“I'm really passionate about this fight for health care reform because I know too many people who go without any kind of insurance coverage... I'm one of them. I think young people often have to make a decision to do what they are passionate about or get adequate coverage.”
- Kaitlyn
University / Year of Graduation / Major or emphasis I graduated this May with a double major in political science and communications from Saint Joseph's College of Maine.
Groups/Publications/Organizations Involved with (in school and after) In school I was involved with Campus Progress and the College Democrats, Catholics United and the college campus ministry. My involvement there was with a lot of social justice work, opposing the School of the Americas and other work including a spring break workfest program. The summer before my senior year in college I even ran for State Representative in my hometown.
How did you become politicized? I started working in politics because I hated the Iraq War. I thought it was an unjust war that it never should have been waged.
What got you to where you are today? Hard work and a lot friends. When people respect the work that I've done, they will often ask me ways that they can help. By staying as organized as possible I have really been able to lean on my friends and support network. The alliance that we have has helped me move forward and inspired me. I love that in Maine, we have record numbers of young people stepping up for the progressive movement. Though I'm not one of them, we have a bunch of young people serving our state in the Maine Legislature too. I feel supported and that helps me work harder towards making a difference.
How did you get involved with Campus Progress? I got involved with Campus Progress in 2007. CP helped me get down to Washington, D.C. for a week where I learned how to lobby Congress for an end to our involvement in Iraq. After that training I really began to feel like one voice could make a difference. Quite honestly, CP was what helped me take an active role in progressive politics.
Tell us a little bit about your fight for Health Care Reform... For the last three months, I worked as a community organizer with the SEIU campaign called Change that Works in Maine. Change that Works allowed me to be a voice for health care reform in my community. I took part in the largest health care rally ever in Maine and helped to bus activists from other parts of Maine to the rally. I'm really passionate about this fight for health care reform because I know too many people who go without any kind of insurance coverage... I'm one of them. I think young people often have to make a decision to do what they are passionate about or get adequate coverage. This limits the innovation of our country and places a heavy burden on our economy. Something has to change; the insurance industry must change and I believe that a public option is the change we need.
What kind of opportunities and/or hurdles have you faced in your activism for reform and other issues? Well, in Maine our Senators and Congressional delegation have refused to hold town hall meetings. That makes it tough to get real conversation with them on health care policy to happen. Basically, it just means we have to follow them around and hold signs. That's just not real conversation! In Maine people have such respect for our political leaders that they will rarely question what they do. Constituents would rather question me for trying to make a difference than the leaders who are sitting still. Sometimes it's like facing a brick wall but I do think it's getting easier. Finally, next week Susan Collins is going to be participating in a health care "forum". The thing is, it's being sponsored by a fiscally conservative group, the Concord Coalition. She will be given an opportunity to answer questions from the crowd and I just don't believe she will be open to discussing reality since it's going to be sponsored by the Concord Coalition. The press probably won't even mention the sponsoring organizations and constituents will decide yet again, not to question her on her policy.
What are your next steps? What's next for you in terms of activism or personal goals? Right now, I've decided to change things up a bit professionally. I am working for the Parks & Recreation Department in my hometown to launch an after-school program for 4th & 5th graders and promote teen programming. Once the after-school program has been launched in early September I am really interested in moving down to Washington, D.C.. I hope that I will be able to work for an organization that plans events and promotes the work of young progressive activists on a national scale.
Any words of advice for young progressives? Just keep working. Now that we've elected a Democratic majority, it's our time to work harder. Dream about the country you'd like to see and move towards it a little bit more everyday. Oh and keep in touch. Campus Progress does a great job assuring that community leaders are in contact with each other. I'd like to hear from you though so send me an e-mail! Let me know what you're up to and if there's anything I can do to help you and your group, I'd like to know that too!
On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 join the Campus Progress Advocacy Team, progressive partner organizations like the Energy Action Coalition and U.S. PIRG, and fellow young people from around the country for a lobby day on Capitol Hill that you won't forget. Choose from one of two issues to lobby about:
1. Tell Congress how they can make a difference in the economic lives of young people - college affordability, health care, jobs, etc.
2. Press Congress to work for an end to global warming and toward a clean energy future!
Never lobbied before? Don't worry. We'll provide the skills, materials, and schedule the appointments. Just e-mail us your name and the address where you are registered to vote and come ready to make your voice heard on the issues that matter to you!
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM The Center for American Progress 1333 H Street NW, 10th floor Washington D.C.
This event is free and open to all young people interested in turning their progressive values into action.
A few months ago, I remember reading that birth control prices were sky-rocketing and thinking rather casually that this was just another in a long line of problems with the American healthcare system. I admit that I have often been one to argue that politics does not directly affect me. However, both these thoughts were disproved today when I discovered that politics will eventually hit home in one way or another. Upon walking up to the CVS Pharmacy window, I discovered that my birth control pill, under AETNA Insurance, had increased from $35 dollars to $60. Thirty-five dollars was quite an exorbitant of money for a prescription to begin with, but sixty dollars a month is absolutely absurd.
Granted, there are cheaper options that I can get my doctor to prescribe for me in the future, at least I hope. However, as there is no direct generic version of the drug I am on, I was forced to pay the $60 at this time and switching drugs will be a difficult task. What’s worse is that the insurance company gave me no advanced warning of this change in prices, but simply left me to discover thus on my own.
I had often wondered in the past why there are still so many unwanted pregnancies when a large array of birth control is readily available. However, if things continue at this rate, birth control pills will start to become a privilege of the upper and middle classes, not affordable to those who arguably need it most. I do not claim to know who is to blame for this change with certainty, though the easy target is the insurance companies themselves. Then again, recent initiatives like the 2005 Medicaid Bill that was just implemented in January decreased rebates pharmaceutical companies received for selling birth control to campuses at large discounts (this still wouldn’t help me though, as Georgetown will not fill birth control based on its Catholic morals.) In any case, measures such as these indicate that at least part of the problem is political. Without naming names, it is truly unfortunate when the politics of religion inhibit women from getting the medical protection that they are entitled to.
Rudy Giuliani has already created an image for himself that even the casual observer could probably identify. He reminds us daily that he was, in fact, the Mayor of New York City during the September 11th terrorist attacks, (a point which I will do my best to remind you of, in case you don't already it have stuck in your head like the lyrics to a bad song). He speaks ad nauseam about his tough stance on terrorism, and his apparent affection for constitution-bending Jack Bauer-style interrogation techniques. Speaking about the torture technique known as waterboarding, Giuliani said:
Well, I'm not sure it is either. It depends on how it's done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it. I think the way it's been defined in the media, it shouldn't be done. The way in which they have described it, particularly in the liberal media. So I would say, if that's the description of it, then I can agree, that it shouldn't be done. But I have to see what the real description of it is.
Giuliani, (the Mayor of New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks) is right: The "liberal media" must be making it look much worse than it is. When I think about having someone "simulate" the experience of drowning, it sounds like a blast to me. Don't they offer that at Club Med these days right after snorkeling?
The presidential hopeful (and, did I mention, the Mayor of New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks) has developed a bit of an odd talent. Odd talents, like a knack for solving Rubik's Cubes or juggling chainsaws, may have a way of attracting voters on the campaign trail. Other odd talents, such as being able to skew statistics to suit a political message, seem to do anything but win the affection of the public. As it turns out, Giuliani has quite the habit of skewing statistics in just such a way.
When discussing the issue of abortion, Giuliani loves to talk about his success in lowering the number of abortions during his tenure as Mayor of New York City, (during which time he dealt with the 9/11 terrorist attacks). His campaign has said on numerous occasions that "Adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent; abortions went down 16 percent." As FactCheck.org points out, while those numbers aren't exactly a flat out lie, they also aren't the most honest statistics. FactCheck points out that:
Adoptions had already increased by 257 percent in the seven years prior to creation of ACS, the agency Giuliani credits with increasing adoptions...[and] adoptions declined in five of the mayor's last six years.
Perhaps more blatantly misleading is how Giuliani, (who bravely walked the streets of New York City with the Firefighters while they saved lives in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center by Islamic extremists), uses deceptive numbers regarding healthcare. His campaign recently released a radio ad in which he denounces "socialized medicine" by explaining that he would likely have died of his prostate cancer, had he lived in a country like England that has a form of "socialized medicine." The campaign proclaims that only 44 percent of men survive similar cases of cancer, but here in the US, the chances are 82 percent. FactCheck discovered that those numbers aren't just misleading, they are just flat out lies:
We tracked down the source of that number, which turns out to be the result of bad math by a Giuliani campaign adviser, who admits to us that his figure isn't "technically" a survival rate at all. Furthermore, the co-author of the study on which Giuliani's man based his calculations tells us his work is being misused, and that the 44 percent figure is both wrong and "misleading." A spokesperson for the lead author also calls the figures "incorrect survival statistics."
In the campaign's defense, the stats were apparently taken from an opinion piece from a conservative think tank. That seems like a good place to get statistics for a political ad.
Jonathan Garro is editor of SkipperStyle, a political blog.
I think so, but how. I say we use the existing system and begin with small portions of corporate plans being subsidized by the Government. 1/2 Paid via insurance, the other 1/2 paid by government funded healthcare. When we opt to use this method, request that the payroll tax be deducted another % from our income. Likewise make it incremental according to income 1% payroll deduction for under 40% tax bracket all the way up to 7% for those making 250,00 + a year.
Another thought is increasing sin taxes on the very causes of many diseases such as alcohol and cigarettes, a flat federal taxation, say 10% on all Alcohol and Tobacco instead of(for instance) 8.25% in the current state I reside in... TX.
Make corporate donation a tax write off into this government healthcare fund....lol, this is the first and only time you would ever see a bunch of Republicans running to give the government their money.
I was a little torn about the case of Ashley, the nine year old in Seattle who has a debilitating condition that stopped her brain development at the age of three months and leaves her mostly paralyzed. Her parents and doctors have subjected her to surgeries over the years, including removal of her ovaries and high doses of estrogen to stop her growth. The reasons are to make her stay small enough to be easily lifted and to prevent bed sores later in life, to prevent her from getting pregnant should be she be raped, and to spare her the confusion of the pain caused by getting her period. Though initially I agreed with disability rights activists who argued that this was clearly a violation of her dignity and humanity, I heard semi-convincing counter-arguments that it was all in her best interest.
But Patricia J. Williams, in an excellent column in this week's Nation removes any doubt in my mind. She convincingly argues, “Who of us, with full capacity to consent, would undergo the painful invasiveness of a full hysterectomy just to prevent cramps or as a prophylactic against rape's violations? Why then should it be permitted in the case of someone who has no capacity to protest?” And she points to the obvious, but serious, slippery slope problem, asking ironically, “why not remove all her teeth to spare her the pain of cavities? Why not excise her fingernails to spare her the pain of accidentally scratching herself? Why not remove one of her healthy spare kidneys and donate it? -- that might make her and the world a little lighter.”
But she really gets at the root of the issue when she observes,
We are the wealthiest nation on earth, yet we cannot find the resources to provide the common medical devices that would have better enabled Ashley's family to care for her, unaltered, in their home: a simple hoist, mattresses that prevent bedsores, the assistance of home healthcare workers. Ashley's parents apparently felt driven to the lengths they went to because they did not wish to institutionalize her as she grew older, bigger, more cumbersome.”
Disability rights activists have told me before how important an issue this is to them: state benefits will pay for institutionalization but not home health aides. Forcing people into institutions who could live independently is not just bad for them because they are socially marginalized and their privacy is invaded, it's also more expensive. Universal health insurance alone isn't the solution to this problem, we need to institute smarter more flexible rules that take people's wishes to live independently, and parents wishes not to be separated from their child, into account and not force them into institutions.
“Potentially Devastating”, that’s how Rich Umbdenstock president of the American Hospital Association describes the President’s Budget Proposal in a recent interview. Medicare and Medicaid finds itself under attack as the President sets out his agenda of budget priorities. The President spoke of the need to improve the healthcare system in his State of the Union address, but again his words are nothing more than the same tired rhetoric. In typical Bush style, the things he says and the things he does appear to be two separate things altogether. Read More »
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“I'm really passionate about this fight for health care reform because I know too many people who go without any kind of insurance coverage... I'm one of them. I think young people often have to make a decision to do what they are passionate about or get adequate coverage.”
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