Kudos to AFL-CIO, its Members and Affiliates…

…for their effort to address “mangled health care" head-on!

In Thursday, March 22, 2007 edition of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Anya Sostek, staff writer, writes (excerpted with commentaries by Dr. Dorodny):

“…The "Health Care Hustle" Web site invites readers to submit their stories of being broken down and bruised by the health-care system.

The site www.workingamerica.org/healthcarehustle which opened to the public yesterday and to members last week, already has attracted more than 500 responses, which is only a drop-in-the bucket, considering the daily obstacles workers and their families need to overcome to access appropriate health carING.

Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO which represents about 1.5 million Americans who are not part of labor unions encourages users to send automated messages to "greedy corporations," the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the insurance industry and the Bush administration.

According to Ms. Karen Nussbaum of Working America, the organization plans to launch a major campaign against the "evildoers" who receives the most votes against them.

The “evildoers” only care about their executive compensation, stock options, share prices, private jets, etc.

Currently, workers and their Unions have only themselves to blame for proliferation of and the abuse by the “evildoers” that are “just doing their jobs”.

Strive for universal access to appropriate and affordable health carING is an achievable, but a long-tem undertaking. Universal payer/single payer proposals are abundant, problematic and deceiving.

"The trade union movement today is both more embattled and smaller, and that means that it has to use the weapons of the week," said Prof. Lichtenstein (UCSB). "It's the same thing that any agitational group who is out of power would do."

But creative media campaigns will not properly address what’s on the mind of every worker: health carING. Address these issues and watch your membership and your power soar.

Organize your members and move from an "agitational group" to an enabling one.
Unfortunately, sending automated messages to “greedy corporations” will not work either.

It will not work because Pharma Manufacturers only care about their profit margins. Please read the “NEW Prescription for Pharma Marketing” and related postings on this site.

Similarly, insurance companies have core values divergent from those of workers and their families.

In addition to the conflicting core values, “business disconnects” exist due to logistical, financial, physical and ethical aspects of mangled health care:

*The workers and their families usually does not request, do not order or directly pay for the services.

*The insurance companies, HMOs, never request, do not receive, nor order the services.

*The doctors who order the services do not pay for them, nor receive the services.

Insurance companies, HMOs and other "mangled" health care companies entire purpose is to grab as many pennies from workers health care dollar as they are allowed to by the workers.

They do grab a sizable chunk: 15 cents out of every healthcare dollar without actually working, being sick or providing services.

Sign me up!

The lame-duck President Bush did not care about the worker even before he became a lame duck.

Dear Unions,

Please return to your basic focus on collective bargaining and controlling the purse strings, with a clear understanding of the fact that employees are the buyers (direct and/or indirect) of health carING services.

Employees are the buyers of health care and should drive, if not control, all health caRING decisions.

Workers and their families can request and receive health carING from doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, labs, pharmaceutical companies, etc, without mangled care companies.

Doctors, nurses, pharmacist, hospitals, labs, pharmaceutical companies, etc, can provide health carING without mangled care companies.

Workers and their families can pay for health carING without mangled care companies.

Employees and their Unions do not need the middle men (employer, insurance company, managed “mangled” care company and its stockholders) to take a 15 cent bite out of every health carING dollar!

I, for one, am willing to make a difference and show the way!

We gripe, you decide.