INSURANCE DOES NOT INSURE QUALITY HEALTH CARE
The following is a personal story of the former Congress Lady from Georgia, Cynthia Mckinney. This is a good argument against tort reform. This story should widen the debate on health care reform.
I never want you to take the journey that I'm currently on. So, I want to tell you about it.
It starts on the front of the refrigerator. "The Healthiest Foods on Earth." A two-page primer from apple to watermelon, touting immunity to male fertility support. Inside the refrigerator, natural and organic foods only. On the countertop is the Jack LaLanne juicer, the Magic Bullet, the handy food chopper plus, the food saver vacuum sealer--all items familiar to us because they are constantly hawked on the midnight cable channels. Hanging from the kitchen cabinet door are plastic bags for recycling: one for plastics, the other for aluminum cans. The house and car are filled with reusable shopping bags made of recycled materials. By the way, a new car was in the works, and not because of the cash for clunkers program of the Federal Government. An American-made hybrid was preferred--keeping U.S. workers working. In the back seat of her Ford Focus is a booklet, "Living in a Healthy Body: A New Look at Health & Weight." What I'm trying to describe is someone working very hard at changing a typically indulgent "American" lifestyle into one more respectful and healthy for the body, healthy for our earth.
So, in an act of preventive medical care, my aunt Hazel went to the doctor to have a colonoscopy. We are all bombarded with television commercials advising us to have a colonoscopy. I know in the black media, those ads abound. And so, dutifully, my aunt abided by those suggestions for healthy choices and had her first colonoscopy. What the family knows is that her colon was perforated. That's when our journey took us on a wrong turn.
Unfortunately, the facility that performed the colonoscopy had told my aunt not to call before the results were published and that would take up to two weeks!!! When my aunt called them because she was feeling so bad, they told her that she'd be ok overnight and that they would call her in the morning. The hospital talked to her and her daughter. The hospital told my aunt to go to sleep overnight and they'd call her back in the morning. But my aunt-tee continued to deteriorate so badly that her daughter called 9-1-1 and by the morning, my aunt-tee was already in surgery at another hospital that was not too busy to care for her. This is when the perforation was discovered and repaired.
While my aunt was recovering in the second hospital, in intensive care, a letter was sent from the hospital where the colonoscopy was performed stating that they were the insured's provider and that the hospital performing the emergency surgery would not get paid. The hospital performing the mal-colostomy demanded my aunt-tee back. So, against the desires of the hospital providing the emergency surgery, my aunt, while still in intensive care, was forced to be transferred to the hospital that, in my opinion, committed a capital crime.
My aunt-tee deteriorated after the transfer, but fought like heck to live. Unfortunately, her body had been so poisoned by the doctor's failure to recognize that he had perforated her colon that her body became toxic. The third affront to my aunt-tee's health and life occurred when morphine was administered, ostensibly for pain and gave her such a blow to her vital statistics that the family objected to a second administration of morphine. But guess what!!! She was given morphine again, despite her children's complaints!!!! My aunt never recovered from that.
My aunt, a divorced mother of two, struggled to live righteously. Those of you in southern California know that she accompanied me almost everywhere I went. She was a hard-working woman, a proud homeowner in Watts, a student working on her Social Work degree, finally able to achieve her dreams after deferring them for so long in order to help her children realize theirs. She also took to the campaign trail too many times, traveling to Georgia to help my father and me realize ours. I can't even believe that she's gone--through no fault of her own--and I'm still wondering how the heck my aunt ended up in this place. Despite all the care she took of herself this is unfathomable to me. And sadly, too many families are arriving at this same place. Iraqi families devastated by U.S. occupation; Afghani families devastated by U.S. war; U.S. families also devastated by U.S. policy makers. Why?
For the last four years, I've spouted off the racial quality-of-life disparities that exist in our country. I've said it so much, it's as if no one heard me. Because even during my tenure in Congress, I gave floor speeches, but the policy change never came. I spoke at banquets and conventions about it, but the policy changes never came. Two steps forward always seemed to end with one step backward. If we got the money appropriated, in too many instances, black institutions couldn't be in charge of it, so only a trickle at best reached the community. I found that the "plantation" was alive and well in patterns of federal spending. So when Dr. David Satcher, President Clinton's Surgeon General, found in a 2005 study that over 83,000 blacks die unnecessary and premature deaths each year due to their treatment after they arrive in a doctor's office, among other factors, I added that datum to my panoply of quality-of-life stats. And now, my aunt factors in Dr. Satcher's numbers.
I have seen such betrayal and lack of principle in the current "health care" debate, I had no intention of getting into it. In our Power to the People campaign, I wrote a platform that included policy recommendations to eliminate all disparities still extant in our society, including for health care. A single-payer system is so obviously needed, it should be too politically costly for our Democratic majority in the Congress and our Democratic White House to do anything else. I recommended an end to war. I advocated public ownership of the Federal Reserve. I even anticipated the skullduggery of the bailouts and recommended that if the "powers that be" were intent on forcing Congress to give these bailouts to institutions that conducted what I would call criminal behavior, then at a minimum, a credible person like David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller, should audit all corporations and institutions receiving such funds. I suggested that Senator Obama use the power of his Senatorial pen to amend the bailout legislation to this effect. It didn't happen.
My aunt-tee had a policy of rarely voting for an incumbent. She understood that just as she was trying to change herself into a lifestyle that she could believe in, she wasn't going to get political, social, and economic change that she could believe in by voting like everyone else, for the same special interest candidates. Once she decided that it was necessary to step outside of the box of political conformity, she discovered that there were Independent, Green Party, Libertarian, and other political party candidates on her ballot that she had long ignored. She began to listen to them and learned to explore the totality of her options. It was glorious to watch my aunt-tee's liberation.
So why is she in the morgue now?
Not enough people took that journey with her. Not enough people saw her example. Not enough was done to change policy. At a time when the policy makers have never been so divorced from the reality borne by the average citizens that they govern, the American people have shown an amazing ability to accept graft, corruption, death, and destruction while continuing to believe that hope alone can produce real change. Why did Cindy Sheehan protest without thousands in front of President Obama's $50,000 a week vacation home?
I've tried to walk my talk. Just last week it came out that one "journalist" who called for my lynching was on the FBI payroll at the time of his comment. He claims to have been paid to say provocative things. I've withstood a lot--for the people. But now, I really don't know how much more walking or talking I'm able to do. I just wonder, how many more will have to experience this before more people write their own Declarations of Independence from this political disorder.
The phone just rang and it was the hospital that performed the botched colonoscopy on my aunt, that ignored her call for help, that demanded that she be transferred while she was in intensive care, that administered morphine twice, despite objections from the family and from which her vitals never recovered. They wanted to know how my aunt would rate their service. I told them poor on every count.
Thank you for reading this with empathy and I thank you all for your support. I apologize for any appointments that I've missed while I've been on the road to this place I'm in now.
P.S. My friend, David Josué, wrote a beautiful notice that I include in this message. Please click on the link at the end of his message because "dying while black" is real. My aunt is just the latest victim. The highlights are mine:
Cynthia McKinney lost a family member . . .
100,000 Unnecessary Black Deaths Per Year!
[09/01/09] It is with a heart full of sorrow that I have to inform you of the death of Cynthia's maternal aunt. Hazel was not sick and took all preventive measures to live a long life. She went to have a colonoscopy and her colon was punctured. What else went wrong during the procedure is still unknown to the family. Hazel survived Jim Crow but could not survive the health care system. Cynthia is deeply affected by this tragic event. She was very close to her aunt and Hazel loved her niece. Hazel was a fervent supporter of Cynthia's six terms in Congress and was so happy to see her niece run for President of the United States in 2008. Only last July the 4th she was in Atlanta with us while we were working around the clock to secure Cynthia's release from an Israeli jail. It is hard to accept that she is no more.
Please visit Professor Vernellia Randall's site http://www.dyingwhileblack.org/book.htm
Thank you
David Josué
--
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Rev. Ajabu
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Reverend
The article doesn't tie in the reasons for not supporting Tort Reform. Tort Reform is the idea that the trial lawyers are running up the cost of health care with frivolous lawsuits on behalf of people like Cynthia's auntee.
As a practicing physician who fought the passage of tort reform in Ga, I am a living witness that it is just another scheme of the insurance industry to cut out more cost to them. My malpractice insurance premiums were suppose to decrease because of the passage of tort reform. My premiums went up $3,000 more and I asked my carrier when will the decrease come and they told me that they are working on it; this is three years since passage of the reform.
The devasting results are laid on the victims of bad doctors and bad hospitals. There is a $250,000 cap on payments for certain acts of malpractice. What attorney would go and fight the lawyers who defend the hospitals and doctors for $250,000 cap. The victim will not be able to get a lawyer under these circumstances.
How low down and cut throat is the insurance industry which raked in $428 billion in profits last year. They will deny the patient his or her medicine, procedures, hospitalizations, and many life threatening health care services and nobody can sue them if they get it wrong. They will not insure you if you are not healty and a low risk for having them to pay out money. What a no lose proposition.
We must not support Tort Reform because all it does in lower the cost to the insurance industry and it leaves victims of malpractice with nothing. The malpractice aspect of health care is not a major cause of the cost of healthcare as the insurers would lead us to believe.
We need President Obama's public option to counter the run away cost of healthcare by the insurance companies. The uninformed screaming idiots at the healthcare forums are cutting the throats of millions of their fellow Americans who have no access to medical care.
john
A one off event is not a reason to change the whole system. People makes mistakes in all fiels, expecially government.
I am not surprized about this information in the least.I am constantly in communication with
the Healthcare system and their staff. A very
dear committed constuant of mine by the name
of Kim was completely phased out of the system
because of deep objection to poor healthcare
at Wishard. They were so upset with her that they phased out her office completely.Yes our
nation is a terrible condition. Our city is even worse than that because it effects us on
a more personal basis. However, that does not
deter me from the path of justice. I shall re-
main committed to the cause of true justice on
every level. I won't waver and I won't faint
and I won't bat an eye in the face of danger.
Obama came crying in the wilderness "Yes We Can" and we did. Can requires dramatic "change
and challenges". Some people have lost the
"salt" that it took to make certain mentalities
in this displaced society. We need to get back
to camps. The camps that our fathers died for.
The camp of blood sweat and tears. The things
that the Dr. King died for."yes We Can" Yes We
Have" and "Yes we will". Not my brother. Not my
sister, But me. The mentality has to rise in the soul of every "God fearing American" that it is me that must be heard. Stand up and voice
your complaint and be ready to die if neces-
sary for the cause of "RIGHT". Making "right"
the "master" of might.Brethren start filling up the churches in your neighborhoods. Start
investing into the cleaning up of our govern-
mental offices and our law enforcement offices
and place people into positions based on the
content of his/her character. Many of these
offices are filled with imposters that are be-
ing placed there against the progress of cer-
tain ministries and cultures.
John,
We are in agreement. I guess the communication break down when I say it is a good argument against tort reform. What I am saying is that Cynthia's aunt's case is a good reason to reform the changes already made to tort cases. There should be no cap on the loss of life because a doctor was in adequate in their practice.
GB,
Yes, people make mistakes. However, the death of people from inadequate doctors is really too prevalent. I am all for mercy to someone that commits a mistake. However, when the mistake is like what happened to Cynthia's aunt then a $250,000 cap on the doctor's responsiblity is just unacceptable. There should be no cap on the cost of someone's live when it was when it was unnecessarily taken by a practising professional. Wrongful death is wrong.
Rev. Covington,
I feel you too. We must be active in our efforts to right all wrongs. God bless you all.
Dear Mmoja;
What does "Adequate" health care mean for heart disease and stroke patients?
• It means a stroke survivor won't find himself without coverage for the rehabilitation he needs to walk and talk again after leaving the hospital.
• It means that a baby born with a congenital heart defect won't reach his insurance plan's lifetime cap on benefits before his second birthday.
• It means a heart attack survivor won't find herself with crippling medical bills because her plan only covered her hospitalization, but none of the associated medical care provided during the stay.
• It means that a woman with a family history of heart disease will be covered for the preventative care she needs to reduce her risk.
Unfortunately, these aren't just hypothetical situations. These are realities that heart disease and stroke patients are facing each day as they try to navigate a broken health care system. And all too often, these inadequacies in coverage lead families down the road toward medical bankruptcy -- in fact, cardiovascular disease is a top cause of medical bankruptcy.
That's why the American Heart Association supports health care reform policies that will ensure patients are able to receive the right care at the right time. We believe that coverage should span the continuum of care from prevention to rehabilitation.
Currently, the bills under consideration in the House and Senate would require all plans to cover essential benefits without annual or lifetime caps, and eliminate financial barriers to preventive care. And the bills would empower the consumer by requiring plans sold through the insurance exchange to provide comparable information about health insurance benefits, costs, and quality to make certain that consumers know what their coverage provides.
We will need your help to ensure the measures being considered by Congress to address health care adequacy don't get watered down as the debate continues on Capitol Hill. Please do your part to share the facts with family and friends and we'll send you timely action alerts when it is critical to act.
Stay tuned for information on the last of the 3 A's- Affordability - in the Advocacy Pulse newsletter next week.
Clarissa Garcia
American Heart Association
Heart Disease and Stroke. You're the Cure.
Labor Day weekend is also a good opportunity to speak to workers' right to join a union. Unions historically have been workers' best opportunity to improve wages, benefits, training and workplace safety. Celebrate how working people have enriched our lives and communities. We know many Lardena's, Mary's and Joe's who can't afford to eat in the restaurants, sleep in the hotels or get care in hospitals where they work. They can't afford many other necessities of life, have no healthcare, paid sick days or reliable transportation. Other workers remain in jobs they hate to keep their health insurance.
Healthcare workers are represented by many unions, mine included. Office and Professional Employees International Union represents many doctors, nurses and paraprofessionals. Their main concern is providing the best patient care possible. Doctors began to organize when insurance employees with no medical training began to control what treatment patients could receive. Our healthcare professionals strongly support healthcare reform. Insurance companies have stood between patients and their doctors' care for too long.
Healthcare reform AND the Employee Free Choice Act can improve the lives of so many Americans. Lift them up on Labor Day weekend services.
Nancy Holle, VP
OPEIU Local 1
Community, Faith and Labor Coalition, President
As people of faith, we envision a society where each person is afforded health, wholeness, and human dignity.
That vision embraces a system of health care that is
inclusive... accessible... affordable... and accountable.
Vision ~ Inclusive: Health care is a shared responsibility that is grounded in our common humanity. In the bonds of our human family, we are created to be equal. We are guided by a divine will to treat each person with dignity and to live together as an inclusive community. Affirming our commitment to the common good, we acknowledge our enduring responsibility to care for one another. As we recognize that society is whole only when we care for the most vulnerable among us, we are led to discern the human right to health care and wholeness. Therefore, we are called to act with compassion by sharing our abundant health care resources with everyone.
Vision ~ Affordable: Health care must contribute to the common good by being affordable for individuals, families and society as a whole. We believe that in the sacred act of creation we are endowed with the talents, wisdom and abundant resources necessary to meet the needs of one another, including the health care needs of all. Therefore, in our calling to be faithful stewards, we understand our responsibility to use our health care resources effectively, to administer them efficiently, and to distribute them with equity.
Vision ~ Accessible: All persons should have access to health services that provide necessary care and contribute to wellness. We believe humanity is sacred and that all persons should benefit from those actions which contribute to our health and wholeness. Therefore, we are called to act with justice and love, to ensure that all of us have access to the health care we need in order to live out the fullness of our potential both as individuals and as contributing members of our society. We must work together to identify and overcome all barriers to and disparities in such care.
Vision ~ Accountable: Our health care system must be accountable, offering a quality, equitable and sustainable means of keeping us healthy as individuals and as a community. We believe that as spiritual and sacred vessels, we are responsible for the care of our bodies to the best of our ability and for the care of one another regardless of individual circumstances. Therefore, individuals, families, governments, businesses, and the faith community are called to work in partnership for a system that ensures fully-informed, timely, quality and safe care that treats body, mind and spirit.
Linda Walling
Mmoja,
We didn't plan to email you again today. But yesterday, news broke that President Obama will make a big speech to Congress next Wednesday on health care -- an issue we know you care about.
And according to news reports, "although House leaders have said their members will demand the inclusion of a public insurance option, Obama has no plans to insist on it himself." *
In response, we got a truly depressing email from Christian S. in Texas:
"Your recent health care ads are great, they hit home. But Obama has decided to drop the public option and for breaking his campaign promise I am dropping out of political activism for the time being."
This fight is absolutely not over, but Christian's feelings are real. If Obama doesn't stand firm on the public option, millions of people will lose hope.
So today, we're launching a petition to President Obama signed by those who volunteered, staffed, voted for, or donated to Obama's campaign in 2008, asking him to please stand firm on the public option.
If that's you, can you sign this petition today? Click here.
Then, please think hard about others you know who worked for change last year -- and forward them this email.
The petition says: "We worked so hard for real change. President Obama, please demand a strong public health insurance option in your speech to Congress. Letting the insurance companies win would not be change we can believe in."
We'll make sure the White House gets our message. In addition to delivering the signatures and personal notes from the petition page, we're planning an ad featuring the voices of those who sign.
Obama's speech "is still being debated in the West Wing." * That means there's still time -- we have one week to persuade Obama to do the right thing.
Can you sign this petition to President Obama today? Click here:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4951/content.jsp?content_KEY=2793&tag=pod_main-email1
Then, please forward this to others. Again, we have until Wednesday, September 9. Thanks for being a bold progressive.
-- Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Michael Snook, Evan Miller, Andrew Perez, and the PCCC team
* Source: "Under fire, President Obama shifts strategy." Politico, Sept. 1, 2009.
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4951/content.jsp?content_KEY=2793&tag=pod_main-email1
Dear Congressmen Andre Carson,
My family and I are writing this letter together pleading to you because we have no where else to turn. My father’s name is Richard A. Thompson III; he’s 52 years old and we reside in Indianapolis, IN he’s a husband of 22 years a father of 5 and grandfather of 5 as well. Overall; he’s been some what unhealthy this is due to many years of uncontrolled high blood pressure and diabetes. On October 24, 2008 he was the victim of a Type A-Aortic Dissection also known as a massive heart attack. During his recovery period which was very difficult he went back to work too early, to save our home in spite of his health which was still unstable. He put all his energy, heart and soul into rehab for his recovery; this was in order to be a provider for our family. He returned to MSD of Pike Township Transportation in late January of 2009, having to be hospitalized again within approximately three days of returning back to work due to congestive heart failure. After returning back to work on February 6th, 2009 he maintained and reported to work consistently to retrieve our home from foreclosure and keep our family off the streets.
On March 24th of this year during the spring break of MSD of Pike Township, the Indiana Department of Transportation disqualified his commercials drivers’ license. On April 10th of this year his employment was terminated due to the inability to maintain qualifying certification according to MSD of Pike Township and the Indiana Department of Transportation rules and regulations. He’s attempted to be reinstated several times since and on July 7th, 2009 the examining physician certified by the Indiana Department of Transportation felt it was necessary for supporting documentation medical records of his latest health issues to be submitted with his physical examination. As requested an updated CT scan was performed as a result of this CT scan a 5.4 x 5.1 Type B Thoracic Aortic Aneurism was found.
He applied for social security disability benefits December of 2008 he was denied in June 2009 and even after reconsideration of his application which he was denied again on July 27, 2009. At this point the main option for his condition, which is a Type B Thoracic Aortic Aneurism 5.4 x 5.1 - treatment, is a very dangerous corrective surgery. This will extend his rehab and recovery period putting our family and home further in the whole and in serious jeopardy. He’s been denied unemployment compensation benefits as well, due to his medical challenges he’s not been able obtain his commercial driver’s license again which previously supported and secured his career, and employment for many years. This now leaves him without a job and with insufficient income to support us with the necessary previsions for our family. Truth is I’ve never known my father to be a lazy man and now with his serious health issues, who will hire him or even insure him since he’s been considered a health risk and a liability.
Please Congressman Carson I ask you in the humblest way I know how if there is any way you could please assist us with the expedited support, to secure my father’s social security disability benefits. My father’s life and health is becoming over whelming and very stressful, this is increasingly unhealthy for him and causing tremendous pressure on his heart due to worry. I really don’t want my father to die due to the tremendous amount of stress and unnecessary games the social security medical review officer’s are playing. We don’t want to lose our home our father worked so hard to put us in, due to foreclosure as a result of social security medical review officer’s games. Your urgent response in this time sensitive matter is gratefully desired and appreciated.
Respectfully Yours,
The Family of Richard A. Thompson III
Thompson Family
The appeal to your congressman is a good move. You just have to stay in close contact with him. Then you need to make sure your father's doctors write strong letters detailing how disabled he is based on his heart disease.
The cardiovascular surgeon has to be very specific about your dad's condition so that there will be no wiggle room for them to deny him.
Even if they deny him, just appeal as many times as you have to until you get what you want. Since the Democrats have come into power, many of our patients are getting disability much easier; it was very difficult under Bush and the Republicans.
Based on the medical history that you reported, I know your dad qualifies for disability social security.
john
I am not surprised Cynthia McKinney needs a Magic Bullet.....;)