Archive for June, 2009
Where Mike is
I was feeling so sad and tired today after the activism of the last few weeks. The sermon at church was the story from Mark of the synogogue official whose daughter was dying. He grabs Jesus and implores him to come heal his daughter. He was desperate. But on the way, a woman who has [...]
A good day for advocacy in Asheville
WNC for Change sponsored a health care rally this mkorning in Pritchard Park, where we had our rally last fall. We drew about 175 people then; 300 came out today. It was amazing. I was the keynote speaker, so I got to tell Mike’s story. I asked people to visit our site and leave a [...]
Doesn’t surprise me a bit
Today’s Washington Post has a story about how the health insurance companies deciced on how much they would pay policy-holders for visits to out-of-network physicians based in a “customary” charge that was calculated by the insurance industry. They routinely shortchanged policy-holders by nearly 30 percent, costing consumers billions. The practice was detailed today in a US Senate [...]
Flexible
I went to a WNC Health Partners session on advocacy tonight and the most important word I heard was “flexible.” One man spoke about how we can’t settle for anything less than a single-payer system. I spoke up and told him we did all-or-nothing last time and got nothing. This time, we have to listen, [...]
Another poll on health care
Most people agree the system is broken and most of them support some government involvement, from regulation of the private sector to a full-on single-payer plan — or something in the middle. From the article in the NY Times: “The national telephone survey, which was conducted from June 12 to 16, found that 72 percent of those [...]
More letters, more voices
We had two letter-writing parties in Asheville today and we had 41 letters written to federal lawmakers. A dozen more people took our “What you can do” flyer home and wrote letters there. All in all, a productive day. I don’t know what the letters said – we don’t read them. One woman told me [...]
Two, count ‘em, two parties
We’re having two letter-writing parties tomorrow — one at the Unitarian-Universalist Church from 11 to noon and one at the Ethical Culture Society of Asheville at 3 to 4. I’m excited about this because it gives people a chance to write and tell their legislators that they want reform AND tell them what they think [...]
Quick question here
Um, excuse me. Over here. I just have a question: If taxpayers can dole out $1 trillion to pay for bailouts for Wall Street, then spend billions more to help American automakers to stay in business, in a single year, why is $1 trillion over 10 years too much to spend to reform health care [...]
Sorry about the rant
I have to apologize for the rant. I don’t mean to be strident or negative, but I believe the corporate giants in the health care industry are trying to derail meaningful reform, and it’s incredibly frustrating. I am trying to make something good come out of something awful and I get passionate about it. Although [...]
They’re bringing out the firepower
The health care industry is firing up its engines to fight health care reform. According to economist and former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, The five largest private insurabce companies and their trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans (check our link to them on our home page to see what they’re up to) spent a total [...]
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.