Archive for March, 2009

Tort reform doesn’t work

I found a report on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web site that told me what I suspected all along: Tort reform doesn’t being down medical costs; it just covers the insurance companies’ gigantic butts.
Before Mike died, he asked me not to sue anyone over the awful treatment he got. He wanted me to do [...]

Our work is cut out for us

For awhile there, it looked like Life o’ Mike’s mission might be accomplished in the coming year.
Not that I really believed that, mind you. The insurance industry is going to fight really hard to keep things the way they are. It doesn’t matter how many people suffer and die, as long as they make their [...]

AIG, the VA and that CAN’T be right

I’m as upset as anyone about AIG and the abject greed there. I have to say, though, the company isn’t acting in a vacuum. For early 30 years, we have  reduced regulation, all the while believing big business will do the right thing if left to its own devices.
As a teenage hippie in the late 1960s, [...]

Things are getting worse

An Associated Press story today said the nationn’s fragile health care safety net is unraveling. Like I wasn’t expecting that.With more people unemployed and more people in financial trouble, fewer people are ale to pay for care. One survey of 1,200 doctors found that 88 percent of them have treated patients that had been turned down [...]

Spreading the word

I met with a community organizer from Consumers Union today. They’re the people who put out Consumer Reports, and they’re working toward health care for all Americans.
One thing he told me is that we’re in for a tough fight. The health insurance companies don’t want to give up the scam they have now — unfettered [...]

One day at a time…

Life o’ Mike board member and friend Carolyn Comeau had good test results last week — her breast cancer is at bay.
But every day, Carolyn wakes up and wonders if she will be the one to raise her two children. It’s a scary way to live.
Carolyn was lucky. She had health insurance. But when her [...]

A year ago today …

Beginning on Feb. 26, the anniversary of when we found out for sure Mike’s cancer was back, I’ve been running through the day-by-day remember-when.
It’s called anniversary syndrome.
A year ago today we still had him. We knew we were going to lose him, but it hadn’t happened yet. We didn’t know what life would be like without [...]

Same exclusionary policies, slicker rhetoric

Richard Kirsch, campaign manager for Health Care for America Now, in a piece on Huffington Post, vows to fight the insurance industry, which already is gearing up to fight President Obama’s plan to provide health care for all Americans.
Harry and Louise came back last summer, this time sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, [...]

Help Life o' Mike

We need your help now more than ever. Your tax-deductible donation will help us get Patient Pals and Family Friends off the ground. Please consider a gift in honor or in memory of a loved one.

Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training

Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 8 days, as we train our next group of volunteers for Patient Pals & Family Friends. The four-hour training will run 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and will include lunch. Patient Pals are people who have experience with an illness or disability. After training, they will be paired with someone who is newly diagnosed or disabled. Family Friends will be volunteers who are paired with family members of people who are ill or disabled, and will have been through the expeience of having a loved one with illness or disability.

In Loving Memory

Life o' Mike has participated two memorial services to remember those who have died from our broken health care system, one in Asheville and one in Raleigh. If you would like to organize more of these services, please contact lifeomike@gmail.com and we will help put it together. The services include stories, prayers and information on how people of faith can make a difference. About 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, according to a recent study by Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That breaks down to one American every 12 minutes. Those people can be honored in the service by a bell chime and a moment of silence every 12 minutes in the service. For more information, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712.

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