Healthy Arizona, which bills itself as “a grass-roots organization focused on fixing the health care system in Arizona by placing an initiative on the ballot for the 2008 general election,” went live with their Web site about a week ago. I’m told by Dr. Matt Heinz, Healthy Arizona’s treasurer, that the group is “actively drafting the initiative based on input from a broad base of stakeholders and coalition partners.” In other words, they’re writing it–and they want you to share your health care horror stories with them.
If you’re worried about how unjust the system is in this country (and if you’re not, you really should be), then check out their site.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
Sax,
Thanks for sharing that URL. I just heard something on TV about how the U.S. is #42 in mortality and one of the causes is so many uninsured people.
A friend of mine in L.A. started this website after her experience with not being insured. Every day she receives double digits of messages from people who share their sad experiences because of lack of healthcare.
I cannot figure it out….health care has been in dire straits for years if not decades. Why in God’s name do people vote Republican when they should know that the Republicans have blocked any effort to fix the system (or lack of one). I’m also amazed at the huge numbers of uninsured that simply don’t vote…. Like that’s going to fix the problem. Medicare which was passed in the sixties (by the Demos) was meant to be expanded for the entire country. Hmmm I wonder who blocked that from happening (Republicans)? Over half of my life in Arizona I spent with no health care and when it started to be very hard to ceven over my family….. I went out and got health care…. in Europe. Simply put…. the health care nonsense is one of the major reasons that I (we – family) moved back to Europe. And frankly I (we) don’t regret it a bit. Over here we have better and more affordable health care, better schools for the kids and great mass transit. All I can say is…Americans it’s your own fault. You vote for the idiots in power and they serve you NOT. And the overpaid docs, insurance companies, politicians and media companies (that take cash from the politicians) are laughing all the way to the bank.
It’s simple Kojak, “Taxes”. All that Republicans have had to say is “Taxes” and Americans stand down. We want it, but won’t pay. We want less crime, but not pay for education. We want safe bridges, but we won’t pay to fix ’em. We complain about the Mexicans, but back when building a fence was cheap we wouldn’t pay for it. We want Mexicans to integrate but won’t educate them or their children. We want local police to act as INS, but we already won’t pay enough for them to police. We want better roads and mass transit, again, we won’t pay. We want safer foods and clean environments, we continue to cut funding to those agencies that want to help. We want better healthcare, but we just won’t pay.
If you can afford it, you can have it. It’s the American way! 😉