I’m Not The Only One

You know what really sucks about all this?

Universal health care has only been embraced by one state-Massachusetts.  If it’s so great, why has only one state out of 50 adopted it?

Meanwhile, 15 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) have already legalized marijuana for medical purposes (not including Maryland, which won’t bust you for possession if you can prove your marijuana use is for medical purposes), meaning this healthcare policy is at least 15 times as widely accepted than universal healthcare.

But which healthcare plan do the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership want to implement on a national level?

Sad.

Also, since the Democrats want to emulate Canada so badly, how about adopting their nationwide medical marijuana policy?

Silly me, I was actually expecting a black President, even if he is only half black, to legalize it.  If black and brown people are still going to federal prison for marijuana-related charges by 2012, I’m voting for the next white guy I see.

I know, pretty startling statement coming from an American, right?

I recently made a new friend, Aaron Lazansky-Oliva a.k.a. Spaze Crafte One.  This dude wears more hats than I do, which is pretty impressive.  He is a DJ, all-around entrepreneur, music producer, graffiti artist, graphic designer/visual artist, webmaster, blogger, advocate for organ donation, photographer, weekend fourth grade teacher, and retailer (not to mention his colorful background as a Mexican Jew).  He is both locally, nationally and internationally known, depending on each proverbial hat.

Aaron and I are currently working on a web design project together (I handle the editorial, he handles everything else) for a major real estate firm in Manhattan.  As I spent more time talking to him, I was amazed by his many talents and his entrepreneurial passion.  But I was also intrigued by his role as an advocate for organ donation, supporting nonprofits like Donate Life..  His passion for this issue comes from a most personal source: (more…)

All I hear about in the news these days are health care, health care, and more health care.  As a result I really haven’t been keeping up on the news or blogging.

But I saw a reasonable health care proposal which while featuring a few major flaws, was far better than what’s being proposed in Congress right now.  The debate of comments following the post was so civil and the points were so rational (as opposed to the bullshit you hear from syndicated pundits and members of Congress) it inspired me to present my own proposal for healthcare reform.  It’s simple and can reduce administrative overhead in both the public and private sectors while encouraging free market competition. (more…)

It seems that Hillary has pulled a Howard Dean, and she didn’t even need to scream on national television! She went from leading in votes and delegates over Obama in the first primaries/caucuses to lagging slightly behind in the most recent statewide contests.

Clinton’s edge slips with whites, women

Knocked Off Balance, Clinton Campaign Tries to Regain Its Stride

Potomac Primary Leaves Hillary Clinton Campaign in Further Turmoil, Barack Obama Sweeps Votes Creating More Democratic Deadlock

Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier. I think people are beginning to understand why Hillary Clinton is not the best candidate for President. A lot of blue-collar Democrats, especially Latinos, tend to support Hillary because of the accomplishments of her husband during his eight years in office. But I believe that it is dawning on more and more voters a vote for Hillary Clinton is not a vote for Bill Clinton, and that his achievements are his own and not connected directly to his wife. I think some people may have seen electing Hillary as a way of ushering Bill back into the White House to bypass that Constitutional ban that prohibits two-term Presidents from being elected again. But Hillary barely let him be President when he actually was the President. In 1993, the meddling Hillary forced Bill to allow her to draft a comprehensive national health care plan. Though her heart was in the right place, the plan was hideously flawed and opposed by many, especially the then-Republican minority in Congress.

Given this fact, would Hillary actually allow Bill to anything in her Administration other than damage control when shit blows up in her face (and it will)?

On a side note, I do not agree with Barack Obama’s or Hillary Clinton’s promise to implement universal health care. After the soaring costs of the Iraq War, this country can barely afford to adequately defend itself from an outside invasion or attack, much less control the unchecked influx of persons and various materials through its borders. Something as expensive as universal health care should be on the back burner until the U.S. can withdraw all troops from Iraq and downsize the number of overseas military installations. Besides, after all the money her Senate and Presidential campaign has accepted from the giant pharmaceutical lobby, I am confident that any universal health care package Hillary Clinton promotes would primarily benefit HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry. (more…)

On my personal MySpace page some left-wing organization called United for a Better America requested to be added to my friends’ list. I hastily decided to add them and only today did I actually check this organization’s page. I’m not too surprised by what I saw; I pretty much knew what UBA’s political views were. After all, the page’s main photo is a gif file of a red stick figure and a blue stick figure with a red check mark under the blue, and if you wait a second the image changes to read “Vote Democrat”.

But this passage on the page really got to me.

We believe that healthcare is a right. We are the richest country in the world, yet over 47 million Americans have no health insurance — that’s nearly one in six Americans. As a result, over 18,000 people die per year.

Our nation is ranked 23rd in infant mortality, 20th in life expectancy for women, and 21st in life expectancy for men. Relative to other industrialized nations with universal health care, the United States ranks poorly; all while the Republicans stand on the side of big insurance companies.

Using a country’s life expectancy as an indicator of the quality of that nation’s healthcare system is a joke. This is a hollow argument that has been waged by almost every proponent of universal healthcare and was mentioned by Michael Moore in his movie Sicko, (saw the movie on bootleg) who claims that since Canadians live on average three years longer than Americans, their socialist health insurance system must be superior. (more…)

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while…

I’ve been swamped with finals and I was in the hospital from the 12th to the 13th with an infection on my foot. While I was in the hospital and began visiting the foot clinic on an outpatient basis using my Medicaid insurance, I began thinking about socialized medicine and universal heath insurance.

I have written about universal health care in the past, in support of it and the estimated 40 to 50 million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured.

I know many conservatives are fiercely opposed to universal healthcare, arguing that everyone would somehow be forced to enroll in a government-sponsored heath insurance program, and that all private insurance providers would become illegal.

This is a ridiculous argument. Government-sponsored heath insurance need not have every single U.S. citizen enrolled in it for it to do its job. Currently, we have three systems of health insurance (excluding Medicare): 1) private insurance providers, 2) semi-private Medicaid, which requires enrollees to choose from a series of private insurance providers to cover the cost of health services and Medicaid to cover the cost of medicine, with a nominal co-payment (usually around $3-$5) and 3) straight-up Medicaid where the government pays for services and medication, asking for a small co-payment for all medicines.

Instead of the far-fetched scenario of the government banning all private insurers and Washington being the sole legal provider of health insurance in America, why can’t we just have an expansion of the current system? Many Americans are caught in the middle, too rich to qualify for Medicaid but still unable to afford Medicare or a private insurer, or to even enroll in their company’s group insurance plan?

(more…)