Don Key's Blog

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T20:28:43Z

Yeah, I like that quote and agree that capitalism has run amok. We must act. We disagree on how, or how fast, to get there. I think many previous reforms have been sidestepped with minor regulation concessions, which is why looking at the history of HCR is important. I imagine many people think that the attempted "government takeover" of HC in 1993, AKA HillaryCare, was the first real run at transforming the system. But even Truman's single-payer proposal was deemed "socialist," like every plan since, by the money interests trying to hold on to their immense profits from the taxation of human misery.

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T19:03:58Z

Yes, universal coverage is the objective, but not at the expense of reinforcing a system that is hurting working people as much as helping them. I don't know, but when the AMA, PHRMA, and even some of the bigger insurers support a HCR bill, I get very nervous.

Don Key recommended Can we please, finally, forgive Ted Kennedy? by Ramona

2009-08-26T14:00:03Z

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T18:44:28Z

No, Obey, you're not butting in at all, and I agree with you. I probably didn't explain myself clearly. Jason was arguing that these small incremental reforms were substantial progress even if the PO is dropped. I asked him if a bill (with limited exclusions for pre-existing, portability, admin and fraud reforms, etc.) would be progress, but the bill I described was already enacted in 1996. Admittedly it was watered down but still had some teeth (at least on paper).

If these were genuine reforms, why are we having to once again renegotiate and reinforce them? Why has little changed in the system since the Kennedy-Kassebaum reforms took effect in 2000? Why have co-ops failed at bringing costs down through non-profit competition again and again over the last half century? The profit-hungry privatized system must be eliminated eventually.

The AMA first opposed national health insurance in 1920 (originally proposed by T.R.), then again along with other industry lobbies fought reform proposed by FDR, Harry Truman, Kennedy from the '60s-present, LBJ, Carter and Clinton. Incremental reforms will mean very little. These are the same bones the corporations have been throwing us for decades (minus the mandating of another 40-50 million to buy from the same bloodsucking insurance cos).

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T17:50:26Z

No, my point is that this reform is what we have right now. These are laws and regulations currently on our books. All of these reforms were already passed over a decade ago in the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act (HIPAA) except for the co-ops which were initially tried in 1947). There are some things that haven't been tried (or regulated as vigorously) in the Senate proposal, but are we going to be satisfied continuing to tinker at the edges of reform leaving the same structures for abuse in place to eventually negate any progress made?

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T17:22:31Z

How about a bill that (with minor limitations) precludes denial for pre-existing conditions, makes insurance more portable, provides accountability for costs, reduces waste and fraud, standardizes data and information through connected and secure IT systems, reduces administrative costs and then sets up regional non-profit co-ops to compete with private insurers?

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T17:04:26Z

I thought I was responding to your comment, Jason, but by explaining my take on time frames. Politicians of any stripe are continually judged for better or worse. Obama, like any other candidate, was being judged and measured from the beginning of the campaign. And Presidents are under a microscope from day one as everyone tries to suss out their ideas and plans. It is no minor matter to change rhetoric calling for a public plan as essential to reform, then implying it will be okay without it. It is no minor matter when health care reform becomes health insurance reform.

If we wait until proposals are a done deal to criticize them, we have no effect on the debate. And there is a different allowance for different issues. No one expected Obama to overturn Bush abuses and restore constitutional balances overnight, though he started on day one by signing an order to close Gitmo and end torture. Since then he has sustained and hardened the status quo regarding the WOT and executive powers. He has earned criticisms on all of these fronts, but if he does change course and start working towards reform that will last, he'll earn high praise from the left and rightly so.

I'm not saying that it doesn't take a long time to get radical change implemented. But just because this is Obama's HC reform, it doesn't mean that it began with him. Sen. Kennedy's death today reminds us of the long struggle that has been waged to provide fair HC for all (a 100 years war at this point). FDR took twelve years (time no president will ever have again) to achieve his many massive reforms, but he began working towards them almost immediately and fought off his critics all along the way. He is often quoted around here as telling a constituent, "Make me do it." Obama has said the same thing in so many words, and that is what progressives are trying to do.

Don Key recommended Ted Kennedy by Robert Reich

2009-08-26T06:15:00Z

Don Key recommended Ted Kennedy by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T15:51:28Z

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T16:16:42Z

Acknowledgement that something is wrong or missing; self-examination; self-judgement; apology and amends; then going forth to do better.

No, Wendy, you've said it better than I. Reflection is a good and necessary thing.

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T16:00:02Z

Thanks, Ready. I feel the same but try not to dwell on the anger (not suppressing it either). I see the Cafe and other blogs are good places to work through and release those feelings. I've read about Jawad who was just released to go home. He was likely 13 y.o., perhaps 12, when they grabbed him up for allegedly throwing a grenade and injuring two American soldiers. A poor child in the wrong place (his hometown) at the wrong time and of the wrong ethnicity!

The DoD always insisted he was 17 when arrested contrary to evidence. The Afghanis coerced a confession (threatening to kill his entire family- not an idle threat) but everyone agrees, he was almost certainly innocent. He endured seven years of abuse and then was let go with no admissions of the injustice of it all.

America needs to hear the sad details of his and countless others' stories; being swept off their streets and rushed to a secret dungeon somewhere to be tortured, not to defuse a ticking bomb, but it seems, just to be doing something in retaliation. All of this is so contrary to the idea of America and who we are as human beings that we were raised on; that we were taught to be, that it shocks the conscience.

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T14:04:44Z

Sorry, Donal. I would have tipped my hat to you but your post was still up when I posted (so I thought everyone would see I was playing off it). I steal from the best :)

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T12:48:28Z

Me too, DD. On a day when we learn of the passing of one of our champions and, with his brothers, a hero in my formation, it is even harder to stomach the apologist for torture. Ted Kennedy was haunted his adult life by a tragic event that could have happened to many of us in those days, a product of youth and alcohol. But admitted there was no excusing his action. He he apologized and atoned. He stood up for his principles, while these others have none. Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy.

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T12:38:10Z

Thanks Wendy. I agree that, regardless of any relation to spiritual beliefs, there is still a collective dynamic that should work out a balance. I guess what I'm saying is that it is up to us to look at these heartbreaking, and unconscionable events done in our name, policies of inhumanity, not to turn away or try to rationalize them. Europe and post WWII would not have recovered as it did without the cleansing of the Nuremberg trials. If we don’t engage karma, it will engage us, simply as a result of our inaction.

Don Key Commented on Instant Karma (just add karma)... Or "We're going to kill your children." by Don Key

2009-08-26T03:19:15Z

Thanks. Whew, I'm still working on this posting thing, and thankfully, I didn't delete your comments editing the post. I think the "closes its eyes" codicil answers your question.

We are soooo good here at being blindfully ignorant. And ignorant is the operative word. But it's little different from being willfully ignorant or turning that blind eye.

The question of what is "done in our name," covertly or not, is a sticky one. To me, there is a stain that soaks our flag that you and I are not personally responsible for unless we refuse to fight it. (All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing -Burke).

For years most of the rest of the world proclaimed a hate for what the US was doing while still expressing a fondness for the American people. That eroded as time passed (especially after the unbelievable re-election of Bush, seen as an endorsement of his policies). None of this sorry era can be rectified or forgiven unless and until it is admitted, adjudicated and justice fulfilled (in whatever form that takes). It's time for a "WeCan'tMoveOn" organization.

Don Key Commented on Three Myths About Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean

2009-08-26T02:33:04Z

I don't think that bears out, Jason. The left has given Obama ample opportunity on issue after issue. That his actions and those he has appointed to carry out his "change" is questioned as we go along on issue after issue isn't unusual. FDR faced the same, as you know, but held to the big picture of remaking an America that worked for its time and after. Obama has not radically repudiated the Bush era abuses, systemic corruption and trickle-up economics to any great degree. Everyone understands that it takes time to get where you need to go (the farther from the starting point, the longer it takes), but if you start off in the opposite direction, it will take a very long time indeed.