Healthy Wisconsin is a healthy alternative
The Wisconsin Legislature is poised to make the fundamental changes needed to address Wisconsin's health care crisis.
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Bimonthly on election and health care reform. Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom.
Promoting fair elections for all parties and candidates
eNewsletter #49
July 17, 2007
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. ~Plato
(Actually, "governed by idiots" is more like it, but a quote is a quote and I can't change it.)
.
In this issue:
1) Health Care
2) Campaign Reform
3) Healthy Wisconsin
4) Grassroots Business Group Forms to Support Wisconsin Health Reform Plan
5) Tidbits
6)
Give me a Break
7) Book recommendations
.
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Health Care |
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Senate Roll
Call on Healthy Wisconsin
HERE. Where does your senator stand? (Hint: All Democrats voted
FOR it, all Republicans voted AGAINST it. Same in the Assembly.)
Action Item: Click HERE to Send a message to your congressman in support of HR676 Medicare-for-all (Baldwin and Moore are already co-sponsors)
Linking campaign financing to what's wrong
with the health care system Shifting to public funding of campaigns could be a big first step toward health care coverage for everyone. See complete story HERE GOP should shift gears, help improve health planDo our citizens really want comprehensive heath care reform and, if so, will our elected officials exhibit the statesmanship to bring it about? This is an excellent article by
a former Republican Senator, see
HERE Healthy Wisconsin is a healthy alternative The Wisconsin Legislature is poised to make the fundamental changes needed to address Wisconsin's health care crisis. Another excellent article by Rep. Jon Richards, see
HERE Healthy Wisconsin Town hall Meetings, please try to attend and support....
See Michael Moore blast Wolf Blitzer HERE And don't miss
Moore's rebuttal to CNN
HERE The Best Health Care Is Reserved for Congress In an excerpt from his new book, Practicing Medicine Without a License, Don Sloan, M.D., shows that members of Congress enjoy health coverage with unlimited doctor visits, no deductibles and no co-pays -- all for $35 a month. So what about the rest of us? See
the complete story
HERE
and comment if you wish Families USA issues a report, Healthy Wisconsin: Good Medicine for Wisconsin's Economy, which notes that the plan would generate more than $1 billion in new business activity and create nearly 13,000 new jobs.See complete story HERE
Take a good look at 'Healthy Wisconsin'In the June 29 issue of The Business Journal, Bill Smith, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, argues that "Healthy Wisconsin," the innovative and timely universal health care plan added to the budget by Senate Democrats, would "discourage the creation and growth of small business, and place in jeopardy the jobs our small businesses provide everyday." Nothing could be further from the truth. "Healthy Wisconsin" provides greater advantages to small businesses than to others. Financed in part by a 10.5 percent payroll tax, "Healthy Wisconsin" ensures that workers in small businesses for the first time will have excellent, comprehensive health care. I would urge all business owners and executives to do the math. Figure out what 10.5 percent of your payroll is, deduct costs of insurance if you are providing it now, and see how you fare. My hunch is that just about every firm that provides decent, affordable health insurance will come out ahead. But then there is the small business that currently does not offer insurance to its employees. Will its employee costs increase? Certainly. But consider the following. Many small firms would like to offer insurance. But in the small group health insurance free market today you pay far more than a larger firm and get far fewer benefits. Many small firms that don't provide insurance today could afford 10.5 percent of payroll. Wellness programs and more consumer attention to cost, Smith's answer to our health care crisis, are well and good, but hardly a means to guarantee comprehensive health care for all. It's time for a change. It's time to set aside tired old arguments about government control and "socialized medicine" and institute a rational, well-organized, affordable means of providing health care to all. David Newby is president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.
Upgrading To National Health
Insurance (Medicare 2.0)
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Campaign Reform |
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Structural Deficit Let's see if I have
this right. The Republicans claim magnificent tax cuts, and the
elimination of Healthy Wisconsin, but they still manage a
bunch of pork projects and end with the highest deficit of all? How
did that happen? I wonder
who is going to pick up the extra costs?
GOP PORK
§
Rib Lake in Taylor County
--
street improvements
Soybean Grinder Grant -- $4 million (Davis)
I think "some" roadwork
is appropriate, but it always seems that the road builders
come out on top in Republican budget proposals. I wish it would happen without the
flow of political money.
You have to give it to
Jim Sensenbrenner, he IS Number
One in privately paid travel.
Source
If
I had to choose things I wanted my congressman to be
number one in, payola would not be my first choice.
If you were alarmed by
recent decisions of the U.S.
Supreme Court, let's talk.
If you are not outraged by
the decisions of the neocon
majority of the
Bush/Roberts/Alito/Scalia
Supreme Court, stop reading
and move to the sports page.
If you are scared, read on
and send your comments to
FightingBob.com.
See complete article
HERE |
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Healthy Wisconsin |
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Jack--
One of the silly myths about Healthy Wisconsin that's
circulating in the blogosophere and elsewhere is that
teachers are exempt. That is untrue. Teachers are treated
like all Wisconsinites. Their benefits under Healthy
Wisconsin are the same as everyone else's. They pay the same
assessment as everyone else. Their employers (school boards)
pay the same assessment as all other employers.
How did this silly myth that teachers are exempt come
about? I believe it's because of a technical provision,
inserted at the suggestion of the non-partisan Legislative
Reference Bureau, that seeks to harmonize the provisions of
Healthy Wisconsin with the provisions of the existing QEO
(Qualified Economic Offer) law.
I'm not an expert on the QEO law. But I believe that all
the technical provision does is provide that, in
interpreting an existing QEO requirement that teachers'
existing health benefits must be maintained if a QEO is
imposed at the end of the collective bargaining process, the
meaning of "maintaining existing health benefits" once
Healthy Wisconsin takes effect shall be the sum of the often
lesser Healthy Wisconsin benefit package plus whatever
supplemental benefits are needed to add up to existing
benefits.
This is a complicated provision. It's understandable
that some people have misunderstood. Regrettably, others who
know better seem to have intentionally twisted its meaning
to try to score debating points.
But the bottom line is that Healthy Wisconsin doesn't
exempt teachers from anything. To continue to claim that
teachers are exempt from Healthy Wisconsin is to distort the
truth.
This distortion is just one of many that's circulating.
The more serious distortion about the plan that's floating
is that Healthy Wisconsin will raise taxes.
The fact is that the Healthy Wisconsin $15 billion
assessment would automatically result in the elimination of
far MORE than $15 billion in current spending by individuals
and employers. As a result, the independent Lewin Group has
concluded that, under Healthy Wisconsin: (1) total spending
on health care will decline, mostly due to administrative
savings; (2) families will save money; (3) employers as a
whole will save money; and (4) currently insuring private
firms will save money.
Because governments (in their capacity as employers)
save so much money, Healthy Wisconsin requires that half of
government's savings be returned to the taxpayers in the
form of a massive property tax cut. This tax cut will exceed
$500 million. It will result in the second biggest statewide
cut in property taxes in recent Wisconsin history. This
reduction in property taxes is so large that people's tax
bills will actually go down.
Reasonable people can certainly argue about the merits
of Healthy Wisconsin. But noone should get away with
distorting the facts about it.
Everyone covered by Healthy Wisconsin will have health
insurance as long as they live in our state. They will
remain insured regardless of their health condition,
employment status, or family status. Only if they move into
another health insurance program--such as Medicaid,
BadgerCare, or Medicare--will Healthy Wisconsin stop
covering them.
Healthy Wisconsin lets people select the health care
network they want--and choose the doctor they want. It puts
us in control. We get to keep our doctors, even if we lose
our jobs or change employment.
Costs will be primarily controlled by getting the
incentives right (for the first time in the history) and
through competition among private organizations to lower
prices and improve quality. For the first time, market
principles--such as consumers having choices, and health
care providers having strong incentives to become more
efficient, lower prices, and improve the quality of their
services--will truly apply.
Healthy Wisconsin will dramatically reduce the number of
uninsured--from 476,000 to 15,000, which means from 9% of
Wisconsin's population to under half a percent. Wisconsin
will be the nation's leader, by far, in having the smallest
percentage of uninsured.
Health spending will decline.
Families' average health costs will decline.
Employers average health costs will decline.
Private employers who now provide insurance will on
average see savings.
And all of us who pay property taxes will see our property
tax bill go down. Households will see a property tax cut.
Businesses will see a property tax cut.
Got health-care horror stories?
Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, advances the proposition
that the nation's health-care crisis affects not just the
uninsured but the insured, who are subject to the predations of
insurance companies focused on the bottom line.
Moore says a post on his Web site seeking health-care
horror stories drew tens of thousands of responses in just a few
days. He found people denied critical care, rejected after the
fact due to pre-existing conditions and driven into financial
ruin by non-covered costs.
Does this happen here too, and are the people to whom it
happens willing to tell their stories?
Isthmus is asking readers to tell us about their
experiences with local health-care insurers -- denials, excluded
costs, red tape and runarounds. And, of course, we'd love to
hear from current or former employees of health insurance
companies charged with keeping down costs.
Let's start by asking for synopses of 500 words or less;
these may later be published with the author's consent, or used
as the basis for further inquiry.
Writers must be willing to have their stories told and to
provide documentation to back them up, on request. And the
stories ought to involve experiences that have happened with the
last five years.
Send your tale by July 31 to Isthmus news editor BILL LUEDERS,
blueders@isthmus.com, SUBJECT LINE: "health care story" or
to Isthmus, 101 King St., Madison WI 53703. |
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Grassroots
Business Group Forms to |
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Grassroots Business Group
Forms to Support Wisconsin
Health Reform Plan
www.BusinessCoalition.net/wisconsin.htm Contact: Keith Schmitz/414-963-0847/
schmitz1@ameritech.net
(Milwaukee, WI) -- Local businesspeople are
invited to attend a meeting to organize grassroots business
support in the Milwaukee area for the proposed Healthy Wisconsin
plan which passed in the State Senate last week. This
organization, the
Business Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare, will be part of
similar groups throughout the state.
The first of three meetings in the area will take
place at noon on Thursday July 26th at Riverfront Pizzeria
Bar and Grill, 509 E. Erie St., Milwaukee
The meeting will feature a presentation by Institute
for One Wisconsin regarding the details on the Healthy
Wisconsin plan, followed by a discussion of possible action that
can be taken to support the plan.
The meeting is being organized by Jack Lohman, a
retired business owner, Keith Schmitz an owner of public
relations firm and a grassroots organizer, and C.J. Brown, a
local business consultant. This will be the first of three
meetings that will be held in the Milwaukee metro area through
August.
Although Families USA reported that Healthy
Wisconsin will create 13,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new
business activity, existing
business groups including WMC have opposed the proposal.
That, even though the
plan will provide all businesses and their employees with the
healthcare coverage they need at a cost for many companies below
what they are paying now for healthcare insurance. The plan
promises to make Wisconsin businesses more competitive and
ultimately make Wisconsin an attractive place to do business.
Space at this event is limited so please RSVP to
Keith Schmitz at
schmitz1@ameritech.net. You can call
414-963-0847 for more details. |
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Tidbits |
Prune bad ideas from state budget In the two widely divergent state budget plans that emerged from Wisconsin's Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-run Assembly lurk some really bad ideas.See complete story HERE Regarding the
Holt Bill that
I wrote about last week, Common Cause
(National), for whom I have great respect, supports it and I
would thus feel comfortable with it. However, other good groups
do not support it. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is
taking no position on it at the moment, yet others have strong
opinions against it. A New Wealth Snapshot: We're Top-Heavier (From www.TooMuchOnline.org )
America’s go-to scholar on wealth distribution — New York University economist Edward Wolff — has just published his latest analysis on where money sits in the contemporary United States. Wolff’s new take on the most current raw wealth data available — from the Federal Reserve Board’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances — reveals an America ever heavier at the top and ever more squeezed in the middle. Between 1983, the year the Fed started tracking wealth, and 2004, the most recent year with data, America’s top 1 percent saw their average net worth, after adjusting for inflation, jump by over $6 million, or 78 percent. Over that same period, the bottom 40 percent of America's households saw their average household net worth drop by 59 percent, down to just $2,200. And in the middle: “a sharp rise in the debt-equity ratio,” the amount of debt held by middle class families compared to their assets. In 1983, debts equaled 37 percent of the assets of the middle 60 percent of U.S. households. In 2004, the debts of middle class households totaled 62 percent of their assets. Wolff’s new paper, Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze, breaks “wealth” down into its many different components, everything from residential real estate to stocks and bonds. Substantial stock holdings, Wolff notes, “have still not penetrated much beyond the reach of the rich and the upper middle class.” In 2004, America’s richest 1 percent held 36.7 percent of all stock in the United States, including stock owned directly and stock held indirectly through mutual and pension funds. That top 1 percent total almost quadrupled the 9.4 percent share of stock held by households in America’s bottom 80 percent.Also, don't miss Inequality by the numbers WORTH REPEATING: Goodbye to the city upon a hill and to its fabled economy This appeared in eNewsletter #48, and I fear was overlooked by some. Please take a look.... See complete article HERE. |
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Give me a Break! |
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New Regulations for NJ Dept Motor Vehicles
1. Turn signals will give away your next move. A confident New
Jersey driver avoids using them.
2. Under no circumstance should you maintain a safe distance
between you and the car in front of you, because the space will
be filled in by somebody else, putting you in an even more
dangerous situation.
3. The faster you drive through a red light, the less chance
you have of getting hit.
4. WARNING! Never come to a complete stop at a stop sign. No
one expects it and it will result in your being rear-ended.
5. Never get in the way of an older car that needs extensive
bodywork, especially with PA, NY or DE plates. With no
insurance, the other operator probably has nothing to lose.
6. Braking is to be done as hard and late as possible to ensure
that your ABS kicks in, giving a vigorous, foot massage as the
brake pedal violently pulsates. For those of you without ABS,
it's a chance to strengthen your leg muscles.
7. Never pass on the left when you can pass on the right. It's
a good way to prepare other drivers entering the highway.
8. Speed limits are arbitrary figures, given only as a
suggestion and are not enforceable in New Jersey during rush
hour.
9. Just because you're in the left lane, and have no room to
speed up or move over, doesn't mean that a New York driver
flashing his high beams behind you doesn't think he can go
faster in your spot.
10. Always brake and rubberneck when you see an accident or
even someone changing a tire. This is seen as a sign of respect
for the victim.
11. Learn to swerve abruptly without signaling. New Jersey is
the home of high-speed slalom-driving, thanks to the Department
of Transportation, which puts potholes in key locations to test
driver's reflexes and keep them alert.
12. It is tradition in New Jersey to honk your horn at cars in
front of you that do not move three milliseconds after the light
turns green.
13. To avoid injury in the event of a collision or rollover, it
is important to exit your vehicle thru the windshield right
away. Wearing your seat belt will only impede your hi-velocity
escape from danger.
14. Remember that the goal of every New Jersey driver is to get
ahead of the pack by whatever means necessary.
15. In New Jersey, "flipping the bird" is considered a polite
salute. This gesture should always be returned.
Image
Viewer: FastStone MaxView is a tiny, very fast and
innovative image viewer that supports all major graphic formats.
Its intuitive layout and commands allow everyone, from beginners
to professionals, to view and manipulate images quickly and
efficiently. Download free
HERE
Digital photo album, photo
organizer software, free photo editing software, slideshow
software, and free online photo albums. Download free
HERE
RSS Reader:
Free reader
HERE
Folder Guide is a free handy
utility that provides fast access to your frequently used and
favorite folders. It can operate as the part of your context
menu in your Windows Explorer. Download
HERE (apparently not for Vista, only
Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003) |
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Book Recommendations |
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The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation by Greg LeRoy (ISBN 1576753158) See the book's web site at http://www.greatamericanjobsscam.com/pages/book.html There you can also print out the first three chapters. Amazon Review:
Across the country, state legislatures
appropriate millions of taxpayer dollars each year on "corporate
jobs incentives" under the guise of "economic development and
job creation". Greg LeRoy manages to shed light on the fallacy
of these programs, using real life examples to prove that
"incentives" are simply corporate welfare schemes that do little
more than pad the pockets of hugely profitable corporations -
while providing photo ops for politicians. |
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Contact information
Lohman is a retired business owner that volunteers’ time on the issues of Election reform and Universal health care -
Contact: Jack E. Lohman
jelohman@gmail.com
or
jelohman@charter.net
Phone 414-477-8686
(cell)
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
www.WiCleanElections.org
www.BusinessCoalition.net
www.MoneyedPoliticians.com (my book: Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America)
www.SmokeFreeDining.net (A searchable restaurant database)
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Disclosure: I am a center-right Republican that (regrettably) voted for Bush twice. But the Republicans look worse here because they (are/were) in power and the party blocking reform. Next year it may be the Democrats taking center stage. Were I to have a political choice it would be for a strong third-party reform candidate in all seats. I do not like our very costly and ineffective duopoly. Jack Lohman
See Lohman's complete disclosure HERE.