May 30 Health Care for All March

Marching down Jackson for Health Care Reform, May 30, Seattle

Elin's Minutes from May 19th Change Gang Meeting

Minutes: “65th Change Gang”
19 May 2009

Richard Hodgin
Report on our event, “Winning Health Care for All:

164 people showed up / The Seattle media recorded it and will play event on TV. Also Radio will do and a Pod cast will be available.
Liked Brown Paper Tickets. Process Fee $1.11 on each $8 ticket was good.
In retrospect wished we’d charged $5 rather than $8 per ticket: might have had more folks attend (amt psychologically more appealing).
Good idea = getting emails out to large group of nurses at the last minute, asking them to come.
A member reported hearing talk about the event and concluded we made a good impression.
State Rep McDermott was “really pleased” and Reverend Bev was great in the role of panel moderator. She called Richard several times to get all the facts; she was very prepared.
Richard expressed gratitude with how everyone and everything worked so well at the event. Also he commented on the tables, which were set up, created “a buzz” and the synagogue’s wonderful participation.
Tee Shirts Project – acquired and there’s more discussion
We then turned to future planning:
Folk Life Festival – volunteers to advertise the May 30th March & our group
Discussion on how to be effective (accomplishing our goals).
Disseminating information – i.e., Handing out the cards advertising the march and saying, “We need you to be there.”
Need to Lobby for a true non-profit plan (AMA, this week, endorsed the single-payer system
Contacting our Representatives by any form of communication; in person most desirable.
Burke Gilman Trail Event
New Obama Team Organizers – at Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave, Seattle, Monday, June 01, 6 – 8 p.m.
Brainstorming about how to get more name recognition (work on the web): Chain letter idea, join Community site and use 65th as key word, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Elin Bengtson-Leiter
27 May 2009
Please edit, correct as needed.

Help Alleviate Global Poverty--Make a Loan on Kiva!

Almost half the world lives on no more than $2 per day. Many are small business people--a fish seller in Tanzania, a mechanic in Lebanon, a seamstress in Vietnam. One way to help is to join the 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team and make a microloan on www.kiva.org. As we all know from the current economic situation, the availability of credit is essential for businesses. For as little as $25, you can join forces with others from around the world to combine funds to make a small loan (usually anywhere from $250 to $2500) to a needy business person to help grown their business.

Unlike many microfinance organizations, you can pick a specific person or group to lend to. The Kiva website makes it easy to search for borrowers in specific countries or regions, by gender, by repayment term, and by work sector (for example, agricultural, food production, retail). You will be notified by e-mail each time an installment payment on the loan is made.

This is not charity (although, if you prefer, you can donate to Kiva for its administrative costs and receive a charitable deduction). Nor is it a money-making proposition for lenders--you will not get interest on the loan.

Kiva cannot guarantee repayment. However, based on historical data, you have roughly a 98% chance of getting your money back, as the borrower repays the loan over time (typically between 6-14 months). I've made several loans over the past 2 years and so far, all have either been repaid or are in the process of timely being repaid.

As loans are repaid, they are credited to your account, where you can either add money and make a new loan, wait until the loan is totally repaid to make a new loan, or take your money back out. If you have more than one loan, you can combine the repayments to make additional loans before your original loans are fully repaid.

The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team is open to anyone--we currently have 14 members, 4 of whom are not in the Change Gang. Lending teams are just a fun way to challenge yourself and your friends to make loans. Your money remains segregated from other team members' and you choose what loans you would like to make. So far, we've made 31 loans totaling $950. We'd like to get into the four figures!

How to start? Go to http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=4189 to join the lending team. Then browse through the loans available and select one. Occasionally, Kiva runs out of loans, but check back frequently, because borrowers are often being added around the world every few minutes.

You will need to be willing to use your credit card online. If you would prefer not to, please contact me and we can work something out. If you can't figure out the website or have other questions, please contact me.

This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

May 16 Town Hall Summaries

Winning Health Care for All

May 16, 2009, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington

Here are the program and a summary of presentations made at the Town Hall event.

PROGRAM

Introduction
Rev. Bev Spears Legislative Director, Washington CAN

Health Care for All: If Not Now, When?
The Honorable Jim McDermott
U.S. Representative, 7^th District

A Health Care Conversation

Rev. Bev Spears

The Honorable Jim McDermott

Q&A Session (audience is welcome to submit written questions)

Rachel Berkson

Chair, State Council SEIU

Panel Discussion, Rev. Bev Spears, Moderator

The Honorable Jim McDermott

David McLanahan, M.D.

Physicians for a National Health Program

Teresita Batayola

CEO, International Community Health Services

And here is a photo montage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOOdDFEMXlA

A. The Honorable Jim McDermmot, US House of Representatives

There are 50 million people without health coverage. In addition to these, 25 million more are underinsured—they have insurance but it is so inadequate that they would almost be better off without it.

We say that we have the best health care in the world, but the U.S. is 37^th in the world in health outcomes such as infant mortality, longevity, etc. In 2005 we spent $6600 per person for health care. For half that, Canada covers everyone, and Canada is not alone.

The percentage of health care offered by employers has fallen 9%. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Americans with health insurance has fallen by 1%, but employment with health insurers has gone up 32%.

Recently health insurers claimed that they would agree to save $2 trillion, but are now trying to backpedal from this representation. We can’t count on the insurers; they know they have to come to the table because something is going to happen.

The last time health care reform was tried was in 1993. The insurance industry ran the Harry & Louise ads, making the public afraid. But today even the insurers are calling for reform. Rep. McDermott is guardedly optimistic.

The best health care system in the world is in France. The French spend 50% of what the US does. There is 1 physician for every 430 persons in France; in comparison, in the U.S., there is 1 physician for every 1230 persons.

As people live longer, there are a lot more chronic illnesses. The right people to manage chronic illnesses are primary care physicians. We can’t increase the number of primary care physicians until we alleviate the problem of the crushing cost of going to medical school. Doctors drive debt in the system. They’re the ones who make the decisions. Because of the debt they incur in medical school, they gravitate toward specialty practices to pay off the debt. Medicine has become a profession where people think of dollars all the time.

Representative McDermott has submitted a bill that would make medical school tuition free. Forty-five thousand enter medical school annually. They would get free tuition in return for 4 years of public service in the medical field. Assuming President Obama is reelected, during the remaining 7 years of his administration, there would be 315,000 new primary care physicians. That would change the profession drastically.

Advocates of the single payer system would like to get reform in just one step. Obama, however, saw what happened to Hillary Clinton when she tried that. Obama has thus adopted the two-step approach: the President has told us that if you have insurance and you like it, you can keep it, and we’ll do something for everyone else.

The something else is the public option. What are we going to get with the public option?

Five hundred thousand families each month are losing health insurance because of unemployment caused by the bad economy. So when we talk about the public option, we’re not talking about “them”, we’re talking about “us.”

What’s going to go into the public option? Insurance companies want to put everyone in the public option who is sick or who would cause problems. They want to make the public option a dumping ground.

Reimbursement levels are an issue. Currently, we don’t pay doctors to talk with the patients. Doctors are instead paid for tests and procedures. We have to rethink how doctors are paid to change this system.

The father of modern medicine said, “Listen to the patient—he will tell you what’s wrong”, but that is not what is happening.

To get reform, we need to keep the pressure on. Pay attention to what’s going on. Let your representatives know what you think. Before this, business, the medical profession, and even some unions weren’t interested in changing the health care system. Now they are. But to get it done, we need to keep the pressure on.

You do your part, and I’ll do mine.

B. Dialogue Between Rep. McDermott and Rev. Bev Spears, Moderator

Q. You’ve met with President Obama?

A. The Progressive Caucus met with him. Two or three made presentations to the President about the need for a strong public option, one designed for everyone. The President said he wants a public option. He has a lot of political capital and will need to spend some of it to get things changed. The insurance and pharmaceutical companies do not want change.

Q. The House version has a public option, the Senate seems more tenuous.

A. It’s not going to be easy. It will be a tough job bringing people together. Leadership says there will be a bill by 6/1, and that it will be on the floor by July. But congressional committees get caught up with infighting. We need to keep people focused. We know something has to happen. The factors are present that will make people drive to a compromise.

Q. The public option as a bridge. Is that because single payer isn’t going to happen?

A. Once the president told people with health insurance that they didn’t have to change, that cemented the insurance industry into whatever happens.

The single payer system is not complicated. Single source—everyone gets coverage. But once the insurers are in it, costs go up. There are many insurers, which means many different forms and procedures—it’s a reason why we pay more. If there is a good public option, that will wither away.

When FDR came to power, unemployment was at 25%. But it still took him 2 years to enact unemployment compensation. So the current timetable may be too ambitious, but we need to keep pushing and eventually we’ll get there.

Q. The budget crisis in the State. You got the Basic Health Plan enacted and now 40,000 have to be cut from that program.

A. Washington State has tried as hard as anyone. I did, Phil Talmadge did, Mike Lowery did. The health care system in Canada began in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Once it was established there, it spread until the entire country had it 20 years later. But in our country, one problem with starting on a state-by-state basis is ERISA. That federal law says that multistate companies can’t be forced to do anything by individual states. We could do a public option at the state level if we were willing to do something about ERISA, but that would be very difficult.

Q. It seems that minorities have more health care barriers.

A. It’s the right of all Americans to be covered and that has to be there from the start. Some countries have the right to health care in their Constitutions. We need to spend more dollars on preventative care, which would cut down later on more costly problems. We could use alternatives to MD’s, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc. We need more primary care level practitioners of various types to deal with the volume.

Q. What about immigrants, including people without papers?

How can you run a hospital and refuse somebody?? In Germany, you’d be in. And children, how can you refuse children? It would be un-American.

If you have something you want to change, put your foot in the door, then your knee, then your leg, and pretty soon you’re in the door.

We won’t get everything we want, but life isn’t that way. You only get out of the political process what you push your representatives to do.

I recommend a book entitled, “Do Not Resuscitate” by John Geyman.

C. Question/Answer Session (audience questions)

Q. What about alternative health providers?

A. We need to change the way we pay people to emphasize the preventive aspects. Fifteen minutes and a few pills could prevent $15-$20,000 episodes. The emphasis has to be on primary care.

Q. How committed is the President to universal care and how come he is not pushing single payer?

A. He wants to be sure we get this thing going and not get undermined. He had to tell people, if you like what you have, you can keep it. The President decided not to take on everything all at once, but in pieces. It’s like you can’t eat the whole elephant all at once. You have to go bite by bite.

Q. Medicare and Medicaid are limited. Will the public option also be? And what about dental?

A. To have a real public option, you have to have generous benefits the private options have—about 20% more than Medicare. That’s why Medicare recipients have to buy Medigap policies.

Even if you have insurance that pays 80%, what if you have a $500,000 bill, which is hardly unusual. You’d still be stuck with a $100,000 bill you’d have to pay out of your own pocket.

The public option has to cap out of pocket expenses. And if there’s no dental care, that can lead to medical problems. The public option needs to provide at least a basic dental plan. What Congress has, by the way, is not as good as some of the private plans.

Q. What are the differences between your bill and the Congress’s bill?

A. The Congressional bill puts everyone into Medicare. My bill requires each State to have the same benefit package, but gives each state the funds to create their own delivery plans. For example, Washington State has Group Health, but not everyone does, so each state has to figure out how to deliver the services.

Q. What about funding?

A. Financing is always the question. In 1993 we spent $950 billion on health care. A suggestion was made for a 10% payroll tax. Most businesses were spending 12-13% for their health care plans. Only Chrysler was interested in the 10%. Now businesses are paying 16% and realize that that will continue to increase.

We need some sort of tax according to ability to pay, for example, like the Social Security tax. The system is going to cost money. It will not be for free. Right now, the employer pays and gets a tax writeoff. The employee gets benefits and also gets a tax benefit.

It’s better to have the pubic decide how to finance the plan, rather than have the insurers, who will run up the premiums.

D. Rachel Berkson, SEIU

There will be a May 30 march, which will be part of a national network of demonstrations in April and May, culminating in Washington, D.C. on June 25. Go to http://www.may30march.org/. We must achieve health care reform in 2009. There are 150 organizations sponsoring the march. Five thousand are expected at the minimum, but we need more to make sure the politicians hear us. Each person should bring 10 persons. It begins at Pratt Park and goes to Westlake Center. There will be big name speakers.

E. Panel Discussion

Teresita Batayola, CEO, International Community Health Services

We’re in a fight for survival. It has been a crisis for many decades. Community health services have existed for 30 years and funding has been extremely limited at times, but especially now. Reform has to take place now because they’re in survival mode for the next 2-3 years.

Forty thousand will lose coverage under the Basic Health Plan. These are the working poor. Under the Basic Health Plan, they pay premiums and copays; it isn’t a give away. And Basic Health, like Medicare and Medicaid, isn’t perfect. These coverages are all limited.

Expect 900,000 to be uninsured by the end of this year.

Access for all is the first and foremost principle. Also we are interested in comprehensive and preventative care. Access for all to the ER is not enough. Any solution should include community-based care that includes a healthy environment, etc.

Quality of care is also important. And we need cultural and linguistic competence.

Recently the State cut $1 billion from health care. Community health centers are consequently seeing a massive increase in patients. They cannot be turned away, but where will we get the resources?

Private insurers are not interested in the most vulnerable, who can’t afford it anyway.

David McLanahan, M.D., Physicians for a National Health Program

Single payer activists—the Baucus 16—were arrested at the Senate Finance Committee. A majority of Americans support single payer, but the powerful have a chokehold on politicians. To change this, we need campaign financing reform.

The change we need must come to Washington, not from Washington. The President has punted to Congress.

Still, we have taken a significant step forward for single payer. The Baucus committee protest has engendered much publicity and now Ed Schulz of MSNBC is promoting it.

The medical industrial complex says it will voluntarily reduce costs, but where are the changes in their business practices to offer to the sick, not just to the well? There are no specifics, or enforcement, or accountability. Is this a smoke screen behind which Congress can hide? Is it the death knell to the public option?

After Watergate, Congress reformed presidential campaign finance, but not congressional campaign finance. Kerry and Obama didn’t even take public money. Only the people can get campaign financing done. Congress won’t do it. It will have to be done locally, by initiative.

F. Questions from the audience:

Q. How should the state and the federal governments work together on health care reform?

A. Senate Bill calls for implementation by 2013. You have to keep the heat on Congress. You need to make full use of the Internet to keep the pressure on. The demise of newspapers is a real problem. We need investigative reporting. And it has to be beyond just the state level. California keeps trying, but hasn’t made it yet. Community organizations around the country have to band together to keep pushing.

Both Washington senators, Murray and Cantwell, head key committees for health care reform. The Governor needs to work with them. But each person must learn what’s going on and contact their congress/senate representatives.

The original goal was 2012, now it’s 2014. In the last two years, single payer bills have been introduced, but now we have the budget crisis, and although still on the table, they’ve been sidelined.

We’re in a situation where it’s “pay me now, or pay me later.” There has to be a federal income tax increase on the wealthiest. Making medical school free is an investment. We can nvest in highways, but not in people.

Microfinance and Other Anti-Poverty Public Interest Resource List

Microfinance/Other Public Interest Organization
Resource List

Nearly half the world’s population survives on less than $2 per person a day. Of these, many have less than $1 per day. The organizations below are committed to helping improve this deplorable situation. All were either presenters or had tables at the 2009 Pacific Northwest Microfinance Conference. Selected materials from the conference are available at www.spu.edu/depts/sbe/se/microfinance/sessions.

What is microfinance? Many poor people in underdeveloped countries do not have access to the financial services that most of us have—at least until recently—taken for granted. Business loans are one of these missing services. We all know now what happens to business when credit dries up! But in most developing countries, non-predatory credit has never been available to ordinary people. For example, in Mexico, even “legitimate” banks and lenders impose annual interest rates on poor borrowers that typically range from 50% to 120% a year, and less scrupulous lenders may charge much more. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064038915009.htm)

Microloans are small loans, typically anywhere from $100-$2500 or so. With such a microloan, a woman who sells tamales out of her home in Mexico can buy a cart to expand her territory. Or an Afghan farmer can buy more seed. Microloans are not charity, but place the borrower on a more equal footing with the lender.

Interest charged by microfinance institutions (MFI’s) is around 25%, considerably less than from local commercial lenders. Such interest rates are necessary because of the huge costs MFI’s run meeting with and checking up on borrowers of relatively small amounts who live in far flung remote areas. In Muslim areas, where interest is not allowed, fees are charged instead.

Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) is the first of the online person-to person microfinance organizations. Based in San Francisco, Kiva was founded by a couple, Matt and Jessica Flannery. Matt grew up in Gig Harbor and still has family here.

Kiva has loaned more than $70 million in just a few years, with a minuscule default rate of 1.8%. Kiva does not charge interest itself, so lenders will not receive a financial return on their principal. Kiva does, however, partner with local MFI’s to give those MFI’s an online outlet to the lender world.

For as little as $25, you can participate with others from around the world to make microloans to specific needy small businessowners in other parts of the world. You can select the borrower. Based on historical data, you have a roughly 98% chance of being repaid. At that point, you can make another loan or get a refund of your money. If you make more than one loan at a time, you can use the combined repayments from the loans to make additional loans if you so choose.

If you prefer, you can make a charitable donation to Kiva for its administrative expenses.

One fun way to participate in Kiva is to join a lending team. Just as you would if you didn’t belong to the lending team, you select the loans you want to make, the money remains yours, and is not commingled with other team members, but the loan counts toward the team total.

Join the 65^th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending team at http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=4189. It’s open to anyone, not only members of the Change Gang. For more information and tips on how to participate, contact me at pokano@rmlaw.com. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have or even come to your house to guide you through the online process. If you are leery of using your credit card online, contact me—we can work something out.

RESULTS (www.results.org or www.resultsseattle.org) has been characterized by more than one person as the most important nonprofit you’ve never heard of. With chapters in the United States (including Seattle) and other countries, this 20+ year-old organization is devoted to ending hunger and poverty around the world. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is on its board.

RESULTS is currently campaigning globally for education, economic opportunity, global health, and IMF/foreign aid reform. It has both a lobbying wing and a 501(c)(3) public education wing. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has said, “If members of RESULTS aren’t talking about it, we won’t hear about it.”

The organization is promoting microfinance as a part of its economic opportunity and foreign aid agenda. Dr. Yunus has said of RESULTS that “no other organization has been as critical a partner in seeing to it that microcredit is used as a tool to eradicate poverty and empower women.”

One of my former colleagues, Bob Dickerson, is an active member. If you would like to get in touch with Bob, contact him at (206) 285-0375 or resultsbob@yahoo.com and let him know you heard about RESULTS from me. Local meetings are held at the Wallingford United Methodist Church, 2115 N 42^nd Street (at Bagley) in Seattle. Their next meetings are on 5/13, 6/17, 7/15, 8/12, 9/16, 10/14, 11/18, and 12/9, from 7 pm to 9 pm. They also have monthly national conference calls with speakers of note. Local members may participate in these calls. Volunteers or donations are welcome.

Agros International (www.agros.org) is a unique Seattle-based nonprofit that focuses on promoting land ownership by the rural poor in Chiapas, Mexico, and Central America. The organization buys up land and sells it to poor farmers, who would otherwise never have a chance to own their own land. So far, Agros has assisted 38 different villages. Agros’ approach is holistic: in addition to making land purchases available, the organization also provides assistance in community building, health care, education, adult literacy, spiritual growth, housing, community structures, irrigation, and sustainable economic growth. You can donate, buy items such as livestock or irrigation pipe, or volunteer.

The organization was founded by Skip Li, a local attorney. I knew Skip when he was Dan Evans’ general counsel in the Office of the Governor.

Esperanza (www.esperanza.org) is also a Seattle-based organization, devoted to community-based sustainable development for the elimination of poverty in the Dominican Republic. Founded by former Seattle Mariners’ catcher, Dave Valle, the organization provides financial services through microloans, literacy courses, vocational training, and health care services.

Esperanza is a Kiva field partner. You can make microloans to Esperanza clients at www.kiva.org, or you can donate directly to Esperanza.

Acholi Beads (http://acholibeads.com/) This is a for-profit organization dedicated to assisting the Acholi women of Uganda form a cooperative for the manufacture and sale of Acholi beadwork, made from tightly wound strips of recycled paper. The Acholis are refugees from the longest-running war in Africa. You can see and buy the beadwork online. If you would like to see a sample upclose, I have a bracelet I can show you.

Grameen Foundation (www.grameenfoundation.org) This nonprofit assists microfinance organizations in promoting and growing microfinance. Its technology division is based in Seattle. The technology division established the Village Phone Initiative, creating thousands of cellphone microbusinesses that provide vital communication sources for remote African villages and needed income for the phone operators. The foundation has also developed open source software for MFIs, provided capital for MFIs, produced a series of white papers and manuals on microfinance, and created a Progress out of Poverty Index to track poverty reduction among borrowers. The Seattle Technology center can use volunteers to, among other things, translate their open source software into other languages, collect product requirements, perform market research, and assist with graphic & web design.. Contact (206) 325-6690. You can also donate.

Unitus (http://www.unitus.com) also assists microfinance organizations by providing business, leadership, technical, and technological assistance. Unitus takes donations.

Wokai (http://www.wokai.org/index.php) is a brand new MFI that focuses on making microloans in China. It appears to be more along the Kiva model than the Visionfund or Hope International model.

Oikocredit (http://www.oikocredit.org/site/en/) began in Europe and has a U.S. branch. Unlike Kiva, in which your loan does not earn you interest, Oikocredit sells shares, allowing you to invest with the opportunity to make a small return in microfinance. Currently returns are capped at about 2%.

VisionFund (www.visionfundinternational.org) is the microfinance arm of World Vision. Unlike Kiva, you cannot select the borrower and you won’t get your money back. The money will go to funding microloans to unspecified groups or individuals and repayments will go toward future microloans.

Hope International (http://www.hopeinternational.org) is a Christian-based microfinance organization. It appears to operate similarly to Visionfund International.

Global Washington (http://www.globalwa.org) is a membership association that promotes and supports the global development sector in Washington State. Its members include nonprofits, foundations, businesses, governments, and academic institutions.

Report on 2009 Pacific NW Microfinance Conference, part 1--Kiva Co-founder Matt Flannery

A crowd of 400 (there were 100 people on the waiting list) attended the first ever Pacific Northwest Microfinance Conference on May 8-9, at Seattle Pacific University. The keynote speaker Friday night was Kiva co-founder Matt Flannery. If you ever have a chance to see Matt speak, do so!

Matt began by pointing out that nearly 50% of the world lives on less than $2 per day. Most of the working poor run small businesses. He was in Uganda when the idea for Kiva was hatched. At first, the idea percolated and started to take real shape in the offices of TIVO, his then employer. Then the Kiva operations moved to the neighborhood donut shop. Finally, they were doing well enough to move into the office building where Kiva is located now.

Kiva was still a very small operation, when lightning struck. Bill Clinton and Oprah talked about it. The national media discovered it. It took off. They have now loaned more than $70 million. Their overhead is about $5 million on revenue of $60 million. Lenders have the opportunity to contribute to overhead if they choose each time they make a loan.

Most of Kiva's clients are women. They have found that women are more likely to repay loans. While Kiva does not charge interest to the borrowers and the lenders do not get a financial return on their principal, the field partners (microfinance institutions, or MFI's) virtually all charge interest to the borrowers. This is necessary to defray the MFI's costs to, for example, visit borrowers (who often live in remote areas). In Muslim areas, where interest is forbidden, the pricing structure is different--for example, the MFI might charge a fee, rather than interest.

As the organization has grown, they have learned a lot, for example, how to do due diligence on their field partners. In the early days, sometimes they would discover that an MFI wasn't what it said it was and that embezzlement was occurring. They learned that the best policy was to be honest by disclosing the problem on the website. Cultural issues have also arisen: for example, one entrepreneur's business was cockfighting; there have also been issues with taking digital photos of women borrowers, especially in Muslim countries. For Iraqi borrowers, names and faces had to be concealed for their own security.

The current global economic crisis is having an impact. The borrower in Southeast Asia, for example, who weaves silk may not be able to tap as large an export market as before. Kiva also wondered whether lending would slow down. It did not. Kiva has been setting records in recent months for total amounts loaned.

Matt stressed that microfinance is not the total solution to world poverty.

Kiva hopes to be able to post loans to US borrowers sometime this summer. However, one of the big issues they are facing is the privacy rights of the borrowers.

Kiva is a Swahili word for harmony or unity.

May 6, 2009, Group Health/Kaiser Foundation Health Care Reform Speech

Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director of Public Opinion and Media Research for the Kaiser Foundation, spoke at a Group Health breakfast meeting that I attended recently. Her topic was public opinion on health care reform. Here are my notes on her presentation. For more information, go to www.kaiserfoundation.org.

Attempts at health care reform are not new. They date back to the Truman Administration, where reform was derailed by cries of "socialism" (sound familiar?). Approximately every 19.7 years after that, another attempt is made--once in the Nixon administration (Wilbur Mills was a leading light but got sidetracked by Fanny Fox) and once in the Clinton administration (Harry & Louise were the culprits). So if we don't achieve health care reform now, it could be another 20 years.

Sixty-two% believe that now more than ever, we need to deal with health care. Seventy-five % believe that the federal government should do more and spends too little on health care. In the abstract, 67% want some sort of public plan, but only 41% support a single payer public plan. That said, the public is evenly divided on what might be the best approach.

It is a common misconception that most of the uninsured are unemployed. The truth is that 8 of 10 of the uninsured are employed.

Most people believe that health care reform will benefit the country, but only forty-three percent believe that health care reform will make life better for them or their families. Affordability is the biggest issue. As a group, Americans are simply not interested in what has worked in other countries; they are convinced that other countries' systems are bad.

What makes now different than previous attempts at reform? Ms. Brodie believes that some of the factors are that President Obama made health care reform an early priority, he has left the details to Congress rather than try to prescribe them from the Oval Office, and that the interest groups see things differently this time around.

Here is what to look for as the health care debate goes forward:

1. Whose ox will be gored? Who is going to have to make sacrifices?

2. What is the tenor of the political discussion?

3. What are the reactions of the interest groups?

4. What do the ad campaigns look like?

5. And the most important, do people think they will be better or worse off? Keep in mind that right now, while 56% think that health care reform will benefit the country, only 43% believe that it will benefit them or their families. It is this perception that needs to change so that health care reform can be successful.

May 16th Winning Health Care for All - Jim McDermott and Ron Reagan

Tickets Available through Brown Paper Tickets $8
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/60846
or Call: 800-838-3006

Times: 11:00am doors open
11:00-12:00 Musical Entertainment by "Some People Playing Music"
12:00-1:00 Public Forum with Jim McDermott and Ron Reagan

*Rep.Jim McDermott will give a brief talk entitled,
"Health care for all, if not now, when?"

*A conversation will follow with Rep. Jim McDermott and Mr. Ron Reagan, talk show host, The Ron Reagan Show, on Progressive Talk, AM1090.

*Q+A from audience

1:00 - 2:00 Panel Discussion Featuring:

*Representative Jim McDermott, M.D., U.S. House of Representatives, 7th District
*Ron Reagan, host of The Ron Reagan Show, Progressive Talk AM 1090
*Reverend Bev Spears, Legislative Director, Washington Community Action Network
*David McLanahan, M.D., Western Washington Coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program
*Teresita Batayola, CEO, International Community Health Services

This event is sponsored by The 65th Street Change Gang and brought to you in conjunction with AM1090 Progressive Talk Radio.Also available on Podcast at am1090seattle.com/