Two health-care reform events will take place in Jackson tonight and tomorrow representing the opposing viewpoints of the reform debate.

Tonight, local members of MoveOn.org will hold a vigil in support of health-care reform, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in front of the War Memorial at the corner of N. State and Amite streets, downtown.

MoveOn.org has scheduled "We Can't Afford to Wait" vigils across the nation, and reports 361 vigils scheduled for tonight. The organization primarily focuses on education and advocacy on national issues, and mobilizes people across the country to lobby Congress and help elect progressive candidates. The membership-supported MoveOn.org operates as a 501(c)(4) non-profit and as a separate federal political action committee.

"Our vigils will put a human face on the urgent need for bold health care reform with a real public health insurance option," the MoveOn.org Web site states. "We'll deliver an unmistakable message to the media and members of Congress: We can't afford to wait: Public Option NOW!"

Tomorrow night, Angela McGlowan, FOX News political analyst and author of "Bamboozled: How Americans are being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda," hosts a health-care forum at Lemuria Books in Banner Hall on Interstate 55 N., starting at 5:30 p.m. with a "meet and greet," speakers at 6 p.m. and a question and answer session at 7 p.m. Speakers include Lee Riley from Personhood America, a pro-life voter initiative, a dentist and two local physicians.

"Remember that the program is informative so that we can educate ourselves and others on the truths behind this Healthcare Bill," states the e-mail announcing the forum. "We will be addressing the issues at stake in the healthcare debate and why we need to defeat the healthcare bill HR3200."

Previous Comments

ID

151517

Comment

Up with MoveOn.org and down with Angela McGlowan, Fox News and the republican muse. Since I already know what goes on at the looney house called Fox News from television, the flea parties and radio-obscene, I have no need to listen in person to or be entertained by anyone from Fox News, the Gone Off Party (GOP) or their hitman or hitwoman. The males from the Fox channel are such obvious nuts that not even the GOP leaders will send them out amongst decent people to give a speech or talk. They send women hoping that reasonable people will listen to the likes of Lynn Cheney rather than her obviously nutty, gun-toting, insane and friend-shooting daddy.

Author

Walt

Date

2009-09-02T16:46:50-06:00

ID

151569

Comment

SO Walt, IF this Healthcare bill passes you will not mind have a Electronic IMPLANTED Chip in your arm so the GOVT can monitor and control your medical needs/ accessibility? Also you will probably not mind the doors closing after a doctor sees -- hmmm say 25 sick patients a day and your standing there with your child/spouse/parent needing medical assistance? Tell us how you really feel? Would you be receptive to the 2 mandated rulings if this HC bill passes? Seriously the IMPLANT chip is stated in black and white on page 1001 of the proposed HOUSE bill.. read it here yourself--http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih.txt.pdf while you have time watch a few of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Rf42zNl9U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUVlWKfR6GU

Author

msearp99

Date

2009-09-03T14:48:26-06:00

ID

151571

Comment

Msearp99- I read page 1001 4 times I see nowhere does it say anything about implanting a chip in anyone. It does talk about a national registry for medical divices that are used on patients implanted or not. It's talking about pacemakers,implanted ports(I have one) etc and other medical devices, not microchips. The registry will be kept in a database not in a chip on you.

Author

BubbaT

Date

2009-09-03T15:07:09-06:00

ID

151572

Comment

IF this Healthcare bill passes you will not mind have a Electronic IMPLANTED Chip in your arm so the GOVT can monitor and control your medical needs/ accessibility? msearp99, I think you need to read closer. Those pages are talking about a "NATIONAL MEDICAL DEVICE REGISTRY." It sounds like idea is to make sure to regulate the industry's current (or future?) use of implant devices to make sure it isn't abused. This is the only story I found in a quick search about it (beyond hysterial, paranoid blog posts such as your post above): A database already exists which offers exactly this type of service to alert patients of recalls and problems with hips, stents, knees, defibrillators, etc. It was compiled by a non-profit research group at University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, Georgetown Medical School and University of Rochester. It can be found here. In essence, the Health Care Reform Bill being debated, (HR 3200), expressly calls for a registry for surgically implanted devices in Section V, which would be used by patients who have implantable devices to alert them in the event of a recall, act as an early warning system or used by the manufacturers as a tool to alert patients. Think of it like a "Carfax" for stents, defibrilators, orthopedic devices, etc. The reason this provision of the bill is so crucial are the real life examples of patients who suffered catastrophic complications because of a lack of information about their device like Richard Stone. It is really sad to see the garbage the health-insurance lobby is spreading and how people are believing anything they hear.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T15:12:56-06:00

ID

151573

Comment

Jinx, Bubba. We cross-posted. Thanks for stating the obvious.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T15:13:46-06:00

ID

151574

Comment

msearp99- you know a microchip implanted in somebody with all their medical history and info might not be a bad idea. Just think if you were hundreds miles from home and had a wreck and were injured really bad they would instantly have all your info and that might save your life.

Author

BubbaT

Date

2009-09-03T15:18:07-06:00

ID

151575

Comment

And msearp, this Canadian nursing professor has a different take on Canadian health care than what your Youtube propaganda film is pushing. From the Montreal Gazette: Unfortunately, the groups condemning the Canadian health-care system have been the most vitriolic where emotions trump facts. When these groups use the word "Canadian" one can feel the disdain, the pity and the fear. It is as if we are a country with a new virulent virus ready to infect the citizens of the United States. Many Americans genuinely fear that they will lose their rights - their right to choose their doctor, health-care plan, and health facilities, and their access to the finest health- care system in the world staffed by the best doctors (if they can afford it). What's surprising is that many Americans, unlike Canadians, do not consider health care a basic right. As the U.S. debate rages, I have never felt prouder to be a Canadian and one of those poor saps who willingly pays taxes to finance our universal health-care system - first, because I believe it to be the right way to fund health care, and, second, because a healthy society is a safer society. Two personal incidents this past summer illustrate just how fortunate we Canadians are to have the health-care system we do. [...] Health-care professionals and all Canadians need to heed what is transpiring in the U.S. health-care debate. We need to correct misperceptions and factual errors and produce research that addresses the link between good health and the quality of health-care services. If we don't, we risk buying into the misrepresentation of the Canadian health-care system by the U.S. media, politicians and interest groups. Many Canadians might come to believe the propaganda and to doubt the values upon which our health-care system is built. Fear knows no borders. It can infiltrate our national psyche. We cannot let this happen. Laurie Gottlieb is a professor at McGill University's School of Nursing.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T15:18:34-06:00

ID

151576

Comment

Donna- your welcome, I owe you a drink someday. :)

Author

BubbaT

Date

2009-09-03T15:27:24-06:00

ID

151577

Comment

At least one. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T15:29:18-06:00

ID

151578

Comment

Respect the points made on all comments- First -- No one is putting a Implant of any kind in my body, initiated by a government. Let me pose these few questions: how much are the Income tax , property tax, business taxes and such in Canada? Can you ? Will you produce valid documents to show apples to apples income levels in the US? hmm lets see, for those who own businesses - Up to appx 60% in tax rate...... IF you know of someone personally-How long did say "Sally" have to wait to see a doctor, then if "Sally" needed surgery, how long did she wait for that process? In your opinion, if Canadian, ( Socialized) healthcare is so good, why does Rick Baker, Timely Medical alternatives, have so much business? http://www.timelymedical.ca/waitlist-public-versus-private.html -- I have several friends in Canada. They wait an about an average of 3 mths for any appointment for a procedure to be done, and one has chronic issues. The Montreal Gazette is right about one thing- Most Americans do not feel Healthcare is a basic right.

Author

msearp99

Date

2009-09-03T15:45:32-06:00

ID

151579

Comment

Earp, no one is trying to force you or anybody else to have a damn implant, for God's sake! Don't come to this site and try to post a bunch of wingnut conspiracy crap. There is intelligent life over here. As for Canadian health care, there is plenty of real research out there; go research it yourself if you actually want the truth. Most people already have. You're clearly just trying to spread a bunch of garbage. As for your "most Americans" statement, I hope to God you don't represent most people out there with the junk you're trying to spread. And "most people" voted for President Obama precisely because "most people" want major reform in the country, including health care. So speak for yourself, and don't bother pretending to be God. Ya ain't.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T15:55:04-06:00

ID

151581

Comment

Here's one Canadian Health care myths-v-realities post at Snopes.com (the place you go to see if all those chain e-mails are correct). This is a great site for busting urban myths. Also read this at factcheck.org: 26 Lies About H.R. 3200. A verbatim summary; read the longer analysis at the link: Summary Our inbox has been overrun with messages asking us to weigh in on a mammoth list of claims about the House health care bill. The chain e-mail purports to give "a few highlights" from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate. A few of our "highlights": * The e-mail claims that page 30 of the bill says that "a government committee will decide what treatments … you get," but that page refers to a "private-public advisory committee" that would "recommend" what minimum benefits would be included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans. * The e-mail says that "non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services" but points to a provision that prohibits discrimination in health care based on "personal characteristics." Another provision explicity forbids "federal payment for undocumented aliens." * It says "[g]overnment will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals." This provision isn’t about children with learning disabilities; instead, it pertains to restricted enrollment in "special needs" plans, a category of Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment is already restricted. The bill extends the ability to do that. * It claims that a section about "Community-based Home Medical Services" means "more payoffs for ACORN." ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word "community" to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense. Folks, again, insurance lobbyists are spreading lies about the health-insurance reform bill. Just don't be taken in so easily.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T16:09:53-06:00

ID

151582

Comment

Here's a factcheck.org entry on the bad information being spread about Canadian (and England's) health care, as well as what the president has said about them. Verbatim: What Obama Wants After making false and disparaging claims about health care in those two countries, the e-mail says that "Obama wants to have our healthcare like Canada’s and England’s." Actually, the president has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want a single-payer system like England and Canada have, one in which everyone has insurance through the government. We’ve written about this several times, as conservative groups, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and then-presidential candidate John McCain have all made similar claims and implications. Obama has said that the United States should build on the system it has now. His stance has irritated some single payer advocates and prompted several questions about why he’s against such a system. On July 1 at a town hall meeting in Annandale, Va., Obama was asked again why the U.S. shouldn’t have a single payer system. The president responded: Obama, July 1: … the way our health care system evolved in the United States, it evolved based on employers providing health insurance to their employees through private insurers. And so that’s still the way that the vast majority of you get your insurance. And for us to transition completely from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system could be hugely disruptive. And my attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free market system. … But I recognize that there are lot of people who are passionate – they look at France or some of these other systems and they say, well, why can’t we just do that? Well, the answer is, is that this is one-sixth of our economy, and we’re not suddenly just going to completely upend the system. We want to build on what works about the system and fix what’s broken about the system. And that’s what I think Congress is committed to doing, and I’m committed to working with them to make it happen. More at the link, as well as a lot of links to primary sources.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T16:16:47-06:00

ID

151583

Comment

From that Factcheck link I just posted, verbatim: Daschle Didn’t Say That Finally, the e-mail claims that the stimulus bill "includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens." No, it doesn’t. Some conservatives have said that a council overseeing the government’s funding of comparative effectiveness research (research into which medicines and procedures work best and are most cost-effective) will "ration" health care. But the council created by the stimulus legislation (now public law) doesn’t have any power to do that. In fact, the legislation stipulates that "[n]one of the reports submitted under this section or recommendations made by the Council shall be construed as mandates or clinical guidelines for payment, coverage, or treatment." The e-mail speculates that former Sen. Tom Daschle, once Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, was the author of this part of the bill. And it falsely says that Bloomberg News quoted Daschle as saying: "Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them." Daschle didn’t say that. Instead, those are the words of the former Republican lieutenant governor of New York, Betsy McCaughey, who wrote an opinion piece for Bloomberg News and offered her reading of comments in Daschle’s book. Back in February, we dissected McCaughey’s column, pieces of which have popped up in chain e-mails, and found it to be full of errors. McCaughey also passes off opinion as fact, and in the case of Daschle, she paraphrases him, which is clear from the lack of quote marks in the column. What Daschle did say is a far cry from "seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them." Instead, he wrote (without mentioning age) in his book "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis": "The use and overuse of new technologies and treatments is grounded in American culture. … More so than people in other countries, [Americans] just aren’t inclined to fatalistically accept a hopeless diagnosis or forgo experimental interventions if there is even the slightest chance of success." He also quoted Rutgers University health care policy expert David Mechanic, who wrote: "more and more of what were once seen as social, behaviorial, or normative aspects of everyday life, or as normal processes of aging, are now framed in a medical context. … Whether wrinkles, breasts, or buttocks, impotence or social anxieties, or inattention in school, they all have become grist for the medical mill."

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T16:17:54-06:00

ID

151584

Comment

Msearp99, what is your real name and identity so I can write Barry Steven Obama and have him tell you personally that if you like what you have you can keep it. Also, no one is proposing planting a chip in your head. The chip the maker gave you is all you should have. I'm willing to suffer a little discomfort and unease to make sure the majority or the have-nots have basis medical coverage. Aren't you too? This is what good citizenship, real humanity and honest Christianity is all about. Don't you agree? If I ever have to get a chip implanted as I age, I want it placed in an area the young female nurse will have to reach to get to know me quite well. Msearp, I surely hope you're not a hit man or woman for Crock News, the GOP or Ms. McGlowan, but if you are, tell Ms. McGlowan I said hello and that while she looks physically beautiful from what I've seen on television, to stop starving herself to look the part for Mr. Murdock and the GOP crew. Tell her also I said she would look even better if she dropped those zeroes over at Sly as a Fox News and the GOP and got with a hero like Obama, the DNC and Walt. Not me or Obama personally, we got a woman. Cheers.

Author

Walt

Date

2009-09-03T16:54:49-06:00

ID

151590

Comment

LOL Walt. God love ya ... Msearp, instead of asking anyone else to do your research for you, how about proving your own assertions, such as the b.s. about 60% business tax rates in Canada. (I looked it up. It's easy to find. Have you?) Who the hell is Rick Baker, and where's he getting his information from? Just because someone posts numbers on a Web site, doesn't make them true. Where are his financial statements showing the amount of business he does? And who are these "several friends" you claim to have in Canada? Look, you can find someone to gripe about heaven, because that's simply what some people do. I'm sure the Canadian system isn't perfect; nothing is. But we have a choice: Get it perfect, or get it done. Ultimately, what makes for a strong society is strong citizens. Fifty million people who have no insurance and can't afford medical care doesn't make for strong people. In fact, keeping people sick, afraid and poor benefits the powerful. It's a plantation mentality, and I believe we've seen enough of that.

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2009-09-03T19:05:46-06:00

ID

151591

Comment

Ronni, I think Rick Baker is an insurance lobbyist in D.C. And nicely said: In fact, keeping people sick, afraid and poor benefits the powerful. It's a plantation mentality, and I believe we've seen enough of that. Amen, sister. I was just reading some stuff on a friend's Facebook page. My God, it's remarkable the lies that people are passing on without bothering to check them out. America has got to be better than this. Come on, folks. Challenge all the myths and so your own homework. You've got to understand the the insurance lobby is behind all of these myths. They are feeding them to wingnut blogs where they think people don't know any better than to just pass all the muck on. Please don't prove them right. If you do, Big Insurance wins, and the rest of us lose.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-03T19:19:02-06:00