By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
Founder, American Patients United
National Co-Chair, PDA's Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign
Communications specialist, CNA/NNOC

DENVER -- Inside the Denver Convention Center tonight, several hundred people gathered to hear a conversation between The Nation's John Nichols and the Chairman of the House Judiciary, Rep. John Conyers.  The focus was on civil rights, and after more than four decades in Congress Rep. Conyers has memories from some of the most challenging times in our nation's history.

But he also had a refreshing take on what he thought would happen this election cycle -- and he sure didn't think he'd see the phenominal rise of Barack Obama as the nominee (can we finally drop the presumptive business?) of the Party rather than yet another brave black candidate doing just a bit better than the last but eventually resigned to supporting the white person heading the ticket.

Well, it sure didn't happen that way.  And I think those of us in the single payer, healthcare reform movement can take a lesson from that -- that is if we have the relentless courage to move forward even when we're not sure the victory is close at hand.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
National Co-Chair, PDA Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign
Communications specialist, California Nurses Association

DENVER -- Code Pink's Medea Benjamin and I placed a $50 bet with each other moments ago in front of the Mercury Cafe in Denver.  Col. Anne Wright was in the wings as was SiCKO Larry Smith to witness.  The bet?  Out of Iraq first or guaranteed, publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare?  The bet's on.

We're both here to make our voices heard during the DNC's convention.  And we were so glad to see one another yet we keep up on one another's activties via the Web.

Medea and I first met last year as SiCKO debuted in Atlanta at the U.S. Social Forum.  Then the Code Pinkers in DC embraced Larry and I with housing and deep support when we traveled to DC for our first annual healthcare justice week vigil in Sept 2007.  She lifted me, and she showed me how commitment and action can and do make a difference.

Debbie Cook – California’s 46th District

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- California’s 46th congressional district stretches along the Pacific coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  The district’s U.S. Congressional Democratic Congressional candidate is Debbie Cook, the second our "healthcare heroes" featured during this countdown to the November general election.
Debbie has been on the front lines for her community for many years but it was issues like the healthcare crisis, energy and what she terms a convergence of issues that compelled her to run for Congress.

"How can we not do our best to tackle these things?" she asked.

 As a candidate, Debbie hears her future constituents calling for sensible and meaningful action, and as a seasoned public servant she is ready to oblige.

By Donna Smith, communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

NOTE:  CNA/NNOC will be highlighting 2008's Congressional candidates throughout the nation who we hold up to voters as our "healthcare heros." Lend your support, get involved and vote like your life depended on it... because it does.

WICKLIFFE, Ohio – What in the world is an RN doing in a race like this?  Well, ask Bill O’Neill, and this Vietnam vet, journalist turned judge and finally pediatric emergency department RN will tell you that when he is elected in November, healthcare reform will be center stage in his first term’s work.

O’Neill is running in Ohio’s 14th Congressional District, which is in the far northeastern corner of the state and borders both Lake Erie and neighboring Pennsylvania.  His candidacy embodies the spirit and energy of Ohio’s citizenry.

And plenty of Bill’s future constituents are hurting for healthcare.  

By Donna Smith
American SiCKO
National Co-Chair, PDA Healthcare Not Warfare campaign

CLEVELAND -- It was the last place I thought I would feel marginalized as a patient or a citizen.  But perhaps it was first place I should have expected it during a campaign season all about controlling the message.

My Party's platform planning committee didn't want to hear from me or from any voice that diverged even in small ways from the carefully orchestrated message of the elite in our midst. So when the "listening tour" came to its crescendo on Friday in Cleveland, there were no high or low voices, no off-key notes, simply safe and easily digested harmony.

The stanchions and velvet ropes that separated the audience from the Democratic National Committee's platform planning committee members on Friday were  not necessary for crowd control -- but certainly required for mind control and message control.  

"We are the DNC -- you are not.  We are the powers that be -- you are not. We are in the front of the room and controlling every moment of this open and inclusive listening tour -- you are not. We are special enough to be heard -- you are not."

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
Founder,American Patients United
National Co-Chair,PDA's Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
Communications Specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

CHICAGO -- Today is the day to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the Medicare program in the U.S.  And it is the day to rededicate ourselves to the passage of true healthcare reform in America.

Those of us fighting the reform battle see every day the ravages of a system run amok with greed and protected by the power and influence only huge amounts of cash can buy.  

Sick Americans are dying needlessly. Sick Americans are going broke needlessly. Sick Americans are losing homes needlessly. These suffering sick Americans are often insured with private policies that promise access to care and financial protections but fail to deliver when illness strikes. But sick Americans covered under Medicare do not face the same brutal trauma. Thank God.

Take action today and call your Congressional representative to tell them you want every American covered -- everybody in and nobody out -- healthcare for all. Call toll free: 1-866-338-1015.

But the times have changed, my friends...  

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO,
Communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Tomorrow I'll have my third colonoscopy.  Twice before, precancerous polyps have been found and removed, so my schedule for testing is every three years.  That three years goes by way too fast.  I know the screenings are life-saving for many, but I still hate them.  And my hatred goes well beyond my dislike of the preps necessary.  

As a uterine cancer survivor and an insured American who was financially devastated after illness, my cancer checks are always fraught with a bit of trepidation and a lot of projecting.  

But private, for-profit insurance leaves me exposed -- and worse still, it leaves millions and millions of unsuspecting insureds wide open to financial ruin.  On the eve of my screening, this is what I think about.

What if I have cancer again?  What if the insurance doesn't pay for something? And then beyond... What if I miss work?  What if we have to move again?  What if the bills pile up?

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
Founder of American Patients United
National Co-Chair, PDA Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
Communications Specialist, CNA/NNOC

CHICAGO – I read it moments ago.  In black and white.  Mainstream media.  CNN website.  It was said publically at a fundraiser in New York City today.  Sen. Barack Obama said it with Sen. Hillary Clinton at his side.  And no one denied it.  In fact, people clapped.

According to the CNN report, Sen. Obama urged today  "standing up for paid leave, and paid sick leave, because no one should be punished for getting sick or dealing with a family crisis."

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for CNA/NNOC

Well, well... It’s America’s birthday.  I love the 4th of July and the fireworks and the hot dogs and the summer sun.

And it is my hubby’s birthday on July 7, so this is a great time of the year for us.  But imagine my surprise and disgust when I opened an early birthday card he received just yesterday from, guess who?  Humana.  The health insurance giant that currently holds Larry’s Medicare "advantage" plan and is helping dismantle Medicare one private policy at a time.

The company wants Larry to have a happy and healthy birthday.  You bet they do.  And they send those pretty, glossy cards to one helluva lot of Medicare folks.
 

The New York Times reported in April 2008, "Two companies, UnitedHealth Group and Humana, have captured nearly half of the vast new market for prescription drug insurance under Medicare, according to new data issued Friday by the Bush administration."  That’s 2.4 million Humana held Medicare drug plans and another 792,500 in Humana-Medicare "advantage" policies.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist, CNA/NNOC

CHICAGO – It’s a week of bad news for my friends and extended family.  I am almost afraid to answer the phone or open the emails.  Three people I care about. Three new cancer diagnoses. Bone, lung, breast.  Surgery, radiation and chemo coming down the pike.
 
And awash in a system gone mad for money, these patients will become cancer survivors – like me – not because they’ve been born with or bestowed with the human right to be treated when ill, but because their various health coverage plans allow it.  At least that’s what I pray today for them, because that's what I must pray for them.

Last week, none of these wonderful souls had any idea they would hear the words, "You have cancer." Each was ensconced in the stuff of everyday life: jobs, marriages, gasoline prices and watching the endless coverage of the presidential race.  Then their worlds did a three-sixty.

In an instant. It truly could be any one of us at any time.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for CNA/NNOC

I've got news for you out there in the healthcare reform movement -- the movement that recognizes the value of every human life!

The news from this week of protests has been phenomenal. Visit the links below.  See what your fellow citizens are doing.  Comment on blog sites. Spread the day of action into many more days of action.

Lives depend on it.  We are good people with good hearts and minds.  Let's move it forward.  Single payer (publicly funded, privately delivered) healthcare now!

The SICKO Effect Wears On and On and On:

June 19, 2008, National Day of Action Against Private Health Insurance Industry

While many of us attended the huge protest in San Francisco with pre-made signs and a Dixieland Jazz Band marching us in to the strains of "When the Saints Go Marching In" and a cheering crowd of thousands with press circulating and coalitions of activists grabbing the spotlight,  one of our American SiCKOs who is also one of our board members for American Patients United, held a very different kind of protest action.  By herself.  In Detroit.  Where Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, the father of HR676, The National Health Insurance Act, has his offices and where one would think a crowd would gather to cheer on a young woman of such courage, an American SiCKO stood alone.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

   So, a year has passed since Michael Moore's much anticipated film, SiCKO, was released in the United States.  The film debuted with great fanfare and with teams of nurses in bright red scrubs and health reform activists all over the nation passing out leaflets and trying to push the reach of the film deep into the nation's psyche.  

Oh, how we wanted this film -- and the SiCKO effect -- to immediately throw open the gates of the kingdom and free us all from the greed and the pain and the pressure and uncertainty of our futures under the current U.S. healthcare non-system.

    The reality is that one year later, some of us are still working our hearts out to make good on all that promise felt before the release of the film, and some of us still believe what Michael said: that basically Americans are good people and generous people and that we will eventually change this system into one that is just and compassionate, fiscally responsible and sound.

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, Communications Specialist for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
CHICAGO—We used to get annoyed when the admission desk at the hospital would hold us up from getting care with the co-pay collection effort, but now the world of medical finance and consumerism is about to take a giant leap forward.  Co-pay collections of the early 21st century will seem mild and meek, and we patients will more formally and openly be viewed as earnings units and revenue streams... unless we act forcefully and quickly to alter the coming reality.
 
    Shocked as we might pretend to be, we have been a party to the transition as we have stood by and watched as so many of our fellow citizens went without access to care at all – 47 million fellow citizens uninsured.  Fifty million more under-insured. And the rest of us annoyed with the process but silently and slightly smug about our own insured status – else we would have been marching in the streets, screaming for change and fighting for one another and the human right that is our healthcare.

As a patient and the wife of a patient struggling to endure the for-profit medical system, I often hear from other patients who share their frustrations.  And though my husband and I lost everything we worked more than three decades for (even our home and our dignity), I can still sometimes thank God we had our children before the American medical system made its full, ugly twist toward protecting profits over people.  
               Now, patients and their families are often making larger life choices based solely on their health insurance picture and planning for the worst possible outcomes.  The land of hope and dreams that America offered to many to give our children better than what we were given ourselves has given way to something very different.