Rally 9/3 :: Stand Up! for Health Insurance Reform

Dear Karah,

 

Misinformation and lies, as well as personal attacks on the President for his commitment to true reform of our county's critically ill health insurance system, are running rampant across our country.

 

It is time to stop the madness and Stand Up for Health Insurance Reform!

 

That is exactly what thousands of Washingtonians will do on Thursday, September 3^rd at the "Stand Up! for Health Insurance Reform" rally starting at 6 p.m. at WestlakePark in downtown Seattle.

 

Will you join with Washington CAN! members and our partners at Organizing for America and Health Care for America NOW! to take this stand? With thousands of us standing together we will send a strong message to Congress as members return to the capitol from their summer recess: "Go back to D.C. and get the job done on health insurance reform!"

 

Yes! I will Stand Up for Health Insurance Reform

Click here to RSVP

 

The Stand Up! for Health Insurance Reform rally at WestlakePark is one of a number of nationally coordinated events around the country on Sept. 3. During the rally, we will join millions in paying homage to Sen. Ted Kennedy, a life-long champion of health care reform.   

 

Last month, in a passionate OpEd in Newsweek, Senator Kennedy said winning health care for all was "the cause of my life."   Though he didn't live to witness his dream fulfilled, his life inspires us to carry on the fight and win health insurance reform this year.

 

Please join us on Thursday, Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. at Westlake Park, and add our voices to Sen. Kennedy's valiant fight for health insurance for all. With your help we can win this one for Teddy-and, at long last, guarantee everyone quality, affordable health care we can count on.

 

Yes! I will Stand Up for Health Insurance Reform!

Click here to RSVP

 

Thanks for all you do!

-the Washington CAN! team

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With over 35,000 members across the state, Washington CAN! is the state's largest grassroots community organization. Washington CAN! fights for progressive social change at the local, state, and national levels, with a focus on issues that most directly affect the lives of Washington residents. Our mission is to achieve economic fairness in order to establish a democratic society characterized by racial and social justice, with respect for diversity, and a decent quality of life for those who reside in Washington State.

You are receiving this message because you are a member of Washington CAN! or you have signed up to our free e-mail update service. If you have had this message forwarded to you and would like to continue receiving our action alerts, or you need to change the e-mail address to which these notices are transmitted, please email us at subscribe@washingtoncan.org. If you wish to no longer receive our e-newsletter, please click here

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Wishing you Wellness,

Karah Pino, MAcOM
Alternative Healing Network
www.AltHealNet.org/branches
(206) 794-7231

Join me at a Public Option NOW! Vigil

Hope you will join us to creatively express the true meaning of Healthcare! Please bring images and words that hold meaning for you about what is wrong with the system and what you would like to see instead. The event details are: Creating a Healthcare Collage Dragonfly Community Wellness Center - Fremont 760 N 34th St Seattle, WA 98109 Wednesday, 2 Sep 2009, 7:30 PM To sign up for this event, click here: http://pol.moveon.org/event/publicoptionnow/97884

How to Rein in Medical Costs, RIGHT NOW By GEORGE LUNDBERG

Sharing this with everyone I know because it is one of the most coherent and succinct descriptions of the core issue in healthcare costs that I have found.  Please share.  Wishing you Wellness, Karah Pino, MAcOM

How to Rein in Medical Costs, RIGHT NOW

By GEORGE LUNDBERG

I believe that there are still many ethical and professional American physicians and many intelligent American patients who are capable of, in an alliance of patients and physicians, doing "the right things". Their combined clout is being underestimated in the current healthcare reform debate.

Efforts to control American medical costs date from at least 1932. With few exceptions, they have failed. Health care reform, 2009 politics-style, is again in trouble over cost control. It would be such a shame if we once again fail to cover the uninsured because of hang-ups over costs.

Physician decisions drive the majority of expenditures in the US health care system. American health care costs will never be controlled until most physicians are no longer paid fees for specific services. The lure of economic incentives to provide unnecessary or unproven care, or even that known to be ineffective, drives many physicians to make the lucrative choice. Hospitals and especially academic medical centers are also motivated to profit from many expensive procedures. Alternative payment forms used in integrated multispecialty delivery systems such as those at Geisinger, Mayo, and Kaiser Permanente are far more efficient and effective.

Fee-for-service incentives are a key reason why at least 30% of the $2.5 trillion expended annually for American health care is unnecessary. Eliminating that waste could save $750 billion annually with no harm to patient outcomes.

Currently several House and Senate bills include various proposals to lower costs. But they are tepid at best, in danger of being bought out by special interests at worst.

So, what can we in the USA do RIGHT NOW to begin to cut health care costs?

An alliance of informed patients and physicians can widely apply recently learned comparative effectiveness science to big ticket items, saving vast sums while improving quality of care.

1. Intensive medical therapy should be substituted for coronary artery bypass grafting (currently around 500,000 procedures annually) for many patients with established coronary artery disease, saving many billions of dollars annually.
   
2.  The same for invasive angioplasty and stenting (currently around 1,000,000 procedures per year) saving tens of billions of dollars annually.
   
3. Most non-indicated PSA screening for prostate cancer should be stopped. Radical surgery as the usual treatment for most prostate cancers should cease since it causes more harm than good. Billions saved here.
   
4. Screening mammography in women under 50 who have no clinical indication should be stopped and for those over 50 sharply curtailed, since it now seems to lead to at least as much harm as good. More billions saved.
   
5. CAT scans and MRIs are impressive art forms and can be useful clinically. However, their use is unnecessary much of the time to guide correct therapeutic decisions. Such expensive diagnostic tests should not be paid for on a case by case basis but grouped along with other diagnostic tests, by some capitated or packaged method that is use-neutral. More billions saved.
   
6. We must stop paying huge sums to clinical oncologists and their institutions for administering chemotherapeutic false hope, along with real suffering from adverse effects, to patients with widespread metastatic cancer. More billions saved.
   
7. Death, which comes to us all, should be as dignified and free from pain and suffering as possible. We should stop paying physicians and institutions to prolong dying with false hope, bravado, and intensive therapy which only adds to their profit margin. Such behavior is almost unthinkable and yet is commonplace. More billions saved.

Why might many physicians, their patients and their institutions suddenly now change these established behaviors? Patriotism, recognition of new science, stewardship, and the economic survival of the America we love. No legislation is necessary to effect these huge savings. Physicians, patients, and their institutions need only take a good hard look in the mirror and then follow the medical science that most benefits patients and the public health at lowest cost. Academic medical centers should take the lead, rather than continuing to teach new doctors to "take the money and run".

Physicians can re-affirm their professionalism and patients their rights, with sound ethical behavior without undue concern for meeting revenue needs. The interests of the patients and the public must again supersede the self interest of the learned professional.

George D. Lundberg MD, is former Editor in Chief of Medscape, eMedicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He's now President and Chair of the Board of The Lundberg Institute

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Wishing you Wellness,

Karah Pino, MAcOM
Alternative Healing Network
www.AltHealNet.org/branches
(206) 794-7231