The Health Care March Is On: Day 1
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 11th, 2010
Okay…It’s really Day 2, but let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Don’t know what’s going on with me these days but I’ve been a day late for about a week now. :)
I mentioned to you a few days ago that we are getting down to the wire with health care reform passing. We need to take it to the end and bring health care reform home…literally…home to the many people who are living without it. If you have health care – great, let’s make sure that everyone can have it too. Can you do that?
The House is now expected to hold its final vote as soon as one week from today, so we only have a week left to really push for reform. Big Pharma insurance-industry lobbyists are up to no good, planning a big blitz at the Ritz to block reform, while simultaneously jacking up rates by as much as 60% for small businesses and families across the country. Our premium went up 30% last year. If it goes up again, I like many may not be able to afford it. Health care will be a luxury and that is just wrong.
Here’s a note from our president:
So starting today, we’re launching an unprecedented week-long campaign sprint — our “Final March for Reform.” Each day until the vote, we’ll feature a powerful new way for OFA supporters to speak out in our communities and weigh in directly with Congress.
Today, we’ll start by spreading the facts about reform in our communities. Smears and falsehoods have clouded this debate — Congress must understand that if they pass reform, their constituents will know the truth about what we’ve finally achieved
“At this moment, we are being called upon to fulfill our duty to the citizens of this nation and to future generations… I don’t know how passing health care will play politically, but I do know that it’s the right thing to do. It’s right for our families. It’s right for our businesses. It’s right for the United States of America.”
– PRESIDENT OBAMA
THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN FOR HEALTH REFORM
Americans across this country agree that our health care system is broken: Unaccountable insurance companies ration care, soaring premiums cripple the budgets of our businesses and families, and vital care remains out of reach for far too many. The time for change has come. President Obama’s final proposal incorporates the best ideas from both parties to put Americans in control of our own health care.
HERE’S WHAT THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN FOR HEALTH REFORM WILL DO:
PROTECT AMERICANS FROM INSURANCE COMPANY ABUSES
• You will never be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions
• You will never be hit with arbitrary premium hikes
• You will never see your coverage revoked just when you get sick or injured
• You will never face unlimited out-of-pocket expenses for your care
GUARANTEE AFFORDABLE CHOICES
• If you like your current doctor and you like your current plan, you keep them
• Uninsured individuals and small business owners will become part of a powerful negotiating pool, just like members of Congress and other federal employees, lowering prices and increasing choice
• Struggling middle-class families will receive a tax credit to make coverage even more affordable – the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history
REDUCE THE COST OF CARE FOR OUR FAMILIES, BUSINESSES
AND THE GOVERNMENT
• We’ll save billions of dollars every year by reducing waste and abuse in our current system
• We’ll save and create millions of jobs, raise wages and strengthen the economy
• We’ll cut the deficit by nearly $1 trillion over two decades
Readers: I know we all have so much to do in our lives but can you make some time for something that is so important to the people of our country?
Here’s the above info in flyer form in pdf to print out and pass out: pres-plan.php To download all of the flyers and posters to get the word out click here. You can even Facebook and Twitter notes to post, for those of you that are into social networking. And who isn’t these days? :) Spread the good word. All of the tools are here; all you need to do is give a few minutes of your time and more if you can.
As our president says, “We’re on the verge of solving a crisis that has vexed our nation for generations — and eluded the best efforts of seven previous Presidents. But our opponents will stop at nothing to distort the President’s proposal and derail our progress. It may all come down to what we do together this week. Today, it’s time to show the insurance lobbyists that no smear campaign cooked up at a posh hotel can match the power of millions of regular citizens who are ready for change and committed to the truth.”
Ranting is great for releasing; reform requires action – do something. Thanks for caring.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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March 11th, 2010 at 9:46 am
As you can see that whites are still electing bigots over people who will not be bought off by special interest. As soon as he got in he rescinded the executive order of the previous governor preventing discrimination against gays.
Then the states attorney said that state offices could grill people as to their sexual orientation so as not to have to hire a gay person.
This is why white males want to appoint judges who claim they believe in states rights over federal. Whites have the votes on the state level and they are not above voting away other groups, races, etc rights.
What will it thake Howie for white america to get a clue? This country is for ALL americans. You do not have a right to special treatment.
Alice
March 11th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Michelle:
It seems that Chili has not learned its lesson. They are certainly a stubborn Nation so they received 3 earthquakes today. The news calls them “Aftershocks”. Sounds good, but they were not. They were a magnitude of 6.9 to 7.2. If you live in California, you know those are good sized temblors.
We know they were warned by Aliens to sign the pact along with the other Nations to give them free access to the Trench area without harassment by anyone’s Military.
We also have a warning from Ori that he would harm Hawaii (a US State) if the US does not coerce South American Nations to comply.
The Alien threats are getting closer to home. We have sent Hillary Clinton to get South Ame4reican nations to comply and secret meetingt have been held a few times, how2ever Cile and Argentina are giving thew the finger. They do not believe any entity can or will harm them — they consider the earthquakes an act of nature.
I sincerely hope things do not heat up. Guam’s population is baffled as to the guests visiting them all of a sudden from all over the World. They do not understand about the sudden road building and communications upgrade. It is to accommodate all the guests. The Queen Mary 2 brought 8,500 people alone foe a short visit.
The US Military is stockpiling implements of war on Guam because they want to use this opportunity to catch some Aliens or their craft to learn from their technology. The Aliens are well aware of this and do not consider the US a threat. The will take their gloves off and show us who is boss if they are forced to.
Hope that doesn’t occur.
HOWIE
March 11th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Hi Mischa, I’m on it! How are you? Let’s chat soon…I’ll initiate a vmail tag, how’s that?
Anonz, sweet pea, I will always have your back here, I’d love to tell you I’d have your back there and be able to pull you and your men out a jeep when necessary also. I’ll leave that to the lovely people of Sudan to assist you and I’ll just keep sending those positive vibes for your safety as I do every day bc that’s just the way I roll.
I DO like the lioness remark : ) that made my day, the lioness is my favorite creature, have you ever watched one closely…they sit silent (quite Zen looking, I must say) and regal though perched on their front legs alert to sighting/hearing anything threatening moving on the outskirts of her mate and prides’ environment, when she stands up to roar, she’ll make your hair fly back, and hahaha…she’ll kick ass and take names, too, if she has to, Yeah…I’m just like that.
Thanks for noticing : )
I am bummed to hear that fuel will be going up again, in general, most people are feeling pretty pessimistic and you can’t blame them, there’s no end to the fleecing lately. But…I just keep on keeping on…I did want to reiterate what Anonz said, especially those who get caught up in what he is rather than who he is and what he’s trying to convey, here it is:
Stop us by (1) insisting that special interest groups not be allowed to lobby congress. (2) Out law PAC’s political contributions (3) get your Congress to fix the opinion rendered by the bought and paid for 6 of the Supreme Court who ruled that corporations can spend as much as they want on political issues and candidates.
Take his advice or not and reap the fleecing. rant and vote, here and anywhere.
Howie, my kids would like to know your prognosis and any other info re: your health situation, we did a fly-by over Florida while in Superwoman/superman pose, they love that : ) the kids call me YogaLilly, funny huh, I kind of like it, almost as much as ZenLilly : )
OK, now I’d like to address the women of MM blog…
I was walking a friend through a workout and found myself explaining about primary, secondary and terciary muscles being worked. So, I want you to think of each exercise you do this way, you can either do the exercise and work that one body part or you can bring attention to several things and get secondary and terciary benefits, so when you are fast walking think of your G note in your crack as your primary, squeezing your inner thigh muscles and reaching your torso up (as in lengthening) as secondary and keeping your shoulders rolled up, back and down (with ‘ta’s north’ as Al says) as your terciary group, she did the same exercise I showed her with this attention to detail and slowing down the entire movement and was amazed at the intensity of the action.
So, here’s a waist slimmer for you…grab a 5, 7.5 or a 10 lb weight. Stand tall (the usual with G note in crack, ta’s up, etc…which is always your secondary and terciary beneficiaries), spread your legs approx shoulder width apart, hold the weight in your right hand, hand facing towards your thigh, lean right keeping biceps and triceps engaged, do not release either muscle the entire time : ) hard but you can do it, do the right leaning only till you feel the stretch in that oblique muscle (left side at waist, it’s a very specific stretch, you will feel that special inch) hold it there for 1 count, come up slowly (2 count) and then repeat 15x’s on right side, switch weight to left hand and repeat 15x’s on this side, do 3 sets each side, build up to 6 sets per side…you’ll like the way this nips and cinches the core area, makes you curvy without losing the boot-tay ; ) and we’re building lat muscles with this for that fab visual of the hourglass : )
so – take a 5lb weight in each hand, feet together (same posture as usual) lift both weights up to shoulder height on a 3 count, hold for 1 count, down for 3 count, nice and slow, repeat 10x’s and do 3 sets, this is shoulders but if you’re engaging your triceps and biceps (bring attention to these muscles and squeeze em’) try not to lift your shoulders up to your ears, you should feel a relaxed positioning in this exercise.
You’ll have killer shoulders and that really nice mild ‘dent’ in your arms right near the bicep, yum, it’ll look as good as if not better than Michelle Obama’s arms, tomorrow, we’ll review/get new bicep and lat exercises with free weights.
Fakey risotto : ) not that there’s anythinng wrong with real risotto but this is an easy to cook version and it’s chock o bock full of protein, here it is, mushroom risotto (add something else, chicken or shrimp pieces if you hate fungi): Heat a pan with spray oil and sprinkle salt and pepper in the bottom, your going to sear slices of portobello mushrooms, usually 60-90 seconds per side or till browned, set aside. Now, take 1 cup cooked quinoa, drizzle with olive oil and heat in microwave for 1 minute, when you take it out mix in 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese until smooth, chop the mushrooms up and toss them in, it’s so good, you’ll be loving this…I always make leftovers and toss the whole warmed up thing into a salad later, it looks like a train wreck but it is amazing and again, it’s your protein, when you really look at the variations for a veg-head lifestyle there are som many more choices than just fish/chicken or beef, yawn…! Try it, I think you might like it : )
Ok, I need new workout clothes so off to the store I go! Hi ho hi ho, working will have to wait : ) Luv, Zen Lill
March 11th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Make the calls, letters and emails to your constituent in Washington today! Make sure they understand this vote will mean their job!
Here is another link, from a writer friend, in reference to some thoughts yesterday.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/calling_all_rebels_20100308/
March 12th, 2010 at 7:08 am
PETS REDUCE NEED FOR POST-OP MEDS
Our friendly neighborhood golden retriever JoJo has a new “job,” I recently learned… he and his owner are a pet therapy team at the local hospital, making rounds a few times a week to see patients staying overnight or longer. I thought that was a nice thing for them to do when I heard about it — and I’m even more impressed now that I’ve seen research affirming that JoJo’s work really can make a difference… so much so, in fact, that I think doctors ought to write prescriptions for it. In one trial, people who spent time with dogs while recovering from surgery needed significantly less pain medication than those who did not.
WHO LET THE DOGS IN?
At Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, investigators measured the impact of dog visits on how much pain medication patients required after total joint replacement surgery, collecting data on 87 patients who received five- to 15-minute dog visits and an equal number of patients who chose not to receive the visits.
Factoring in a range of variables, including age, gender and length of hospital stay, researchers found that…
Patients who received dog visits required half as much pain medication as those who didn’t.
The timing of visits (morning, afternoon or evening) didn’t matter.
The largest difference between the groups was on the first and second post-op day.
Julia Havey, RN, of Loyola University Health System, presented these results at the 18th Annual Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology and the First Human Animal Interaction Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in November 2009.
PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALING: A PET
Of course, it won’t come as a surprise to any pet owner that “animal-assisted therapy has a positive effect on patients’ psychosocial, emotional and physical well-being,” as Havey explains. She told me that previous research has demonstrated that friendly animal interactions can lower stress and blood pressure… improve immune system function… distract you from your pain and illness… increase your sense of well-being… and decrease loneliness. Also important — this medical intervention is inexpensive and very safe.
Sometimes a simple touch is what’s missing in modern technological settings, muses Havey. Petting a dog or cat can fill this void, so it is good to hear that more and more hospitals, nursing homes and other types of health-care facilities are instituting pet therapy for patients who are open to giving it a try. Pet therapy is not just sweet, it’s also healing in its own right.
Source(s):
Julia Havey, RN, researcher and senior systems analyst, department of medical center information systems, Loyola University Health System (LUHS), Maywood, Illinois.
March 12th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Zen Lill
Thanks for the new info. I went back over some of your earlier instructions to reenergize my exercises. These new ones are great.
March 12th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
‘That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
And I wanted to stay with you guys.’