Results tagged “healthcare”

Now that the Senate will debate health care reform next week, the question is whether Senate Democrats can gain enough support to pass legislation. Senator Charles Schumer told Face the Nation, "Look, there are still many bumps in the road, discussions, arguments, disagreements. But I think now the wind is at our back. There's real momentum. And the good news here is we still have a very diverse caucus but every Democrat, from the most liberal to the most conservative, very much wants to get a bill."

A House Republican joined 219 Democrats to vote for the landmark health care reform bill last night in the House of Representatives, enabling the bill to pass 220 votes to 215. Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan), who has"> introduced national health insurance in every Congress since taking office 1955, said, "It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it."

President Obama is in town today to meet with the FBI agents credited with stopping a terrorist plot to bomb NYC subways. But that pat on the back at FBI headquarters near City Hall is just the morning's agenda; in the evening it's all about the Benjamins. (Or, rather, the Grover Clevelands.) Tonight the President will speak at a $30,400-per-couple dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle; the event is expected to raise $2 million to $3 million for the DNC. Want to see Barry but dating a deadbeat who can't float the 30 grand for the Mandarin? All is not lost.

This morning Rep. Anthony Weiner met former New York Lieutenant Governor (and current insane person) Betsy McCaughey on MSNBC's Morning Meeting to debate yell about health care. Though Weiner and McCuaghey had their moments, most of the horn-locking happened between her and host Dylan Ratigan, who would not stop demanding she answer his question: How do you get insurance companies to compete instead of monopolizing markets with antitrust exemptions. Or, as Ratigan puts it, how do we "put an end to corporate communism?" Skip ahead to the four minute mark, when the fireworks get started.

Howard Dean was six-term governor of Vermont, ran for President in 2004, and served as the head of the Democratic National Committee from February 2005 to January 2009. During this period he became known for the "50-State Strategy," that the party should spend money in all states rather than merely battleground states (the latter position favored by now-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel). He will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y on Thursday, September 24th, discussing his new book Howard Dean's Prescription For Real Health Care Reform. The book is as he advertises it, a thin (133 pages), lucid explanation of the health care issues most relevant to the legislation currently before Congress. Dean himself is a medical doctor, and is now one of the most vocal and insistent advocates for health care legislation, news and information about which can be found at his website www.standwithdrdean.com.

A study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that a national tax of just one penny per ounce on sugary beverages would raise $14.9 billion in its first year, which could help pay for some sweet health care initiatives. Such a tax was floated by Governor Paterson earlier this year, then quickly defeated by the beverage industry. Will the same thing happen here? The health care reform plan from Senator Max Baucus has an estimated cost of $774 billion over 10 years, but includes no mention of a tax on sugary drinks, which some doctors think could lower Americans' soda consumption and ultimately reduce consumers' health problems. But according to some critics, the risk is that the tax it could transform America into a communist-run labor camp! Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent called such a tax "outrageous. I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink. It if worked, the Soviet Union would still be around." Any patriots out there who want to stop the government from forcing feeding tubes down the throat of every decent, soda-loving American can join the beverage industry's fight at Americans Against Food Taxes.

President Obama has accepted a South Carolina Republican's apology for shouting, "You lie!" during his health care reform speech to Congress last night. Speaking to reporters after his Cabinet meeting today, Obama said that Wilson apologized "quickly and without equivocation," adding, "We all make mistakes." But we don't all have to be such assholes! If a Democrat had disrupted President Bush during one of his speeches to Congress—when he actually was, you know, lying—the GOP would have probably had the heckler hung for treason.

       

Last night, President Obama made an appeal to Congress—and the American public—that health care must be reformed, "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last... Our collective failure to meet this challenge - year after year, decade after decade - has led us to a breaking point... The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action."

Tonight, President Obama will discuss the need for health care reform in a televised address to Congress; he told Good Morning America today, "The intent of the speech is to, A, make sure that the American people are clear exactly what it is that we are proposing"—a CBS poll says 70% of Americans think health care needs to be overhauled; a Pew poll says 67% think the health care debate is hard to understand—"[And] B, to make sure that Democrats and Republicans understand that I'm open to new ideas, that we're not being rigid and ideological about this thing, but we do intend to get something done this year." The NY Times suggests that health care reform is not on life support, "The uproar does not seem to have greatly altered public opinion or substantially weakened Democrats’ resolve. Critical players in the health care industry remain at the negotiating table, meaning they are not out whipping up public or legislative opposition." Still, who knows, given that Senator Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee chair, says leaving the public option out may be the only way for bipartisan support while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is pushing for the public option. And now there's talk of fining the uninsured...

Tomorrow afternoon (at 2 p.m.) Times Square will serve as the stage for a Health Care rally, the NY Times reports. Over 75 "Democratic and health-related groups that support President Obama’s goals for overhauling the health care system" will converge on the Crossroads of the World to get their voices heard. The paper points out that amongst those groups will be the Upper West Side Baby Boomers and "Raising Women’s Voices, a group that mobilizes women as advocates for better health care. They and others want to ensure that any final legislation guarantees that pregnant women will have health insurance." Currently 13% of pregnant women are uninsured, with some insurers classifying pregnancy as a pre-existing condition and declining coverage. CityRoom reports that "midmorning, groups of demonstrators will congregate at sites across the city, including Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, which has closed. They will then walk to West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, where the demonstration will begin." President Obama's website notes that the rally is in tribute of the late Ted Kennedy.

These health care town hall forums make for great television, what with all the red faced patriots eager to water the tree of liberty and save America's seniors from Obamacare death panels. So why would Anthony Weiner try to stop TV news crews from documenting last night's raucous health care meeting at the IBEW hall in Fresh Meadows? CBS 2 says Weiner's aides told them they couldn't come in, and when the congressman arrived, he got "snippy" with the camera crew, telling them, "This isn't for Channel 2. This is for my constituents."

This beach party didn't go exactly as planned. Though he managed to dodge the protesters that have been plaguing similar town hall meetings, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was met with skepticism from Howard Beach seniors yesterday regarding his plans for Health Care reform. Weiner addressed both his ideas for a "Single Payer" system (which Congressman Waxman introduced to the Senate floor) and the White House's more centrist efforts, but seemed to raise more questions than he answered. When one man asked who would foot the bill for this reform, Weiner simply acknowledged that as the "$64,000 question," and moved on. Of course, not everyone seemed to care, considering most of the attendees chanced upon the town hall by already being present at the Center for lunch. "This isn't gonna affect us, I think, that much because by the time all of this gets through, we might be six feet under," 81-year-old Marilyn Spoor told Rep. Weiner after the forum. Because why should the health of future generations be any concern of the Greatest Generation? But maybe New Yorkers shouldn't worry about health care anyway because we're getting healthier!

Low five? The Press Ganey Emergency Department Pulse Report 2009 rated NYC last among the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas for satisfaction in emergency-department care, and New York State was 46th in overall emergency room waiting time. South Dakota came in at #1 with an average waiting time of 172 minutes, while New York narrowly beat out New Mexico with an average of 288 minutes—nearly 5 hours. (Utah came in dead last with a 408 minute wait time.) Dr. Peter Viccellio of Stony Brook University Medical Center tells Crain's "Sometimes, we can’t even spare someone to go into the waiting area and talk to patients and tell them what’s going on." He also admits to having to relocate patients to beds in hospital corridors to make room for incoming patients. Last summer a shocking video showed a woman being ignored after she died in an ER waiting room. The silver lining for NYC? This report emphasizes patient satisfaction with wait time, not with the care they eventually receive, so let's just assume we're #1 when patients eventually see a doctor—as they say, the best health comes to those who wait.

Pfizer is making a splash with news that it will give away 70 of its drugs, such as Lipitor and Viagra, to people "who lost jobs since Jan. 1 and have been on the Pfizer drug for three months or more," according to the AP. The AP points out, "The move could earn Pfizer some goodwill in that debate after long being a target of critics of drug industry prices and sales practices" and "also likely will help keep those patients loyal to Pfizer brands." Dr. Jorge Puente, Pfizer's head of pharmaceuticals outside the U.S. and Europe, told the AP, "Everybody knows now a neighbor, a relative who has lost their job and is losing their insurance. People are definitely hurting out there. Our aim is to help people bridge this point." Patients can call 866-706-2400 to sign up; in July, they'll be able to sign up through this website.

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting today to hear proposals for how to pay for President Obama's proposed universal health care plan, which is expected to cost $1.2 trillion. One idea is a 3 cent tax on soda and sweetened drinks, which could generate some $24 billion over the next four years. Here in New York, a proposed 18% tax on sugary drinks was dropped by Governor Paterson after pressure from the beverage industry; Susan Neely of the American Beverage Association insists "taxes are not going to teach our children how to have a healthy lifestyle." But Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is one of the experts appearing before the committee today to push for the soda tax, because, as he puts it, "soda is clearly one of the most harmful products in the food supply, and it's something government should discourage the consumption of." According to the Wall Street Journal, Jacobson also wants the government to "sharply raise taxes on alcohol, move to largely eliminate artificial trans fat from food and move to reduce the sodium content in packaged and restaurant food."

Health care concerns have been getting some flak for blitzing the airwaves with TV ads protesting Governor Paterson's proposed health care cuts. Most notably, the ads feature a blind man, Juan Petri, asking Paterson, "Why are you doing this to me?" which some felt was a low blow to the blind governor. Yesterday, the Post put Pietri on its front page (headline: DIM WITS) and, today, has an interview with the Bronx resident. Pietri, who voted for the Spitzer-Paterson ticket, said, "I didn't do anything wrong. I did the ads because I'm blind and they're cutting my services...I got nothing against him - just the cuts he's going to make." The Post followed up by speaking to some blind New Yorkers to ask them what they thought of the ads—one said, "Blind people shouldn't talk smack about our blind governor."

A marketing effort, protesting Governor Paterson's proposed health care cuts, from Greater New York Hospital Association and health care union 1199 is blasted as a "low blow" by the NY Post and gets a NY Times editorial. Referring to how a wheelchair-bound blind man asks the governor, "Why are you doing this to me?" in a TV ad, the Times writes, "A better question should go to the health unions and hospitals paying for these ads. Mainly, why are you doing this — again? Frightening citizens and trying to intimidate officials working to make sense of health care spending and balance the state budget fairly?" State Department of Health Commissioner Richard Daines wasn't amused by the ads, "There's a passage in Jeremiah that says something like, 'Foolish people who even having eyes do not see.' I think we're really concerned about people who have the eyes to see the problem and aren't choosing to see them."

The Greater New York Hospital Association and health care union 1199 have unveiled a campaign protesting Governor Paterson's proposed cuts to health services and hospitals around the state. Politicker NY reports, "A mailer being sent to a million homes juxtaposes Paterson's name with a sad-looking woman hovering over a hospital bed." And the NY Times notes how in the TV ads, "nurses and patients take a personal swipe at the governor, imploring, 'Why are you doing this?' At one point, a nurse says, 'I can’t believe Governor Paterson is the one making this proposal.' Then a man, blind and in a wheelchair, asks the governor, who is legally blind, 'Why are you doing this to me?'" More details about the campaign at the Protect Health Care website and here's how Paterson proposes to cut health care spending.

Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan to put health information of millions of New Yorkers online. He touted the initiative, "By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works... In Washington, they talk about how our health care system should be reformed; here in New York City, we are actually doing it."

Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off for the 20th time last night in Cleveland, Ohio, as they head towards the big March 4 primaries next week. The rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination "traded insults," as they accused each other of negative attacks regarding their health care policies.

A Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Cincinnati became an opportunity for her to blast Barack Obama over what she called "blatantly false" campaign literature. Clinton said, "Shame on you, Barack Obama," as she held the literature in question. “It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”

After Hillary Clinton's started airing a commercial in Wisconsin questioning why Barack Obama declined to appear in another debate, Obama came back with his own ad. The voiceover says:

After eighteen debates, with two more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics, the phony charges, and false attacks. On health care, even Bill Clinton's own labor secretary [Robert Reich] even says Obama covers "more people" than Hillary and does more to cut costs, saving $2500 for the typical family. Obama's housing plan it stems foreclosures and cracks down on crooked lenders. That's change we can believe in.

After losing by considerable margins in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia primaries to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton unveiled an ad attacking her rival yesterday. The voiceover says:

Both Democratic candidates were invited to a televised debate here in Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton has said yes. Barack Obama hasn’t. Maybe he’d prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions.

Continue reading "Clinton Attacks Obama's Lack of Debate Desire"

It's a refrain that already sounds familiar and will no doubt be repeated many times more: Officials expect real estate revenues to fall, causing lots of number crunching in budgets.

THEATER: Wolf Lane Productions presents Victims of the Zeitgeist (The Tragedy of Martin Luther King, Jr.), written & directed by Ellwoodson Williams. The production "offers an exciting and telling insight into just who Martin Luther King, Jr., was as leader and simply as a sensitive and intelligent human being who loved life and who had a sense of humor, a deep understanding of the human condition - its strengths and weaknesses - and a profound belief in justice."

The Health Department revealed that cases of the flu have increased 19% since November. Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said urged New Yorkers who haven't gotten a flu shot yet to do so.

Today, Governor Spitzer is giving his second State of the State Address. Which makes us recall last year's State of the State.

The most famous undeclared presidential candidate, our very own Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has weighed in about the Iowa caucus results. Okay, so Mayor Bloomberg claims he's not running for president, but when you swipe at the actual candidates, have a staff that's investigating the possibility of running a campaign, and have a billion dollars to spare...

Building workers such as doormen, office cleaners, and janitors will probably not go on strike at the start of 2008 after their local union reached an agreement with Manhattan commercial property owners. Union members still have to vote to ratify the new four year contract, but the union leaders are recommending they do so.

There are worries that a proposed $50,000 surcharge on all MD's in the state could do irreparable harm to New York's health care community. The state's medical malpractice liability fund is underfunded, and state insurance superintendent Eric Dinallo is looking for ideas.