McMahon on healthcare

From tonight's debate: When asked what bill, if guaranteed to pass, would each candidate put forward as their first act as a member of Congress, Mike McMahon offered the following;

A bill that says universal health care is "a right, not a privilege."

It will be great having this man in Congress.

Vito Fossella shows us his leadership

In a Letter to the Editor exchange, Craig Donnor, Vito Fossella's spokesperson writes into the Advance in response to George Rosquist's Letter to the Editor asking where Fossella has been in the Staten Island hospital crisis. Craig manages to unintentionally make this very amusing for us and bad for his boss.

George Rosquist is right to be concerned about the closing of three Richmond University Medical Center clinics (Your Opinion, March 25). There's no dispute that Staten Island's health-care system faces innumerable challenges, which have put us on the verge of crisis.

It is always nice when Vito Fossella's own spokesperson agrees with concerned constituents. The best part of his rebuttle though is this comment from Craig and the editorial footnote following;

However, he is wrong to suggest that Rep. Vito Fossella has done "nothing" to fix the problem. Most recently, Congressman Fossella took the lead in urging Staten Island University Hospital to take over those three clinics -- an initiative the hospital is actively pursuing.

[Editor's note: Since this letter was written, Staten Island University Hospital announced that it will not take over the RUMC clinics in Clifton.]

Let's have Craig Donnor wrap this up for us reiterating a question Mr. Rosquist asked;

To answer Mr. Rosquist's question, "Where is Rep. Fossella for his constituents in this crisis?," I'd say the facts show he's exactly where he should be -- fighting hard for the people of Staten Island.

Congratulations Vito Fossella. We already knew Fossella has very little clout in DC, now he shows us he has none at home in the district either. I recommend he has his campaign staff spend more time working to negotiate with Staten Island University Hospital instead of writing letters like this one by Craig attacking his critics. And if that isn't possible and if all of this is any indication of what his leadership can do maybe he should stop "taking the lead."

LTE: Where is Fossella in our hospital crisis?

via SI Advance;

Closing another hospital on Staten Island, reported by Tevah Platt (March 15), is becoming a serious habit at the expense of the safety, health and welfare of Staten Islanders. City Councilman Mike McMahon is right: It is a "ridiculous" notion and, "Those who stand to lose most are the people who live in those sections of Staten Island that have the worst medical profile, the biggest need, and the largest inability to get access because of economic challenges and lack of health insurance."

snip

Recently he opposed closing a Brooklyn hospital (Victory Memorial) but hypocritically he assisted in closing a Staten Island hospital (Bayley Seton) by approving a breach of covenant with the federal government to pave the way.

Once a VA hospital, sold for $1, provided it could not be sold within 30 years, Bayley Seton Hospital was not only sold for a windfall but Fossella paid them an additional $150,000 of taxpayers' money to do it. The land and buildings alone are worth several millions of dollars. He required them to replace a general hospital with emergency room, operating rooms and wards with hundreds of beds, etc., for a small clinic that is not open 24/7 (or on weekends) for a meager $700,000, less the additional $150,000 milked from the taxpayers.

LTE: Finding a Humane Health Care Solution

In a recent 'Letter to the Editor' (LTE) in the SI Advance a writer discusses the need for universal health care;

We feel it is utterly objectionable that SCHIP, the successful and kind Children's Health Insurance Program, is having so much difficulty being reauthorized.

"It has been the only success story in initiatives to improve health-care access," says Cindy Mann, who directs Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. This program has been a step towards changing what is a national shame: Millions of American men, women, and children with no health insurance.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau figures released in August, show an estimated 47 million Americans, 9.4 million of which are children, were uninsured in 2006, up from 15.3 percent in the previous year. According to the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine, about 18,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health coverage.

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We feel passionately that every person deserves health care! That is why we support HR 676, The U.S. National Health Insurance Act, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. It is the solution America is looking for!

Rep. Fossella to date is refusing to support this bill.

Why did Fossella vote against extending health care to our children?

Vito Fossella voted against HR 3152 which provides health insurance for children and improves Medicare for our senior citizens. The bill will provide 5 million American children with health insurance. It also improves Medicare for 44 million seniors and people with disabilities by adding preventive health care benefits, increasing benefits for low-income seniors, and reducing unnecessary taxpayer subsidies to Medicare private plans.

At what cost to us are Rep. Fossella's votes? He continues to recklessly obstruct government by trying to shut down every bill and vote out of spite towards democrats.

Fossella voted against providing housing assistance for low income families devistated by Hurricane Katrina.
Fossella voted to cut all funding for the Dept. of Transportation just before the structural bridge failure in Minnesota.
Fossella has voted against giving our troops pay raises.
Now he has voted against giving our children health insurance.

Is this really who you want representing you in DC? Tell Fossella he represents you, your children and your grand parents NOT President Bush.

Harrison Announcement, Part IV, Universal Health Care

Our Government is failing to support out troops

via Yahoo News;

The many medical claims by veterans of U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has completely overwhelmed the American government, leading to "shameful failures" in treatment, a class-action lawsuit filed on Monday alleged.

"Because of those failures, hundreds of thousands of men and women who have suffered grievous injuries fighting in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being abandoned," according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California.

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"Unless systemic and drastic measures are instituted immediately, the costs to these veterans, their families, and our nation will be incalculable, including broken families, a new generation of unemployed and homeless veterans, increases in drug abuse and alcoholism, and crushing burdens on the health care delivery system and other social services in our communities," the suit said.

The suit said the Department of Veterans Affairs faced a backlog of 600,000 claims, with some veterans dying while waiting to settle claims. It also claimed the VA was unable to deal with the growing number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases.

Rep. Vito Fossella has already voted against extending TRICARE, health insurance, to National Guard and Reservists, he has refused to stand up to President Bush's plan to reduce their pay increases, do you think he is anywhere other than on the wrong side of this VA issue? Rep. Vito Fossella does not support the troops.
Follow along on what stories we are working on with updates from Twitter.

Fossella is not supporting 9/11 first responders in Brooklyn

via the Bay Ridge Courier;

Armed with the names of 22 fellow representatives, Rep. Jerrold Nadler has begun his big push to ask D.C. to appropriate more than $282 million for the World Trade Center Monitoring and Treatment Program to assist rescuers and first responders afflicted with 9/11 related illnesses.

Every member of Brooklyn’s Congressional delegation with the exception of Rep. Vito Fossella has signed onto the letter, which was sent to Rep. David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education.

“We have an obligation to provide for the monitoring and treatment for those brave first responders who were exposed to toxins at the World Trade Center,” Nadler explained. “In the days after 9/11, first-responders came to New York from around the country to help in any way they could. The least we must do now is help those that have since become sick and need treatment. Furthermore, we still need to fund the health needs of residents, non-first responder workers and school children.”

Agreed! But where is Fossella on this? This is outrageous. With all his rhetoric you would imagine he would sign on to this even if part of his district was not in Brooklyn. The article does not provide any speculation as to why he is absent from this letter but I don't mind doing so. Rep. Vito Fossella as you may know by know supports the first responders of 9/11 as much as he supports the troops. He will gladly use either group as a backdrop for publicity or empty rhetoric to constituents and reporters but when it comes time to actually doing some work to back that up he is no where to be found. Fortunately we have Rep. Nadler who has long been championing 9/11 worker's issues and is going to do something about it now that he is part of the majority, the majority Fossella has enjoyed since 9/11. Don't believe me here is a 2004 interview from CNN;

FOSSELLA: The president should be proud of his record of fighting and leading in this war against terror. And we can't just ignore the reality of September 11, if we're going to move forward as a nation.

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NADLER: We can debate what Bush did after and before and we should, and we can debate why they still won't pay for the medical treatment of the firemen and the other firefighters who were injured in the first response. But whether you like President Bush or not, we can debate his actions before and after. But to exploit this emotionally, the way these ads are doing, is, frankly, disgusting.

We see once again given the choice that Rep. Vito Fossella would rather profess his admiration for President Bush than use the opportunity to address the horrible government response to the health care needs of our 9/11 responders.

9/11 Worker Health Care could have been funded if Fossella wanted

Mayor Bloomberg recently released the 2007 New York City Card, which gives lawmakers in DC an idea of the needs of the city in terms of financial funding. On that list of just 6 items is;

- 9 /11 Worker Health: The City is requesting $150 million in annual federal funding to ensure health treatment and monitoring for all individuals affected by the catastrophic 9/11 terrorist attacks.

While NY Senators and members of Congress fight to get this healthcare funding, we could have been funding a large portion of this cost by simply moving funding away from misguided Abstinence Only education funding that Rep. Vito Fossella has supported in the past to 9/11 worker health care needs.

Mr. Bloomberg, we know you have Fossella's ear if you want it. Why not ask him to stop pandering to the religious conservatives from DC and start worrying about the needs of our own New Yorkers.

LTE: Support the Troops

In a Thursday 'Letter to the Editor' (LTE) in the SI Advance, a writer comments on an Advance article criticizing the President for his 'support the troops' mantra while failing to provide decent health care systems in the wake of the Walter Reed scandals;

I'd like to thank the Advance for highlighting the mismatch between the Bush administration's words and actions when it comes to caring for our troops ("Supporting the troops." March 5). Let's make this really simple: The men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are giving their lives and limbs for this effort. At the very least, the administration has a moral obligation to ensure that the troops who actually make it home receive quality health care in clean, livable environments.

Read the full letter here.