"Just the Facts Please" -- Casper forum will analyze Affordable Care Act

This cartoon is a few years old, but the corporate influence in U.S. health care is still the main problem.

"Just the Facts Please." Great title for a health care forum.

Ever since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, there has been precious little in the way of fact-based discussions on health care issues.

Raucous yet clueless Tea Party Republicans, propped up by lots of money from insurance conglomerates and right-wing think tanks, have hammered away at what they snidely call "Obamacare." A slew of conservative states, Wyoming included, have joined in a lawsuit to block implementation of the ACA. Our Congressional delegation has used the issue to scare constituents and to push their own ultra-conservative agendas. One of them, Sen. Barrasso, is one of only two physicians in the U.S. Senate. Instead of trying to find ways to insure thousands of uninsured Wyomingites, he uses it as a political football and a surefire way to get on Fox talk shows.

So, it is in this poisoned atnmospehere that One Health Voice, a group of Wyoming agencies and organizations "working together to improve access to healthcare in Wyoming," is hosting the 2011 Wyoming Health Care Symposium on Tuesday September 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ramada Plaza Riverside in Casper. The symposium, “Just the Facts Please,” will be the first in a series of informational programs about the Affordable Care Act. Policy experts will be on hand to speak on the issue and take questions.

Keynote speaker will be T.R. Reid. He is the bestselling author of “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Healthcare,” 

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about the book when it came out in August 2009:

Washington Post correspondent Reid (The United States of Europe) explores health-care systems around the world in an effort to understand why the U.S. remains the only first world nation to refuse its citizens universal health care. Neither financial prudence nor concern for the commonweal explains the American position, according to Reid, whose findings divulge that the U.S. not only spends more money on health care than any other nation but also leaves 45 million residents uninsured, allowing about 22,000 to die from easily treatable diseases. Seeking treatment for the flareup of an old shoulder injury, he visits doctors in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan and England—with a stint in an Ayurvedic clinic in India—in a quest for treatment that dovetails with his search for a cure for America's health-care crisis, a narrative device that sometimes feels contrived, but allows him valuable firsthand experience. For all the scope of his research and his ability to mint neat rebuttals to the common American misconception that universal health care is socialized medicine, Reid neglects to address the elephant in the room: just how are we to sell these changes to the mighty providers and insurers?   

Great question, PW, especially when so many opportunists are clouding the waters.

I hope that the forum helps get us down the path to adopting and understanding the ACA, which still only puts a few steps along the road to real universal health care.

Key presenters, aside from Mr. Reid, are:

·        Lynn Quincy, Consumers Union (Non-profit Publisher of Consumer Reports);

·        Nona Bear,  healthcare consultant and former president of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance;

·        Elizabeth Arenales, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative

·        Doyle Forrestal, outreach specialist for Regional Director or U.S. Health and Human Services

·        Marguerite Salazar, Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service; and

·        Elizabeth Hoy, health policy advisor to Wyoming Governor Matt Mead

Organizations involved with One Health Voice include AARP, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Children’s Action Alliance, Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare, Equality State Policy Center, National Multiple Sclerosis Society CO-WY Chapter, Wyoming Center for Nursing and Health Care Partnerships, Wyoming Epilepsy Association, Wyoming Health Care Access Network/PhRMA, Wyoming Hospital Association, and the Wyoming Primary Care Association.

To register and see the full schedule of events, please visit www.OneHealthVoice.com or email LRosedahl@pubaffairsco.com.

New study links fracking with water contamination

The Wyoming Outdoor Council reposted a long article by ProPublica about a new study on fracking by four researchers at Duke University. This has been a big issue in Wyoming after the E.P.A. discovered methane gas and fracking chemicals in water wells in Fremont County near Pavillion. The E.P.A. still is investigating. That controversy also was featured in the documentary "Gasland" that was screened in Cheyenne a month ago. Our neighborhood in southeast Wyoming is in the Niobrara oil play where fracking will be the rule rather than the exception.

Read the article here: Fracking Linked to Water Contamination

Tea Party Slim is rested and ready for June rally

Tea Party Slim is back from his travels and looking forward to the big June 15 Cheyenne T.E.A. Party Movement rally in front of the State Capitol Building.

“It’s been a good year for freedom,” said Slim. “That’s Freedom with a capital F.”

“At least you can spell,” I quipped.

Slim glared at me. “That’s all the media could talk about – misspellings on signs at Tea Party rallies. Fat lot of good it did in the 2010 elections. Tea Party candidates won across the board.”

“Good point,” I said. “The Tea Party is ridicule-proof.”

“Damn straight. You elitists can make fun of us all you want. But we show up to vote and you don’t. So we won.”

“Another good point, Slim. That’s the second time I’ve said that in as many minutes.”

He smiled. “Better get used to it.”

Slim’s skin was bronzed from his time in Arizona. I couldn’t help noticing the stitches on his forehead. “What happened there?”

He touched the wound. “ Just a little skin cancer. Doctor thought it looked suspicious so she dug it out. Thank God for the V.A.”

“You can thank me and all the taxpayers for the V.A. We’re glad to oblige.”

“We served our country and we deserve medical care.”

“I’m just noting that it was taxpayer-supported medical care. I may be an elitist, but I pay my taxes.”

“Too many taxes,” he growled.

“That may be, but without taxes there wouldn’t be a military and there would be no military benefits like the V.A.”

“My turn to agree,” he said. “I’ve paid my share of taxes over the years.”

“We all have. All of us except for the rich and big corporations.”

“Don’t start with the class war stuff. Big corporations pay plenty of taxes. Besides, a lot of those companies are defense contractors. We wouldn’t have the best-equipped military in the world if it wasn’t for them.”

“General Electric earned $14.2 billion in 2010 but paid no U.S. taxes. A New York Times report said that the corporation had a negative U.S. tax rate last year, getting a $3.2 billion tax benefit. During the last five years, GE made $26 billion in what it lists as American profits, but got the IRS to write it a $4.1 billion check. So we’re paying G.E.’s share of taxes.”

“I don’t trust the New York Times. Where did it get its information? Probably from some disgruntled overpaid former employee.”

“Public records,” I said.

“The IRS? I don’t trust them.”

“Do you know how G.E. got out of paying taxes? It lends to foreign companies, which means American taxpayers indirectly subsidize those foreign loans. Meanwhile, G.E. is slashing its U.S. workforce and sending jobs overseas.”

“All companies have to make a profit. To compete, they send the jobs to countries where labor costs are lower. Everybody knows that.”

“Maybe so. But why do you and I have to subsidize these businesses? Shouldn’t they be left to the free market that you Tea Partiers love so much? And we’re paying taxes when they aren’t. And they’re closing factories and putting tax-paying Americans out of work.” I paused to catch my breath.

Slim glared at me. “That’s the problem with you pointy-headed intellectuals. You hate the businesses that made America great. But you love the IRS. And the New York Times.”

I was tempted to unleash a barrage of ridicule at Slim. But what good would it do? The Tea Party is ridicule-proof and logic-proof. “Hope your forehead heals up soon,” I said.

He touched his wound again. “I have an appointment at the Cheyenne V.A. tomorrow. Doc will take out the stitches -- and give me my annual physical.”

“I wish you good health,” I said. “Want to be in tip-top shape for that June Tea Party anti-tax rally.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he concluded.

Photo from Cheyenne Tea Party rally, March 2009