogan. 
But does the health reform plan threaten jobs? Not by any honest measure. See McClatchy Newspapers: 

4 It adds to The Deficit: Will this big government program push indebtedness to such a height that our future Chinese overlords will gleefully take over Sarpy Mine?  We spend twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as other industrialized nations.  This situation might make sense if we had better health outcomes, but unfortunately for all of us, this is not the case. How does this upside-down spending-to-benefit ratio ensure our financial future as a nation? Independent analysis shows that affordable health insurance is likely to save both public and private money, and is already showing this to be the case in states where implementation is progressing.

5.  Republicans, and their ideas, were left out of the bill and the process.
In fact, the Democrats were eager to get GOP input and enthusiastic about including many of their desired components in the bill. The Affordable Care Act was modeled on a reform designed and implemented by a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, whose innovation was widely celebrated by the GOP while said former governor was running for president. The heritage foundation dreamed up the "individual mandate" used in Massachusetts in Romneycare to ensure "no free riders."  Further provisions were borrowed from the Senate GOP alternative to the Clinton plan in the 1990s, and the 2009 Bipartisan Policy Committee plan, which was endorsed by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and Bob Dole.

As for the process, you might recall that the White House very patiently waited for the bipartisan Gang Of Six to weigh in with its own solution, and openly courted one Republican gang member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, long after it was clear to every reporter inside the Beltway that Grassley was intentionally acting in bad faith. 
And perhaps you don't recall the bipartisan health care summit that was held in March of 2009? if so, don't feel bad about it -- RNC Chairman Michael Steele couldn't remember it either, when he yelled at the president for not having one.
Steele Criticizes Obama For Not Holding A Health Care Summit Last Year...Which He Did February 25, 2010 10:45 am ET — Matt Finkelstein
Today on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown," RNC Chairman Michael Steele dismissed today's bipartisan health care summit as a "dog and pony show." The beleaguered chairman added that if President Obama was serious about working across the aisle, he should have started off the reform process with a bipartisan event last year.  But, as hosts Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie quickly pointed out, Obama actually did hold a bipartisan summit last March:

6 Death Panels will be terminating patients to fund Obamacare.
The "death panel" lie spread across Montana, only exceeded by its predictability. That is the best way to counter opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who have gone without health care for so long? Convince them the government wants them dead. "It really began with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 polluted the pages of the New Republic with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'"
Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five years or more frequently if they become seriously ill. As independent fact-checkers showed (PolitiFact.com 2009b; FactCheck.org 2009a), her statement that these consultations would be mandatory was simply false--they would be entirely voluntary.

 7 Our health care is already 'The Best In The World'
We have the pinnacle of health care in the United States. Why would we mess with the best?
We also have the best first-class commercial air travel. What do the people in America who "fly coach" in the health care system get? By all objective measurements, it's overpriced and underperforming—if you were lucky enough to be participating in it. As anyone who's fortunate enough to have employer based health care or unfortunate enough to have a pre-existing condition can tell you, health care for ordinary people already involved all of those things that we were told would be a feature of the Affordable Care Act: long waits, limited choice, and rationing.
So Many More To Choose From!
Here's research on the vast numbers of young adults who simply don't know the meaning of the Affordable Care Act's reforms:
Covering Young Adults Under the Affordable Care Act:
The Importance of Outreach and Medicaid Expansion
Findings from the Commonwealth Fund
Health Insurance Tracking Survey of Young Adults, 2013
Sara R. Collins, Petra W. Rasmussen, Tracy Garber, and Michelle M. Doty
 Here's the abstract: There is concern that many young adults (ages 19–29) will remain without health insurance in 2014 despite the Affordable Care Act's reforms, including subsidized private coverage offered in new state marketplaces and expanded Medicaid eligibility. How things turn out will likely depend on outreach efforts and states' decisions on expanding Medicaid. Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey data from 2011 and 2013 show increasing awareness among young adults of the 2010 requirement that health plans cover children under age 26. Of the estimated 15 million young adults enrolled in a parent's plan in the prior 12 months, 7.8 million would not likely have been eligible to enroll prior to the law. Still, only 27 percent of 19-to-29-year-olds are aware of the marketplaces. Meanwhile, most uninsured young adults living below poverty will not have access to subsidized public or private insurance in states opting out of the Medicaid expansion.

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David Graber
Hardin, MT
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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Middle East Morass

Fall is in the air once again and our familiar autumn rituals are underway. Here in Big Horn County we're busy with harvesting, canning, and getting little ones started in school. Out in Washington D.C. they're planning for our next military strike in the Middle East. It seems like some things never change.  
The media has a lot to say about the war weary American public. Yes, we should be a war-exhausted species. We've been going at this for centuries, with little relief. While our justifications and weaponry changes, our propensity for war has remained unabated since ancient times.  
In the grotto of the cathedral chapel at Notre Dame University is a relic of a little-known saint from ancient Roman times. Marcellus of Tangier was a Roman Centurion, leading a campaign to stamp out insurrections not far from Syria in the year 289 CE.  At that time, Emperor Maximian Herculeus was considered to be a divine entity, a son of god, and Christianity was outlawed.  On the occasion of the emperor's birthday, Marcellus rose, clad in his military regalia, to address the gathered crowd. Instead of appropriate words of praise for the emperor, Marcellus astonished everyone present by removing his implements of war—sword, belt, armor and dagger—and laying them before the imperial dais. He declared that as a servant of Jesus Christ he would no longer participate in demonic worship and its associated slaughter of human flesh and blood. This didn't end so well for him, as on October 30, 289 CE, he was beheaded for treason, along with the clerk Cassius who protested the unjust sentence. However, his bold words will again be considered an heroic act of faith and self-sacrifice by those who celebrate this saint's day come October 30.
 As time passed, Christianity grew across the Roman Empire and soon became the law of the land. In spite of the message of Christ, war continued in all its forms. Now people could use Christianity as a justification for brutalizing pagans, including Jews and Muslims.  Any soldier killed in active duty was guaranteed a spot in heaven. Today, Islamic extremists bent on insurrection against the United States offer the same reward to their suicide bombers.
 Marcellus believed that war was demonic—a horror against all of mankind. I think this truth is still with us today.  Any war, no matter how well justified or morally righteous, will bring suffering and brutality beyond comprehension. 
 Syria is symptomatic of a rising epidemic of governmental violence and reciprocal insurrection violence hearkening back to Pax Romana. But today, our technology surpasses all previous advances in power to smash human flesh, bone and blood. The demonic cancer of high tech violence now floods increasingly from our movie screens out to the far corners of plant earth. As the evil dictator Assad escalates his chemical warfare against his own civilians, President Obama wants to respond in kind by sending our own weapons of massive destruction, carried by our new generation of brave warriors, into the carnage.
 Whatever happens with Syria (or our next military intervention in the Middle East), I hope we can find the courage to ask ourselves some fundamental questions about war's capacity to heal. Is it possible to use an awesomely superior power to blow up, gas aerosol bomb, break, microwave, or smash human bodies for peace? Can violence be quelled with violence, no matter how superior? After all, peace reigned in Jewish ghettos following massive torture and executions by Nazi SS troops. Brutal dictators across the globe seek peace by killing all who oppose them, down to the last child. This kind of uneasy peace incurs a future cost that is incalculable, as we see time and time again across our planet.  Remember Rwanda and the Balkans?  
 In contrast to the science of warfare, the scientific research into how humans wage peace and win against terrible evil is rising. There are other ways. Obama is not trapped into returning evil for evil, and neither are we in our families. Many of our naïve assumptions about "doing what it takes" are demonstrably idiotic. After all, we've been engaging in rampant warfare for centuries, with all its accompanying horrors. It doesn't seem to solve our fundamental conflicts. I wonder what we could learn from those who found the courage to separate out the demonic from the holy, as did Jesus in ancient Israel, Saint Marcellus in the Western Roman Empire, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in our own time.
Meantime, in our living rooms, most of our children watch cartoons with special blood-and-guts effects raising the ante of adolescent tit-for-tat, pay-back, and giving those bad guys some of their own medicine. Maybe we could heed our Bible, read our history of saints who made the supreme sacrifice, challenge our adolescent mentalities about "there's a jungle out there," and grow up a little.
The following was not included in the column as published September 4, 2013:
First, some comments from Kevin Zeese in Truthout. For the entire article see http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18673-obama-should-seek-legal-prosecution-not-illegal-war

There is no question that under international law, the allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government do not provide a legal basis for military action by the United States.  To put it directly: The United States will be violating international law if it attacks Syria.
To act within the rule of law to effectively deter the use of chemical weapons the following should occur:
  1. The U.S. should present its evidence regarding use of chemical weapons in Syria to the UN Security Council.
  2. The Security Council should condemn any use of chemical weapons and forbid further use of chemical weapons.
  3. It should expand the scope of the UN investigation to include the issue of responsibility for attacks, refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court for further investigation and adjudication, and call for convening of a peace conference.
Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida gives a thorough analysis of the proposed military intervention in Syria: “The only thing you can be really sure about when you start a war is that you can’t be sure about anything when you start a war.” He is interviewed at length on September 5, 2013 on Democracy Now. See www.democracynow.org.
Our government has a history of hypocrisy with chemical warfare. Some of the secrets have been pried out of the closet, and millions have suffered around the world, including several deplorable incidents causing unnecessary suffering and death among our enlisted. This WMD, chemical warfare, has been deployed and may still be deployed by our government secretly. From agent orange and phosphorus bombs to sarin and U238, the history is often ignored by our media. Check this site for informative links and evidence: http://www.alternet.org/world/america-and-chemical-warfare?akid=10899.144927.cUsAQi&rd=1&src=newsletter893052&t=5

 Pope Francis, addressing the crowd on Sunday (September 1, 2013) in the Vatican City's St. Peter's Square: "Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence." 
For info on the campaign of deception to promote war, check this out:
From the false Tonkin Gulf narrative in 1964 that boosted the Vietnam War to the fabricated baby-incubators-in-Kuwait tale in 1990 that helped launch the Gulf War to the reports of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction early in this century, countless deaths and unfathomable suffering have resulted from the failure of potential whistleblowers to step forward in a timely and forthright way -- and the failure of journalists to challenge falsehoods in high government places.
Once again, like in the build-up to bombing Baghdad, lots of the rhetoric doesn't add up. But the commercial media is not paying attention. Unlike my Chinese colleagues at XiHua University near Chengdu City in Sichuan, we so easily believe our government when it comes to beating the drums of war.
Here's reporting on a consensus of top military advisors: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/06/obama-warned-on-syrian-intel/
Here's TruthOut, an alternative independent resource:
Our troubles with counterinsurgency warfare:
Regent University publication, "Christianity.com", June, 2007: 
 Telling the stories that matter:
 Best detailed account is this story quoted on line  From A Treasury of Early Christianity, edited by Anne Fremantle, New York: Viking Press, 1953, pp. 233-236)
 The Martyrdom of Saints Marcellus and Cassian
Marcellus was a native of Tingis (now Tangier), and a centurion during the reign of Diocletian. He cast away his arms and declared himself a Christian, for which he was sentenced [in 298] by the governor Fortunatus to be beheaded. At the time of Marcellus's trial Cassian was a shorthand writer in the court. He declared that the sentence of Marcellus was unjust, for which heresy he himself was imprisoned and a little later suffered the same martyrdom.
In the city of Tingis, during the administration of Fortunatus as governor, the time came for the birthday of the Emperor. When all in that place were feasting at banquets and sacrificing, a certain Marcellus, one of the centurions of the Trajan legion, deeming those banquets to be heathen, cast away his soldier's belt in front of the standards of the legion which were then in camp, and testified in a loud voice, saying: "I serve Jesus Christ the Eternal King." He also threw away his vine-switch and arms, and added: "Henceforward I cease to serve your Emperors, and I scorn to worship your gods of wood and stone, which are deaf and dumb idols. If such be the terms of service that men are forced to offer sacrifice to gods and Emperors, behold I cast away my vine-switch and belt, I renounce the standards, and refuse to serve."
The soldiers were dumbfounded at hearing such things; they laid hold on him, and reported the matter to Anastasius Fortunatus the commander of the legion, who ordered him to be thrown into prison. When the feasting was over, he gave orders, sitting in council, that the centurion Marcellus should be brought in. When Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, was brought in, Anastasius Fortunatus the governor said: "What did you mean by ungirding yourself in violation of military discipline, and casting away your belt and vineswitch?"
Marcellus answered: "On the twenty-first of July, in presence of the standards of your legion, when you celebrated the festival of the Emperor, I made answer openly and in a loud voice that I was a Christian and that I could not serve under this allegiance, but only under the allegiance of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father Almighty."
Anastasius Fortunatus the governor said, "I cannot pass over your rash conduct, and therefore I will report this matter to the Emperors and Caesar. You yourself shall be referred unhurt to my lord, Aurelius Agricolan, Deputy for the Prefects of the Guard." [The shorthand writer who took down the official proceedings was Caecilius.]
On the 30th of October at Tingis, Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, having been brought into court, it was officially reported: "Fortunatus the governor has referred Marcellus, a centurion, to your authority. There is in court a letter dealing with his case, which at your command I will read."
Agricolan said: "Let it be read."
The official report was as follows: "From Fortunatus to you, my lord, and so forth. This soldier, having cast away his soldier's belt, and having testified that he was a Christian, spoke in the presence of all the people many blasphemous things against the gods and against Caesar. We have therefore sent him on to you, that you may order such action to be taken as your Eminence may ordain in regard to the same."
After the letter had been read, Agricolan said: "Did you say these things as appear in the official report of the governor?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "Did you hold the rank of a centurion of the first class?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "What madness possessed you to cast away the signs of your allegiance, and to speak as you did?"
Marcellus answered: "There is no madness in those who fear the Lord."
Agricolan said: "Did you make each of these speeches contained in the official report of the governor?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "Did you cast away your arms?"
Marcellus answered: "I did. For it was not right for a Christian, who serves the Lord Christ, to serve the cares of the world."
Agricolan said: "The acts of Marcellus are such as must be visited with disciplinary punishment." And he pronounced sentence as follows: "Marcellus, who held the rank of centurion of the first class, having admitted that he has degraded himself by openly throwing off his allegiance, and having besides put on record, as appears in the official report of the governor, other insane expressions, it is our pleasure that he be put to death by the sword."
When he was being led to execution, he said to Agricolan: "May God bless thee! For so ought a martyr to depart out of this world."
And when he had said these words he was beheaded, dying for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorious for ever and ever. Amen.
When Aurelius Agricolan was acting as deputy for the Prefects of the Praetorian Guard, at the time when he was preparing to hear the case of the holy martyr Marcellus, the blessed Cassian was a shorthand writer under the orders of his staff. So when Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, was brought into court at Tingis on the 30th of October, Aurelius Agricolan by his power as judge strove with many threats to seduce him from perseverance in his confession. But the blessed Marcellus by the power of his constancy, so that all henceforward considered him his judge's judge, proclaimed that he was the soldier of Christ, and could not serve the cares of the world, while Aurelius Agricolan on the other hand poured forth words full of fury. Cassian was taking down these statements, but, when he saw Aurelius Agricolan, beaten by the devotion of so great a martyr, pronounce sentence of death, he vowed with an imprecation he would go no farther, and threw on the ground his pen and note book. So, amid the astonishment of the staff and the laughter of Marcellus, Aurelius Agricolan trembling leapt from the bench and demanded why he had thrown down his note books with an oath. Blessed Cassian answered that Agricolan had dictated an unjust sentence. To avoid further contradiction, Agricolan ordered him to be at once removed and cast into prison.
Now the blessed martyr Marcellus had laughed because, having knowledge of the future through the Holy Spirit, he rejoiced that Cassian would be his companion in martyrdom. On that very day, amid the eager expectation of the city, blessed Marcellus obtained his desire. After no long interval, namely, on the 3rd of December, the worshipful Cassian was brought into the same court in which Marcellus had been tried, and by almost the same replies, the same statement as holy Marcellus had made, merited to obtain the victory of martyrdom, through the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong honour and glory, excellency and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Evangelical Outreach
PO Box 265
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David Graber

Hardin, MT  59034

graberdb@gmail.com

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