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Trudy Zaja Adopted as Hanover Twp. Committeeman Candidate
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
During the membership meeting on Monday, October 12, HanDI members unanimously voted to adopt Trudy Zaja in her bid for the office of Democratic Party Committeeman for Hanover Township. According to HanDI bylaws, adoption is a process whereby members commit not only to endorse a candidate, but to work actively on his or her behalf.
In 2006, Trudy helped to establish Hanover Township Democrats and Independents (HanDI), and has served as Chair of our organization.
As committeeman, Trudy will use her energy and experience to unite the Democrats of Hanover Township and continue inspiring citizens to become more involved in public life.
To learn more about Trudy and her campaign, visit her campaign site: http://trudyzaja.com
Steering Committee Election Results Announced
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
This message is from the 2009 HanDI Nominating Chair, Bonnie Mansfield:
At the regular monthly meeting of HanDI, September 14, 2009, there was an election of
Steering Committee members, with results as follows:
CHAIR
Trudy Zaja
CO-CHAIR
Maureen Stablie
SECRETARY
Herb Best
TREASURER
Linda Best
MEMBERSHIP CHAIR
Maureen Stabile
Congratulations and many thanks to the new officers for their past and future service!
Lack of health insurance linked to 45,000 U.S. deaths per year
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
45,000 American deaths associated with lack of insurance
CNN
(CNN) -- A freelance cameraman's appendix ruptured and by the time he was admitted to surgery, it was too late. A self-employed mother of two is found dead in bed from undiagnosed heart disease. A 26-year-old aspiring fashion designer collapsed in her bathroom after feeling unusually fatigued for days.
Paul Hannum's family members say he probably would've gone to the hospital earlier if he had had health insurance.
What all three of these people have in common is that they experienced symptoms, but didn't seek care because they were uninsured and they worried about the hospital expense, according to their families. All three died.
Research released this week in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that 45,000 deaths per year in the United States are associated with the lack of health insurance. If a person is uninsured, "it means you're at mortal risk," said one of the authors, Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The researchers examined government health surveys from more than 9,000 people aged 17 to 64, taken from 1986-1994, and then followed up through 2000. They determined that the uninsured have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care. The researchers then extrapolated the results to census data from 2005 and calculated there were 44,789 deaths associated with lack of health insurance.
For years, Paul Hannum didn't have health insurance while he worked as a freelance cameraman in southern California.
One Sunday, Hannum complained of a stomachache which alarmed his pregnant fiancée, Sarah Percy. "He wasn't a complainer," she said. "He's the type of guy who, if he got a cold, he'll power through it. I never had known him to complain about anything."
Hannum thought he had a stomach flu or food poisoning from bad chicken. On Monday, his brother saw him looking ashen and urged him to go to the hospital. "He had a little girl on the way," his older brother Curtis Hannum said. "He didn't want the added burden of an ER visit to hang on their finances. He thought 'I'll just wait,' and he got worse and worse."
Paul Hannum, 45, died on Thursday, August 3, 2006, from a ruptured appendix. His daughter, Cameron was born two months later.
Other studies have indicated that the uninsured are at greater risk of mortality than the insured. A 2007 study from The American Cancer Society found that uninsured cancer patients are 1.6 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis than those with private insurance. In 2002, the Institute of Medicine estimated that lack of health insurance caused about 18,000 deaths every year.
The latest findings come amid the fierce debate over health care reform in the U.S.
Two authors of the Harvard study, Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler are co-founders of the Physicians for a National Health Program, which supports government-backed "single-payer" health coverage.
The National Center for Policy Analysis, which backs "free-market" health care reform, calls the Harvard research flawed.
"The findings in this research are based on faulty methodology and the death risk is significantly overstated," said John C. Goodman, the president of the NCPA in a statement. But Goodman did note there is "a genuine crisis of the uninsured in this country."
The lead author of the Harvard study, Dr. Andrew Wilper said he's confident in his and his colleagues' estimates. "It's consistent with the vast body of literature that has found reasonably similar findings," said Wilper, instructor in internal medicine at the University of Washington. "There's broad agreement in the health literature regarding this point."
Wilper said there is often fear from those, including his own grandmother, who don't feel well but avoid the hospital because it could mean financial catastrophe.
For 10 years, Sue Riek suffered from back pain, but couldn't afford medical care.
When a mid-life divorce left her single and without health insurance, Riek started a home-business selling make-up on eBay to support herself and her two daughters.
Riek, who lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, didn't qualify for Medicaid. And she couldn't afford a $5,000 monthly insurance premium, said her eldest daughter, Kaytee Riek.
"I don't know if she felt trapped, but it was a constant in her life -- struggling outside the health care system to exist," her daughter said.
Riek took comfort in her faith and regularly attended church. Then one Sunday, she didn't show up.
The next day, September 3, 2007, her daughter received the call telling her that her 51-year-old mother died from undiagnosed heart disease -- a condition treatable with lifestyle changes, medication and certain medical procedures.
"I feel incredibly strongly that she would still be alive if she had been able to regularly see a doctor," said her daughter.
It has become lethal to be uninsured, said Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard.
"If you can get good primary care for your high blood pressure, your high cholesterol, diabetes -- those don't have to be lethal conditions," she said. "If you fail to get good ongoing primary care, you may end up with complications and even death."
The ranks of the uninsured have grown, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It says the number of Americans without health insurance rose to 46.3 million last year, up from 45.7 million in 2007. The percentage of the uninsured remained at 15.4 percent.
Young adults are more likely to be uninsured. Elizabeth Machol, 25, told her mother she felt tired. She had just moved into a new apartment in Santa Rosa, California, with her boyfriend and thought the fatigue was from the move and her cat Bert, who would keep her up at night.
A few days after their phone conversation, Machol collapsed in the bathroom. She never regained consciousness.
One day after her 26th birthday, Machol was declared brain dead.
After signing papers to donate her organs, her parents kissed her face, held her hands and said goodbye to the daughter who had played the violin, organized her own fashion show and taught neighborhood kids how to swim. The coroner's office could not determine the cause of death.
Six years after her death on September 22, 2003, her family wonders if things would've been different had she not feared the cost of going to the hospital.
"Maybe they would've found out what's wrong," her mother said. "I don't know if that would've saved her, but it would've been a chance to. There are people like Elizabeth -- young people who are starting out in life and they don't have options."
################
How many lives did Ted Kennedy save?
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
In the obituaries for Senator Edward Kennedy, the Chappaquiddick incident is invariably mentioned, as it should be. That dark night in 1969, he left a passenger for dead after driving – probably while intoxicated – off a bridge, and then he failed to notify authorities for many hours. Kennedy plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence. But was that shameful incident the sole defining moment of his moral existence, as some detractors on the right would have it? I would prefer to judge Kennedy on the entirety of his time on this earth. While Kennedy directly caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, he indirectly saved many other lives by way of his public service and the legislation he helped to pass. Consider the following:
- the children and seniors who have received medical treatment thanks to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) and Medicare
- the racial minorities spared intimidation and violence because of the Civil Rights Act
- the legions of homeless who have found refuge through programs funded by the McKinney-Vento Act
- the handicapped who lead safer, more independent lives thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act
- the newborn babies and ailing relatives who received life-sustaining care from workers granted time off through the Family and Medical Leave Act
- the women who have escaped domestic abuse thanks to the provisions of the Violence Against Women Act
- the people of color who have received new health information and treatment options because of the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act
- the sufferers of mental illness who will receive insurance coverage for the treatment they need thanks to the Mental Health Parity Act
- the future ranks of American and allied soldiers, as well as Iraqi civilians, who will be spared death because the Iraq War, to which Kennedy rallied opposition, may finally be drawing to a close.
Ted Kennedy did not save one precious life when he very well could have. But he did save the next life. And the next, and the next, and the next…
British charity brings medical care to U.S. uninsured
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
A British citizen who started a charity to deliver medical and dental services to rural areas of South America now spends most of his time serving uninsured citizens of the United States. I first heard this story about a year ago on National Public Radio's BBC news segment. Although the story was not overtly critical of the American health care non-system, I felt ashamed. Here we are, the richest country on the planet, and yet we let our fellow Americans live in third-world conditions, accepting foreign relief.
The text of the story appears below. For pictures and video, visit the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7420744.stm
By Jonathan Beale
BBC News, Tennessee
Stan Brock is like a 21st-Century Florence Nightingale.
He started a charity - Remote Area Medical (RAM) - more than 20 years ago to bring relief to those cut off from healthcare.
Originally it was to help poor tribes in the former British colony of Guyana, South America.
That is where he lived after leaving Preston, Lancashire, more than half a century ago - he still is a British citizen.
But now Stan spends most of his time bringing relief to the richest country in the world.
Production line
Some 60% of RAM's work is now carried out in the United States.
Stan Brock
Founder, RAM
On a wet, spring weekend he lands his vintage World War II aircraft - once used to drop American troops on D-Day - in Lafayette, Tennessee.
He bought the plane to parachute medics into the jungle.
Today he is unloading dentists' chairs from the plane into a pickup truck.
By eight o'clock on Friday evening the first patients have arrived after travelling hundreds of miles.
They start queuing.
For one weekend RAM has turned a high school into a hospital.
Classrooms have become consulting rooms and the sports hall has been transformed into a production line to fill or extract painful teeth.
Volunteer nurses, doctors and dentists have flown in from all over the country to man the stations.
Like Stan, they are not getting paid.
By five o'clock on Saturday morning the line is snaking round the school.
State troopers are on standby to help.
The patients are handed numbers as they wait in the pouring rain.
'Working poor'
Most of those I speak to seem to have jobs, but cannot afford healthcare.
For one reason or another they do not have insurance.
They call themselves the "working poor".
And then Stan Brock arrives with a loudspeaker to call the first batch in.
Once inside there is more queuing and waiting.
The patients slowly make their way to tables with yet more volunteers, who take blood pressure and medical history.
Among the sea of faces is Donna Pollard.
She wants a mammogram to check out a lump on her breast, as well as dental work and new eye glasses.
For her, this service is nothing short of a lifeline.
Healthcare is a luxury when you are struggling to pay the bills.
Then there is Ken Barbee.
At 64, he has been working for most of his life.
But recently he had to give up his job as a truck driver to look after his sick wife.
By the time I catch up with him he has already got his new glasses - now he hopes to have his last few teeth removed.
Ken calls it "a shame" that people have to resort to charity for their healthcare in the world's most prosperous country.
He feels let down: "We're just pushed out there and told to do the best y'can."
Election issue
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Some 47 million Americans have no health insurance.
Millions more are under-insured.
It is no wonder that healthcare is now such a big issue in the presidential race.
For a stoical Stan Brock, organising these clinics is both rewarding and depressing.
Come Sunday when it is time to pack up, he will be turning people away.
He watches over the whole operation wearing a neatly pressed khaki uniform, carrying a clipboard and pen, looking like a figure from the old British empire.
He has given his life to all this.
He takes no salary, and lives in an old school building in Knoxville, Tennessee, from where he plans RAM's expeditions.
As for his views on America's healthcare, Stan says:
"We need to fix it... fall into line with Britain and France.
"Here in this country if you're poor - you don't have much of a shot."
In this one short weekend, RAM treated 550 people - 416 teeth were extracted, more than 200 pairs of glasses handed out.
The estimated value of this free treatment was nearly $1m (£500,000).
So Stan Brock will continue flying in healthcare to rural Appalachia as well as the developing world.
He is also seriously thinking of returning to Britain - with a team of RAM volunteers.
He has heard his old country has a shortage of NHS dentists.
"I am sure we'll get just as large a crowd as we're getting here in the US," he says.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7420744.stm
Published: 2008/05/29 00:19:56 GMT
© BBC MMIX
Health Care Reform: A Doctor's Historical Perspective
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
In concert with DFA's initiative for health care reform, I'd like to share an interesting article by Dr. Atul Gawande that was published in The New Yorker earlier this year:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/26/090126fa_fact_gawande
In the piece, titled "Getting there from here," Gawande (a physician, author and professor at Harvard Medical School) examines the historical origins of the three principal models of universal health coverage in the world today. The government-owned National Health System in Britain began as an means to deliver medical care during the crises of World War II; people liked the system so much that they kept it in peacetime. The single-payer system of France, which offers public payment for privately-delivered health care, was built during the post-war period by expanding pre-existing, employer-based insurance funds financed through payroll taxes. (The Canadians created their own single-payer system gradually, starting in a single province.) Meanwhile, neutral Switzerland escaped the wartime devastation of its neighbors and came to rely on government-regulated, for-profit insurance coverage that is available to all citizens (Israel also follows this model).
The article contends that radical change is doomed to fail; instead, successful reform in health care or any other area builds and improves upon pre-existing structures. The United States already has elements of the three universal health-care models: government-owned (the Veterans Administration hospitals), single-payer (Medicare) and private insurance (usually employer-provided). The problem is that none of them yet comes close to covering everyone, but the opportunity for change is before us. Writes Dr. Gawande, "American health care is an appallingly patched-together ship, with rotting timbers, water leaking in, mercenaries on board, and fifteen per cent of the passengers thrown over the rails just to keep it afloat. But hundreds of millions of people depend on it. … There is no dry-docking health care for a few months, or even for an afternoon, while we rebuild it. Grand plans admit no possibility of mistakes or failures, or the chance to learn from them. If we get things wrong, people will die. This doesn’t mean that ambitious reform is beyond us. But we have to start with what we have."
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Progressive Blogs
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
Most everyone knows about Daily Kos and the Huffington Post, but there are some progressive blogs devoted to political news in our area, as well. PrairieStateBlue.com is a forum for Illinoisans (Chicago-area, mainly) that has featured the writings of DFA and Operation Turn DuPage Blue members, among others. Also, over the past two years, a few blogs dedicated to following the record of Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL 6) have risen and fallen, but one that has endured is RubberStampRoskam.com. (Although the author hasn't posted since Election Day - maybe he's still in recovery?) And of course there is the Democracy for America "Blog for America" forum, accessible via the DFA main page or any of its member groups, like HanDI. See you all on the interwebs!
DNC Viewing Party Memories
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
On Thursday, August 28, my family and I joined a group of HanDI members and friends for an informal gathering at a private home in Streamwood to watch the final evening of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. This was the first HanDI-related event in the last couple of years for which I played no role in the planning or execution, having resigned the Steering Committee following the birth of my second child in June. OK, I will allow myself to brag just a bit -- I proposed the idea of having a DNC viewing party back in January, when the Steering Committee was planning the year’s activities. Other than that, however, all I had to do was show up and have fun! The host and her "helpers" were terrifically imaginative. Upon arrival, every partygoer made a donation and got a red, white or blue necklace and some Obama swag. The national colors were displayed everywhere -- signs in the yard, bunting, napkins, toothpicks, pinwheel toys, and even a cake with the Obama-Biden logo on the icing! In the house, two televisions were tuned to C-SPAN. Partygoers intent on hearing the speeches huddled around one set in the dining room, while those more inclined to talk to each other gathered in the den.
I will refrain from lengthy commentary on the content of the convention, other than to note that the cynic in me couldn't help but notice what was not included in the biographical video preceding Obama's speech: his father's country of origin (although Obama did mention his dad's Kenyan nationality in the speech) and the years Obama spent growing up in Indonesia with his stepfather. In other words, they glossed over the stuff that makes Obama seem too "foreign." (Sigh) Also, I was impressed by Al Gore's note in his earlier speech that Abraham Lincoln was elected President when his only prior experience in political office consisted of 8 years in the Illinois legislature, plus a term in Congress -- just like Obama! I think Gore has found his true calling in academia and activism, but maybe there will be a place for him in the Obama administration. Gore for EPA Chairman!
My fellow partygoers gave a favorable reception to Obama's words in the closing speech -- as when David A. responded to a critique of McCain: "Hit 'em right between the eyes!" In her remarks to the assembled guests, HanDI Chairman Trudy Z. spoke with emotion about how Obama's address coincided with the 45th anniversary of MLK's speech during the march on Washington. She encouraged all of us to volunteer for local candidates during this election season -- including judicial candidate and HanDI member Ann Brady, also in attendance. State Senator Mike Noland chimed in that he is organizing local volunteers to go up to Wisconsin (a swing state) every weekend and campaign for Obama; he encouraged those interested to contact his office.
Everyone seemed impressed by the momentous nature of the occasion. More than one person commented that the children present were witnessing history. May they grow up in a world that is better thanks to President Obama and the citizens who elected him.
HanDI Primary Endorsements Announced
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI) have made the following endorsements for the Democratic primary election of February 5, 2008:
6th Congressional District: Jill Morgenthaler
Cook County Judge, 13th subcircuit, Ryan vacancy: Ann Brady
Cook County Judge, 13th subcircuit, Tobin vacancy: Gary Stanton
Illinois State Representative, 55th District: Broc Montgomery
EARLY VOTING IS HAPPENING NOW THROUGH JANUARY 31 - DETAILS HERE:
http://dfalink.com/event.php?id=26697
ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5.
EVERYONE GET OUT AND VOTE!
Steering Committee Election Results Announced
Linked to groups: Hanover Township Democrats & Independents (HanDI)
Dear HanDI Members and Friends:
We're feeling very official now! At September's general meeting, members passed the HanDI bylaws. Then at the October meeting, we elected a new Steering Committee. (I have to keep reminding myself not to say "Board.")
The officers are as follows:
Chair: Trudy Zaja
Co-Chair: Linda Best
Secretary: Maureen Stabile
Treasurer: Jim Cave
Membership Chair: Debbie Caruso
There are still openings for Steering Committee Members-at-Large. If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please contact an officer, and we can call a special election at a future meeting.
Thanks to everyone for participating!
Sincerely,
Maureen Stabile
Secretary, HanDI
Videos of some of the 64 House Healthcare Heroes standing strong for a public health insurance option
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver
Congressman Lloyd Dogget
Congressman Keith Ellison
Congressman Bob Filner
Congressman Phil Hare
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
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