Show Your Solidarity. We're All Uninsured Now
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Jun 24, 2009 4:00pm
When I ran this picture the other day, a lot of you wanted to know where you could get one of these wristbands. Well, we live to serve here at C&L, so here's the story behind them.
This is a project started in 2007 by Daric Cheshire, 36, an artist/business owner in Portland, Oregon, as a response to the ongoing health care crisis.
If you'll remember, there were a lot of causes using wristbands (such as the yellow "live strong" bands, etc.) at the time, and he thought it was a perfect way to illustrate the problem of the uninsured.
At the time he started the project, his own family was uninsured. The original concept: if people who actually are uninsured were to wear these wristbands, the rest of us lucky enough to have insurance would be able to see in daily life what a real problem it is - that it affects normal, everyday people like your grocery checker or your next door neighbor and not just marginalized groups like the homeless, or undocumented immigrants.
The response was enthusiastic, and it's grown to where the bands have been embraced by people who just want to draw attention to the problem, whether they're insured or not. As he puts it, the message of the band is:
"I'm uninsured. You may not know why, but now you know my face. Maybe I look like you or someone you love. I'm uninsured and scared of being without health insurance in this country. Maybe my health is already suffering from lack of health care. Today it's me, tomorrow it could be you."
What a great idea. As Michael Moore showed us in "Sicko," none of us really have health insurance - we have the illusion of health insurance.
If you want to get one of the bands, you can click here. If you can't afford it, he'll send you one, anyway.
UPDATE: Got this letter today:
Susan,
Thank you so much. I was up till 1:30 addressing envelopes, woke up and realized the site had exceeded its bandwidth. The response has been overwhelming. I really appreciate your support. We are back up and running now. I hope I can keep up with the demand. Thanks again.
Best Regards,
Daric
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Senate Report Finds Insurers Wrongfully Charged Consumers Billions
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 24, 2009; 6:25 PM
Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released today by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
The report was part of a multi-pronged assault on the credibility of private insurers by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). It came at a time when Rockefeller, President Obama and others are seeking to offer a public alternative to private health plans as part of broad health reform legislation. Health insurers are doing everything they can to block the public option.
At a committee hearing today, three health care specialists testified that insurers go to great lengths to avoid responsibility for sick people, use deliberately incomprehensible documents to mislead consumers about their benefits, and sell "junk" policies that fail to cover needed care. Rockefeller said he was exploring "why consumers get such a raw deal from their insurance companies."
The star witness at the hearing was a former public relations executive for major health insurers whose testimony boiled down to this: Don't trust the insurers.
"The industry and its backers are using fear tactics, as they did in 1994, to tar a transparent and accountable -- publicly accountable -- health care option," said Wendell Potter, who until early last year was vice president for corporate communications at the big insurer CIGNA.
Potter said he worries "that the industry's charm offensive, which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns, may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."
'Public Health Care
The Federal, State, Senenat, and Congressanal representatives have to use the new Public health care system that is passed by President Obama as their only insurance for themselfs and their family. This will save tax payers money to pay for the plan and insure that the best possible plan will be passed'
I wrote this to www.whitehouse.gov
It was just a thought.
I wish I could afford a box of these I would hand them out at the hospital. I know Doctors that would actually where them.
that place is like 8 blocks from my apartment. think I'll walk down and get one tomorrow while I'm out looking for work.
typical elitist liberal bullshit masquerading as caring about the common american. i guess your heart is in the right place but god damn if this isnt a cheesy empty gesture. then again what can we do when i voted for the guy who i thought would give me and 50 million other americans a public option. this country is a goddamn joke
like you fuckin voted for Obama...
The first four words in your stupid post indicate to me that you're a just a stupid fuckin troll.
Now...why don't you go and cheney yourself.
I'll get busy and order some right away....
Here's a blurb from The Berkshire Eagle today: "Unsure On Insurers":
Insurance stocks tumbled in early March as overhaul discussions heated up. But solid first-quarter earnings and a rising overall market helped restore confidence.
Even so, investors remain wary. ***They worry that a government-run insurer will use its power to set prices at a level private insurers can't compete against.***
***If the government plan fails to materialize, private health insurers' stocks could soar.***
If a plan DOES develop, some insurers may be hurt worse than others by it. Companies that draw most of their revenue from selling health insurance to employers would take the biggest hits.
Several companies provide coverage under Medicaid, but those like Humana would take less of a hit because a large portion of their total revenue comes from Medicaid."
It's all about MONEY and PROFIT folks. Nary a word about saving the lives/quality of life and health of the American People. And therein lies the problem.
I hope everyone will be watching the "ABC Townhall on Healthcare" tonight with President Obama at 10:00 p.m. EST:
http://buelahman.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/oba...
Haha If all you bleeding hearts would get off yer butts and go out and find jobs that had healthcare then you wouldn't be in this predicament. serve you right
Believe it or not, all "jobs" for Registered Nurses and millions of others do NOT include benefits. Many companies are now only hiring nurses as "Independent Contractors" because they do NOT want to pay for any benefits, Social Security etc.
When you get to be my age, after years of having jobs with no coverage, knowing it is completely unaffordable (quotes from Blue Cross/Blue Shield are upwards of $500/mo. and that is WITHOUT any pre-existing conditions!), I finally threw my hands up and decided that having a roof over my head and meeting my basic needs (besides health care!!) was the most important thing to me.
Besides that, out of principle, I refuse to pay one red cent to any "for-profit" insurance corporation that is NOT looking out for my health at all. I am now actively BOYCOTTING private insurance corporations because I firmly believe that the tax dollars I have already paid to the federal government should cover me the same as the Congresspersons are covered.
When a "Public Option" exists or when "Medicare for All" exists, I will join.
But I will, until then, remain "Uninsured" and I will wear a bracelet (once I get one) in solidarity with all the other millions of Americans who have been left behind.
I know you're a troll but just in case anyone with a mind is reading:
In 2007, 62% of all bankruptcies were due to medical bills. That should be enough to cause anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together to think something should be done, but it gets worse. Of that number (almost 2/3 of bankruptcies in 2007) 78% HAD medical insurance.
Get it? People WITH medical insurance are going bankrupt. Why? Because the for-profit private healthcare insurance industry is, by definition, motivated to not actually pay for healthcare.
what on earth makes you think anyone on this site is jobless?
Oh...wait...you don't think...you just parrot what you hear or see on faux noise and limpballs.
Not ONE original thought in your empty fuckin head.
Where?Are you living in your momma's basement?Tell her you need a sandwich to fill your big mouth.
You've chosen the right name, and you're off to a fine start living up to it. And, obviously, you're not letting the obvious truth that most of us "bleeding hearts" have jobs and are insured.
We, unlike you, have sufficient empathy/knowledge to know/care that others are suffering without it, and also paying enough attention to know that even while we're insured, we're only a couple of steps away from having an illness sufficiently bad enough to screw us out of any savings we might have.
Anyway, good luck with the being-a-moron thing, hope it works out for you.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/24-8
Come do my laundry
It's filthy!
probably leave skidmarks
Marvelous idea.
It would be nice to be able to get these in bulk and hand them out whenever asked.
*
I'm afraid if socialized, go home and die medicine is passed, we may as well all be uninsured. It'll be a moot point.
This SHOULD scare you.
House Commerce Subcommittee Hearing, June 16, 2009
(cspan)
Ed Tubbs Op/Ed:
The hearing was a follow-up to a lengthy investigation of health insurers that had recently been summarized in a compendious House report. Among the investigation’s discoveries was that the total compensation for one of the insurance CEOs (Identity not revealed in the hearing) was $1.2 BILLION, that rescissions of health insurance policies had netted insurance companies savings of $300 MILLION, and that, within the insurance industry claims investigation departments, insurance investigators were performance rated according to the sums they saved the company by rescinding policies. One such example cited was an employee who was heralded by the company for having saved the corporation $10,000,000 by canceling policies when healthcare claims were posted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Susie, my wristband is ordered.
"none of us really have health insurance - we have the illusion of health insurance."
congrats america you elected a slightly liberal version of bush
I think we need a new version of Godwin's Law: whenever a Democrat is compared to George W. Bush, the thread is over.
So many of us are uninsured, seeking wristbands, that the wristband website is currently unavailable, bandwidth exceeded. Not only can't we get insurance, we can't even get a wristband!
and pass them out to friends and family as soon as I can afford them.
Or as soon as the site's back up.
Insurance, I think, is something you hope never to use; a protection against catastrophe. I recently scraped up the side of a rental car on vinyl siding, and while I have a $250, my insurance agent advised that I shouldn't put a claim in unless the cost was over $1000, because it could eventually raise my rates far above any money I would get back. Similarly for homeowners' insurance: you don't want to make any claim if you can avoid it, because it drives up your premiums and you end up with a net financial loss.
It is silly that the program we use to pay for regular visits to the doctor is called health "insurance", then; unlike auto or home insurance, everyone needs health care at some point. It's a basic commodity, and should be priced in such a way that it is as affordable as food and shelter, probably through government subsidies. Looking at this through the eyes of "insurance" is ridiculous.
Of course I have to wait until tomorrow to get my check and deposit it. But then I'm getting one. Or more so that I can share with the many other uninsured Americans who work like slaves to keep this country going.
Can anyone give an address to order this at or is the web page it? If so, the bandwith is used up and I can't get to it. I want one of these. I want to show it to everyone I see and say, "See this, ya got one? Tell me we can put this off ... or fudge it up again?"
We crashed the site and he had to get more bandwidth.
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