136-mile march to the White House begins

Antoinette Krause, Bill West, Athena Ford, and Amy Fitzpatrick are four Pennsylvania residents who set out this week on a 136-mile march from Philadelphia to DC to bring their message to Congress: it is time to listen to the American people- not the big insurance lobbyists- and pass health care reform.

The four are marching in memory of their friend Melanie Shouse, who lost a long battle with breast cancer after missing out on critical treatment due to a lack of affordable health insurance.

Join the Virtual March!

You can follow the marchers' thoughts from the road at MelaniesMarch.com:

As many of you know, a few of us left Philadelphia yesterday to embark on a mission – to walk 136 miles in 8 days and arrive in DC to tell Congress it’s time to Finish Reform.

A rally in Philly sent us off, over 150 people came and many marched with us the first couple of blocks. A few folks even marched the entire way to Delaware County where we ended the day with a vigil in front of Taylor Hospital.

The actual walking part has been more difficult than expected. We hadn’t accounted for the simple obstacle of snow – four feet of snow iced over covered a good portion of the sidewalks we had been relying on for safe passage. Weaving in and out of snow banks, crisscrossing streets -were able to pull it together to finish the miles of the day. And, amazingly, we’ve been able to keep on pace for the most part in order to make it to our events.

Despite the obstacles and sore legs, spirits are high! Today, a man threw up his window and cheered us on. A Pastor, welcomed us into his church with a rally and a home cooked meal. A clapping group of locals met us at Mr. Pasta for a meet up where they shared their stories and massaged our necks. And a groups of teenagers eagerly awaiting the legal driving age gave us the most quizzical look and asked “why don’t you just drive?!”

The press has been following us closely. Word about the March is really getting around. We’re all so very proud of the volunteers making this such a success. One of our organizers, Dave, is so proud, in fact, that he took two of them to get pedicures tonight.

I’m currently drafting this from the entry way of a church in Wilmington that has shown us incredible hospitality. After finishing up this blog post and brainstorming for final activities, Antoinette and I are going to prepare for tomorrow.

We’ve got another 17 miles of adventure ahead of us.

Health Care Advocates Storm Chamber of Commerce

UFCW members and other health care advocates stormed the Chamber of Commerce today, surrounding the building and spilling over the sidewalks and into the street along H Street in front of the White House.

The message was clear- it's time for health care that serves the American people, not wealthy corporate lobbyists.

Photos from today's event:

Listening to Doctors on Health Care Reform

In the health care debate, we've heard a lot from health care executives, insurance mouthpieces, concerned citizens, and politicians. But one group we haven't heard enough from: health care professionals.

The DNC has recently released an ad with a doctor and a nurse speaking about the need for health care reform. They know it all too well.



Yesterday President Obama met with 150 doctors in the Rose Garden to talk about health care reform.

Dawn Cutler has been a Registered Nurse at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington for over 20 years, and a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers. In her work with women and children in a large hospital birthing center, she sees that patients receive the good care they deserve.

We should be embarrassed to live in such wealthy country and have 49 million Americans without health insurance--to have thousands of people die because they cannot afford health care.

We need to say no to a system that says that if you lose your job you lose your health care. As a nurse, these patients, these families, they are people to me and they deserve the best.

Here's the real issue: a man or women who has committed their professional life to making people well has a moral obligation to help people in need. These doctors and nurses are individuals--with individual consciences. A health insurance company is a corporation.

To quote the satirist Ambrose Bierce:

Corporation. (n.) An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

HCAN on the Colbert Report!

In case you missed it, here's HCAN Director Richard Kirsch on the Colbert Report the other night:

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Obama's Speech "A Clarion Call for Reform"

Missed Obama's speech last night on health care reform? You can check out the whole thing here.

UFCW members and health care reform advocates were reassured to hear the substance of the speech : a reform message and defense of the public option, a reassurance to President Obama's allies on health care, and a rebuke to those who continue to block real reform. Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now, on President Obama's speech:

President Obama issued a clarion call for reforms that will guarantee all Americans have good, affordable coverage, directly taking on the insurance industry that wants to protect its profits and his political opponents who are engaging in fear-mongering for partisan purposes. He reaffirmed his support for the reforms that are essential to achieving his goals: assuring that people get good health coverage at work; strict regulation of the insurance industry; competition between private insurers and a new public health insurance option; and shared responsibility between individuals, employers and government in paying for coverage. The President reminded us that those who have opposed government programs like Social Security and Medicare in the past are once again working to deny history.

Town Hall Terrors

By now, you've heard at least something about the rowdy, often irrational, sometimes insane behavior at the health care town hall meetings across the country. You may have even been to a town hall meeting, encouraged by HCAN or Organizing for America to support health care reform and stave off the naysayers.

The script is roughly the same for each: a well-meaning senator or congressperson (doesn't seem to matter which party they're part of) holds a town hall meeting in his or her home district or state to dispel myths and answer questions about the health care reform being proposed in Congress. Protesters gather outside the building with signs, often depicting Obama as Hitler. And a few minutes, or sometimes even a few seconds into the meeting, participants begin shouting over their elected official's answers, loudly vocalizing their opposition to any health care reform. Many will ask strange questions, or shout accusations about Obama's "death panels." Some will go completely off topic, to protest Obama or said officials' supposed trampling of the Constitution. At least one even brought along a gun.

There's been a lot of debate about whether or not these people are being organized by anti-reform front groups. And there's been a lot of chatter on cable TV about whether or not Obama's PR team has been handling these folks the right way.

But really, who cares?

Because if you watch and listen to the loudest of the protestors, it becomes clear that health care reform is not really the main issue, or even the issue at all for a fringe few. It becomes clear that health care reform has simply become a catalyst for a larger fear of the unknown, a sense that their country is somehow being "taken away." (Seriously, listen to a selection of those crazy town hall videos and just count how many times someone in the crowd screams, "I want my country back!" or something similar. )
And all this would be okay if it were everyone were just voicing their opinion. Most are. And that's good. That's democracy. But the palpable fear of the fringe few is real. The anger is real. That gun was real--and loaded.

And I thought about that today, when I saw a new study released by the Southern Poverty Law Center today, showing that paramilitary militia groups are on the rise once more. The study finds that:

Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country. "Paper terrorism" — the use of property liens and citizens' "courts" to harass enemies — is on the rise. And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to "reconquer" the American Southwest.

These are people who really, really don't like the federal government. So whether it's immigration reform, health care reform, education reform--they don't want any part of it, because they don't want any part of the government in their lives.

I just wonder how much all the media focus on these town halls, all the anger working like a magnet to draw more angry people out to the meetings, all the hatred of the government simmering just below the surface will serve to catapult extremists into action? As the SPL Center points out:

Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. "This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," says one. "All it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence."

Health Care Insurance Companies Scared of Losing Massive Profits to Public Option

According to the Associated Press, Health Insurance companies sent a letter today to the Senate saying that a pubic option for health insurance would cripple their profit-driven business model and hamstring employer-provided health insurance.

This is just another example of the scare tactics that opponents of health care reform are selling, and the American people still aren't buying.

And the health insurance lobby has a reason to be scared. New York Times/CBS Poll that came out this week found that most Americans

said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.

These are companies that have imposed average premium increases of more than 120% over the past decade, according to Health Care for American Now!

The basic disagreement comes down to this:

Americans think that the government could do a better job than private health insurance companies and therefore want a public option.

Private Health Insurers know that the government could do a better job than private health insurance companies and therefore do not want a public option.

The private health insurers have a really big interest in keeping the system the way it is, in spite of it being broken. Why? Because

Profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007. In 2007 alone, the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million-an average of $11.9 million each.

Whose interests should our elected officials keep in mind?