ISO Health Care

The health care debate has flared up in Congress, with many agreeing that reform is necessary but with not quite enough (yet!) agreeing on how to begin fixing the problem. For rural families, the challenges of accessing affordable health care are likely more complicated than for their city cousins, e.g., a partial list of added challenges includes:

• State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) ... a great program which more than 1/3 of rural kids benefit from, but many families still haven't signed up. What does it take to get the word out?
• Attracting doctors to our small communities.
• Keeping the doctors once we're recruited them. (Doctors in rural communities have higher costs and often lack the advantage of telemedicine because of still lagging broadband shortages.)
• Keeping hospitals open when they lack the advantages of big city hospitals that can afford more patients and more equipment.

To help you sort out the debate, please scroll down the left column of this blog to see Senator Sherrod Brown discuss the need for a strong public option, i.e., a government sponsored option that would serve as an incentive for private health insurers to keep their prices affordable.

Economic Pressures and Health Care

We were watching last night's debate, and we "betcha" you were, too. One key difference between McCain and Obama is on health care, so for easy clarification, we recommend re-watching YouTube's "McCain Obama Differ Dramatically on Health Care."

Once you watch, a more substantive view has been offered by Paul Krugman in his recent column "Health Care Destruction" in the 10/6/08 New York Times. The column really is must reading, but Krugman's closing line is particularly scary as he says, "I agree: the McCain plan would do for health care what deregulations has done for banking. And I'm terrified." Read more here.

Count us as terrified, too.

Health Benefits Inspire a Rush to the Altar, or to Divorce Court

Let's just say this very clearly: Access to basic health services should NOT be based upon whether you're married or divorced.

The divorce rate for American marriages is over 50 percent these days, and the problem of how difficult it is for people to access affordable health care is making things worse. Kevin Sack wrote the story "Health Benefits Inspire a Rush to the Altar, or to Divorce Court" for the New York Times. Read it here.

Overall, it's a pretty sad state of affairs that getting good health care depends on whether you've got a spouse that has it, or for that matter, that you have to divorce your spouse in order to be poor enough to get assistance with your medical bills. This said, it brings us to some key differences regarding what the two leading presidential candidates (presumptive nominees) have to say about health care. We credit National Journal -- not the campaigns, for these differences, noting that National Journal frames the key difference as "over the scope of government involvement in America's health care system."

To put this another way, Senator McCain's plan depends primarily on tax incentives to individuals, while Senator Obama's plan pays for his proposed program by allowing President Bush's tax breaks to expire for people who earn over $250,000.

There are differences in their voting records, including:

• State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
  
• McCain voted NO; Obama voted YES .. for reauthorization and expansion in 2007
  
• Stem Cell Research
• Obama SPONSORED 2006-07 legislation -- VETOED by President Bush & OPPOSED by McCain -- that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research
  

National Journal lists SEIU, the American Hospital Association, Families USA and America's Health Insurance Plan as key supporters of Obama. National Journal does not list any organizations as advocates for McCain.

SEIU made its endorsement of Obama based upon his work in support of universal coverage, with employers, individuals and government sharing the financial burdon.

"Obama Probes National Health Care"

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's visit to St. Louis this week. The trip gave Obama a chance to talk in detail about his health care plan, but he also had made progress on his effort to reach out to rural America. The Post-Dispatch reports:

Asked why Democrats have lost the state in presidential elections since Bill Clinton carried Missouri in 1996, Obama said, "A mistake is probably made in neglecting those parts of the state that are not traditionally Democratic."

"Obama promised more stops in predominately Republican territory like the town hall gathering he held last month in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

"In the rural parts of the state, showing up makes a big difference," Obama said. "My general view is, even if I don't win those areas, we can narrow the gap and that may make a significant difference in how we do statewide."

Read more here. Once you get to the story, you can also click into an audio to hear more and also see more picture of his hospital visit.

"War's Stresses Take Toll on Military's Chaplains"

The New York Times reports from Killeen, Texas that, "War's Stresses Take Toll on Military's Chaplains." We share this story as a reminder ... Monday was Memorial Day and a time to honor our nation's soldiers. As the story reports, there is much more to appreciate, to learn about and to change so that we truly honor our soldiers and those who take care of them as they return, including how we:

1. Manage health care services to our Veterans.
2. Make decisions about going to war and/or staying in war.
3. Understand the difference between war, occupation and "giving" people democracy.
4. Move forward to repair the damage done to our economy by borrowing money from China.

We can expect it to be a continuing challenge about how to take care of our veterans when they return. PTSD and unprecedented serious injuries will require both patience and resources. A related continuing challenge will be how to rebuild a new, strong economy that includes both good jobs and the resources necessary to take care of our soldiers and our nation's other needs, too. As we approach the November elections, it also becomes increasingly important to consider the trade-offs about how our nation spends our money, e.g.,

• OHIO's taxpayers paid $4.4 Billion for the Bush tax cuts benefiting the richest 10 percent in FY2009. For that kind of money, they could have paid for:
• One year's health care for 1,555,685 people.
  
• For more Ohio trade-offs, go here.
• NEW MEXICO's taxpayers paid $397.7 Million for the Bush tax cuts benefiting the richest 10 percent in FY 2009. They could have paid for:
• 92,839 scholarships for NM's kids to go to college.
• For more New Mexico trade-offs, go here.
• IOWA's taxpayers paid $841.2 Million for the Bush tax cutes benefiting the richest 10 percent of US citizens in FY 2009. They could have paid for:
• 946,483 homes to have renewable electricity for one year.
• For more Iowa trade-offs, go here.

Clearly, Memorial Day is only one day a year, but for those of us who want to honor our veterans, we must find a way to make the wise decisions necessary to honor our returning veterans and also their families with jobs, health care and more opportunities.

Children's Health Care ... Is the President's Veto a sign of battles to come?

We all know about warning signals. There are the easy ones, like a red light that tells us to stop or a yellow light saying caution. We also know about other kinds of warning signals, e.g., when the fish show up dead on the shore, we know we have an environmental disaster on our hands .... and that we'd better clean it up, or we'll be sick from the water, too.

Now, Ron Brownstein, writing for National Journal, has identified a new warning signal, saying, "The current debate (on children's health care) is a prelude to next year's fight over broader health care reform."

President Bush said he vetoed the bill because the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) would direct its benefits toward middle class families who don't need the help. However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office refutes, finding that 85 percent of the nearly 4 million uninsured children the bill would add to the rolls live in families already eligible for the program.

In fact, the Urban Institute found that three-fourths of the children who would be newly enrolled, live in families who earn less than twice the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for a family of four.

For rural children, the situation becomes particularly dire. The Carsey Institute's studies on rural children's health care finds there is growing need, with rural children's dependence on SCHIP for health care six percent higher than for urban children.

All of us from rural areas of the country have stories to tell ... about how diminished our small -- now smaller, home towns, have become as the good jobs left town and many of the remaining families have more trouble making ends meet. Now, some of us are counting on the emerging bio-fuel renewable energy industry to bring back some of those new jobs. But meanwhile, our children don't have time to wait.

What the President really meant with his veto, is that he wants to send a message to middle class voters that assistance on health insurance will cost more than it's worth. It's the same message that the old "Harry and Louise" political ad used to kill Bill and Hillary Clinton's proposal for universal health insurance coverage. That old "Harry & Louise ad, by the way, is now used in Wikipedia as a primary example of modern propaganda, i.e., how ads can twist facts and confuse their audience.

However Brownstein also reminds us, "Since then, the cycle of rising health care costs and declining access has threatened more middle-class families: Of the 1 million children who lost health insurance over the past two years, fully two in five lived in families earning more than twice the poverty level."

Congress is considering now whether to over-ride Mr. Bush's veto. We urge you to call or email your member of Congress. Ask them to support SCHIP. Click below to find out how to email your Representative and Senators.

United State House of Representatives

United States Senate

We're also doing our first poll on this blogging site, so take a look at it, too ... and let us know what you're thinking.