Today's Whitehouse HCare Summit in L.A: Inside-ZZZZzzzz Outside-HOPE

Not even 140 characters needed to sum up what went on inside the Whitehouse's last big healthcare summit in Los Angeles. Sweet, benign, and comfy.

I'm sitting here right now watching what went on INSIDE Governor Schwarzenneger's healthcare summit in L.A. today. I was outside with the working nurses, MDs, teachers, and union members running numbers. Yup - math rocks. I was on the street "publishing" the latest profit data (2007) released on the biggest American health insurance companies (2007 PROFITS of 7 of the largest health insurance co's. = + $2 TRILLION). I was up late last night culling the data off of the SEC's Form 14A reports on these companies. As I showed the latest numbers to strangers, truck and cab drivers, and passersby on the street this morning, I actually found nothing but overwhelming support for anything BUT more private health insurance plans.

A few days ago I called Senator Mark Leno's office to find out whether or not at that point the senator or his assistant re health care legislation, Sarah Rodgers, would be attending the summit. "We were not invited", she said. I mentioned that of course I certainly wasn't invited but that I'd submitted a question and that I'd be outside to which Sara remarked, "...THAT's where all of the interesting people are...". She was right about that. As people started arriving for this thing today, the homeless folks (whose living room we were occupying) were getting ready for their day. One of the homeless guys asked me what was going on. I pointed out the signs people were carrying and told him the governor was having a meeting. He and the couple of other homeless let me know they had absolutely NO hope that anybody inside that summit gave a D about them... or, about me. They may be homeless but they're not stupid OR ignorant.

For my ear, I heard not a THING new or terribly hopeful from inside the summit (you can view the whole thing here: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/11939/ ) and I'm old enough to have been around and through a lot of these types of "we really care but not that much" big deals a few times - a lot of nice sentiments, the usual sprinkling of sob stories, Arnold going on about the evils of junk food and how great he is and basically why we should vote for him, I guess, and a lot of "isn't it terrible - yes we should do something... oh yes, that's shameful... and tsk tsk... oh yes, this is just a terrible situation..." etc. etc. etc. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Highlights from the summit itself: ...the guy who was called on who had to slip in how great the governor was and that "this is why I voted for him...", etc. Of the 2 individuals inside the summit whose group was outside rallying for single payer, they did not even mention the term "single payer" or HR676 or SB810. Talk about a "third rail..." anxiety...

KEY players missing from this summit who actually ARE doing something and have done something, former Senator Sheila Kuehl (who authored California's SB840 - now reintroduced as SB810 - who tackled the elephant in the room so thoroughly that the governor won't speak to her today), Senator Mark Leno (who has just REintroduced the bill into the California legislature), and all of the legislators who voted TWICE to approve that bill. No mention was made of the governor's twice veto'ing of that bill and the legislature TWICE passing it overwhelmingly (unprecedented). Not ONE of these highly educated experts touched upon the profit margin I mentioned above. Interestingly, if there were *A.H.I.P. people there, they were not called upon (probably the anger over the AIG thing prompted a swift halt to giving any attention at all right now to an insurance company - the rage is still burning white hot especially in big cities and metropolitan areas like Los Angeles). There were no unemployed people in the summit (i.e., people likely without health insurance or about to lose it) or if they were unemployed, they were not asked to contribute. And for my ear, I imagine every guest in that forum was nicely insured. Mayor Dellums from Oakland was broadcast via satellite. I had just talked to him about single payer the other day when I bumped into him at my gym. He made a big deal about how big a supporter he is of it. I'm sure he is a supporter but... where were at least the words "single payer" or "SB810"? where was the 'support'?

As usual, there was a lot of talk about healthier lifestyles (that's an easy one - can't really get much disagreement on that and everybody can throw in something on that which makes them sound like a "team player"). As one who worked in usability engineering for some years (we study how people make the decisions they make re behavior and how to make stuff more "usable"), I was amused by Governor Gregoire's assumption and assertion that if you give people the knowledge of what's healthy and what's not healthy to eat, somehow they'll decide to eat the healthy stuff. Has Governor Gregoire ever asked anybody in line at Popeye's whether they knew that their arteries were going to rot and they'd die before they were 40 from eating all of that crap? Had she ever had a substantial conversation with someone other than people who look like her and her pocketbook, she might find that people know more than she thinks about diet and health; they just have no hope of living past the age of 30, getting an education, surviving their neighborhood, or making more than minimum wage at best (i.e., who cares about tomorrow when tomorrow is not yours to live).

Outside the summit was another story - for the first time since I have gotten involved in this movement, there were actually TV crews there shooting the rally. That is a FIRST. Either they're really hurting now or who knows why suddenly they're interested or is it maybe we finally shamed them into dragging their a down to one of these events and actually reporting some news? By 11pm, murders and robberies outflanked health reform news altogether for the stations that showed up earlier in the day. Was there a Whitehouse healthcare summit in L.A.? Really? L.A. viewers of broadcast news certainly didn't know about it.

On the sidewalk outside the building waiting to be rolled in was a big Trojan Horse labeled "MANDATED PRIVATE INSURANCE". I think that message couldn't have been clearer.

Those who sponsored the rally (primarily California School Employees Association and California Nurses Association) did a terrific job (stay tuned for links to footage of the speakers). The CSEA and CNA treated any and all who showed up to lunch - talk about truly caring about the public (and likely many of the hundreds of school employees who footed that bill are at this point altogether newly unemployed)! An array of community groups helped get this event together (some of whom have been at this for over 15 years - which the blog hopes will shame anyone who's even thinking of throwing in the towel on this particular "change we can believe in").

A few hours later I got word that Senator Merkley in Oregon may be proposing a companion bill to HR676 which might give even more leverage to single payer at the federal level. This is news. Senator Merkley was not a single payer advocate to any great degree at least up until now. We'll see what happens here...


**Stay tuned - will post film from both inside and outside the summit in a day or 2 (as soon as I've finished editing)

*A.H.I.P. - America's Health Insurance Plans