Cookout for Healthcare with Cindy Sheehan

[davidswanson]

Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009, at noon

Cindy Sheehan, one of the best known peace and justice activists in the United States, will be joined by other speakers in support of public healthcare at a cookout open to the public and the media. Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, VA, 22902. Cindy will talk about her new book and the need for an expanded public healthcare system.

RSVP: http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Also at noon on Saturday, elsewhere in Charlottesville, others have announced plans to hold an anti-healthcare rally that they misleadingly call a rally for "Patients First." Participants include Kay Coles James, the disgraced director of the United States Office of Personnel Management known for hiring unqualified government employees based on their attendance of a fourth-rate, right-wing university; Del. Ben Cline, whose opinions are paid for by his campaign funders, including Medical Facilities of America, US Tobacco, Va. Hospital & Healthcare Assn., Medco Health Solutions, and Va. Independent Insurance Agents; Tito Munoz, a small business owner who helped John McCain lose Virginia; former city councilman and aspiring Rush Limbaugh, Rob Schilling; and Ben Marchi, a former employee of ethically reprimanded and indicted congressman Tom Delay. Marchi says:

"Health care legislation being pushed by the liberals in Congress will threaten the sacred relationship between doctor and patient and strip away patients' rights to choose a plan that best suits them."

Yet, Americans consistently tell pollsters that they want public health coverage: http://tr.im/sENL

Other nations that have public health coverage (government spending on private or public healthcare) provide their people with better care. The U.S. system is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. The United States is 24th in life expectancy and 29th in reducing infant mortality. Infants who do not survive the US system do not get a chance to possess patients' rights.

A single-payer system, which would go further than the compromise that has Marchi so upset, would cover everyone at all times with no exceptions, allow completely free choice of doctors, invest in preventive care, allow patients and doctors to make their own decisions free of insurance company restrictions, reduce the 30 percent waste in the current system to the 3 percent overhead in Medicare, and create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, $317 billion in business revenue, and $100 billion in wages. See: http://tr.im/sETE

House Resolution 676, backed by 86 congress members, would accomplish these things and meet every one of Congressman Tom Perriello's goals for healthcare as listed on his website: http://tr.im/sEUO

Cindy Sheehan said: "Health care is a basic human right and the only way to get obscene profits out of the way of patient health is single-payer, as many nations around the world do. We challenge both Democrats and Republicans to put people before insurance companies, big-pharma, and HMO's."

Summaries of this issue:
http:/charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1939
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1854

Video of recent forum in Charlottesville:
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1882

Join us at noon on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, Va. Kids are welcome! There is no charge, but it is appreciated if you bring something to eat or drink. Please go to this page and post a comment that you are coming and how many are coming with you. And if you are able to bring something to eat or drink and know what it will be, please post that:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

[quidam56]

1. Quality health care in The Commonwealth of Virginia

As a former health care giver, I am shocked and saddened to see what has become of health care in America. $ 1. 4 million is being spent per day in DC by the health care lobbyists so your elected representative is getting taken care of and has quality health care we pay for and can't afford ourselves for our families, I know what is deemed, defended and supported in Tennessee and Virginia as quality health care and clearly profit care comes ahead of patient care. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 MRSA ( methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureas ) is infesting our communities because filthy, uncaring hospitals and emergency rooms are breeding them and spreading them into our schools, homes, restaurants. How many more Americans' will be diseased or die while 74 % of Americans' are begging for health care reform ? More people died in America last year from MRSA complications than AIDS. When MRSA and a flu bug start mixing, it won't be pretty and we are being infected by the very health care system we depend on and trust to keep us safe and healthy. If we had "the best health care" in the world then why does RAM ( Remote Area Medical ) come to Wise County, Virginia year after year so people can go to the fairgrounds and stand in a line like cattle in the hot July sun just to see a health care provider ??? America's health care system is a disgraceful sham !

[midnight]

2. To accept some notion that our tax dollars can be spent on

our elected officials but not for its citizens has come to an end. It is wrong and now we know we can afford access to affordable health care for everyone. All the work has been done and we can save tons of money removing the parasites "insurance co.". Want more info. look at the book or interview by Dr. Dean.