If Jindal’s Got the Job He Wants, Why Is He Still Fighting Health Care Reform?

Governor Bobby Jindal insists that he is not running for president, that he has the only job he wants — that of being governor of Louisiana.

There is a simple way that the governor could prove that: he could order Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to withdraw Louisiana from the suit challenging the new health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act.

Why? Because the Affordable Care Act is good for what ails Louisiana.

Admitting that might not help Jindal’s standing among national Republicans, but there is no better way to prove his commitment to serving Louisiana than dropping a politicized legal challenge to a law that helps Louisiana families and businesses, the health care provider community, and the State of Louisiana. In fact, under Jindal, state government has moved to take advantage of provisions of the new law.

To understand why this law is good for Louisiana, it is necessary to understand the state of health in Louisiana today. Doing so reveals that the Affordable Care Act goes a long way towards addressing what ails health care in this state (and, also, this country).

The Affordable Care Act addresses key things that ail Louisiana and Louisiana’s health care delivery system. It will not only improve access to care in Louisiana, it will stabilize the finances of the provider community and ensure that the state’s health care dollars (spent primarily through Medicaid) get more bang for the buck.

For Democrats, recognizing the state of health care in Louisiana and understanding how the Act responds to what ails it, reveals the blatantly partisan nature of the attacks on the law by Jindal and others. The sound public policy at the heart of the act reveals the efforts to deny Louisiana citizens, businesses and the provider community the benefits of this Act to be strictly partisan and diametrically opposite of the best interests of the state and its people.

Understanding Louisiana’s health care challenges and how the Act responds to those reveals the opponents of the Act for what they are — partisans who place politics above any consideration for the well being of the people of this state.

St. Martin Parish Democrats Get Out the Facts on Health Care Reform

The St. Martin Parish Democratic Executive Committee will run this 30-second spot on Cox Cable's Eastern Acadiana System through the end of October.

It was a pleasure to work with these committed Democrats!

(Blue) Dog Whistles

Dah-yum! Says here that the so-called Blue Dog Democrats are raking in political contributions from the pharmaceutical, health insurance and health insurance industries.

McClatchy's Washington news bureau has the shocking news:

As the Obama administration and Democrats wrangled over the timing, shape and cost of health care overhaul efforts during the first half of the year, more than half the $1.1 million in campaign contributions the Democratic Party's Blue Dog Coalition received came from the pharmaceutical, health care and health insurance industries, according to watchdog organizations.

The amount outstrips contributions to other congressional political action committees during the same period, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit watchdog organization. The Blue Dogs, a group of fiscally conservative lawmakers, successfully delayed the vote on health care overhaul proposals until the fall.

The article continues:

On average, Blue Dog Democrats net $62,650 more from the health sector than other Democrats, while hospitals and nursing homes also favor them, giving, respectively, $5,680 and $5,550 more, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks the influence of money in politics.

The contributions came at a time when health care and pharmaceutical companies were mounting a campaign against a government-run public health insurance option, fearing cost controls and an impact on business. The Blue Dogs' windfall also came at a time when the 52-member coalition flexed its muscle with both the White House and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives as an increasingly influential bloc in the health care overhaul debate.

With 'friends' like these, who needs Republicans?

Well, at least the those same interests view the Republicans as more reliable votes, based on the money they give them:

House Republicans, however, tend to collect more than Democrats — including Blue Dogs — from insurers, health professionals and the broader health sector, the Center for Responsive Politics found.

I consider myself a loyal Democrat, but I am sick and tired of supporting Democrats who go to Washington (and Baton Rouge) and vote like Republicans on issues that matter to me. Healthcare reform is a signature Democratic issue and has been since Harry Truman tried to pass universal healthcare back in the late 1940s.

If these Blue Dogs can't bring themselves to stand with their party and their president on this core issues of our party, the question that must be asked is this: "Why are they members of this party?"

If their loyalty is to their corporate fund-raisers and not to the hard working people in their states and districts who are struggling to afford health insurance and/or to avoid losing everything they have in order to pay medical bills, why don't they align themselves with the party that makes no pretense about their loyalty to the rich and the powerful?

There is a party that welcomes people who think and vote that way.

The Democratic Party is not it.

We have a party primary system in place for federal elections in Louisiana. Those primaries should be used to remind Democrats who have apparently gone soft headed running in open primaries that there is a loyal Democratic base that cannot be taken for granted or ignored.

We matter. We volunteer. We work in campaigns. And we vote.

Dear Senator Landrieu: Stand with us as we've stood with you

The following letter, signed/approved by 24 Louisiana supporters of Senator Mary Landrieu, was hand delivered to her office in Lake Charles today. The letter calls on the senator to support healthcare reform legislation that includes the public option.

• • •

Dear Senator Landrieu:

We write you today as friends, long-time supporters, and concerned Louisiana citizens regarding an issue of great national significance that is critical to the future well being of our state.

In a few days you will be asked to decide whether healthcare coverage will be extended to millions of Americans who do not now enjoy those benefits. As your votes in support of SCHIP and your efforts to support community healthcare demonstrate, you know that people who do not to have access to adequate health care are destined to die younger, suffer many more illnesses and to watch helplessly as their love ones are denied the care that could save their lives or relieve their discomfort. The high cost of health insurance is the main barrier preventing working families and small business owners from gaining access to that care.

Small businesses and large corporations alike are abandoning employer-based health care because of cost. In Louisiana, where the percentage of employers offering healthcare benefits has historically been low, the problem is even worse. Even where coverage is offered, workers frequently cannot afford the premiums to cover their families. The situation will only be made worse by recent cuts in services voted by the Louisiana Legislature.

In spite of the dishonest campaigns being waged to prevent comprehensive national health care from becoming a reality, the overwhelming majority of Americans support it. Surprisingly, over sixty percent of American physicians are also in support of these ends.

We realize the pressure being exerted on you to vote against this program.

The same stale arguments are being made today against the public option that have been made against every progressive endeavor for the last seventy-five years. Social Security was supposed to be the pinnacle of governmental intrusion into our lives. Where would we be today without Social Security? Medicare was another “Socialist” program that was supposed to destroy medical care in our nation. Where would our seniors be without Medicare? The same could be said for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts. All of these programs were passed under Democratic presidents and all of them have changed our nation and our lives profoundly for the better.

The vast majority of your political base in Louisiana is composed of people who stand to benefit directly from enactment of a national coverage plan, specifically the public option.

We believe that the public option — where adults can buy into a Medicare-like program — is the best way to control costs by bringing competition to the health insurance system. In Louisiana, the two largest health insurance providers control 74 percent of the health insurance market. The market has failed us by pricing coverage beyond the reach of too many Louisiana citizens.

A national consensus has emerged that the current system must be changed and that only federal government has the scale and reach to change it. If these efforts are not successful, it may be many years before we have a president who is willing to take the challenge and pay the political price to achieve these admirable ends.

We do not consider this to be an issue of politics or party. This is an issue of the basic right of every American to be able to access quality healthcare without the risk of financial ruin. Access to healthcare should not be a privilege available only to those who can afford private health insurance.

As friends and long-time supporters we ask you to please not ignore the people who have repeatedly voted you into office. We have stood with you; now, we are asking you to stand with us in support of the public option.

Sincerely yours,

Mike Stagg, Lafayette
Sally O. Donlon, Lafayette
Dr. Mike Robichaux, Raceland
Deborah Langhoff, New Orleans
Stephen Handwerk, Lafayette
Angelique LaCour, Covington
Barbara St. Romain, MSW, LCSW, Lafayette
John St. Julien, Lafayette
Edna D. St. Julien, Lafayette
Phillip Arleigh Lank, Lafayette
Mark Lastrapes, New Orleans
Michelle Vega, New Orleans
Robert J. Guercio, Lafayette
Anna K. Guercio, Lafayette
Charles St. Romain, LCSW, Lafayette
Rebecca Chaisson, Lake Charles
Joanne Pettit, Mandeville
Daryl Pettit, Mandeville
Adrienne LaCour, Covington
Karen E. Keller, MS, Lafayette
State Representative Juan LaFonta, New Orleans
Lauren Lastrapes, New Orleans
Dr. Douglas de Mahy, Lafayette
Marie de Mahy, Lafayette
Andrea Loewy, Lafayette

Speakout for the Public Option

Healthcare Costs Bankrupt Even Those With Health Insurance

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that "an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured."

This is scary. Why?

Because more than half of all bankruptcies (prior to the current economic bust) were related to healthcare expenses. You can read the report on this fact here (PDF).

If you do the math (61% of all bankruptcies involve medical expenses; 75% of medical expense bankruptcies involve people who HAD health insurance), you'll find that somewhere around 40% of all bankruptcies involve medical expenses of people who had health insurance.

"Underinsurance is the great hidden risk of the American health care system," Elizabeth Warren told the Times. She co-authored the 2007 report on healthcare bankruptcies cited above. “People do not realize they are one diagnosis away from financial collapse.”

The Times reports:

Last week, a former Cigna executive warned at a Senate hearing on health insurance that lawmakers should be careful about the role they gave private insurers in any new system, saying the companies were too prone to “confuse their customers and dump the sick.”

“The number of uninsured people has increased as more have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance,” Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive, testified.

To put a human face on the issue, the Times tells the medical tale of woe of Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year old computer specialist living in Texas. To make a long story short, Mr. Yurdin faced tens of thousands of dollars of unexpected medical expenditures if he got necessary heart procedures, even though he had health insurance coverage.

Things turned out well for Mr. Yurdin, though, the Times reports:

But as of Wednesday, his future insurance problems are largely solved: he qualifies for Medicare because he turns 65.

The "public option" in President Obama's healthcare reform package would allow working age Americans (18-64) buy into a Medicare-like program that would provide medical coverage (as does Medicare) with affordable premiums.

This is the plan that the health insurance companies (you know, the ones who deny coverage and have overhead costs that consume about 30 percent of health insurance premiums) are opposing.

There are tens of thousands — if not millions — of stories like Mr. Yurdin in America today. There are tens of thousands — if not millions — of stories involving people who cannot even afford health insurance premiums.

Recent polls show something on the order of 70% support for the public option in the country, fueled in no small part by the direct experiences individuals, families and businesses have had dealing with private, for-profit health insurance providers.

Senator Mary Landrieu has not heard from enough Louisiana residents who want this public option as a path to affordable access to care. Call her office and tell her you support the public option!

Here's a list of her in-state offices:

New Orleans Hale Boggs Federal Building
500 Poydras Street
Room 1005
New Orleans, LA 70130
Voice: (504) 589-2427
Fax:(504) 589-4023

Baton Rouge Room 326, Federal Building
707 Florida Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70801
Voice: (225) 389-0395
Fax:(225) 389-0660

Shreveport U.S. Courthouse
300 Fannin Street
Room 2240
Shreveport, LA 71101
Voice: (318) 676-3085
Fax:(318) 676-3100

Lake Charles
Hibernia Tower
One Lakeshore Drive
Suite 1260
Lake Charles, LA 70629
Voice: (337) 436-6650
Fax:(337) 439-3762

She needs to hear from you!