Leigh Bailey's Open Salon Blog

My talk with "No Impact Man" Colin Beavan

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 19:10:51 -0400

Hello gang,

Please go check out the podcast of my interview with Colin Beavan, of "No Impact Man" fame, on the One Million Acts of Green site.

http://www.greennexxus.com/gnx.aspx?id=85

The Bullshit Solution: Health Care Co-ops

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:08:08 -0400

Okay, so I'm really getting furious now.

I just called my senator--Dianne Feinstein--in a nearly fruitless attempt to find out what her stance is on the public option in the health care reform bill.

For any of my fellow Californians reading this, Feinstein has been particularly obtuse on her position here. I've tried scouring her website for information without success (despite the fact that an aide assured me she'd published her position there recently).

On my first call, I was told that the Senator did, in fact, support a public option, inasmuch as she would "vote for a bill that included" it.

But that isn't saying very much, is it? For one thing, that seems to be a safe bet for a Blue Dog who doesn't want to see the government competing with insurance companies, as WaPo and others are reporting the public option may well be dead.

It also suggests strongly that Feinstein is not actively supporting the public option--something I believe (and told her aide) she is obligated to do considering the wishes of her constituency.

On my second call (this time to her Washington office) I asked again what the Senator's position was. This time, after pressing through the wishy-washy response, I was told that Feinstein favors the non-profit "health insurance co-op." THIS, in fact, is the "public option" she supports.

What's my problem with the notion of these "non-profit health insurance co-ops"? Well, for one thing, neither I nor anyone else I know has any idea what the fuck that even means.

According to Sen. Kent Conrad, the concept’s chief proponent, a non-profit health-insurance co-op is more or less what the name implies: Theoretically, consumers would get together to form their own health insurance companies, and again, in theory, these co-operative companies would be able to offer affordable health insurance to the public.

One major problem with the idea is that, for the most part, they don’t currently exist, not as Conrad has described them. While some 300 companies across the U.S. call themselves “health-care cooperatives,” only two companies currently actually offer health care to the public: Group Health Care Cooperative in Washington, and Health Partners in Minnesota. (The rest are organizations “don't actually underwrite and sell health insurance; they simply negotiate rates on preexisting plans with health-insurance companies” according to an article in BusinessWeek.

Essentially, both Group Health Care and Health Partners are HMOs, just like the other HMOs we currently contend with. They’re just non-profit, and considerably smaller (read: less powerful) than the big insurance companies like WellPoint.

But consider this: Kaiser-Permanente--one of the biggest insurers in California, is ostensibly a not-for-profit corporation. Which hasn’t prevented it from becoming the fifth-largest private company in America, according to Fortune, and for the first quarter of 2007 (the only quarter for which I could quickly find data) one that reported a profit of $1.7 billion dollars. And as to keeping costs down? I don’t know about you, but I earn pretty good money and I can’t afford Kaiser coverage.

The important thing to consider about these health care co-ops is this: If they’re going to work as advertised, what is required is that we start them ourselves. Which means we have to find about 50,000 like-minded local people, come up with millions and millions of dollars in start up money, then go out and find doctors and hospitals, nurses and other medical staff to actually provide actual, you know, HEALTH CARE. Should be a snap, no?

I don't know about you, but that seems like a ridiculous implausible solution to me.

So why are these “health co-ops” being touted as a reasonable alternative to a public program? And why are politicians like Sen. Feinstein pretending they are?

This is important. You’re being sold a blank piece of paper here, one that will do nothing to address the needs of the poor or uninsured. It won’t ensure coverage for everyone, and it won’t lower costs.

Call your representatives today. Tell them that if they don’t vote for a public option, they’ll get no money and no vote from you next time they’re running for office.

Why I Might Be Forced to Register Republican

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:08:54 -0400

I have to confess, I'm pretty surprised, and not pleasantly.

Despite high hopes that we were moving away from the blue state/red state abyss, it isn't turning out that way.

Instead, Republicans across the country and the airwaves are in the throes of a moral indignation so powerful it's making them sputter almost incoherently lately. And a healthy percentage of our conservative brethren have chosen to take very specific umbrage at Senate Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s recent characterization of the town hall protesters.

But quick, before you make up YOUR mind about whether or not you too are outraged, take a minute and attribute the following quotes:

“These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.”

"The zealots in this country--and that's what they are, they're zealots--are Nazis. This is exactly what Nazis did. They disrupted rallies, they came in and shouted people down, they intimidated, they smeared, they did all of this..."

If you guessed Pelosi, you’d only be half right. While the first quote is taken from the op-ed she coauthored that ran in USA Today, the second is from a news broadcast aired on December 8, 2005, by none other than Bill O'Reilly. He was referring to anti war protesters and other vocal critics of the Bush administration.

Which just goes to prove that old chestnut—it all depends, of course, on whose ox is currently getting gored, doesn't it?

But I think Pelosi is mostly on the money here. I just think she's painting the wrong set of people with the tarry brush of un-Americanism.

It is unAmerican to attempt to intimidate, through lies and deliberate campaigns of misinformation, the American people who should be having this discussion.

It is unAmerican to inject corporate interests into a discussion that should be about the welfare and well-being of close to 50 million uninsured (and countless other underinsured) Americans.

It's been pretty well documented that the driving force behind this campaign of misinformation (Obama will not kill your granny, there are no "Death Panels," and I'd bet my right arm that Sarah Palin got a big fat check from an insurance company in appreciation for her recent Tweet) are the very corporations whose profits will shrink should this bill pass, backed by their neocon lobbyists.

It is unAmerican in the extreme that what should be and could be a reasoned and reasonable exchange of ideas is instead being corrupted and manipulated by powerful parties with a vested interest in shutting down reason.

It absolutely infuriates me, as I've written before, that these "Interests" are targeting some of the most vulnerable in our country--i.e. the elderly. (Ironically, it is the elderly who have the least stake in the outcome here--most are already participating in "government-run health care," and most won't live long enough to bear the tax burden (if there is one) of the Obama plan.

But they're easy to scare, and because they ARE "good Americans," they're also easy to engage.

This whole mess is a picture-perfect example of what's gone horribly wrong with public discourse. It's Orwellian (and I don't throw that term around lightly).

And it's clearly purposeful: Newt Gingrich--a highly intelligent man--actually lent credence to the "Death Squad" notion on MTP last week, on the heels of Palin's absurd Tweet. Of course he knows it's nonsense, but he's toeing the party line and repeating the misinformation for political gain.

That is vile. And that's what's got so many of us on the other side of the political spectrum so angry. At this point, I’m so unbelievably frustrated that I’m honestly considering registering as a Republican, just to TRY to bring some sanity and reason back to the party. Someone has to and so far, I haven’t seen a single reasonable Republican step up.

Maybe there aren’t any left?

What do you think--will I be welcomed into the "party of inclusion" with open arms? I'm not so sure. They've been pretty rough on little Megan McCain...

One Million Acts of Green

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 16:08:11 -0400

So I'm writing for a new site—OneMillionActsofGreen.com--which I hope you will all check out.

One of the coolest features is the ability to enter your "acts of green," such as "I turn off the water when I brush my teeth," or "I have solar panels installed on my roof," into a "Green Calculator," which will tell you exactly how much carbon you're NOT putting into the atmosphere.

Other cool features are, of course, mine. Like, "How to Green Your Clean," that gives you some consumer advice about good, ecologically safe cleaning supplies as well as recipes to make your own environmentally friendly stuff.

Or a story about an insanely cool Chicago eatery that boasts its own organic rooftop farm.

If you do visit (and I hope you do) and register your “acts of green,” come back and report your carbon savings here. I’d love to hear about it!

Look me in the eye (a song, which is mine)

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:04:16 -0400