Yes, indeed. I will be there.

Thanks Ian!

what people don’t want to address is the fact hat just as it’s an obligation for industry to maintain their equiptment, it”s also an obligation they maintain the labor force

this is done by creating the policy as follows.

industry pays into health cared, not the laborer

they will obviously be able to pay their labor force less since the cost of livinvg has therefor gone down

with that system, industry does not pay more they actually pay less for labor since their buying power lowers the cost of health car a laborer would have to pay individually

also, with this system their is .no burden from caring for the uninsured since everyone wull be insured

the laborer should be faced with a fee that insures the unemployed

in addition, anyone could purchase additional insurance if they feel that supplied by industry is not enough

what does 4 ocklock mean om foredog time? it is 5 right now where I am

Firedoglake time IS Pacific Daylight Time.

4 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), ie. in California. 7pm Eastern Daylight Time – ie. on the east coast. FDL runs on pacific time.

Book Salon is up and running above and we have a real treat for everyone this afternoon. Peter Edelman, who worked as a speechwriter and advisor for Bobby Kennedy, is hosting Thurston Clark’s book on the RFK campaign and his amazing primary. Please take a moment to stop in and say hello to both of them…

Here in California, SB 840 is sitting on Der Gropenfheurer’s desk for the 3rd time. While it has many sponsors, it is Senator Sheila Keuhl’s Bill and it is comprehensive single payer health care for ALL.
I have no doubt that Fortney “Pete” Stark supports Senator Keuhl’s Bill, as does most of us working folks in CA.
Sadly, it is unlikely to garner the final, necessary signature because it does not have a role for the insurance industry.
I, along with many, many Californians must now wait for this sound public policy issue to come back in the form of a voter initiave, so that our politicians and their legion of owner/handlers in the medi/pharmi/insuri-business are left on the sidelines.

Oops, I erred. What I should have written, is that the sound public policy “solution” is single payer universal health care instead of public policy issue re: SB 840.

Testing.

Hi all

Jacki from Health Care for America Now. I’m really looking forward to Rep. Stark and Jim and Roger joining us.

Are we meeting here or in a new post, up top?

Hi everyone, this isn’t the actual live chat thread, this was the announcement thread.

You can find the live chat thread here.

I hope to log in at 7p EST but w/2 young kids and a partner who’s been doing phone banking for the Sept 16th MA primary all day, it’ll be tough…

I did want to give a shout out for CA’s SB 840 and the corresponding national bill HR 676 to create an improved and expanded Medicare-for-all national helat program. COnyers is the lead sponsor and it has 90+ co-sponsors. I hope Stark is one of them, or that after the FDL chat he will be!

I know we’ve got to “meet the American people where they’re at” and all that, but I’ve been a nurse for 15 years and a social justice activist for longer, and I believe the majority of Americans are open to a socialized health insurance program on the national scale. Maybe we’ve got to move in steps from here to there, but we’ve got to clearly identify where we must end up. The “Massachusetts mandated private insurance Model” is a disaster. I live and work in MA and know the facts. See this NPR blog for more details than you’d ever want!!!:

“Expect Massachusetts to Follow the ‘Universal’ Failure of Other States” Posted by CommonHealth, 8/15/08

NPR link http://commonhealth.wbur.org/g…..jamin-day/

To get to real universal health care we’ve got be vigilant about immunizing the public to provide protection against the fear-mongering that’s sure to be ramped up from the insurance industry as Obama’s tenure as President becomes a fact (Oh happy day). And of course this fear-mongering’s already been happening for years!…the battles we’ve been through here in Mass. trying to pass citizen initiatives, etc for years and years, similar to the CA experience. Thanks, FDL, and Roger et al at CAF, for all your great work on this issue.