By SueN
- Quote: "The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better." - Christian Nevell Bovee.
- Article: Conductor dies in aided suicide. He wasn't dying.
- Should you have the right to decide when and how to end your life?
- Guest: Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk ("Father Tad"), Director Of Education, Neuroscientist and Staff Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, is Euthanasia a slippery slope or a merciful end to suffering? Why is he opposed to a person in great pain and lousy quality of life ending it? Life is a gift, it was not a decision to come into life. Animals cannot do anything with suffering, but we can? Malcolm Muggeridge said the only time he ever grew was when he suffered. For points raised in this and other segments, please see Thom's newsletter for Tuesday 28 July 2009.
- Bumper Music: Suicide is Painless, Mike Altman & Johnny Mandel, M*A*S*H.
- Guest: Patricia O'Halloran, Vice President of Physicians for Compassionate Care (PCCEF) and hospitalist with the Franciscan Health System in Tacoma, WA, gave Thom the medical perspective against assisted suicide. Oregon's 11th annual report showed that dire predictions were not realized. She is against assisted suicide. The law withdraws protection from those who are using suicide as cry for help. There are lots of drugs to relieve pain. For points raised in this and other segments, please see Thom's newsletter for Tuesday 28 July 2009.
- Report: 2008 Summary of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. 11th year.
- Bumper Music: If Everyone Cared, Nickelback.
- We wish a very special, very warm welcome to our newest affiliates...community radio stations: WETX 106.7 Johnson City, TN...Radio Builsa 106.5 , The Republic of Ghana in West Africa...AND, WYAP 101.7 Clay, West Virginia...welcome to our affiliate family!
- Why do conservative want to put government between you and the end of your life? If somebody uses death with dignity, it is legally not suicide so insurance must pay. Safe harbor provision. It is against the law for a doctor to kill with this single exception, and to qualify for safe harbor the doctor has to report and detail the entire thing, else they could get sued for murder or malpractice. For points raised in this and other segments, please see Thom's newsletter for Tuesday 28 July 2009.
- Book: "Overcoming the Odds" By Emmy E. Werner, Ruth S. Smith (about the Kauai Longitudinal Study).
- Bumper Music: Live like you were dying, Tim McGraw.
- Article: Congress Copying Massachusetts' Failing Healthcare? by Steffie Woolhandler.
"As Washington politicians climb on-board a Massachusetts-style health reform, Massachusetts healthcare sinks."Congress seems poised to include an individual mandate in health reform, copying Massachusetts. Here, beating your wife, communicating a terrorist threat and being uninsured all carry $1,000 fines."The 2006 Massachusetts reform halved the state's already low uninsurance rate -- mostly by expanding Medicaid and similar programs at great public expense.
"But reform hasn't made care affordable for middle class families, or for the public treasury. A middle income uninsured 56-year-old is now forced to lay out at least $4,800 for a policy with a $2,000 deductible before it pays for any care, and 20 percent co-payments after that. Overpriced, skimpy coverage like this left one in six Massachusetts residents unable to pay their medical bills last year."
- Guest: Marc Goldwein, Policy Director, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; Senior Policy Analyst, Fiscal Policy Program, New America Foundation. "Instead of you wanting the force of government to ensure I have a doctor, you want the force of government (which uses guns) to force me to give my money to a company which stands between me and my doctor?" They are bipartisan. They focus on costs.We mare paying doctors to do more procedures rather than better care. New Yorker article. Mayo clinic is excellent, care at half the cost. Part of cost increase, people more wealthy, so demand more. The structure means companies cannot compete. Overtreatment to death. Funding advances in medical technology. (transcript).
- Article: "The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care" by Atul Gawande, June 1, 2009.
- Health care. Some in Congress are weaseling, slowing it down so the health industry can spend more money against it. Thom had a conversation this morning on KPOJ with Congressman Peter DeFazio. His concern is that public option payments would be based on Medicaid payments, which varies a lot across states, and is partly based on local accommodation costs in the '60s. So he wants to slow it down to get it right Steffie Woolhandler, Institute for Public Accuracy, on the Massachusetts system failing.
- Article: Congress Copying Massachusetts' Failing Healthcare?, Steffie Woolhandler.
"As Washington politicians climb on-board a Massachusetts-style health reform, Massachusetts healthcare sinks."Congress seems poised to include an individual mandate in health reform, copying Massachusetts. Here, beating your wife, communicating a terrorist threat and being uninsured all carry $1,000 fines."The 2006 Massachusetts reform halved the state's already low uninsurance rate -- mostly by expanding Medicaid and similar programs at great public expense.
"But reform hasn't made care affordable for middle class families, or for the public treasury. A middle income uninsured 56-year-old is now forced to lay out at least $4,800 for a policy with a $2,000 deductible before it pays for any care, and 20 percent co-payments after that. Overpriced, skimpy coverage like this left one in six Massachusetts residents unable to pay their medical bills last year. Among INSURED residents in the state, 18 percent say they skipped care because they couldn't afford it."
- Scrap all complexity, and say that any American can buy into Medicare. Why is Medicare part D not fixed? Peter DeFazio does not know, he told Nancy Pelosi it would provide the money to pay for improvements.
- Dr. Ogan Gurel left Chicago's Daley Plaza en route for Washington DC to launch the Walk for Healthcare, a nearly 700-mile journey by foot. He is collecting peoples' health care stories and blogging about them. Follow him on Twitter and FaceBook. Stories from lots of uninsured and insured people, including those with good government insurance. Granny D walked too.
- Bumper Music: Piggies, George Harrison, Beatles (video).
- Article: Smelly Pig Farm Yields $1.1M Settlement.
- The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF], brilliant work, communities in Pennsylvania saying that corporations have no rights, saying no to giant pig farmers.
- The Sing Out for Single Payer Health Care Roadshow.
- Article: White House declines to disclose visits by health industry executives By Peter Nicholas.
- The things that are driving this that are nothing to do with health insurance. The top tax rate. Rant.
- Bumper Music: Don't Do Me Like That, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (video).
- Health insurance companies are exempt from anti trust, so they have a legal monopoly, can collude on prices, policies, etc. You can't get access to them like politicians.
- "EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG"... is the end of the world closer than we know?!"
- Guest: Gilbert Eriksen, psychologist, linguist, former helicopter pilot during Vietnam war. The scientific explanations of biblical prophecies. The history of the discoveries of reasons contributing to deviations in the orbit of Uranus. Planet X. NASA probes. Earth has had catastrophic events. John's Revelation in the New Testament are consistent with astronomy.
- Bumper Music: Savin' Me, Nickelback.
- Guest: Larry Scott, Founder/Editor of VA Watchdog, is keeping an eye on the VA so you don't have to.
- Article: "VAOIG: VA Pays Too Much For Medical Equipment."
- Article: "New VA Data: 37% Of Returning Vets Have Mental Health Issues."
- Article: "Army's Mental Health Program A Prescription For Disaster."
- Article: Executives receive one-third of all pay in the U.S. by Pat Garofalo.
- Bumper Music: Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated), Offspring.
- Article: Shark taken on train ride, dumped on road.
- Article: The Can't-Do Blue Dogs by Harold Meyerson.
- Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
- Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. She watched C-SPAN2, the vote on John Thune's gun amendment, which would have allowed people to carry concealed between states. Feingold for, Voinovitch and Luger against. Bernie against. States rights issue? Obama prime time press conference tonight, will push health care. Watch how many questions there are from the print media - they tend to ask the most thoughtful questions, he disses them? They tend to run about 1 hour, he does around 13 questions. He allows them to do follow ups. She would rather he did not, to get a greater range of questions. Reagan started the reduction. He lost respect because of pre-arranged question from Huffington Post.
