Updates Complete - note @ end
I've got a meeting coming on Tuesday with Mark Herbert, an aide in Speaker Pelosi's San Francisco office who works on health care issues. I have a few people who will be joining me for that meeting, but I also wanted to ask for input here.
Below the fold, I've posted some notes to prepare for the meeting, as well as links to some recent articles, blogs, and other resources on the debate. I'd appreciate your feedback on the notes and your thoughts on framing the meeting.
I'm posting this as a work in progress in order to solicit as much feedback as I can. I'll continue to update and edit tonight through v1.0. Tomorrow or Monday, I'll post a clean pre-meeting diary, and then a post-meeting wrap-up later in the week.
The following notes are available to view on Google docs, and include some additional input there. http://cli.gs/...
Meeting w/ Representatives on Health Reform
Introduction
Below, I've begun a list of items to put some structure together for meeting our rep. What I'd like is to flesh these thoughts out more by coming up with stories/experiences to share and specific questions to ask based on those stories. Ideally, we can come up with a presentation portion that will be around fifteen minutes long. Even if we are unable to give a complete presentation of the issues we're concerned about, I want to be able to leave a document with the stories and questions to receive follow-up on.
If you haven't used Google Docs before, for some, I am sharing this document with you in a way that allows you to edit it as well. You will be able to see the changes others make and they will be able to see yours. For others, you will only be able to read the document. If you would like to add your own comments, send me a message with your email, and I will add you to the list of those able to edit the document. Sign in is required to access the editable version.
Agenda Items
- Support for robust Public Option - A group statement/petition would be nice, but may be difficult to obtain in the time available.
How can we help? materials and resources to share with patients and clients
- What are you doing to combat misrepresentations and lies?
- Bad faith by Republicans - i.e. Sen's Grassley, Isakson, Enzi; Gingrich, Limbaugh, Back, Hannity, Fox noise machine
- Fealty to insurance companies by Blue Dogs, other representatives
- Astroturf campaign by Freedomworks, Dick Armey et al & town hall disruptions
- Outreach to seniors, AARP & other senior groups
- Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics - 8 million uninsured vs 46-52 million uninsured vs 75-100 million underinsured
- Access to care & outcomes
- Coverage for integrative, complementary, & alternative care
- Coverage for mental health, vison & dental care
- Coverage for wellness & prevention programs
- Acupuncture Coverage Act HR 646
- Cost control & regulation
- % of money to care vs admin, operations costs
- Fed/State division of responsibilities Medicare, Medicaid, Medical, S-CHIP
- community standards
- negotiated fees - Rx, fee-for-services, outcome-based fee, physician salary structure, Medicare vs public option vs drug coverage
- individual/employer mandates
- Too big to fail insurance companies?
- Campaign finance/lobbying reform & transparency
- Practice management
- HIPAA
- paperwork streamlining for insurance coverage/participation, consumer protection
- EMR/EHR
Open Source standards like VistA
Interoperability & usability standards for private systems
Implementation costs for small clinics & solo practices
Using EMR to make research cheaper, broader, including integrative care
Representative meeting organized at San Francisco Integrative Health Networking on Meetup
Below are links and resources I've used. There is more to come, but I want to get this posted. I welcome your review comments, suggestions on bits I've missed, and critique of items I've included. Do you have ideas on framing and organization?
House draft so far
H.R. 3200: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 via http://www.govtrack.us
Fact Checks
http://healthcarefactcheck.com/ via the DCCC
Setting the Record Straight via Organizing for America
White House Reality Check via http://www.whitehouse.gov
Health Insurance Reform Daily Mythbuster: GOP "Fact" Sheet via House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's The Gavel blog
Myths and falsehoods about health care reform via Media Matters
Countering Lies
Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform by Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post
In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition by Steven Pearlstein Rick Perlstein (sorry, I read the byline too quickly) in the Washington Post
Betsy McCaughey's Ideas Called "Hyperbolic... Dangerous" By Jon Stewart (VIDEO) by Jason Linkins on Huffington Post - an excellent recap with the whole interview in three parts via Comedy Central.
I was wrong by James Fallows in The Atlantic about Betsy McGaughey
The Swiftboating of Health Reform via Jonathan Cohn on The Treatment, The New Republic's health care blog
Obama wants to kill your grandma by Mike Madden via Salon
Who's behind the attacks on a health care overhaul? By Margaret Talev via McClatchy Newspapers
Barney Frank to Protester: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" an excellent & brief diary by James Andre. I almost forgot to include this incident, but I think it's an essential example of how to confront idiocy by calling it idiocy.
FreedomWorks August Recess Action Kit via Talking Points Memo. Final link that I almost forgot. I think bringing the origins of lies and misleading tactics to light is an excellent way to counter the misinformation and noise they bring. Talking Points Memo is great at this, and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC has been doing fantastic work on this as well. And of course Jon Stewart is absolutely priceless! Dick Armey of Freedom Works, Rick Scott and the like cannot go unchallenged.
Compelling stories
Thousands Line Up for Promise of Free Health Care By Jennifer Steinhauer in the New York Times
So you wanna talk about Hitler... a frontpaged diary by citisven
The Public Option's Last Stand, and the Public's by Robert Reich via TPM Cafe
The Public Option? It's About Accountability by Dan Froomkin in the Huffington Post
Leave The Guns At Home By E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post
Basic Info
Health Reform and Small Business New York Times Editorial
A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform By Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn in the New York Times
Dose of Truth: Five Facts About Health Care Reform by Sally Kohn in the Huffington Post
Other
Why We Need Health Care Reform an op-ed in the New York Times by some guy named Barack Obama
France's model healthcare system By Paul V. Dutton in the Boston Globe
Blue Cross Blue Shield Wants To Become A "Co-Op!" diary by slinkerwink
Study finds S.F. health plan didn't hurt jobs by Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ Steve Benen frequently posts valuable insights as well as quality links with excerpts and summaries of other quality new media and traditional journalism
What if We Win the Healthcare Fight? a brief post by David Frum, former Bush speech writer
10 Steps to Better Health Care By Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick, Elliot Fisher and Mark McClellan in the New York Times based on studying 306 Hospital Referral Regions, as defined by the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, for "positive outliers."
10 Awesome Things That Would Happen If Health Reform Passes by Joshua Holland on AlterNet
*****
I also welcome the opportunity to connect via social media tools for networking and organizing for health reform and integrative medicine in general.
Connect with me on:
Final Update
I've included a number of links here that I think contribute depth and color to what I can take with my group to present to Mark Herbert. I hope some of them might also prove useful references to others. My goal with this diary is to brainstorm how to make use of this information and other stories to enhance that presentation.
I intend to post a final pre-meeting diary either Sunday or Monday which will fill in the above outline with stories and other prose while being less link-heavy. The goal with that diary will be to tighten up the presentation and make sure it has a coherent flow. Because of my specific interest in integrative medicine (linking western medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, naturopathic medicine, chiropractic medicine, mental health, etc.), this outline might not serve as a model for too many others. On the other hand, maybe others will find it a useful point from which to build.