Let's do it!

Let's change our attitude from "Yes we can!" to "Yes we do! "

There are so many things going through my mind, every thought telling me that affordable Health Insurance for everybody will be there soon.

What country are we living in?

Is this country really the richest country of the world?
Is the richest country not rich enough to have all citizens equipped with Health Insurance?

How come that all other countries which have mandatory Health Insurance for every citizen are not that rich as the United States?

I guess what you are thinking:
They are not as rich as the United States because they are making Health Insurance possible for all their citizens!

The United States may get poor
giving Health Insurance to all their citizens!?
That has to be avoided.
So many people died in fighting for this country.
If this country is getting poor, they died in vain!

Is this the truth behind?

Is the Health Care Reform a triage?
A decision who is worthwhile to get Health Care and who is not?
A decision if we are getting poor in giving Health Insurance to everybody or dying not getting Health Insurance?

Don't be confused!

No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for better Health Care!

And is not Health Care, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear to get ill — the right of our and future generations to a healthy existence?

When John Fitzgerald Kennedy had his Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs 48 years ago, he did know it was a lot of money he asked for to send a man to the moon.

Now it was his brother's, Senator Edward Kennedy's goal to finally get Health Insurance for everybody. Should this cause be denied now?

Now this is a choice which this country must make, and I am confident that under the leadership of the Congress, and the Appropriating Committees, this matter will be considered carefully.

The Israelites went forward to their promised land,
even after Moses died.
40 years they needed.

Our time is up now. Waiting for 40 years is enough!
Are we Americans to cowardly to go ahead
after our Moses passed away?

Dear Senator

When I asked my question "Is this country really a Christian country?" two days ago, adapting by way of exception the "Credo" from Sojourner, I did not know that Senator Ted Kennedy would leave our world that very night.

But my Credo reached Senator Arlen Specter through Sojourner, and he wrote back to me thanking me for contacting his office regarding health care reform, and wrote he appreciates hearing from me. To thank him for his email and to let him know what is important for me with Health Care, I answered his email, but it could not be delivered. So I followed his invitation to look onto his website - there I recognized he is a very busy man and he has a lot of duties on his schedule.

Not to have written in vain, I let you know my email I liked to write to him:

Dear Senator,
Thank you so much for answering my email through Sojourner. I am glad that you are really caring for Health-Care Reform and for the people of this country. I saw your town hall meeting and those accusations you had to bear have been disgusting. It seems to be it is not easy to convince people for the better. It is unbelievable that people are following what demagogues told them.

But is it true that the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship?

It is so easy to understand - if somebody thinks about it - how to lower Health Insurance Premiums: The broader the mix of insured people - poor and rich, healthy, less healthy, and even ill, the better the financial burden can be shared. This is pure Mathematics - and it is called Solidarity.

It is a shame that companies earn a fortune by squeezing ill people or people with so called preconditions out of health insurance. It is a shame and it should be forbidden that companies are living on the expenses of people who need health insurance. As long as this is the case, it is only natural, that payments will be denied and that people with preconditions have to pay a fortune or do not get any health insurance at all.

It is totally important to have non-profit Health-Insurance-Companies who really take care of the people in need of medical treatment instead of taking care of the shareholders. And even more, these companies should be supervised by a parliament of representatives of the insured people, which is obvious.

If nothing is done, premiums will rise, and with raising premiums less people can afford Health Insurance, so in this case premiums are always on the raise, until the system collapses. If nothing is done, the United States Health Insurance System is shoveling it's own grave.

Health Insurance has to be mandatory for everybody to make premiums affordable! Health Insurances shall have a mix of wealthy and poor people, of healthy and ill people, this mix, based on solidarity, guarantees cost compensation and makes premiums depending on the paying abilities of the insured possible! There have to be nonprofit Health Insurance Providers, to fully support people in need instead of insurance stakeholders. If there are Nonprofit Health Insurance Providers in the portfolio, it will be easier to get votes for a Government Health Insurance, too, because in this case a choice can be made between Nonprofit, Government, and Private Health Insurance.

The ongoing debate about Health Care Reform shows that our country itself needs healing. Recently I read that young people do not buy Health Insurance, they see themselves as immortal or as dying early anyway. As you write, ensuring all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care coverage is essential for the health and future of our Nation. Instead of a punishing tax for people who are not buying insurance Health Insurance should be mandatory - car insurance is mandatory, why not Health Insurance?

Thanks for your good work!
Take care, take Health Care!

I lost a friend

Today everybody in this country lost a friend, even if he/she doesn't know.

A friend who led successful efforts to upgrade schools, bolster civil rights, raise the minimum wage, outlaw discrimination and expand healthcare.

He was the one who wrote: "We will end the disgrace of America as the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't guarantee health care for all of its people." He believed all should have affordable and quality health care.

Like Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt had to lead for nearly 40 years and never reached the promised land, he has led the American People for nearly 40 years to a universal Healthcare and never reached the promised land in his lifetime. But in both cases, the people went on and followed their leaders into the promised land. I would be glad and happy that I could certify and confirm this last remark soon.

It was Senator Edward Kennedy who died yesterday just three days after he reached the age of 77½, fighting more than a year against brain cancer.

I have to tell you another story.

A friend of mine died of cancer, too.

I thought a lot about him recently, he does not leave my mind, and I am pretty sure that I understand him now more than ever. I guess only I can look insight his thinking because I was so nearly attached to him and I observed him at work and in private when he invited me into his home or when he brought me back to my home when my car was broken down again.

He was a stranger here in this area like me, no one of our relatives living nearby. He got married in this area, and I got married in this area. He got stepchildren, growing up, I got stepchildren, being adults.

My friend saw when I had problems with my stomach that I stayed home using up my sick days and longer.

While having my Chemo-Therapy he urged me to go to work, to show up, to show, that everybody can count on me and to prevent loosing my job. I did not feel well, but I worked as much as possible and as much as it made sense to me. It did not make sense for me to go "to work" and sit there not being able to do something.

After my cancer treatment was over, I lost my job. I looked for another job for two years until I reached my retirement age, but I did not find any job.

Recently my friend had the same symptoms I had.
I am sure he did know what that meant for him.
He had seen what happened to me.
And he had a decision to make.

So he decided to do for himself what he suggested I should have done: he stayed at work - his sick leave days were gone - to show that everybody can count on him and to prevent to loose his job, putting his head on his desk when his boss wasn't around.

But I am sure he did know he will loose his job anyway.
I was healed and I lost my job.

So what should he do?
If he would survive after Cancer Treatment, he would loose his job - I was the example for this, and he would not find a job anymore - I was the example for this, too.

But there was a difference making it worse:
He had ten years until retirement while I only had two years until retirement.

I guess anybody will see as I see, his only viable option was to die.
He could not endure to be a burden to his wife and children - and to the company neither.
He did know that the company would have to pay most of his treatment until the Health Insurance plan kicked in.

I am feeling so saddened that my example may have shortened his life. I survived, because I strove to survive. He did not.

With a better Health Insurance situation he would have survived.

Is this country really a Christian country?

Some people claim this country is a Christian Country.
But is this country really a Christian country?

The ongoing debate about Healthcare Reform shows that our country itself needs healing.

This ongoing debate about Healthcare Reform is part of the healing process we all, the people in this our country, need.

Credo. "I believe." This is such an important word for people of faith.

In the heated debate about health-care reform, it is increasingly difficult to know whom to believe - and what to believe in. In the face of negative ads, partisan rhetoric, and a news cycle filled with fear and half-truths about health-care reform, Christians must affirm what we believe in: the fundamental values found in Scripture, which value all life. Therefore has to be quality, affordable access to life-giving services for all people.

As one of God's children, I believe that protecting the health of each human being is a profoundly important personal and communal responsibility for people of faith.

I believe God created each person in the divine image to be spiritually and physically healthy.
I feel the pain of sickness and disease in our broken world (Genesis 1:27, Romans 8:22).

I believe life and healing are core tenets of the Christian life. Christ's ministry included physical healing, and we are called to participate in God's new creation as instruments of healing and redemption (Matthew 4:23, Luke 9:1-6; Mark 7:32-35, Acts 10:38).
Our nation should strive to ensure all people have access to life-giving treatments and care.

I believe, as taught by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus, that the measure of a society is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable. The current discussion about health-care reform is important for the United States to move toward a more just system of providing care to all people (Isaiah 1:16-17, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Matthew 25:31-45).

I believe that all people have a moral obligation to tell the truth.
To serve the common good of our entire nation, all parties debating reform should tell the truth and refrain from distorting facts or using fear-based messaging (Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:14-15, 25; Proverbs 6:16-19).

I believe that Christians should seek to bring health and well-being (shalom) to the society into which God has placed us, for a healthy society benefits all members (Jeremiah 29:7).

I believe in a time when all will live long and healthy lives, from infancy to old age (Isaiah 65:20), and "mourning and crying and pain will be no more" (Revelation 21:4).
My heart breaks for my brothers and sisters who watch their loved ones suffer, or who suffer themselves, because they cannot afford a trip to the doctor.
I stand with them in their suffering.

I believe health-care reform must rest on a foundation of values that affirm each and every life as a sacred gift from the Creator (Genesis 2:7).
Amen.
I signed Sojourners' "Health-Care Creed" to remind our leaders what is really important in the health-care debate. Will you join me? Just click here: http://go.sojo.net/campaign/health_care?rk=OdB9YWnaCF3_W