Cheers and Jeers: Monday
by Bill in Portland Maine
Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 05:59:55 AM PST
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
Morning Eve
Recommended diaries goddess nyceve graduated from Barnard College (Columbia University), where she majored in Economics. She spends some of her time learning about the healthcare crisis first-hand at a hospital in Manhattan, volunteering with an oncologist and his patients to help them obtain hard-won insurance company approvals for treatments and medications. With healthcare reform a top priority of the Obama administration, hers will be an important voice here for helping us make sense of it all. For now, though, she gets the dreaded interview treatment in our Pulitzer-snubbed series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!
Cheers and Jeers: How long have you been blogging and what brought you to Daily Kos?
Nyceve: A long time, my User ID is 21195. I don't know exactly where that places me---maybe 2003 or 2004, but I'm an old-timer. I remember how I found Daily Kos, and I didn't lurk for ages, like some do, then register. I just registered. I read about Daily Kos in an article on the New York Times, this was during the early days of the Bush regime. I thought to myself, this sounds like a place I might find some equally horrified kindred spirits. So I ran up to my computer, (it was such a transformative moment in my life, that I remember I was at my mother's house in Los Angeles), I turned on my computer, typed in "www.dailykos.com." got here and registered.By the way, I made a fool of myself in some of those early diaries. This was in the days before we could save drafts. And for those new people, in those early days, we could post two diaries a day.
Where were you when the networks called the race for Barack Obama and how did you react?
I'll never forget. I went to my dear friend's home for dinner on Election night. She lives on the East Side of Manhattan and I live on the West Side. She had taken me as her guest to the 1992 Convention when Bill Clinton was nominated and we wanted to spend this historic night together. A little before 11, we all got tired and she had an early appointment the next morning so I decided to go home. I was on the 66th Street crosstown bus in NYC and my phone rang, it was my sister she screamed,"we won!" The bus was about half filled, I yelled out, "Oh my God we won!" The whole bus started applauding and screaming. I went over to the bus driver who happened to be African American, there were tears streaming down his face. He looked at me and said, "Praise the Lord." I said, "Amen".When did you first become focused on health care and why?
This is an easy one. It was early November, 2005. I came home from my office and had a letter from my insurance company. I went to my apartment and opened it---the bastards had canceled my insurance! I didn't know what to do. I was scared. I called my Democratic New York State assemblyman, who I had never in my life bothered for anything (he also happens to be the Chairman of the New York State Assembly Health Committee), and his office was essentially worthless. They couldn't help me. So in desperation I wrote a diary called, "My Health Insurance was Cancelled." About a week later I wrote another diary called, "Finding Insurance has Become My Full Time Job." The rest, as they say, is history. The bastards picked the wrong person to f*ck with.Truthfully, I'm obsessed with this catastrophe. I'm a fairly logical person, and there is no nuance in this for me. Healthcare must be a right for every last one of us, not a privilege. Being able to afford to pay for health insurance has nothing in the world to do with the concept of delivering affordable and guaranteed cradle-to-grave healthcare to all Americans. No one should ever fear financial ruin due to an illness or accident. Period. No nuance. Let's just do it, and do it correctly.
On a scale of one to ten, how hopeful are you that significant changes will be made to our health care system during the Obama administration?
I'm very optimistic. I'm inclined to go with a 10, but I need a little wiggle room, so I'll say a 9.2. I've said many times, the U.S. political system was designed to respond to crisis. We have more than a crisis today, we have a catastrophe---it's now or never. But sadly, it won't be single payer healthcare on day one. I do believe we'll get to single payer, which is the gold standard for an advanced industrialized nation, such as ours, but it will take some time. The insurance industry is still too strong and throws too much money at politicians. I hope that President Obama really presses for a well funded public alternative which will compete with the for-profits. I also hope the playing field will be level---we can't put all the sick people in the public option. The for-profits must be required to take everyone. Let's see some real competition between the for-profits and a Medicare alternative. I think if President Obama establishes some inviolate ground rules, we will drain the life and the profits out of the for-profits. This would be ideal.On a scale of one to ten, how cool is it to be able to say, "The Obama administration?"
It's a 20. We did our country proud. I think in a very profound sense, Mr. Bush gave us the courage as a nation to put aside any lingering racial issues and vote for Barack Obama. The corruption, incompetence, and catastrophic mismanagement of everything Bush and Co. touched, paved the way for President Obama. I'm able to sleep again.It's hard to articulate how unmoored I felt as an American citizen these last eight years. I lived through Reagan, Nixon, etc. Nothing approached the horror of thinking this was no longer my country. Trying to pick a low point from 2000 to now, is almost impossible---there were so many. But I will say the images of Katrina are haunting and etched on my brain.
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
I'm very patriotic so I'd say the National Anthem. I also love Woody Guthrie's This Land is My Land, Bob Dylan Blowin in the Wind, John Lennon singing Imagine, Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven and Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World.Why hasn’t there been more of a push by private employers to turn the health insurance system over to the government?
I think it's finally happening before our eyes. We're losing our competitiveness. Healthcare costs are unsustainable---employers are shifting healthcare costs onto the shoulders of already heavily cash-strapped workers. The only way employers are able to continue providing benefits is to increase deductibles, co-pays, etc. So we all have what amounts to junk insurance---insurance in name only. Americans are delaying medical treatment because they know that even if they have so-called "insurance", they could be left with huge bills, so they don't get care. And these are people with insurance! The effects of policy makers ignoring the healthcare crisis for so long are finally coming home to roost in a big and ugly way.What's the one book every Kossack must read?
I'd say anything by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward.Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
I'm going to give you a long list because I like to cook. Brisket, lasagna, grilled salmon, French Toast with Challah, an old Jewish recipe--egg noodles and cottage cheese, tuna salad, pesto sauce, chocolate Mousse (out of this world), lentils and brown rice, fettucine with ripe, raw tomatoes, basil, capers and calamata olives, with a little grated Pecorino Romano. I would say turkey but after seeing the Palin slaughter, I'll never eat or cook turkey again. Moving along, I'm a pasta addict and my best friend is Italian and he says for a Jewish girl I make one insanely delicious bowl of perfectly al dente spaghetti. I also love tofu and I've just done a new recipe with fresh chopped garlic, ginger, sesame oil, scallions, low sodium soy sauce and a dash of seasoned Japanese vinegar.Tom Daschle has been nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Good choice?
Better than Mr. Leavitt. Truthfully, Daschle is committed to reform...now we have to be sure the Obama Administration delivers something big, bold and what's in the best interests of the American people, not the insurance industry.No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Both. Love 'em all. Grew up in a not huge, but not tiny New York City apartment with three cats, a large collie, black lab mix, two parakeets and three turtles. This is true.I have one question left, but it's time for me to go over and massage Old Man McGillicutty's goiter. Please ask and answer the final question yourself...
Will healthcare reform include dental care?
It better. Last time I was at a dentist I was charged $650.00 for a filling. One filling! Then I had to pay extra for the sedation gas. If this isn't the definition of catastrophe, then I don't know what is.
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
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