Just Frame It: Health care debate as much about words as it is how to pay for full coverage

Written by: Michael Hays on Aug 22, 2007 10:32 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Montco DFA

Most Americans know our health care system is broken.

The looming fight in the presidential races – and eventually within Congress – is destined to come down to two things: how to pay for a universal, single-payer system, AND, how to defend the merits of such a policy against right wing smear jobs/fear campaigns.

Remember “Hillary Care?” Does the term “socialized medicine” make your ears red and blood pressure rise?

In “Don’t Think of an Elephant!” George Lakoff spells out the conservative mind-set on health care. “It is the responsibility of parents to take care of their children. To the extent that they cannot, they are not living up to their individual responsibility. No one has the responsibility of doing other people’s jobs for them. Thus prenatal care, post-natal care, health care for children, and care for the aged and infirm are matters of individual responsibility. They (health care matters) are not the responsibility of taxpayers.”

Could this be what President Bush really wanted to say to reporters when he recently threatened to veto the expansion of state-funded health insurance for children(S-CHIP)?

The real key to the universal health care debate is convincing undecided Americans that coverage is a right, not a privilege. Aetna thinks it is a privilege. Your insurance underwriter thinks it is a privilege. The conservative Cato Institute, funded by wealthy interests, thinks it is a privilege. Working class Americans do not, especially the 45 million people who don’t have insurance.

Put simply, some services should not be for profit. Public works, the U.S. Post Office, air and

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Just Frame It: Health care debate as much about words as it is how to pay for full coverage

Written by: Michael Hays on Aug 22, 2007 10:28 AM EDT

Linked to groups: PA Single Payer Healthcare Action Committee

Most Americans know our health care system is broken.

The looming fight in the presidential races – and eventually within Congress – is destined to come down to two things: how to pay for a universal, single-payer system, AND, how to defend the merits of such a policy against right wing smear jobs/fear campaigns.

Remember “Hillary Care?” Does the term “socialized medicine” make your ears red and blood pressure rise?

In “Don’t Think of an Elephant!” George Lakoff spells out the conservative mind-set on health care. “It is the responsibility of parents to take care of their children. To the extent that they cannot, they are not living up to their individual responsibility. No one has the responsibility of doing other people’s jobs for them. Thus prenatal care, post-natal care, health care for children, and care for the aged and infirm are matters of individual responsibility. They (health care matters) are not the responsibility of taxpayers.”

Could this be what President Bush really wanted to say to reporters when he recently threatened to veto the expansion of state-funded health insurance for children(S-CHIP)?

The real key to the universal health care debate is convincing undecided Americans that coverage is a right, not a privilege. Aetna thinks it is a privilege. Your insurance underwriter thinks it is a privilege. The conservative Cato Institute, funded by wealthy interests, thinks it is a privilege. Working class Americans do not, especially the 45 million people who don’t have insurance.

Put simply, some services should not be for profit. Public works, the U.S. Post Office, air and

Read more

Helplessness and the Iraq War

Written by: Michael Hays on Aug 3, 2007 11:11 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Montco DFA

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Delays in reporting chemical releases violate trust

Written by: Michael Hays on Jul 25, 2007 2:01 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Philly for Change

Residents in Montgomery County and northwest Japan shared something in common earlier this month. Officials in their respective regions waited too long to report chemical releases that could be harmful to their neighbors’ health.

In the afternoon hours of July 10, a facility in Lower Providence Township owned by Superior Tube Company burped up approximately 2,400 pounds of TCE, or trichloroethylene, a known cancer-causing chemical. Area parents weren’t aware of the accident as their children played outside that day, or when they turned off the lights to go to sleep that night. Superior Tube officials notified proper state authorities at 11 a.m. the next day, about 19 hours after the accident, according to a July 17 article in Lansdale’s Reporter.

A malfunction in a degreaser caused the leak, according to Superior.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requires large accidental releases to be reported within two hours. Additionally, Superior’s state permit places an emission limit at 15 pounds per hour. The Collegeville-area facility emits around 140,000 pounds of TCE annually as a byproduct of manufacturing tubes.

Further damaging to community trust, the company underestimated the amount of carcinogen released into the air. Both DEP and Superior Tube initially pegged the release at “more than 100 pounds,” then somewhere between 500 and 1,200 pounds before finally increasing the upper limit to 2,400 pounds days after the accident. DEP deserves some blame in the communication breakdown for failing to notify the public until July 12, nearly 48 hours after the release.

Across the great Pacific Ocean, Japanese officials committed a similar blunder.

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake rocked northwest Japan on July 16, causing significant damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. According to the Associated Press, radioactive water sloshed out of a tank and was flushed out to sea in one

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Delays in reporting chemical releases violate trust

Written by: Michael Hays on Jul 25, 2007 1:44 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Montco DFA

Residents in Montgomery County and northwest Japan shared something in common earlier this month. Officials in their respective regions waited too long to report chemical releases that could be harmful to their neighbors’ health.

In the afternoon hours of July 10, a facility in Lower Providence Township owned by Superior Tube Company burped up approximately 2,400 pounds of TCE, or trichloroethylene, a known cancer-causing chemical. Area parents weren’t aware of the accident as their children played outside that day, or when they turned off the lights to go to sleep that night. Superior Tube officials notified proper state authorities at 11 a.m. the next day, about 19 hours after the accident, according to a July 17 article in Lansdale’s Reporter.

A malfunction in a degreaser caused the leak, according to Superior.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requires large accidental releases to be reported within two hours. Additionally, Superior’s state permit places an emission limit at 15 pounds per hour. The Collegeville-area facility emits around 140,000 pounds of TCE annually as a byproduct of manufacturing tubes.

Further damaging to community trust, the company underestimated the amount of carcinogen released into the air. Both DEP and Superior Tube initially pegged the release at “more than 100 pounds,” then somewhere between 500 and 1,200 pounds before finally increasing the upper limit to 2,400 pounds days after the accident. DEP deserves some blame in the communication breakdown for failing to notify the public until July 12, nearly 48 hours after the release.

Across the great Pacific Ocean, Japanese officials committed a similar blunder.

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake rocked northwest Japan on July 16, causing significant damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. According to the Associated Press, radioactive water sloshed out of a tank and was flushed out to sea in one

Read more

thoughts on immigration

Written by: Michael Hays on Dec 29, 2005 5:51 PM EST

Linked to groups: Flagstaff DFA

I am a progressive (like all of you). As such, I support causes like affordable health care, environmental preservation, peace, quality education, accountable government, and a living wage for all workers (like all of you). But I have reached my personal threshold when it comes to progressives' overwhelming stand on immigration.
All summer long, we read stories about resource-strapped, understaffed immigration agents struggling to protect our border with Mexico. Having paid plenty of lip service to the problem, state and national officials fail at creating results.
Progressives believe in fairness, yet a judge ruled that Arizona school districts must increase spending for teaching English to non-native speakers, even though many of the families benefiting from this initiative crossed the border illegally.
Progressives believe in protection, but border agents continue to have Molotov cocktails hurled at them. Meanwhile, some on the left rally for the immigrants' amnesty.
Governor Napolitano diverted $1.5 million earmarked for disaster relief to bolster resources in the border fight because our federal government can't do the job. In the wake of Katrina, does this make sense?
Traditionally, liberalism has stood for fairness and justice. My fellow Democrats and progressives, where is the justice in breaking the rules and coming to this country illegally? It is time to grow a backbone and stand on the right side of this issue.

--Michael Hays, Grand Canyon