Up to date on the debate

In the past couple of weeks, there have been some gains and some drawbacks in the health care debate. First of all we must applaud the efforts of the House of Representatives for passing the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Now the main question remains if the Senate can pass a bill soon. President Obama prefers to pass reform by the end of the year, but as it comes closer to December and for the Holiday break, it seems unlikely. Now the success of health care reform lies in the hands of the Senate and it is going to be a tough battle. At the moment the Republicans have united to not support the reform bill and will likely filibuster it until it is dead. In order to avoid this, the Senate needs all 57 Democrats and the two Independents to vote in favor of the bill. As time passes, it is obvious that many of the moderate Democrats are still on the fence about the Senate Health Care bill yet there is still hope since no one has seen the Senate bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid has not allowed any Senator to read the bill until the Congressional Budget Office announces its score and cost, coming in at any moment. Some of the topics causing some moderate Democrats and Republicans to oppose the bill are the public option and the language of the abortion clause. Until the bill is released, many votes remain still up in the air along with the success of health care reform. So stay tune more political drama to come…

To PO it is

This past week has been a very busy week for our Senators and our Representatives as they come closer to introducing their health care reform bills to the floor. The topic of the week was of course the Public Option, which seems to be the most debated policy in congress and throughout America. But before you form an opinion on it, I will explain some background of this policy and explain its importance in the health care debate. Also I want to introduce the policies that each house is developing for the public option since it is important to understand what they are going to be fighting for.

The idea was first created before the 2008 elections when some health care experts started to promote this new idea of a public insurance pool that would be modeled after Medicare. It was seen as a better way to attract congress and constituents on a plan other than the single payer system that could provide for real progression in the health industry. Soon these experts started to meet with presidential candidates to introduce them to this new compromise that could convince and unite both single payer supporters and other more conservative liberals. Therefore when Obama became president and introduced his plans to pass health care reform this year, he decided to fully support the pubic option and strongly suggested it be included in the health care reform bill.

Now this brings us to the present…

After the heated debates this summer, the public option came out with some serious wounds. Yet the events of this summer did not completely destroy it and now we have assurance from both the Senate (as posted earlier this week) and now the House of Representatives that the public option will be present in their bills. In the Senate, Harry Reid officially announced on Monday that he will included the public option in the Senate bill with a clause allowing states to opt out of it. The reason for the opt out/opt in clause is to gain more support from moderate Democrats to support a health care bill with public option. Interesting….

On the other side of the capital, the House was motivated by the Senate’s decision and what a surprise they also added a public option to their health care bill. The House was first divided on what type of public option they preferred and decided on a less robust one. Instead of a program providing reimbursements to doctors based on the lower rates paid by Medicare (which is the more robust plan), the house announced that they had settled on a option that would negotiate rates with providers. Democrat leadership was pushing for a more robust plan but many rural representatives feared that their hospital and doctors would suffer from the plan.

Now since both the Senate and the House have officially announced their bills, the public option will be the center of the debate since many congressmen/women have pledged to not pass a bill with a public option. So stick around and enjoy as we see our congressmen/women go head to head on the congressional floor.

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To PO or to not PO that is the question

The public option has had quite a ride in this health care reform roller coaster. The public option has been a preferred policy by both Democrats and the President. The President has strongly suggested it to be included in the health care reform bill but it has experienced some serious opposition mainly the GOP (of course) and some conservative Democrats. But just when you thought it was gone for good, there are some new developments on the public option coming from the Senate. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has recently proposed that the public option should be included in the bill but it will allow states to opt out of it if they wish to. That is an interesting twist to the health care reform debate. Currently the bill voted by the Senate Finance Committee does not include a public option but may be added once it reaches the Senate floor for debate. Why this sudden change to attempt to added it to the health care reform bill?? I would possibly blame it on the turn in public opinion which has increased from 55% to 61% in favor of the option. This turn of events has encouraged both House Representatives and Senators to bring up the issue again. In both houses, they are seeking to add a public option but what type of option? It is too early to tell but one thing most politicians are sure of, or at least those supporting the public option, that without a public option little reform will occur only time and further research will tell.

Lessons Learned

Last week I analyzed the National Health Service of the United Kingdom and both identified the pros and the cons of the system. As our government comes closer and closer to forming a bill, what can they learn from the pros and cons of the NHS and maybe adopt? Well some would argue that the NHS has really nothing good to offer the United States (cough …cough the GOP) but is that really true?? Based on reports from the World Health Organization (click here for full report) the United Kingdom per capita spending on health is three times less that the per capita of the United States. Even though they pay less, they provide the same amount of doctors, nurses and services. Therefore what can the US learn and possibly benefit from the UK system?
One lesson the US can learn from the NHS is the system’s ability to pay much less per person than the American system while still guaranteeing coverage to all its citizens. By being able to provide insurance to the entire population (either with a single payer or public option) cost per capita can decrease. The United States is known for having large gaps in its health insurance coverage which contributes to the high per capital cost. An additional ability that the United States (and its people) can benefit from is having no limit on the amount of health care treatment provided. In the United States, time and time again we heard the stories of terminally ill people being denied coverage or dropped by their insurers since they reached their coverage limit. This is one of the major concerns that people have with the health care system in America and one major pro about the UK that should be included in the reform.

Although I do see some ways in which we can learn and benefit from the pros of the NHS, we can also learn from its problems. It is clear that this country is not ready or willing to have a single-payer system as the UK since they believe it will cause long waiting times for medical assistance and inadequate care and treatment. Although these cons are subjective, the US can adopt some aspects of the single-payer system and add them to the current system and meet half way. What I mean by meeting half way is that the US should consider something like a public option meaning an option offered to citizens that is government controlled. By having an option to citizens that is low in cost and coverage, we may be able to keep all the good aspects that work in the NHS and apply them to our health care system. Therefore if a citizen is worried about having to wait sometime for a general surgery they may chose to have private insurance. If a citizen does not have the adequate funds to have private insurance or just lost their coverage as a result of losing their job then they will be able to be covered under the public option. So by having some citizens in the private sector and others in the public both systems will be balanced and waiting lines can be less of a problem since the population will be divided between the two.

The NHS provides citizens with great care at a low price and the US should consider attaining some of these great aspects by adopting something like a public option, which provides the good aspects while not adopting the entire single-payer system.

On to Congress

As I posted a few days back that it was time for the Senate Finance Committee to vote on a health care reform proposal, well they have and the verdict is… it passed!! It was even passed with the support of Republican Olympia Snowe, do I see the end of the partisan divide in congress…that may be too optimistic. Since they have passed the bill it is now heading to the congressional floor where there will be more challenges to face and it’s not going to be pretty. Since the future is unclear for the bill, what needs to occur for its success?

One major factor contributing to its future is based on the actions of its main supporter, President Obama. Since he first introduced his motives and plans to congress and the American people, he has made a great effort to clarify and further his goals for health care reform. Now is the time, more than ever, to motivate not only the representatives and the senators but the entire nation. It is necessary for him to prove the necessity of this bill at this time and declare it essential to leave partisanship and self-interest behind. He must advocate unity by working with the two parities but should not be too lenient to a specific party's demands. Most importantly he must know specifically what he is seeking to accomplish in order to properly lead congress and the people. The time has come, as Chris Matthews would say, for the president to play hardball.

The United Kingdom and the National Health Service

One of the main goals that I wish to accomplish from this blog is to explore other health care systems from different countries. Since the UK system, National Health Service, has been used as an example of a failing single-payer system by the opposition in the health care debate, I am intrigued to discover the reasons behind these allegations. Is it a failing system displaying “what goes wrong when government interferes” or is it a fable?

In the US health care debate lately, the GOP is leading a “Be frightened of England” campaign in order to stir some fear in the already heated debate. Some statements included

“Go on the government’s dime for medicine, and you’ll die waiting for that easy surgery treatment.”

Their messages can be seen everywhere both on the web and on the congressional floor. Yet is there truth to their argument. From researching several sources on the UK, I have compiled a list of pros and cons of the single payer system.

Let’s first present some of the pros. In the UK, all residences are insured by the state and medical attention is largely free at the point of use. In order for all citizens to be covered, there is a general tax paid (about 3% yeah I know that’s a lot!) by the UK residence. With this type of health care system, UK residence are able to receive good health care and pay less for it (in the end that 3% does come back to you). One major pro about the system is that it is able to provide great medical assistance with worthy doctors and nurses at a low flat rate for the entire UK population (this also includes a flat rate for prescriptions). Some last major pros about the system are insurance prices which stay the same year after year and all residence are guaranteed medical attention.

Although this system seems perfect…well to be honest it’s not perfect. Some of the problems with the National Health Service (NHS) include poor waiting times for general surgeries, hospitals being overcrowded and with outdated medical equipment, and many more fueled by scandals and politics. Many of the complaints about the effectiveness of the system are caused by the long waiting list for general surgery that ranges from waiting to 30 days to 18 weeks (if lucky enough). The NHS gives high priority to important surgeries but for minor surgeries people are forced to wait longer. Other problems have to deal with inadequately supplied hospitals affecting their abilities to properly assist the patients. Several more arguments are presented mainly drawn from individual incidents that have led to residence questioning the effectiveness of the system.

Although it seems as the people from across the pond may not be too happy with the NHS, on the contrary polls have shown they are satisfied and feel that they are getting “good health care”. Therefore is it a system to “be frightened” as the GOP state? Seeing from the poll results it seems that the people of the United Kingdom don’t see their health care as a system to cause fright. Therefore the GOP is exaggerating quite a bit about the single payer system to possibly sway the debate in their favor. But partisanship aside, what can we learn and benefit from the NHS?? That will require more research and will be discussed in next week’s posting. See you next time =)

The time has come to…

This past week the Senate Finance Committee has completed debate on the health care reform proposal. So it is time for the Committee to vote (amen to that!). The vote will take place next week and the Committee is the last of the five panels to consider the health care legislation before it is presented to Congress (and where the real action begins). The proposed plan will cost $829 billion over the next 10 years allowing for several reforms in the health care system including:

§ Creating a health plan exchange in an effort to standardize premiums and coverage
forcing insurance companies to compete for business.
§ Would increase coverage from 83% to 94% of Americans
§ Will reduce $81 billion of federal deficits
§ Medicaid would be standardized for everyone with an income up to 133 percent of the
federal poverty level.

For these reasons, and especially since it is below a trillion dollars, it is a bill that is being seriously considered. One missing piece of this bill is, of course, the much debated public option. Therefore there has been much speculation about the effectiveness of the competitive market in the health care sector with the absence of a government offered alternative. As a result, it may not even lower premiums and be helpful to consumers. With all these speculation the view of its effectiveness is slowing receding in the eyes of legislators. Yet nothing is set in stone until it gets to the congressional floor and amendments may be added or retracted but at the moment the time has come for the committee to decide.

Working on some research

Ever since I started this blog, I have been able to see countless videos, letters and posts by both angry and passionate Americans on health care reform. I wondered why so many of these citizens felt so strongly about the health care reform. I decided to do some research on the sociological aspects that motivate people to feel so passionate about reform but much of my research came up empty. Most of what I found dealt with explaining why the health care system is failing and what can be done to reform the system. Although that is very useful information, it does not address why it is so hard to pass a reform bill. Across the nation, senators and representative faced angry mob crowds demanding that they leave their health care alone yet when we look at some studies done other years it shows that a large majority want reform. There are very few articles that explain why Americans want reform yet when it comes down to passing a bill it either does little in reform or it completely fails in congress. Therefore I will venture in to the world of academia and seek to answer the question of why the public opposes reform when they are clearly demanding for it. As seen in the past couple of months, public opinion, if loud enough, has the power to change the course of policy in government. If we do find explanations to these questions, we may be able to finally understand the concerns of the voters and discover a better plan of attack to make reform more appealing.

The What if Question…

After months of speculation, debate, and angry as hell citizens, the fate of the health care reform bill remains unknown and the question remains what if it is not passed, will there be reform or will all just be a bad dream. Well it is pretty clear how determine President Obama is in passing some sort of health care reform but passing none is not an option. Well what if the proposed plan by the administration is not passed, it is clear that there will be some sort of reform but what will it include. Although the two sides have been in a fierce debate about public option, co-ops, etc. there does exist a compromise between the two parties on needs that should and will be addressed. So if the health care reform that President Obama seeks to accomplish does not succeed these are the reforms that we can count on…

First of all, insurers are going to face up to new laws that primarily deal with who they cover and the limits that they put on that coverage. In several of Obama’s speeches, he often includes a story of people that either ran out of benefits or that they have been denied coverage over pre-existing conditions. So it is for certain that the government will pass stricter laws on insurers that will not allow them to deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions or cancel your coverage. Also, the government will definitely try to have equal premium rates between women and men and also limit how much insurers can charge the elderly as compared with the young.

A second idea that is sure to be passed and/or included in the bill is the creation of a market that will force insurers to compete with each other. By making the market more competitive, it would allow consumers to compare pricing and figures that will then allow for premium rates to decrease. Obama did mention this in his address to congress earlier this month, with the intent to provide choices to the American people. Both parties have stated their concern over the inflation in premiums over the past several decades and by establishing a competitive market of insurers, they will be able to address this problem. At the current time, hardly any competition exists in the health care market. For example, in both Iowa and Alabama one insurance company is controlling over 70% of the entire insurance market therefore not allowing much choice in pricing in these states.

The general goal of the most basic health care reform bill will included a plan to expand coverage. But one big BUT will be to what extent will it expand insurance coverage. This can range from public option to financial subsidies to mainly those that cannot afford to buy their own health care. So let the bickering and heckling continue but issues will be addressed and reform will happen but to what extent is still up in the air.

Finding my SBS

I was given a challenge this week to find my true Social Bookmarking Soul mate. What is a social bookmarking soul mate you say?? Well it is a person (that may or may not exist) on a social bookmarking site like del.icio.uc, twine, diigo, etc. that one completely relates to and not in a romantic sort of way but in a common interest kind of way. Now if you think finding you real soul mate is hard try finding a social bookmarking soul male that tags like you do and bookmarks like you seems impossible no??

Well after countless hours of searching the many bookmarking sites, I might have a contender for my social bookmarking soul and it is T. Rex Bean. This mystery man is a massive bookmarker, or at least to me he is. On average he bookmarks about 4 to 6 pages a day ranging from politics to history to technology but mainly staying focus on the political end (perrffecctt!). Being such an active bookmakers has allowed T. Rex Bean to collect 3208 pages of bookmarks. One thing I exceptionally like about my soul mate is his tagging strategies and methods. While looking at other potential candidates, I discovered that many of them did not use tags to organize their bookmarks and often left them either un-tagged or only with one tag to describe the entire article/post. Personally I like to have order with my sources or information and therefore I am extremely impressed with the manner in which T. Rex Bean organizes his bookmarks. In each bookmark he includes between 4 to 6 tags, hitting all the main points and people that it mentions therefore making it easy to find a specific bookmark on a certain topic and/or person.

Other than having great organization of his bookmarks with detailed tagging, I am also impressed with the material that he bookmarks. At the very top of his most used tag is healthcare! Not only is he greatly interested in what my blog topic is, he also tags material that I am interested in especially politics, which is also in his top tag used list. Just from looking at some of the bookmarks, I found interesting new links that both relate to politics and healthcare and that could provide me with useful information and insight for my blog. Some are http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/ and http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/, both are bloggers that mainly focus on the current events occurring in the political arena and they have both an informative and entertaining manner of blogging. What I find the most useful from my soul mate is of course his bookmarks that include more than news updates but interesting articles that take a more in-depth look at the issue. Having T. Rex Bean as a helpful bookmarker, I will be able to provide my readers with more angels on the healthcare system other than reporting just on the news.

Trifecta

Hello World!!

How is everyone doing out there, I hope you are all healthy and well. Speaking of health, it seems to me that it is becoming a much talked about topic in the media lately specifically the healthcare bill being proposed by the Obama administration. So I thought to myself why not join the conversation and the nasty debate by creating my own blog on the subject. What makes me intrigued by this topic and makes me want to pursue it further is mainly influenced by my experience during the summer.

Over the summer I was fortunate enough to be an intern for our very own Senator Barbara Boxer of California (vote Boxer for 2010!). As many of you know that Senator Boxer is a prominent Democrat and known supporter of healthcare reform. Well during my time with the Senator I was given the task of normal office work involving answering calls, updating data bases, filing constituents’ letters and helping the legislative staff. Although this all seemed very normal and a part of typical office obligations, answering phone calls from a number of constituents made me aware of many political topics and issues. I would on average answer 100 to 200 calls a day (sounds like fun ha!) all from constituents giving their two cents about the issues of the day. When healthcare was introduced to the House and Senate I found myself bombarded by angry constituent calls and it wasn’t pretty. A majority of the calls opposed the bill and claimed that it was a socialist system that is going to give insurance to immigrants, have death panels, and pay for abortion. At the same time I also heard support for a public option and for reform of the current system. By taking in these calls day in and day out I took a heighten interest in the issue and followed it closely.

Healthcare reform is also a major concern of mine on a more personal level. At the same time that I started my internship, I got very sick. Unfortunately at the same time my father was laid-off and I was left uninsured and unable to get the care I needed. So having no healthcare provided me with a new perspective on the importance of health reform not only for my benefit but for the benefit of the millions of uninsured people that may not be able to pay for insurance during these tough and difficult times. So it is important, especially during these times, to take a closer look at a subject that affects the entire nation.

Therefore I would like to further investigate the issue of healthcare reform by taking a closer look at the different aspects of the reform and also analyze the general reaction of the American people towards the recent developments occurring on Capitol Hill. Therefore possible topics covered on this blog will include taking an in-depth look at the topic itself and how it has become over the years a pressing political issue. In addition, we will take a closer look at the bill currently causing all this commotion in America and discover the real truth about the healthcare bill while dismissing any false information floating around in the media. Not only are we going to discuss the bill but we will also discuss the different reactions this bill has caused throughout America. In addition to studying the healthcare system in America, we will take a look at other “socialized” healthcare systems in other countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, etc. From our analysis, we will discuss if these systems can be applicable to our very own nation. So we will dive into the healthcare issue and hopefully become more enlighten on this issue that is captivating the nation.

Profile a Blog

So I have a problem. I am creating an academic blog soon and to be honest with you I have no idea how to write an academic blog, I mean the only blog that I follow on occasion is the self-proclaim Gossip Gangstar Perez Hilton. So since Perez clearly does not count as an example of an academic blog I did some researcher and finally found my role model.

My savior is the healthcare blog. This popular blog deals with a variety of subjects all seeking in exploring the health care system and properly informing the public of the current developments occurring in that field. Its motto is to provide...

“Everything you always wanted to know about the Heath Care system. But
wereafraid to ask.”

The creator is Matthew Holt, a researcher, generalist forecaster, and strategist that has been working in the health care industry for over 15 years. Although he is the creator of the blog, he is not the only blogger contributing to it. Just last year, the health care blog became a group blog allowing other authors, mostly professionals, to add blogs on the topic. Therefore it allows the blog to be more active and have 5 to 6 post a day from different people giving in different perspectives. For example, in a recent post titled “Health Care Reform: What do people Really Want?” was written by a professional pollster using his findings to support and write his conclusions. This blog contains many of these particular entries that have been written by people with the knowledge and background to further enlighten the readers on the subject. Having these kinds of bloggers has made the healthcare blog one of the most respectable healthcare blogs on the web and has been described as a “must-read” by The Wall Street Journal. With all this buzz, the blog is quickly growing in readers everyday and it is rapidly becoming...

“the most respected independent voices in the healthcare
industry.”

Sounds perfect right! Seems to me that this blog has an immense amount of information being posted by different people that are either professionals in the healthcare industry or are experts in certain aspects of the topics. For example, some of the professionals contributing to the blogs include doctors, pollsters, Washington policy makers, and the list goes on but it is not only limited to professionals. The blog also includes the comments of ordinary people that may have something interesting to add to the blog. Like Rod Unger a normal guy from the UK that wrote a post called "Healthcare in the UK" that described how their single-payer system is not as bad as it seems. The blog can both provide me with academic resources and information from a variety of professionals and also a personal perspective from people like Rod. The Health Care blog will be a helpful resource for reliable information. When it comes to my blog, it will differ since I wish to not focus on so many topics but just a few since I wish to properly dissect them and explain them. I also want to study the health care systems of other nations in depth and compare and contrast them to the current system in the US. So hopefully my problems will be at least eased with a small dose of the healthcare blog.

Voice Blog

Having a voice in your writing is not an easy thing to do especially in academic writing where the whole point of your blog, essay, or paper is to prove your point and all other things like humor, sarcasm and other figures of speech are really not necessary. All that is required in academia, for the most part, is good grammar and a good argument. Now I’m not saying that all academic bloggers and/or writers have no voice in their work but that it may be less vocal and noticeable then those blogs that are more informal. Now how does a blogger make a voice about a certain subject? I don’t have the slightest clue but let’s venture on to the world of blogging to get a better understanding.

Since I am focusing on healthcare reform I found the perfect showcase of voice in one particular blog and a strong one at that. The Watergate Summer blog is written by Enigma4ever, a female nurse from Middle America who covers any and all issues relating to the Healthcare reform. Her blogs are typically written from a liberal perspective that noticeably affects her voice. For example, one of her funnier post is “Jon Stewart Confronted the “Death Panel” creator”. In this post she is reporting on how funny man Jon Stewart confronts Republican Betsy McCaughey who created the myth that the healthcare plan would include a “death panel” of bureaucrats that would decided whether one is worthy of healthcare, believable…yeah right . When Enigma4ever describes the interview she adds her own persona with witty little remarks about the situation and about the dear Ms. Betsy herself describing her as...

“a well dressed misguided well pearled simpleton.”

Another one of my favorite one liners is when she is describing the results of this myth as a..

“Crapola that has now been spread across the country like fresh manure.”

She is able to portray humor by creating her own words like "Crapola” and makes the situation even funnier with metaphors like the fresh manure line.

Enigma4ever not only brings humor to her blog by commenting on misinformed people like Ms. Betsy but she also brings a lot of emotion ranging from sadness to anger. In “Women in NJ Town Hall Bullied” she describes what happened at a town hall meeting to a sick women, but what makes this post different from say a news clip on TV is the use of certain adjectives, punctuation, and capitalization that strongly display how she feels about the situation. For instance, she describes the occurrence as a

“Horrible Example of a total lack of Humanity- heartbreaking...and
reallyworrisome.”

She is a blogger with many opinions on healthcare reform and with a very strong belief of having healthcare for all that is displayed in every blog she post. Through the use of language she evokes strong sentiments, emotions, and sometimes anger. Her passion and compassion are easily visible on the screen with her many capitalized and punctuated remarks. She has a voice and a persona that revolves around the many issues of the healthcare debate including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Recent Post

Check out my recent comment post at ...

http://alankatz.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/obama-speech-accomplishes-much-but-its-only-a-start/#comment-10636

Obama Addresses the Nation

To begin my coverage of Healthcare reform (Yay! first topic post) I feel I must cover the main event of this week, the President’s address to Congress.

On Wednesday September 9, 2009, President Barack Obama made a joint address to Congress about healthcare reform and strongly declared...

“…the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the
season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties
together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent
here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care.”

After months of speculation, rumors, and out of control Town Hall meetings, the President needed to address some concerns. Obama accomplished what he needed to accomplish in his speech this week by addressing several of the issues that have been causing chaos throughout American. He first addressed the fictitious rumors being circulated around, specifically those involving death panels (explained in previous voice blog), healthcare coverage of illegal immigrants (which I got a whole lot of calls about this at the Senators office), and federal funding of abortions. He makes it perfectly clear that they are all UNTRUE. Right after he dismisses these rumors a Republican Representatives from little ol’ South Carolina, Joe Wilson, had an outburst, shouting “You Lie” to the President. My first thought was who ever thought of a heckler in Congress!! Please save the heckling for Town Hall meetings. Just had to mention that…

Now back to the issues at hand, Obama also offers his own plan and firmly states his goals including: providing access to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, provide security and stability in cost to those who have insurance and extend it to those who don’t have insurance. He also reaffirmed his position on a Public Option as being an aspect of the bill, which was unclear during the past few weeks since there have been claims of the Democrats retracting from the option. But he’s main proposal is to provide every citizen with some kind of health insurance either from a private or public institution. All in all, the President sought to clarify a message that he was not trying to force American citizens to change their health insurance completely but to provide them with relief from the growing cost in this troubled economy. So as the Senators and Representatives return to Capitol Hill from their summer vacation, some hurt and bruised from the frantic Town Halls, the time has come to start forming legislation that is meant to benefit the American people not hurt them. Although there are many points in Obama’s Plan, available here, not covered in this post, I will address them in future post along with reactions to the Speech.

And so Obama ended with a few words from a letter written to him from the late Senator Ted Kenney saying

"What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of
policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our
country."

For full text click here.

Voice in Writing

Having a voice in your writing is not an easy thing to do especially in academic writing where the whole point of your blog, essay, or paper is to prove your point all other things like humor, sarcasm and other figures of speech are not needed. All that is required in academia, for the most part, is good grammar and a good argument. Now I’m not saying that all academic bloggers and/or writers have no voice in their work but that it may be less vocal and noticeable then those blogs that are more informal. Now how does a blogger make a voice about a certain subject? I don’t have the slightest clue but let’s venture on to the world of blogging to get a better understanding.

Since I am focusing on healthcare reform I found the perfect showcase of voice in a blog and a strong one at that. The Watergate Summer blog is written by Enigma4ever, a female nurse from Middle America that covers any and all issues relating to the Healthcare reform. Her blogs are typically written from a liberal perspective that noticeably affects her voice. For example one of her funnier post is “Jon Stewart Confronted the “Death Panel” creator”. In this post she is reporting on how funny man Jon Stewart confronts Betsy McCaughey, creator of the myth in which mostly republicans stated that the healthcare plan would include a “death panel” of bureaucrats that would decided whether one is worthy of healthcare, believable…yeah right . When describing the interview she adds her own persona with witty little remarks about the situation and about the dear Ms. Betsy herself describing her as

“a well dressed misguided well pearled simpleton.”

My favorite line is how she describes the results of this myth as a

“Crapola that has now been spread across the country like fresh manure.”

She is able to portray humor by creating her own words like Crapola and make the situation even funnier with metaphors like the fresh manure line.

Enigma4ever not only brings humor to her blog by commenting on misinformed people as Ms. Betsy but she also brings a lot of emotion ranging from sadness to anger. In “Women in NJ Town Hall Bullied” she describes what happened at a town hall meeting to a sick women but what makes this post different from say a news clip on TV is the use of certain adjectives, punctuation, and capitalization that strongly display how she feels about the situation. For instance, she describes the occurrence as a

“Horrible Example of a total lack of Humanity- heartbreaking...and really
worrisome.”

She is a blogger with many opinions on healthcare reform and a blogger with a very strong belief of having healthcare for all that is displayed in every blog she post though the use of language that evoke strong sentiments, emotions, and sometimes anger. Her passion and compassion are easily visible on the screen with her many capitalized and punctuated remarks. She has a voice and a persona that revolves around the many issues of the healthcare debate including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Profile a Blog

So I have a problem. I am creating an academic blog soon and to be honest with you I have no idea how to write an academic blog I mean the only blog that I follow on occasion is the self proclaim Gossip Gangstar Perez Hilton. So since Perez clearly does not count as an example of an academic blog I did some researcher and finally found my role model.

My savior is the healthcare blog . This popular blog deals with a variety of subjects all seeking in exploring the health care system and properly informing the public of the current developments occurring in that field. Its motto is to provide...

“Everything you always wanted to know about the Heath Care system. But were
afraid to ask.”

The creator is Matthew Holt, a researcher, generalist forecaster, and strategist that has been working in the health care industry for over 15 years. Although he is the creator of the blog, he is not the only blogger contributing to it. Just last year, the health care blog became a group blog allowing other authors, mostly professionals, to add blogs on the topic. Therefore it allows the blog to be more active and have 5 to 6 post a day from different people giving in different perspectives. For example, in a recent post titled “Health Care Reform: What do people Really Want?” was written by a professional pollster using his findings to support and write his conclusions. This particular blog contains many of these particular entries that have been written by people with the knowledge and background to further enlighten the readers on the subject. Having these kinds of bloggers has made the healthcare blog one of the most respectable healthcare blogs on the web and has been described as a“must-read” by The Wall Street Journal. With all this buzz, the blog is rapidly growing in readers everyday and it is rapidly becoming...

“the most respected independent voices in the healthcare industry.”

Sounds perfect right! Seems to me that this blog has an immense amount of information being posted by different people that are either professionals in healthcare industry or are experts in certain aspects of the topics. For example some of the professionals contributing to the blogs include doctors, pollsters, Washington policy makers, and the list goes on but it is not only limited to professionals. The Health Care blog is a mix of professional scholarly works that may have been published elsewhere and also regular people that may have something interesting to add to the blog. Like Rod Unger a normal guy from the UK that wrote a post called "Healthcare in the UK" that described how their single-payer system is not as bad as it seems. The blog can both provide me with academic resources and information from a variety of professionals and also a personal perspective from people like Rod. The Health Care blog will then provided me with reliable information but when it comes to my blog I will not focus on so many topics but just a few since I seek to properly dissect them and explain them. I also want to study the health care systems of other nations and compare and contrast them to the current system in the US. So hopefully my problems will be at least eased with a small dose of the healthcare blog.

Hello World

How is everyone doing out there, I hope you are all healthy and well. Speaking of health, it seems that it is becoming a much talked about topic in the media lately specifically the healthcare bill being propose by the Obama administration. So I thought to myself why not join the conversation and the nasty debate by creating my own blog on the subject. What makes me intrigued by this topic and makes me want to pursue it further is mainly influenced by my experience during the summer.

Over the summer I was fortunate enough to be an intern for our very own Senator Barbara Boxer of California (vote Boxer for 2010!). As many of you know, or at least I hope you know, that Senator Boxer is a prominent Democrat and known supporter of healthcare reform. Well during my time with the Senator I was given the task of normal office work involving answer calls, update data bases, file constituents’ letters and helping the legislative staff. Although this all seemed very normal and a part of typical office obligations, answering phone calls from a number of constituents made me aware of many political topics and issues. I would on average answer 100 to 200 calls a day all from constituents giving their two cents about the issues of the day. When healthcare was introduced to the House and Senate I found myself bombarded by angry constituent calls all mostly opposing the bill claiming that it was a socialist system that is going to give insurance to immigrants, have death panels, and pay for abortion. At the same time I also heard support for a public option and for reform of the current system. By taking in these calls day in and day out I took a heighten interest in the issue and followed it closely. Healthcare is a major concern of mine; I myself, for a period of time, found myself sick and uninsured. So having no healthcare provided me with a new perspective on the importance of health reform not only for my benefit but for the benefit of the millions of uninsured people that may not be able to pay for insurance during these tough and difficult times.

Therefore I would like to further investigate the issue of healthcare reform by both taking a look at the different aspects of the reform and also to analyze the general reaction of the American people towards the recent developments occurring on Capitol Hill on healthcare. Therefore possible topics covered on this blog will include taking an in-depth look at the topic and how it has become over the years a pressing political issue. In addition, we will take a closer look at the bill currently causing all this commotion in America and discover the real truth about the healthcare bill and dismiss any false information floating around in the media. Not only are we going to discuss the bill but we will also discuss the reaction this bill has caused throughout America. In addition to studying the healthcare system in America, we will take a look at other “socialized” healthcare systems in other countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, etc. and discuss if these systems can be applicable to our very own nation. So we will dive into the healthcare issue and hopefully become more enlighten on this issue that is captivating the nation.