by California Nurses Shum

The Big Insurance corporations have been on quite a spending spree lately, throwing money around like there’s no tomorrow (and for them, there shouldn’t be.) Their recent purchases include: AARP, banks, and leading Democratic political consultants—which should make you worry.  This nation is engaged in a fundamental debate over the future of healthcare, and the one group that nobody is listening to is patients.  Let’s a take a look at what they’re up to…

Brought to you by the National Nurses Organizing Committee as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare.

Purchase 1: AARP; Cost: $1.5 Billion

For the last 50 years, AARP has existed to sell insurance policies to seniors.  They took a much more partisan turn when Bill Novelli, a Republican insider with ties to George Bush, took over the organization.  Now AARP is on the move to strengthen their ties with insurance corporations—and to strengthen those corporations in return.  First we learn that they have a new plan to make$1.5 billion in royalties  by selling Medicare Advantage plans to seniors.  Yes that’s a “B” and yes those are care dollars they’re skimming.  Now, compromised by this treasure, word comes that AARP is supporting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to force every Californian to buy private health insurance.  Why wouldn’t they?  They get a cut. And patients pay the price. Sigh.

Purchase 2: Banks and Credit cards; Cost: none.
Blue Cross is starting a bank for its customers and Cerner is about to offer a credit card.  Is it just me–or is this idea completely terrifying?  Half of all medical bankruptcies are due to medical debt, and now Blue Cross wants people to bank there?  So they can just reach into your account and take what they need?  People are already incredibly dependent on their insurers, and this will make them more so.  (PS—Blue Cross just settled a suit with 900,000 doctors claiming it defrauded them; but I’m sure they’ll be a perfectly trustworthy bank.)

Purchase 3: Democratic political operatives; cost: cheap
One of the reasons that politicians are so timid on healthcare is because most of the Washington insiders who work on campaigns take money from heathcare corporations on the side.  Latest example?  Dewey Square Group, who helped run John Kerry’s and other campaigns, now have the insurance industry trade group as a major client.   They’re using their clout to strongarm Democratic politicians into supporting “Medicare Advantage,” which gives insurers an 11% bonus for offering Medicare.  

While our healthcare debate is raging, all this means that the insurance corporations are steadily amassing more money, power, and influence.  There’s only one thing they’re scared of: you.

If you want to join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a “Medicare for All” or SinglePayer financing), sign up with GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee.  You can help the fight by sharing your story about surviving the healthcare industry here.

Don’t be foolish and naive like I was. I went years without shopping around my insurance rates, and one day it dawned on me.. All I had to do was take 5 minutes and get some free quotes and boy, did I ever save some major $$

As most of you probably know by now, the children’s play area has been moved into what used to be the library. Much better for parents who want to sit and have a chat while keeping an eye on their kids(and enjoying a drink from the relatively-new downstairs bar). We’re thinking of taking off the glass door, too, more as a safety factor for the kids than anything else - any suggestions?Now we need some colour, so we’ll be holding a mural painting afternoon this Saturday for kids who feel like demonstrating a bit of creative flair. 14:00 - 17:00. Lesley Wakelin, our new Family Committee member, will sketch out a set of pictures that the kids can fill in. Paints will be provided, of course.

We hope to see you here on Saturday! At the moment, we’re thinking of other family-centered events we could hold at the same time to make the afternoon as enjoyable as possible. Saturday brunch, then painting and a late lunch? If you’ve got any ideas, let us know!

Here’s a special link for 2 free books from the Creative Painting Book Club! Learn all there is about decorative painting, mural painting, landscape painting, and more.

The DPAP Vineyard mural class ended Friday; we had a challenging, creative and fulfilling experience as teacher and students together.

We all appreciated the parishioners who quietly came in after morning mass to the ambulatory where we were set up each day.. Some came in every morning to see the mural as it developed; by the third day, as they could see more of the composition filled in, they were all excited (as we were too) to see how much we had gotten done the day before.

Circumventing inconveniences leads to invention; also the time pressure kept us focussed on the dual goals of learning and executing new techniques. This class, on location at St.Cornelius Catholic Church, provided actual jobsite experience, of accommodating the needs of the church activity; how to *get it done* despite distraction, and stay organized and on schedule.

Our last day Friday, was a shortened time frame, because there was a wedding scheduled for 4pm; so we needed to stop painting by 1pm to let the paint dry enough to roll the canvas to take over to the Parish Hall to unroll and let it rest overnight. Then pack all our gear and paints and leave the ambulatory pristine.

So the bunches of grapes need to be worked on further; we all agreed to meet in a few weeks at another location where we can do the final grapes colors and any other last details, as a team.

Thanks to my students, who brought their talent and focus and enthusiasm, they are all pros, and we taught each other.

Each person brings their own uniqueness and talent as a gift, every *hand* is different, and combining these, and taking advantage of each *hand* in a team effort was my challenge.

There also was the wonderful aspect of expansion and tranquility of working amongst a spiritual community of people; we were of various faiths, and were welcomed wholeheartedly; it added another dimension to our work to hear the children’s communion rehearsal nearby, with the sweet singing of the Sister in the church, and the celebration of mass nearby in the chapel.

Here’s a special link for 2 free books from the Creative Painting Book Club! Learn all there is about decorative painting, mural painting, landscape painting, and more.