In the aftermath of 9/11, we saw thousands of workers develop devastating respiratory conditions and other illnesses as a result of exposure to toxic dust that filled the air in the days and weeks after the twin towers fell. To this day, these peoples' plight continues to add misery to the ongoing tragedy of 9/11. What makes it even worse is that these people were assured the air was safe. As we all know now, it wasn't.
Today, sadly, history may be repeating itself in the Gulf of Mexico.
Amazingly, despite reports like this one, BP "continues to pretend that - just like an oil spill of this magnitude could never happen - there also could not possibly be a worker health concern." While the potential health hazards posed by chemical dispersants and oil itself are debatable, it is clear that significant risks existed.
Already, we've seen evidence of the impact that spilled oil can have on human health. For starters, an increasing number of workers and residents in Gulf Coast areas have reported "suffering from nausea, vomiting, headaches and difficulty breathing." Considering that oil contains "petroleum hydrocarbons, which are toxic and irritating to the skin and airways", as well as volatile chemicals "which can cause acute health effects such as headaches, dizziness and nausea" it's no surprise that these symptoms are appearing.
So now, with the "60 exposure-related complaints filed with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals", not to mention the "overwhelming evidence that many of the compounds found in crude oil are dangerous," shouldn't BP be protecting the people who are cleaning up this mess? If they aren't doing so, why aren't they?
The bottom line is this: people along the Gulf Coast deserve to know the facts regarding the dangers they are facing and how to protect themselves. It's bad enough that their economic livelihoods are in danger of destruction in part due to BP's greed and recklessness. But if their lungs and other organs are damaged by oil and dispersant particles in the air, more than their economic livelihoods could be damaged.
None of us should ever forget that this disaster was brought on, at least in part, by BP cutting corners to save a few (million) bucks, and by the government's failure to prevent the company from doing so. As a result, the unthinkable has happened. We must learn from those grave mistakes, not repeat them. That means, in the long term, ridding ourselves of our dangerous, destructive addition to oil. But what must happen now - right now - is for BP to stop cutting corners with the health of the people cleaning up the Gulf.
At the minimum, BP must switch its philosophy from "hope for the best" to "do whatever it takes, whatever the cost, to make sure people are safe." If BP won't "make it right," as the company's ads like to say, then the government should force BP to do so. In the words of one Venice, LA mother: "I've got the two most beautiful children in the world. If something were to happen to them, how could I look in those baby blues and say, Mommy didn't know?" It's a great question. What's the answer, BP?
(Thanks for the update. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The California State Plan on Aging estimates the population of seniors, over 85 years of age, will increase 172% over the next 20 years. The most recent draft of the plan finds that "California's older adult population will increase by 90 percent as members of the Baby Boomer cohort reach 60." The Plan outlines the major areas of concern for seniors in the next four years.
EDIT By BRIAN: See the flip for more on the Plan on Aging.
Dr. Ami Bera approaches health care as one would expect of a doctor; with compassion and a desire to make well.
"I trained to be a physician to take care of people," he says. It's an attitude he will carry with him when we elect him to congress. Compassion, caring, a person centered approach to solving the very significant issues facing the American people is what we will get with Ami Bera.
"Health care is not a lottery," Bera told a group of about 50 people gathered in Rancho Cordova to hear his views on health care. But some people want to treat it that way. Health insurance is the ticket. If you have one, maybe you win something. If you don't - well, you don't.
Calitics doesn't allow my CSS formatting code for photos and text. Read the rest at California Notes.
With the passage of H.R.3200 out of Energy and Commerce on Friday, and the other relevant committees earlier in July, she could rightly report historic progress. Such a health reform proposal has now moved farther than any previous attempt in the modern era, and it set the stage for a House vote in September after the August recess.
But health care reform hangs in the balance, with opponents of the President detemined to "rattle" Congressman by disrupting town hall meetings and otherwise create an anti-reform political environment. As has been stated on Calitics before, those who support health reform need to be active NOW AND THROUGH AUGUST, CALLING, WRITING, FAXING, and VISITING our California Congressional Representatives, with a positive message about reform and its various components, from a public health insurance option to minimum benefits standards to affordability subsidies to the financing that allows for the needed upfront investments.
Californians have a particularly important say in health reform in the House of Representatives, from the Speaker to key Committee Chairmen, to Caucus leaders, to the bulk of our 53-member delegation. Health reform supporters can call your member of Congress in support of health reform at 877-264-HCAN, or click here to help pass reform.
Below the fold, we'll detail more about the bill, the process, and where California's Congressional representatives have come down on health reform to date:
There are so many ways in which this budget will hurt innocent citizens. I'm one of the ones in the "life-threatened" category myself. I know others have their jobs threatened, their educational plans destroyed, their health put at risk, their community safety jeopardized. There WERE alternatives to the cuts which were chosen, but this is what we got, and the situation is hard to understand.
We've said here a few times that the budget plan is really neither a budget nor a plan. Well, seeing as there really isn't an idea of how to make the numbers meet, the words just don't seem very descriptive. Most glaringly on this front is the $917 million (give or take a million ... or twenty ...) that the Legislature didn't include in the slew of budget bills they passed. These included the Tranquillion ridge oil drilling project and the borrowing of gas tax funds from localities.
So, now the bills are in the hot little hands of our governor, action hero wannabe Arnold Schwarzenegger. Under the rag that is our state constitution, Schwarzenegger now has the opportunity to make some cuts through line item vetos. Thing is, that he's only given a few hints as to where he is going to act. Yesterday, his peeps indicated that there won't be a fourth furlough day, as apparently that is even a bridge too far or something like that.
"A fourth furlough day will not be part of the solution," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. "It's not something the governor's considering."
Of the line-item vetoes McLear added, "It's unlikely we'll be able to come up with cuts equal to the $1.1 billion, but we'll get as close as we can. It's important for us have as big a reserve as possible." (SacBee 7/27/09)
But, where will he cut? With the constitutional protections under Prop 98, it really can't be much in the way of K-14 education. That, of course leaves a big bullseye over health spending. Anthony Wright, a friend of this blog and the head honcho at Health Access, is quite concerned:
Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, said he fears Schwarzenegger could further eliminate a block funding grant that pays for Healthy Families low-cost medical insurance for children. The program is already slated to lose $124 million.
Wright and other social service advocates suggested Monday that Schwarzenegger could face limits in what he can veto because the package of 27 bills constitute a series of budget reductions, rather than the spending approvals in February's full budget act. (SacBee 7/28 09)
At this point, we really don't know much about where he's going with these cuts, but we should expect news soon. Either way, some program is going to be decimated in the short term. The Legislature will then attempt to find some way to patch the leak, likely without much success. This is how things work now in Sacramento. It's the new normal.
Truly, one of the strongest aspects of Healthy San Francisco (HSF) is its simplicity. The program allows participants to select their primary care provider from among dozens of local hospitals and clinics, both public and private. Our local system does not require lengthy HMO paperwork and there is no denial of treatment based on pre-existing medical conditions.
A recent study showed that Healthy San Francisco is dramatically less expensive than traditional insurance. And our experience in San Francisco is proving what most American's already know - it is much less expensive to keep people well than it is to treat their sickness, particularly when so much treatment for uninsured Americans is provided in costly emergency rooms.
There are currently more than 40,000 participants in HSF. We are enrolling approximately 600 new participants every week. We have already enrolled more than half of the previously uninsured San Franciscans and the vast majority will have access to health care by the end of next year.
I believe that administration and congressional leaders understand that we cannot wait for health care reform. Our health care crisis affects every aspect of our society - from making sure every child receives the health care they need to succeed in school, to decreasing the financial burden on business, both large and small, so our economy can get back on track.
I know there is pressure in Washington to wait until the economy improves before we act on health care reform. I faced many of the same pressures when I was working with allies in San Francisco to forge our universal health care delivery system.
But "waiting" in politics usually means never - and we simply cannot afford to wait any longer. The lessons we are learning in San Francisco shows that investing in health and wellness is its own kind of economic stimulus.
The time is now to tackle this problem and I applaud President Obama for promising to sign a national health care reform bill by October. We cannot wait for change - the President needs your help. Sign the petition to support President Obama's call for health care reform.
For my part, I was recently made Chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Health Care Reform. Cities often have the most pressing health care needs and have had to adapt and innovate in lieu of national health care reform. I am looking forward to working with my fellow Mayor's to hear what they have learned in their cities and share what we've learned in my hometown through Healthy San Francisco.
In the end, the task force will identify urban health care priorities and advise the work of Congress and the Administration to help solve this crucial challenge we all share. As always, please feel free to give me your input and feedback in the comments section below.
We are going to be talking a lot about swine flu over the next few weeks.
The conversation about the politics of the thing is already well underway, engulfing those who sought to remove funding for infectious disease control out of the "stimulus" bill.
We are lacking, however, an examination of the science of the thing, and that's the point of today's conversation.
How dangerous is this infection?
Why is it killing people in Mexico but not here?
Exactly what is a pandemic?
Do those facemasks really serve any purpose?
And what about closing the border?
They're all good questions; and they are all questions we'll try to answer today.
For the past few months I have been holding town hall forums across California and no matter where I go, the issue of health care is front and center. These concerns are getting more pronounced and more passionate as the weeks wear on and unemployment continues to rise. People are losing their employer-based health care and COBRA is a temporary and expensive stopgap measure that is stressing already maxed-out family budgets.
The need for bold programs addressing the health care crisis was brought into focus by a new UC Berkeley report showing that more than 500,000 Californians have lost their health care since the start of the recession.
In the past five years, we have worked hard to provide universal health care in San Francisco through our Healthy San Francisco program. We have now enrolled over 38,000 of our city's estimated 60,000 uninsured. It's a great start but there is still much work to do here in San Francisco and across California as the new UC Berkeley report clearly lays out.
On my Green 960 radio show this week I talked with Lloyd Dean, the head of Catholic Healthcare West, Mitch Katz, Director of San Francisco Department of Public Health and Tangerine Brigham, Director of Healthy San Francisco about how to bring the "Healthy SF" model to other cities and towns throughout California.
As we discuss on the show, a critical next step for any city or town looking to replicate Healthy SF is to start organizing their community health clinics. Community clinics have historically provided services to uninsured and underserved populations. It's important for any health care effort at the local, state or federal level to include these crucial providers.
I hope you will listen to the show and let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section as we work to create better health care service here and universal health care across California. As the President and Congress move to reform the health care system in Washington - the time is now to let your voice be heard.
Last week, Families USA released a report, Left Behind: America's Uninsured Children, which detailed that there are 8.6 million uninsured children in the United States, using 2005-7 averaged numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Over 1.25 million of those uninsured children are in California. There are other estimates, using different definitions, that are a bit lower, but the scale is similar: there are simply too many kids, overwhelmingly with working parents, who are not covered. Not surprisingly, they typically have worse health status. And their parents are one emergency away from financial ruin.
The saddest part is that until recently, California was making real progress on the goal to universal children's coverage.
Earlier this week, Governor Schwarzenegger called the number of uninsured in California a "moral crisis"--and he was right, both about that and the need for concerted action on health reform.
Unfortunately, the Governor's cuts-only budget goes in completely the opposite direction, making our health care system even more broken, and leaving more people uninsured. Today, Health Access California is releasing a report that reveals the full magnitude of the cuts the Governor proposes--with over one million more Californians uninsured. While the Legislature has adopted some of these cuts and rejeced others, all of these proposals are on the table until a budget solution is agreed to.
The California Nurses' Association called today about the Yamada campaign, and it piqued my interest enough to check out Mariko Yamada and Christopher Cabaldon's respective endorsement lists. While doing that, one noteworthy pair of endorsements for Yamada came from the California Nurses Association and SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, two unions who have not only been aggressive in pushing for a single payer health care plan for California, but who also stood up against Schwarzeneggar and the 2005 special election boondoggle back when the CA Democratic party was content to sit back and let Arnold run the state unimpeded.
Well, the depth of LA's Hospital mess keeps getting clearer--now the LA Times is reporting that the construction of the new County-USC Medical Center is exploding, and will now be 22% over the original estimates. Oh yeah, the project is now 1 year overdue and the clock keeps ticking. (http://www.latimes.c...)
The sadest part of this is that this hospital is not really what LA needs: the county has long had too many hospital beds and not enough local clinics to meet pressing community needs. Most recently, the Board of Supervisors and the mis-managed County government allowed the vital resource that is (was!) King-Drew Medical Center to die. Or rather, they lynched it through years of incompetence--with the effect that thousands of residents in the most impacted communities of LA will now not have health care resources they need.
Why would the Supervisors back such a nonsensical policy? Because they see Hospitals as Politically beneficial--lots of union votes and contributions to support their uncontested elections, and the opportunity to grandstand around big buildings, rather than doing the tawdry work needed to actually lead or even just manage the nation's largest local government.
Equally important, not all Supevisors are created equally. While Yvonne Burke snoozes in her Brentwood Hills condo, Gloria Molina, Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe have grabbed all the loot they think they can for their districts. And Zev Yaroslavsky just waves his arms around, like "what can I do about it?". What a mess!
What is the solution? Not only do we need to through these bums out, we need to change the way LA County is run. We need a single, clearly accountable County Executive, balanced by a large, part-time County Legislature. Until then, the self-serving Supes will just keep rolling over the same terrible decisions.
(Great to see Rep. Solis, one of the most progressive members of Congress, posting here. Come back often! - promoted by dday)
Hello to my friends at Calitics!
The 5th Annual Congressional Tri-Caucus Minority Health Summit will be held this weekend in San Diego. This year’s Summit is being hosted by the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, with support from The California Endowment and others. At least twelve members of the Congressional Hispanic, Black, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses are scheduled to attend, including Reps. John Conyers (MI-14), Raul Grijalva (AZ-7), and Mike Honda (CA-15).
Five years ago, I conceived the idea of the Tri-Caucus Minority Health Summit as a forum for members of Congress to hear firsthand about the health challenges facing communities of color and innovative solutions to address them. Indeed, the need to reduce health disparities is great. Despite recent gains in health care, disparities related to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status remain prevalent. For example, more than 70% of Latinos across the country are considered overweight or obese, including 25% of Latino children. In 2005, 86% of babies born with HIV and AIDS were of color.
The Summit will cover topics such as SCHIP, homelessness, tobacco cessation, veterans’ health, and HIV/AIDS. It also will include discussion of H.R. 3014, comprehensive, bi-partisan legislation I introduced last week with Congresswomen Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands) and Madeleine Bordallo (Guam) to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. H.R. 3014 has 70 original co-sponsors, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (SC-6).
Over 200 people are expected to attend this weekend’s Summit in San Diego. As Chair of the Hispanic Caucus’ Task Force on Health and a member of the House Health Subcommittee, I look forward to hearing from the panelists and attendees and to sharing the information I gather at the Summit with organizations in my district and with my colleagues in Congress.
For more information about the Summit, visit www.ccalac.org.
Congresswoman Hilda Solis
www.house.gov/solis
www.youtube.com/rephildasolis
(Surf Putah, which you will find in the California friends of our blogroll, is a great site for Yolo Cty. politics. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Well, I've made the cut, having been linked in the "Yolo Blogs" category over at Republican Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad's new website (which looks quite nice, really). Along with the link (a good web resource for Yolo County in its own right), Rexroad gave this site this little introduction:
If you want to know what the people at the far end of the spectrum in Davis are doing....surf Putah. I really can't explain this stuff. Generally, if you find an opinion expressed here Matt Rexroad will be on the other side.
Since I've been identified as the far end of the spectrum, I figure that it's as good a time as any to lay out what us inexplicable far-out Davisites are thinking about Yolo County. Ironically enough, I find myself to the center, or at least in a slightly different direction, from many self-defined "progressives" here in Davis, especially on the issue of development, the axis which city politics seems, rightly or wrongly, to revolve around. Mostly, though, I find that the perpetual battle over political labels to be a fairly useless one, since it assumes a coherent binary political debate, when in fact things tend to be far more complex in real life. I believe that governments ought to balance their budgets responsibly, instead of borrowing and spending with bond measures; am I a conservative? I believe that people generally ought to mind their own business, and that government and religious beliefs are best kept separate where neither can mess the other up; am I a liberal? I believe that all people are created equal, and ought to be treated as such; am I a progressive?
So for the benefit of both Rexroad and those who might follow his link to my site I'll toss out where this inexplicable far-left blogger would like to see Yolo County headed:
