Yesterday morning, I opened my copy of The Guardian to learn that various tranches and services of the British National Health Service were being outsourced to private providers and, leading the fray for tenders, was none other than our old friend, Humana – AKA Bill Frist Inc.

I was drinking my coffee at the time.  I didn’t have a Pepsi moment, and I didn’t vomit in my mouth. I simply smiled wryly, because I’d seen this coming.

The NHS has been an albatross around the neck of the Conservative Party in Britain since Maggie Thatcher chopped dental and optical services from its auspices back in the 1980s, and Cameron wanted to take this further. Last summer, there were stories abounding here of how the Tories intended on reforming the NHS, how it was working at a loss – things everyone had known as truisms for a long time, but things no one would think of addressing because, well, because the NHS here is the Third Rail of Third Rails.

And when the GOP started airing pejorative commercials in the US, railing against rationed medical treatments and long waiting lists, basically presenting the NHS and all like her in a pretty crass light, Cameron flip-flopped and came out fighting for the NHS. Well he should do, because his oldest child, who had recently died, was born with severe birth defects and had depended on the NHS for care and treatment. Then and there, Cameron vouchsafed the safety of the NHS under any potential Tory regime.

Well, the Tory regime is a reality – albeit, officially it’s a coalition with the Liberal Democrats; but more and more, instead of the pundits referring to a ConLib pact, they’re calling the coalition “ConDem” in a clever jeu des mots.

Because, under the guise of austerity moves, this government – cleverly caricatured by the resident Guardian cartoonist as consisting of Cameron as a louche and depraved version of Gainsborough’s Blue Boy wickedly enticing Nick Clegg, depicted as a rosy-cheeked and cheerfully ignorant version of Pinocchio, to come and play in his termite-infested sawmill – is systematically dismantling any and all entitlement schemes from the government.

This is Thatcherism Mach II: Trickledown – the Sequel.

When the coalition took control of things, once again Cameron reiterated that the NHS would suffer no cutback in services. Then, in the special emergency budget, Camerons Treasury wonk, George Osborne, an independently wealthy trust fund child who’s never worked a day in his life, blithely announced that all government departments must cut budgetary spending from between 25% and 40% – except the Defense Department, which would only suffer cutbacks of 10%. Of course.

And, of course, this would mean immense numbers of civil service and outsourced contractors being laid off prematurely – some permanently – in this age of recession.

Now, it’s not rocket science and I’m no economist, but saying that the NHS wouldn’t suffer any cutback in services, and then saying that that same department has to cut its budget by between 25 and 40% … doesn’t that kinda sorta mean that somewhere along the way, services are going to be cut? You can make as many paper-pushers redundant as you want in the NHS, it still stands to reason that x amount of nurses or doctors or some sort of specialist personnel won’t be being hired, that various forms of surgery/treatments/drug therapies won’t be implemented because of lack of funding.

As painful as it is for me to say it, and as many times as Progressives who don’t know have accused me of lying, the GOP’s commercials last summer did have a bare ring of truth about them; because here in the UK, in some areas, healthcare is rationed, there are waiting lists for surgeries and treatments. It’s simply a postcode lottery, and your quality of service reflects how well your health authority has managed its budget. My primary healthcare trust is a pretty good one, but a pregnant woman still has to have her labour monitered up to a certain point in one hospital, before she’s transferred, at breakneck speed, fourteen miles to another hospital in order, actually, to give birth.

The announcement that Humana were entrenching themselves in the tendering process confirmed suspicions I’d been having for the past few months, when every night on commercial television here, you see no less than five different advertisements for private health insurance, and when – out of the blue – commercials for Viagra have started to appear. (Contrary to life in the United States, prescription drug remedies aren’t advertised on television in the UK or in Europe.)

The NHS wouldn’t actually cut services to the public; instead, they would outsource them to private entities, probably for a fee. That would, at least, justify the increase in NHS contributions we’ve now had inflicted on us – yes, America, the NHS is NOT free; we pay an additional tax called the National Insurance to cover this – but the public was surreptitiously being edged and manipulated into buying into private health insurance schemes.

I’d love to give the clever ConDems the benefit of the doubt and say they’re gently edging us into a more French-like, hybrid system, but knowing Thatcher’s children as well as I do, I know this is nothing more or less than what it actually is … a CON. It’s incremental change that will inch along until one day someone will blink and realise that the good old NHS just ceased to exist somewhere in the first five-year fixed term (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) of Blueboy Cameron and Pinocchio Clegg.

The British public had been had. They had been, in local parlance, tango’d.

Last Sunday on Meet the Press (a venerable national treasure of a program which has managed to go from the sublime to the ridiculous in the two years since the late Tim Russert’s death), Robert Gibbs, the President’s Press Secretary sounded a codified clarion call to Democrats, grassroots, elected and electable: there was a very real possibility that the Democratic Party could lose control of the House.

NUDGE. NUDGE. WINK. WINK … HELLOOOOOOO?

Immediately, he said that, the cable news boys and girls went into meltdown, along with the Wicked Witch of the West’s lovechild, Arianna Huffington. Like Chicken Littles rolling about in orgasmic frenzy, they all screeched simultaneously that Gibbs admitted weakness, he admitted weakness, there he goes, I heard him, he said it … You get the picture, illustrated with a myriad of nameless, anonymous sources, all offering different insight, opinion and second guesses.

The Fox minions affected the smug smirk of “I told you so”, intimating that this was all the more reason straight-thinking people should vote Republican in November. The MSNBC contingent and Mother Huffington huffed and puffed and clicked their teeth, not saying, but clearly intimating that it really wasn’t worth the bother at all to vote for such losers.

People still able to think for themselves (and to read Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post) got the message loud and clear, coming – not coincidentally – on the back of the President’s campaign trips to Missouri and Nevada in support of Robin Carnahan and Harry Reid, and the message is this: Nobody’s guaranteed a win, and the Democrats aren’t entitled to even assume they’ll retain control of the House. Just like on a sports team, intimating that players have to fight for a place in the starting eleven, makes them keen, hungry to attain it. So, the Democrats hoping to retain their House seats should go on the offensive. So, the Democrats hoping to win a House seat should drive that offensive home. So the grassroots supporters should turn OFF the cable guys, stop listening to the rhetoric of a Keith Olbermann who doesn’t vote, stop reckoning that Bill Maher always speaks the truth when he admits Obama’s achieved more legislatively than FDR at this point, but in the next breath says he’s done nothing and endorses Romney, and stop listening to Arianna Huffington’s purrings and subtle ad hominem musings about Barack Obama, mindful of the fact that she is, was and always will be a Republican at heart. (Listen, the original Damascene conversion was hearsay handed down at best; at least hers, which took place on November 3, 2004, was, first and foremost, a money-making venture to fill a niche against Matt Drudge). Voters have to think for themselves, and listen to the candidates.

It’s nerve-wracking that Nancy Pelosi allowed herself to fall prey to her own hubris in reacting to this message personally. It’s as though she didn’t see the forest for the trees.

The ammunititon is all there for the Democrats – the GOP’s refutation of Wall Street Reform, their determination to repeal that and the healthcare reform, their embracement, through Congressman Barton’s apology, of BP and big oil, the overt ambition of the Queen Mother of snake oil salesmen, Darrell Issa, to bring articles of impeachment against Obama.

But most of all, the big bazoomba is this: the Republicans are running without any iota of an alternative plan to put this country back together. They are running on NO and that’s running on empty. They are running on lies and innuendo and hate and something one drop short of out-and-out racism. They don’t give a rat’s ass about the people. It’s the power they want.

John Boehner can sip from a styrofoam cup and demand to know, “Where are the jobs?” But what is his answer? As a politician who questions, he should be questioned too. If he’s as dissatisfied with the jobs situation, as an elected official, he must have some inkling of an alternative, workable plan. It would be too much to believe in a conspiracy of dunces, to believe that private enterprise is holding off hiring and potentially restoring the economy a smidgeon, just to ensure that there might be a GOP victory in the House after November, thus making it look like a trump card held up the collective Republican sleeve … would it? And yet, how many of us remember the coincidence of Iran releasing hostages days after the inauguration of that Republican saint, Ronald Reagan.

As the Brits would say, pull the other one. It’s got bells.

So bells ought to be ringing, and the Democrats and their supporters should come out swinging. We have ample enough ammunition at our disposal – and also enough to shoot ourselves in the foot.

We can’t be had like the Brits were had in May by their sinister, yet cackhanded coalition. The big tent of the Democratic Party has to buck up, suck up and sure as hell not fuck up … or risk being tango’d from the tanning bed of John Boehner.

In the aftermath of Scott Brown’s upset election in January, the GOP redoubled their bets on the failure of Health Care Reform. As they had for the last year, they showed no hesitation or remorse in spouting outrageous lies to frighten the public, incite hatred and caricature Pres. Obama as a socialist who is bent on destroying America by turning it into the USSR…and is also Hitler, the Antichrist, Dr. Evil and an arugula farmer all rolled into one.

It was and continues to be a scorched earth campaign to destroy Americans’ belief in their democracy, their government and the concept of doing what’s right for our entire society  instead of “me”. But this strategy may already be backfiring once their Sherman’s March across the soul of America ran into the month of March.

Sen. DeMint was the first to connect “Waterloo” with trying to pass HCR, towards Pres. Obama of course. It would be ironic if it did indeed turn out to be the GOP’s Waterloo. Negative campaigning has historically proven to  be effective in the short term but can boomerang in the long run. The public can be stirred into fear, resentment and/or hatred far too easily as a kneejerk reaction to negative campaigning. Emotion trumps reason for many in the immediacy of the moment. However, as time passes, emotion wanes. The public which has been whipped up to feel negative emotions by politicians…can start to associate those feelings with the source of them and feel greater distaste towards those politicians  than their targets.

Aiding this is the debunking of the terrible, trumped up accusations that the passage of time can expose. When the sky doesn’t fall and we don’t have our guns taken away on our way to government work camps after being taught our new official language of Russian…at least some will begin to recognize that they’ve been a sheep in lemming’s clothing.

Let’s take a look at where public opinion is today, after passage of HCR per Gallup:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126959/Majority-Poor-Young-Uninsured-Back-Healthcare-Bill.aspx

Hmm…what was the hue and cry of Republicans over the last week? Listen to the majority and follow their wishes or you undermine our democracy. So, now that a greater number favor HCR, does that mean we can expect John Boehner to start crying in regret at opposing HCR? I wouldn’t bet my tanning bed on it.

What’s interesting about the above poll is that the main demographic that is opposed to HCR is that of Senior Citizens. This seems to be very intuitive. No offense to Granny but she is likely still trembling a bit about that death panel that’s coming for her. It is well established that Seniors are the biggest target for scammers, they are naturally easier to scare, intimidate, convince and manipulate.  So,  it would seem that the above poll is actually good news for Pres. Obama and Dems and bad news for the GOP.

At a time when they’ve thrown all the fear and hatred they could at HCR, most favor it. And the biggest demo opposing it who we know can be easier to convince, will soon get $250 checks, drug payment donut holes closed and health care guaranteed for all of their grandchildren and in 4 years, all of their children too. They’re going to vote in November for Repubs who want to take that away from them?

By the time November rolls around, will the emotions and the lies surrounding HCR  still be as resonant with the majority of the public or will they have moved on? With the short attention span of today’s MSM and society, will an 8 month old bill be on the front burner still? Nothing else like the economy, jobs or anything that pops up in the meantime might get the focus? And in the end, might not people simply come to accept and appreciate HCR even more once they personally experience the benefits and protections and/or the lack of terrible things that the GOP insisted would occur?

Yes, the GOP will keep beating that nasty drum from now until then but instead of marching to the beat, might not Seniors just begin to complain about all that racket? Especially after buying that new box of hard candy they can afford since they are saving a fortune with the donut hole being mostly closed.

And where will that leave the GOP, the party of “hell” and “no”? As is typical, the party out of power is likely to pick up some seats in Nov. The GOP will doubtlessly claim a landslide mandate no matter how common the number of the pickup is. In truth though, given a near-depression, rampant home foreclosures and job losses and a dishonestly vicious campaign against the Dems and Pres. Obama, if the Repubs’ pickup is unremarkable for an off year election, will they not have lost hugely?

After all that’s transpired, if the best the GOP can do in Nov is perform typically, they will have sacrificed their identity and whatever moderates would have considered them worthy of leading the nation in a futile, self-destructive (and intended to be destructive to the nation and or democracy) campaign.

Instead of this mutated GOP succeeding in a scorched earth campaign, they may instead be marching like flaming lemmings right off the edge of the political cliff.

Well, about a year ago, he got into a massive motorcycle wreck. He had been drinking and he wasn’t wearing a helmet. He had a fractured skull and spent weeks in the hospital and required months of therapy. He missed about three or four months of work.

Since then, he has railed about all the hassles he has gone through with our insurer (United Health Care) and how they try to screw him every chance they get. Even with insurance, he owes more than $50,000 in medical bills (I can’t imagine what the total cost of his treatment must have been), and he said he may have to declare bankruptcy because of his problems paying these bills.

On Monday, he posted on Facebook, a long-winded tirade against Health Care Reform. He called it the end of our country, and my favourite: “That slow sucking sound you here? That’s Hussein Obama’s socialism dragging this country down the drain.” He was obviously very, very, VERY angry about Sunday night’s historic vote.

Well, some people responded, as you can guess, and he told some people off. Someone got mad and called his boss.

It turns out this guy has to sometimes deal with health care professionals and local politicians as part of his job. More than 500 of his fans, many of them local, read this tirade of his. The boss wasn’t happy and they suspended him without pay for two days over it.

I honestly feel sorry for the guy. There was something not quite right with him even before the motorcycle crash. He has no impulse control; no filter stopping him from doing some of the self-destructive things he does. He can’t seem to help it.

But, what I’m struck by — again — is how he is so blinded by his idealogy that he was utterly incapable of seeing that if anyone could benefit from health care reform, it’s him. He’s looking at bankruptcy because of medical bills, but he rails about socialized medicine.

Honestly, if everything in this bill went into effect tomorrow, I don’t know if it would really help this guy. If he lived in Canada, which has genuine socialized coverage, he wouldn’t be facing $50,000 in bills he can’t pay and possible garnishment and even bankruptcy. He just isn’t making the connect.

I continued to be mystified at the disconnect.

U.S. Government Photograph

Rep. Zack Space  (D-OH18) was the only Ohio Democrat to vote against the  The Affordable Health Care for America Act March 21, 2010.  As an Ohioan, I was puzzled by his decision and wondered what his motivation might be, flying under the radar as it were. 

Mr. Space ran for the seat vacated by Bob Ney.   Ney was involved, and the first to fall,  in the Jack Abramoff Lobbying Scandal. Ney pled guilty to corruption charges and resigned his Congressional position November, 2006. Space is up for reelection in 2010. 

Space represents Ohio’s 18th Congressional District, and is considered a Blue Dog Democrat. The 18th Congressional District is comprised of 16 counties (13 full and 3 partial).  As recently as November 2009, Space was called out by the American Federation of State, County, and Municiple Employees (AFSCME) for ignoring the circumstances and needs of his constituents. 

• In 2008, 1,400 families in the 18th Congressional District filed for health-care related bankruptcies.
• 8,100 seniors in the 18th Congressional District are forced to pay the full cost of their prescription drugs.
• 65,000 uninsured individuals live in the 18th Congressional District.
• 11,700 small businesses in the 18th Contressional District would benefit from the small business tax credit.
• 12,300 indivduals in the 18th Congressional District would no longer be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Scare tactics from the big insurance companies and their allies in Congress won’t change the fact that millions of families will benefit from reform, or that the plan is paid for in full and will reduce the national deficit. 

So, why did Zack blink? IMO Space was being pressured (subtley of course)  by his far right constituents and sold his soul for his seat in Washington. And, some of this stuff is pretty damn scary: 

• AIP News
• Zack Space Info
• Right Ohio
• Ohio Liberty Council
• Zack Space Info
• Knox912

As a result, Zack is already suffering the consequences of his decision to not do the right thing. 

March 19, 2010  Zack, What Would Nixon Do? by David Lore. 

March 21, 2010  

SPACE SPLITS FROM DEMS ON HEALTH CARE REFORM 

“Congress: Space says he will vote ‘no’ on health care bill”  

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/20/space-to-vote-no-on-health-reform.html?sid=101 

Although we don’t know at this hour whether the health reform bill will clear the House this weekend, Congressman Space’s decision — announced this evening — to vote against the measure has to be a major disappointment for Licking County progressives who have supported him over these past four years. On this vote at least, we’re back to being represented by two members – Space and Tiberi - of the Party of No. 

Now I recognize that disappointment goes with the game of politics and, for sure, we’ve already had our share of disappointments with President Obama and the Democratic Congress.  And Zack Space has shown courage in the past, primarily in supporting the original House version of the health reform bill as well as the administration’s “cap-and-trade” energy and environmental package. 

And maybe the congressman in this case was let off the hook by Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership once they realized they had the 216 votes they needed to move health reform to final passage in the House.  Such a pass makes sense if the votes are there and the party leadership is now focusing on protecting those Democratic House members in Republican-leaning districts such as the 18th of Ohio. 

Still, all that being said, the Congressman in my estimation caved in the face of Republican and Tea Party pressure and that cannot just be excused as the political price that had to be paid to retain control of the seat.  Speaking as one who has spent hours and days canvassing for Congressman Space and up to this time held him in high regard, I now have to say I just don’t know where he draws the line when under pressure between principle and politics. 

How does Zack Space balance the importance of re-election against the need to extend health coverage to more than 30 million Americans and to at least begin to reform our cruel and broken system of health insurance protection? 

From this point on, it’s not just Independents that Congressman Space will have to convince over the next eight months that he’s the man to return to office. Democrats and progressives who have made phone calls for him, canvassed neighborhoods, donated money and defended him against the Irrational Right in the past must now be looking for reasons to do so again.  But the bottom line is Space made a bad decision this weekend, and that means my active support can no longer be a foregone conclusion.  

by David Lore 

March 23, 2010  Rep. Space Loses Support Over No Vote On Health Care Reform by Dave Harding. 

My guess is Rep. Zack Space (D-OH18) will lose his seat in November 2010. Both sides believe he flipped, and keeping his seat in November will be an  uphill battle. 

Oddly, that doesn’t diminish how anxious I am for it to be tomorrow at 2 pm EST.

In the meantime, here is a remarkable speech Pres. Obama delivered today. IMO, this is not the speech of a president who isn’t going to prevail:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If HCR fails these are the people that will define America’s future. Most people are angry and justifiably so but some people want to channel that anger for progress and to make things better. These people are just angry and that’s a big different.

Now let’s all cover this great Beatles song with slightly revised lyrics.

Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney)

Ah, look at all the angry people
Ah, look at all the angry people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the angry people
Where do they all come from?
All the angry people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there
What does he care?

All the angry people
Where do they all come from?
All the angry people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the angry people
Ah, look at all the angry people

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the angry people
Where do they all come from?
All the angry people
Where do they all belong?

http://budget.house.gov/doc-library/FY2010/03.15.2010_reconciliation2010.PDF

I suppose, if you are like me and favor a Public Option, we shouldn’t get too excited: the vote is a whole week away and Democrats are in charge…

(and maybe we should keep this under our hats until it passes just to be on the safe side.)

Well well, I hope he is right and this definitely sets the end game for HCR which is hardly a game at all. Obviously President Obama is all in on HCR. I admire his persistence and toughness which his critics always underestimate. If Congressional Democrats want to block HCR now they are the ones who lost the battle of Waterloo by letting their General down. I just cannot understate how important it is to get HCR started, which is what this is. If the first iteration does pass the Democrats will have something to build on just like they did with the first iteration of Social Security. Every year the budget comes around Democrats in the Senate can add to the bill with a simple majority. Now even if Democrats in the Senate are not near the magic “super majority” they can make changes to the legislation.

You can read the whole story at the link by clicking here.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stopped pulling punches when he was asked if health care reform legislation would pass the Congress and be signed by the president incoming days.

By next Sunday (March 21), Gibbs said on Fox News Sunday (March14), the new system outlined in the reform legislation “will be the law of the land.”

There may be a measure of bravado in that declaration, but it confirms that the debate about health care reform is finally getting real.

This could be a very large post, but I will try to boil it down to what I perceive as the essentials.

What is the REAL problem with health care in America?  I believe the lack of socialized medicine is not the problem.  Or, more precisely, socialized medicine is not the cure.  Here’s one tiny example of how private health care can actually work.

I recently joined a medical group on the West coast of America called Kaiser Permanente.  They are a single payer non profit system.  Given their status, they have every reason to digitize their records and introduce efficiency at every stage of the operation to save money.  To date, they have achieved their goal.  This story is about my relationship with Kaiser and how they have responded to my needs.  I make no claims that my experience is homogeneous.   I’m sure some of the more taxed Kaiser facilities will give different experiences.

That being said.  I’ve had two experiences that have molded my view of this particular organization.  The first was with my wife.

Cindy is my wife.  One night, she woke me from sleep writhing in agony.  She felt like she wanted to vomit and her whole body was cramping.  It was horrible to witness.  I walked her out to my car and drove her to the Hayward emergency Kaiser facility.  Not 10 minutes away.  I slid her Kaiser ID card through the magnetic reader and the printer spit out a tag that I wrapped around her wrist.   Within 5 minutes, a nurse guided us into a private room where we were asked a series of questions including how much pain was being experienced and where.  Immediately, the nurse directed us out a door opposite the one we came in which was the emergency room proper.  Cindy was laid down on a gurney and administered morphine.  Then a cart came with an ultrasound device and they checked the area where she was experiencing pain.   It turns out she had an attack of pancreatitis (sic?).  During all this, her primary care physician was contacted at home and was administering advice on how to deal with this including an immediate MRI.  Cindy got the MRI and after all was said and done, she was fine and the pain was gone.  This all happened in a period of about four hours.

I challenge a for profit hospital to do the same thing as efficiently.

My next experience was with myself.  I had a bad blood sugar attack one day that led me to the Dr’s.  My hyperglycemia was wreaking havoc with my system causing me to be confused.  I was concerned that I was getting adult onset diabetes.   So, I approached my Dr and using a computer he prescribed an entire blood analysis.  He checked off everything from liver and kidney function to blood sugar and cholesterol.  Oh, and he threw in vitamin D deficiency among others.  I walked out of the Dr office and across the court to the lab and waited five minutes for my name to be called.  Then they took three blood tests and had me deliver a urine sample.

This is where the genius of Kaiser comes in.  within two hours, my blood tests started streaming into my email box.  The exact test results along with what is considered acceptable ranges.  Also, a hotlink to a web site that explains the test itself.  These tests are also copied to my Dr who then calls me and follows up with solutions to my health problems.  ALL AUTOMATICALLY.

Kaiser is a machine.  The perfect example of how health care needs to be ran in this country.

Kaiser is affordable.  Kaiser has no limits on what kind of service you can have and for how long.  Kaiser delivers it’s own meds so it controls costs.  It’s perfect.  One time I actually emailed my Dr when my lower back went out and he simply electronically ordered vicodin and a muscle relaxer delivered to the pharmacy.  No Dr visit needed.

The whole point of this is this:  If government sponsored health care was this efficient, they could cover everyone for little to no cost.   The fantastical solution to our health care problems doesn’t need to be an elaborate capital hill solution.  it just needs to be ran in an efficient manner by efficient people.