A Fundamental Moral Decision: How can we, in good conscience, deny health care to anyone who's sick? We can't.

by E.J.Dionne Jr.

The term “pro-life” is used with great seriousness in politics, and also as a political cudgel. If ever there were an issue on which those words have clear relevance and resonance, it is health-care reform.

Pro-life activists are deeply engaged in controversies around what care should be given at the end of life, and I strongly share their opposition to physician-assisted suicide. But who pays for end-of-life care when someone lacks health insurance? What sort of care can that uninsured person expect at the end of life? What good does it do to raise a ruckus around a general principle and not ask how the basic requirements of the sick can be met?

If a young woman is making up her mind about whether or not to have an abortion, is she not far more likely to choose life if she knows that she will receive decent health care while she is pregnant? Will she not feel more confident if she knows that both she and her baby will be able to see a doctor regularly after the child is born?

If we believe that all life is sacred, does that not mean that everyone should receive medical help in the early stages of an illness, before the illness becomes life-threatening? If we believe that human lives should not be bought and sold, doesn’t that require us to limit the impact that wealth and income have on access to life-enhancing and life-saving health care?

There is a terrible gap between the rhetoric people use in the health-care debate and the reality of our health-care situation. In particular, there is an enormous disconnect between the anti-government pronouncements we hear from opponents of universal coverage and the fact that government is already deeply enmeshed in our health-care system.

According to 2006 figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, government expenditures on health care in the United States already amounted to 7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. That was identical to the Canadian government’s share, and not far off from Sweden’s 7.8 percent, Germany’s 8.1 percent, or France’s 8.8 percent. In other words, our government already spends a great deal on health care, and yet 45 million to 50 million of us still lack regular insurance.

As a society, we agreed more than 40 years ago that it was unconscionable for the elderly to lack health coverage. With Medicare, we socialized—yes, I used that word—the provision of health care for all senior citizens.

Medicare is not perfect, but what a world of good it has done. But why offer that guarantee only to the elderly? Shouldn’t their children and grandchildren have the same right to regular medical care that they do? Isn’t that what the elderly themselves want? How can so many who say they oppose “government meddling” in health care at one moment go on to declare their firm support for Medicare at another? They cannot have it both ways, although they keep trying.

Medicaid has also brought needed care to many poor Americans. But isn’t there something terribly arbitrary about saying that one group of poor Americans can rely on government for help, while members of another group, nearly as needy, are left to fend for themselves? What principle is involved here?

One of the best pieces of legislation signed into law by President Obama this year was the substantial expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It was an excellent step in the right direction. But what do we say about the parents of those children? If a parent gets sick and has no health care, how does that affect a child—even if the child is insured?

There are many roads to universal coverage. There are many practical reasons—related to controlling costs to government, businesses, and individuals—for supporting reform. But the most compelling argument, finally, is moral: A country that values life should not be placing so many obstacles in the way of those seeking health care.

An essential book for this fall is T.R. Reid’s The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, embarked on an international search for better approaches to health coverage. Here’s what he concluded:

Those Americans who die or go broke because they happened to get sick represent a fundamental moral decision our country has made. Despite all the rights and privileges and entitlements that Americans enjoy today, we have never decided to provide medical care for everybody who needs it. In the world’s richest nation, we tolerate a health-care system that leads to large numbers of avoidable deaths and bankruptcies among our fellow citizens ...

All the other developed countries on earth have made a different moral decision. All the other countries like us—that is, wealthy, technologically advanced, industrialized democracies—guarantee medical care to anyone who gets sick. Countries that are just as committed as we are to equal opportunity, individual liberty, and the free market have concluded that everybody has a right to health care—and they provide it.

And we should, too.

E.J. Dionne Jr. is a syndicated columnist and senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

The Cost of Doing Nothing About Health Care

by Jim Wallis 03-02-2010

After nearly a year of our work for health-care reform, the debate seems to be reaching the end. News reports indicate that the president will propose his plan for moving forward, and climactic votes could come soon.

So what are we to make of the current bill? While it is deeply flawed, it nevertheless does extend coverage to 30 million people currently without insurance and provides subsidies for them to purchase it. And despite many disappointments with what a real health-care reform bill could have been, covering 30 million more people is still a big deal. But the most telling argument for finally passing something is that the cost of doing nothing about health care is far greater.

A New York Times report summed up, very starkly, the likely consequences of doing nothing. With no action by Congress, “The unrelenting rise in medical costs is likely to wreak havoc within the system and beyond it, and pretty much everyone will be affected, directly or indirectly.”

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck. Those higher costs will translate into higher premiums, which will mean fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone’s dollar will go to health care, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid will struggle to find the money to operate … The higher premiums will also persuade more businesses, especially smaller ones, to decide not to offer insurance. More people who buy coverage on their own or are asked to pay a large share of premiums will find the price too high.

If this happens, estimates are that the number of people without health insurance would increase by more than one million per year (on top of the 49 million currently without coverage), and result in as many as 275,000 deaths over the next 10 years. Do we really want as many as 60 million Americans to be without health insurance in a decade? More families will go deeply into debt, and many will go bankrupt.

I am forced to conclude that while this very flawed legislation may be the lesser of evils, the consequences of inaction to America’s families would be far greater. So rather than issuing a moral clarion call to action, let’s just hope this finally passes, and then immediately get to work to make it better. If this effort fails, most observers think that Congress might not get back to health care for ten or fifteen years; and all the terrible costs and consequences the Times article analytically predicts are very likely to come true.

Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street — A Moral Compass for the New Economy, CEO of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com

We Had 8 Years of Bush and Cheney and NOW You Get Mad???

I did not write this, so I deserve no credit, but I am absolutely at a loss as to how people can be so upset about helping our fellow people. Please watch the video, through to the end, after reading. Thank you.

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 714 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no.

So, Why do you Post Recipes Here Anyway?

I was chatting with a friend on the phone the other day and she heard my keyboard clicking away. I told her, I promise, I'm paying attention, I'm just putting a recipe on my blog. She laughed and said, "You're crazy." She's right, but not because I put recipes on my blog.

I don't want to be a famous foodie blogger with three book deals and a Food Network show in the works. I don't want to be a food photographer.

It's a simply selfish reason. I have The Recipe Drawer aka The Abyss in my kitchen that sucks in recipes that I find on the Internet or magazines or wherever. I rip them out, print them, and they end up in The Abyss and sometimes they come out. And then I, really, I should put them in a binder or whatever, but I don't. I enter them in my blog, so I have them forever. Search, make, eat.

It works for me.

So, here's another one. I think this is going to be the only way that I make chicken stir fry from now on.

Simple Chicken Stir Fry

1 lb chicken breasts
A couple of TB of cornstarch, more than you think, less than 1/3 cup
A couple of glugs of soy sauce
A heaping teaspoon of garlic
" " fresh ginger
A glug of sesame oil

Toss to coat well, and set aside as you clean and chop vegetables.

Now, look in your veggie drawers in the fridge and scowl. Then take out all the vegetables in there that look forlorn and lonely. This time around, we used:

1/2 head of cabbage
2 broccoli crowns
A bunch of green onions
2 packages of mushrooms

You also need chicken stock.

Heat a nonstick pan or wok over medium heat. Add 2 tsp canola oil or spray with nonstick spray. Add chicken and stir fry until no longer pink in the center. Remove from pan and set aside, keep warm by tenting with foil or use the pan/wok cover to cover it. Add a little more oil (if needed) and saute vegetables until almost crisp tender, add in chicken and pour in about 1/2 cup of chicken stock (you can add more if you need it). Stir fry is done when the sauce is thickened and vegetables are crisp tender. Season with a little more soy sauce if desired.

A Little Update

I haven't been feeling very well for the past couple of weeks. I usually "lose" about half of the month to terrible head pain, dizziness, and visual problems, but this last month has been really rough. I've still worked out every morning and we've been very busy so I've had to just suck it up, all the while feeling like I have an axe stuck in the top of my head. How sad is it that after 10 years of feeling like this, I still sometimes reach up searching for the offending implement?

I sat in church Wednesday evening, thankful that I didn't have to teach Confirmation during this head explosion, but feeling a little contrite. I looked around at all the people, seemingly pain free, some complaining about the length of the service and the songs that were sung and they just pissed me off. When I feel good, I want to work hard, help people, clean my house, hang with my kid, get out of the house (!!), and just be normal. And when I see someone complain about anything, well, it just makes me mad.

And then, I realized, I don't know what they carry as well. Appearances can be deceiving as I well know. How many people have exclaimed with shock when I finally reveal to them my health challenges? "But, you look so good!"* And, so I blew away the anger and got lost in the beautiful music of the evening. I settled in with my little family, during a time when we're normally not together in such a peaceful way.

My pain didn't go away. After ten years of this disease, I realize it may never go away. My doctor finally said to me last fall, this is probably going to be it for you. I've tried every solution, except for a shunt in my brain, which I don't fit the criteria for receiving. I weighed less than I was diagnosed, so, hearing from my doctor that my pursuit of healthier body is and only should be for my happiness has been kind of a zinger. So many old resources tout weight loss as the ultimate solution, but I have to rely on the expertise of my Mayo doc who informed me that recent studies are showing that it's actually the disease that causes the weight gain. So, maybe I can start feeling less guilty and upset with myself over that and just keep on plugging away. "Or," my fantastic GP said, "maybe you'd weigh like 400 pounds if you weren't doing what you're doing." "Um, thanks." And then I punched him in his stethoscope. I still adore him, mostly because he does say those sorts of things to me.

So, if you haven't heard from me or you're starting to wonder what's going on with my blog or our family one, I'm probably just avoiding the screen. My head can't take the glare. Positive thoughts and prayers are appreciated then! Thank you.







*"But, you look so good!" is a common thing, we sickos hear. Want to learn more about you can help people with Invisible Illnesses? Rest Ministries provides resources for caregiver, concerned friends/family, and support for the chronically ill. Their Invisible Illness Week in September has meant a lot to me. I don't go in for all the blind faith, but I'm not a blind faith kind of girl. But, their articles and devotionals have made me feel understood and comforted when I feel my worst.

Low Fat Banana Bread that Doesn't Taste Like Crap

I know. I KNOW, the title is really not appetizing at all. But, I've been searching for a decent low fat banana bread recipe for ages and this title sums it up. Really, it shouldn't have been this hard. Let me tell you, we've tried some pretty gross experimental recipes. This recipe is somewhat original, but with a little tweaking it suits us just fine. If you're watching your fat and cholesterol like we are, don't be afraid of the butter in the recipe. It's a small amount and much needed for flavor.

*Please note that Sam is in the background working on a Dakota Indian diorama. He went above and beyond what was needed for this project. I was so proud! He's taken to checking his grades online (way more than I do--I think I last checked in before Christmas sometime). He's become so responsible and talks to his teachers if he disagrees with a grade or finds an assigment that appears missing on SchoolView despite the fact that he KNOWS he turned it in. I guess my "be your own advocate" speeches worked! Sometimes, especially during these years, you need a little parental validation that you've done something right!

LFBBtDTLC

4 bananas, peeled and mashed (I just throw them in the mixer and let em whirl)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 TB butter, no substitutes

1 1/2 tsp real vanilla, no substitutes

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup egg substitute or 1 egg or 1/4 cup egg whites

2 TB applesauce (unsweetened is best, but use what you have)

Mix all until well blended. Place in a large loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Variations:

• add 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts


• dust top with cinnamon and sugar before baking or dust the pan after greasing with cinnamon and sugar


• add raisins and/or chocolate chips and bake in a 9x13 inch pan as a snack cake (check after 20 minutes for doneness) Sam's friends love this.


• make in muffin tins for better portion control, add streusal topping to wow and amaze your family


• use leftover (if there is any) or double the batch and use one loaf for bread pudding


• I LOVE toasted banana bread for breakfast. You need a toaster oven or use your regular oven, but it's yummy and delightfully different. The toasting caramelizes the bread. Top with orange marmalade... or not.

We always have unpeeled bananas hanging out in the freezer. We use them in smoothies, I bake with them (add to a cake mix, any flavor, with a little water and some egg whites and you've got a wonderful cake). They're a must have for us and a great way to use up the bananas that we don't eat before they start looking nasty. Freezing makes them look even nastier. No worries. The inside is just fine and the peel is the only packaging that they need to survive the freezer.

I Singlehandedly Solved the Health Care Crisis During the SuperBowl

It's not a financial issue, it's a moral one, right? So, tax the Superbowl ads. You want a 30 second spot, well, you already pay a ton, so let's take a piece of each one.

Think about it:

2.5 mil per each 30 second spot times how many spots???? The ads will still cost you the same, they can't afford to try to charge you more, we just want a piece.

You could still have your little game. We really only watch the ads anyway. I mean come on, how can we sit and watch Bud Light spend that kind of money portraying hen picked men and not get a little pissed off and think of other ways such unbelievable amounts of money should be spent?

You can thank me when your MRI is free and you don't lose your house if you get leukemia. You can thank me when you don't have to have a spaghetti dinner to pay for your daughter's transplant.

This message brought to you by Olsons for You Deserve Healthcare Just as Much as I Do.

Honestly, I have to do something when the commercials aren't on.

What I've learned so far:

• Go Daddy dot Com can run an ad, but an ad for a Gay man's dating service can't? Um, hello? I think Hooters has more class than this company.
• Doritos are overpriced. They have to be, there's been an ad every commercial break.
• There will be lots of kids in Haiti wearing t-shirts that say Colts SuperBowl Champs 2010
• The Who still ROCKS

I'm very happy for the Saints, really I am. They deserve a little happiness there.