Wednesday, July 19, 2006
In Case You Forgot, There's a Health Care Crisis
You'd never know it from how things go in our Republican Congress or in our Republican White House, but there is still a health care crisis in America affecting millions of people every year.
It really bothers me that because of our health care funding system, tens of thousands of people face a conundrum every day. People without health care fail to seek preventive care, treatment for undiagnosed illnesses, or get emergency care where they worry about getting healthy while they see their bank account get deathly ill.
Something must change in our system, and it is the number one problem in America. Here are a few new things I've found about this subject that I wanted to bring to your attention:
Andy Stern, the leader of the SEIU, issued a challenge to Fortune 500 CEO's to join him in calling on our government to find a solution.
The Center for American Progress released this survey about personal debt, especially regarding the fears over rapidly rising health care costs.
Michael Moore issued a call for health care horror stories back in February, and received over 20,000 letters back. His next movie is about the health care funding crisis. Maybe that will help bring about a solution.
If we take back Congress - and I am optimistic - Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky will play a major role in solving this problem. She's a high ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which works on health care coverage, and she's a great person to do just that. I found this older post on the web about her views. I just wish our Congress made it as high of a priority as Congresswoman Schakowsky has, perhaps we could have saved regular folks a lot of suffering by now.
CHALLENGE TO BLOG READERS
Okay, I have my own health care funding crisis story to tell, but as yet, I've failed to tell it on my blog. I've been open about it with my friends and progressive political coworkers, but I've yet to really tell my story. I thought about responding to Michael Moore's calls for stories, but I did not. I did tell a portion of my story in a letter to the corporate leaders of Whole Foods Market, where I also work, calling on them to join Andy Stern's effort to bring about a better health care system in America. I feel that despite the fact that Whole Foods Market is not unionized (something I don't support), the overwhelming amount of effort at Whole Foods is spent trying to be more socially responsible and good. I appreciate Whole Foods for the hard work they do to promote environmental sustainability, giving back to the local communities through donations and collaborations, and do provide us with health care. It isn't the best health care I've had, but it is sure better than nothing. Quite a bit better than nothing. Anyway, I am rambling and not getting to my challenge...
Here's the challenge: Do you think I should "out" myself and my own health care story? I certainly don't mind, as it's not embarrassing, really, and might actually help someone. I challenge my friends who know my story to tell me what you think - is this an appropriate forum for me to tell what happened? Once it's on the web, it is as public as it gets. I'd love your honest feedback.
To tell or not to tell....
It really bothers me that because of our health care funding system, tens of thousands of people face a conundrum every day. People without health care fail to seek preventive care, treatment for undiagnosed illnesses, or get emergency care where they worry about getting healthy while they see their bank account get deathly ill.
Something must change in our system, and it is the number one problem in America. Here are a few new things I've found about this subject that I wanted to bring to your attention:
Andy Stern, the leader of the SEIU, issued a challenge to Fortune 500 CEO's to join him in calling on our government to find a solution.
The Center for American Progress released this survey about personal debt, especially regarding the fears over rapidly rising health care costs.
Michael Moore issued a call for health care horror stories back in February, and received over 20,000 letters back. His next movie is about the health care funding crisis. Maybe that will help bring about a solution.
If we take back Congress - and I am optimistic - Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky will play a major role in solving this problem. She's a high ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which works on health care coverage, and she's a great person to do just that. I found this older post on the web about her views. I just wish our Congress made it as high of a priority as Congresswoman Schakowsky has, perhaps we could have saved regular folks a lot of suffering by now.
CHALLENGE TO BLOG READERS
Okay, I have my own health care funding crisis story to tell, but as yet, I've failed to tell it on my blog. I've been open about it with my friends and progressive political coworkers, but I've yet to really tell my story. I thought about responding to Michael Moore's calls for stories, but I did not. I did tell a portion of my story in a letter to the corporate leaders of Whole Foods Market, where I also work, calling on them to join Andy Stern's effort to bring about a better health care system in America. I feel that despite the fact that Whole Foods Market is not unionized (something I don't support), the overwhelming amount of effort at Whole Foods is spent trying to be more socially responsible and good. I appreciate Whole Foods for the hard work they do to promote environmental sustainability, giving back to the local communities through donations and collaborations, and do provide us with health care. It isn't the best health care I've had, but it is sure better than nothing. Quite a bit better than nothing. Anyway, I am rambling and not getting to my challenge...
Here's the challenge: Do you think I should "out" myself and my own health care story? I certainly don't mind, as it's not embarrassing, really, and might actually help someone. I challenge my friends who know my story to tell me what you think - is this an appropriate forum for me to tell what happened? Once it's on the web, it is as public as it gets. I'd love your honest feedback.
To tell or not to tell....
