Back before we headed to the polls, I shared with you an email I received regarding now President-elect Barack Obama’s stance on mental health parity.
Well, now I’ve received an email from Mental Health America urging me to send an electronic postcard to Obama to urge him to keep healthcare reform a top priority during his first year in office.
From the email:
As he prepares to take office, President-elect Barack Obama faces many pressing issues. And some will urge him to defer efforts to achieve healthcare reform, suggesting that it will be too costly, too difficult, or not a sufficiently high priority. Click the link to send the digital postcard to President-elect Obama and tell him that you want him to make healthcare reform a top priority in 2009.
Naturally, I did. And I’m passing it along so that all of you can do the same! Simply visit Mental Health America’s page Send a Postcard to President-elect Obama, enter your info, and click “send.”
So easy.
Do it now.
Dear President
I just wanted to tell you that I wish live in US
I am mechanical engineering & Work in industry & live in iran in bad condition of … & …
If you can , Please help me to come here And live in free country
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Mr.Obama,
I am one of millions that are out of work,due to our bad economy, and cant even meet my needs, while wall street, and the banks recieved OUR money to bail them out, they are back to business as usual, screwing us over with our own tax dollars. Giving themselves bonuses and other perks at our expense. And to add insult to injury,, OUR money used to bail out the banks let them carry on with thier underhanded way of rapeing the public, first they get our money to bail them out, now they turn around for no other reason than greed, and raise our intrest rates out of sight, to beat the new rules going into effect in feb. Why is that not illeagle??? YOU know the only reason they are doing this is to gouge us once more before they cant. That is just out right FRUAD!! and a slap in the face!! We cant even pay our bills because they have our money, and now thanks to US. they can take us to the cleaners ONCE more! I think you screwed up BIG time giving the money to those responsible for this recession, they have wasted ONCE AGAIN all the money that was just handed to them, and had that been divided up among the low income people, we could have done a better job with OUR OWN money reviving the economy. we could have paid off debts, bought items we needed and invested back into our economy faster than its going now!! I still think these banks raising the intrest rates should be held accountable for once again stealing money for us and adding to the money the government already gave them to waste. WE could have done a BETTER job with our MONEY than the government, banks, and wall street, all rolled into one. BUT NOOOO!! you think you know whats best for us,,, but are’nt YOU supposed to work for US? I think WE americans need to take our government back and elect people like ourselves that know what its like to do without, and run this country FOR THE PEOPLE AGAIN. Some where along the line government has forgotten that they work for us. And the job that most are doing (Republican & Democrate) need to be fired, or work for the wages they think we deserve and see how long they would stand for that!! I just think its time to GET GREED OUT OF THIS NATION!! Its run by a corupt and greed driven POWER that has made our once STRONG nation into a BROKE joke to other countries. We are OWNED by the countries that used to look up to us, now WE BEG them for HELP!! MR OBAMA, wheres the pride and respect this country was run on? I’ll tell you,, we’ve been sold out by a greedy government, in bed with everyone thats brought this nation down, and it needs to END. Come on AMERICANS lets take our country back, and we can start by puting severe punishment on our borders, there is NO punishment for mexicans caught, they are held by the hand and given a ride back across the border, released, so they can start all over again the next day. and why??? NO FEAR!! We pay millions of dollars to patrol our border,WHY?? its a joke. the mexicans KNOW nothing is going to happen to them, so why STOP? If they knew they would get locked away for a few years this would stop most or all efforts, but as long as they recieve NO PUNISHMENT they’ll never stop. They have taken over our country, like ROACHES, now we cant get rid of them. And they are not just looking for a better life. MOST of the GANGS in our country now are MEXICANS, and the others that are here? they ARE NOT working jobs that we dont want. Thats crap carried over from the 60’s & 70’s of field workers, and seasonal jobs. They now work in every kind of market we have, and its shameful that it was ignored for years, and NOW? there are so many they act like we are the minority, and in fact now WE ARE! Just another example of our government watching out for our intrests in this country!!! If there are others who feel like myself, get involved, write you government, tell them that we want our country back, and we want our voice HEARD!!! GOD HELP US ALL!!
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Dear President
I have a great expectation on the result of your meeting with our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Sing, please we need a terror free world.
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Mr. President
Am an Indian origin living in Bahrain for last 14years. It was really a great speech you have done at Cairo and hope you will further understand about the difficulties we Indians are facing. Let me humbly brings to your notice that we Indians are not against any believers we believe in democracy and pluralism. We have been victim of terrorism especially from Muslim extremist based in Pakistan. As a kind human I would like to ensure my children or next generation to live in my country without fear of incidents taken place in United States and India respectively on 9/2001 and 26/2008. The world war era is over we need your support to save all the human beings around the world.
Jagannivasan
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How do I start to express my heart felt saddness at the loss of life ?.
This has to be our worst disaster ,and as an Australian living in
Gods greatest garden it is hard to come to terms with what has
happened.
Over time we will recover and rebuild anew.
I was not apart of the horrible bushfires, but many of my fellow Australians were. This accident is nothing short of horrifying and sad.
Nearly 300 of my fellow Australians have been killed. It is saddening, and heartbreaking. I cannot even begin to explain how much tears have been shed from every Australian eye over the past week. As for the person who has caused this, I hope they find you, and I hope you rot in hell you sick and vile person. You have caused the deaths of almost 300 Australians. You have no heart, and no soul.
And this following poem I write for the firefighters who put their lives on the line.
LIVE LIFE LIKE THERE’S NO TOMMORROW
THEY STARE IN THE FACE OF DEATH
WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT
TO SAVE THAT ONE SPECIAL LIFE
THAT THEY SO BRAVELY SOUGHT
THEY HAVE WALKED AS CLOSE TO
“HELL ON EARTH”
AS ANY MAN COULD DO
AND THEY’RE SO PROUD OF THE JOB THEY DO
FOR PEOPLE THEY NEVER KNEW
THEY PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE
EVERYTIME DUTY CALLS
ALWAYS DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
WITHOUT EVEN A PAUSE
THEY ARE FIREMEN
WITH OVERWHELMING PRIDE
NEVER AFRAID TO TAKE A CHANCE
WHEN SAVING SOMEONES LIFE
OFTEN THEY SAY
“IT’S OUR JOB”
BUT WE REALLY KNOW
THAT THEY ARE VERY SPECIAL
AND ALWAYS READY TO GO
SO WHEN YOU HEAR THE SIRENS WAIL
OR SEE THE FLASHING LIGHTS
STAND ASIDE AND LOOK WITH PRIDE
THEY’RE GOING TO SAVE A LIFE.
by Mary Mouawad Antonios
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my cobra was 256.00 a month know it’s 335.00 nice increase.i hope that you will do something about health insurance.people who are getting lay off need health insurance that they can aford, some of them will not get a job in 18 month. so we need for cobra to be longer than 18 month. thank you
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mr. president i wanted to send you a note . this was the only web site i could find and this letter probably wont even get to you and if it dose you will probably wont even answer it. one on your medicare isue that everyone seems to be missing, is one afforable medical coverage, but the biggest thing is that if you have asmia as my son does noone will cover you cause you are a risk. the other thing i like to adress. is that i am a owner operator. i own my own truck and my own step deck. you talk about all these lay off of workers. but what about the truck driver that gets no loads or the loads that pay .89 cents a mile could you operate your equiment off that, and stll maintain your insurance of 12000 a year and fuel at 2.29 a gallon andgetting 4-5 miles a gallon. or having to pay 2000 a year on restration. lets not for get the taxes that we have to pay to run on usa and canda roads along with fuel tax we pay too. everyone forgets the comon worker that brings the goods to every one. it rolls down hill. if the customer cant get the loans to ship there product than we cant haul it .and then they cut the rates on the loads and we c`ant afford to haul it. lets adress the worker that no one seems to mention at all. i hope this goes across your desk . i know that you get thousands of letters bu t you might learn something that you never thought about . thanks for your time.
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If you want to give people tax relief but you want them to SPEND it and not save it, why don’t you create some type of federally guaranteed, time-limited purchase coupons that are only redeemable against direct purchases, valued at $500 or $1000 or something like that.
And if in you also want to stimulate education and literacy, you could provide an ADDITIONAL $500 per taxpayer in terms of one-year limited purchase coupons only redeemable for books or for magazine subscriptions.
Simple? yes. Effective? yes. Stupid? no.
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Dear Mr. Obama,
You know the whole world like you and the people of the world have big hopes on you. Please make a fresh start to US foreign policy by sending a team of senior US persons to hotspot areas in fact finding missions to sit down with the parties of the conflict. The team should present its findings to you and the Congress. The information should be made public to the American people. This is the only way to start a new policy based upon wise and fair judgments.
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To Barack Obama, President Elect.
I just wanted to tell you that although I did not vote for you. I know you have an unbeleive unimaginable road ahead of you. I want the best for my country so regardless I am hoping for the best.
Words and rhetoric are no longer sufficient. Reality is about to set in which will require much more than idealistic idealogy. Politics, life and the world are much so complex and we are living in dangerous and violent times and the U.S. is a a defenite target.
I will says some prayers you will be strong enough to make the right decesions. I know if the U.S. continues to protect Israel we will be watched over too. Take special care of the United States. In other words, Do not be passive with radicals. You can say what you want about President Bush. But the bottom line is the world ) respects and fears strength not weakness or passiveness. This is why we have not been attacked since 911. Don’t play devils advocate with terrorists. Rationality and sensibility does not exist with them. Hate and evil are there objectives and unfortunately their goals are unchangeable and absolute. America needs you to show strength no weakness. It would be nice if reason were an option, but it is non-existent with terrorists. Remember their cause is to to destroy our economy, freedom and liberty and of course us. Don’t let your guard down There is no trust among terrorists.
I wish this were not so, but that is a proven fact.
If you choose another route, Remember my words when we are attacked.
Sandy Gardner
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Dear Sir,
Hope you are doing fine. I am a Bangladeshi lady. Names Begum Nurjahan. Nowadays not only me, everybody knows your are a great powerful personal in the world. If you would like to do anything, you can do the same without hesitation, bindings etc……So, I have a humble request to you please stop to Israel. I cannot keep my tears to see the trouble of many kids of Gaza. Please stop the killing game of Israel.
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Dear Pre3sident elect,
Please don’t forget to help seniors with your upcoming stimulus plan. I an 69 years old and still working, but my taxes are killing me. I earn about $55,000, but not only do I pay about 22% federal income taxes, but I also pay taxes on my S/S payments and to top it off, I pay FICA taxes of about 14%.
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nothing i can ask from obama know more important than helping palastinians in gaza,and trying to stop catastrophe there.
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BARACK OBAMA I HAVE ONE THING TO TELL ,YOU SHOULD BE THE PRESIDENT FOR THE WHOLE WORLD NOT AMERICA ALONE ,THINK OF IT WHICH OF THE 43 PRESIDENT IN AMERICA EVER WANTED TO BRING THE BAD AND THE GOOD TOGETHER LIKE BROTHER AND SISTER.YOU WANTED THE DEMONCRAT AND THE REPULICAN TO COME AS ONE O M G YOU IS THE 44 PRESIDENT AND YOU DESERVE IT ,GOD GIVE YOU THAT BECAUSE HE KNOWS YOU IS A PART OF HIM AND HE WANT YOU TO BRING PIECE TO THE PEOPLE.YOU IS A PERSON THAT COULD GIVE YOUR HEART AWAY AND LEAVE WITH NONE.I KNOW THAT YOU DID,NT FIGHT SO HARD FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY YOU DID IT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NOT FOR THE COLOUR OF YOUR SKIN BUT FOR WHO YOU ARE LOVE ALWAY.
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I understand that a lot of people are upset because they have small salaries, but keep in mind that there are a lot of counties (like the country I live in) where prices are much higher than in the US… everything is more expensive, starting with gas… and even so people are not complaining as much as others from more privileged countries, like the US.
Try living on an income of 2500 dollars per year…
Anyways I just wanted to congratulate the US for making the best choice since… a very long time. Indeed Mr. Obama is THE MAN for the US.
Congrats!
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Dear President, Im wondering why there is no health coverage for people until they are 65 . My husband is disabled and cannot provide health care for me I am a diabetic who cant go to the Doctor because it costs me 145.00 and we barely live. And last year my husbands precription provider through medicare would not pay for important medicine HELP I am so distraught
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The following are facts that are believed to exist regarding the present U.S. Health Care System. This may be why about 80 percent of U.S. citizens understandably want our health care system overhauled:
The U.S. is ranked number 42 related to life expectancy and infant mortality, which is rather low.
However, the U.S. is ranked number one in the world for spending the most for health care- as well as being number one for those with chronic diseases. About 125 million people have such diseases. This is about 70 percent of the Medicare budget that is spent treating these terrible illnesses. Health Care costs are now well over 2 trillion dollars of our gross domestic product. This is three times the amount nearly 20 years ago- and 8 times the amount it was about 30 years ago. Most is spent with medical institutions, as far as health expenditures are concerned. One third of that amount is nothing more than administrative toxic waste that doe
s not involve the restoration of the health of others. This illustrates how absurd the U.S. Health Care System is presently. Nearly 7000 dollars is spent on every citizen for health care every year, and that, too, is more than anyone else in the world.
We have around 50 million citizens without any health insurance, which may cause about 20 thousand deaths per year. This includes millions of children without health care, which is added to the planned or implemented cuts in the government SCHIP program for children, which alone covers about 7 million kids.
Our children
Nearly half of the states in the U.S. are planning on or have made cuts to Medicaid, which covers about 60 million people, and those on Medicaid are in need of this coverage is largely due to unemployment. With these Medicaid cuts, over a million people will lose their health care coverage and benefits to a damaging degree.
About 70 percent of citizens have some form of health insurance, and the premiums for their insurance have increased nearly 90 percent in the past 8 years. About 45 percent of health care is provided by our government- which is predicted to experience a severe financial crisis in the near future with some government health care programs, it has been reported. Most doctors want a single payer health care system, which would save about 400 billion dollars a year- about 20 percent less than what we are paying now. The American College of Physicians, second in size only to the American Medical Association, supports a single payer health care system. The AMA, historically opposed to a single payer health care system, has close to half of its members in favor of this system. Less than a third of all physicians are members of the AMA, according to others.
Our health care we offer citizens is the present system is sort of a hybrid of a national and private health care system that has obviously mutated to a degree that is incapable of being fully functional due to perhaps copious amounts and levels of individual and legal entities.
Health Care must be the priority immediately by the new administration and congress. Challenges include the 700 billion dollars that have been pledged with the financial bailout that will occur, since the proposed health care plan of the next administration is projected to cost over a trillion dollars within the first year or so of the proposed plan to recalibrate health care for all of us in the U.S. Yet considering the hundreds of billions of dollars that are speculated to be saved with a reform of the country’s health care system, health policy analysts should not be greatly concerned on the steakholders who may be affected by this reform of our health care system that is desperately needed. Tom Daschle leads this Transition’s Health Policy Team. And we also have Ed Kennedy, the committee chair and a prolific legislator. So if the right people have been selected for this reforming team, the urgency and priority regarding our nation’s health care needs should be rather overt to the country’s citizens.
Half of all patients do not receive proper treatment to restore their health, it has been stated. Medical errors desperately need to be reduced as well, it has been reported, which should be addressed as well.
It is estimated that the U.S. needs presently tens of thousands more primary care physicians to fully satisfy the necessities of those members of the public health. This specialty makes nearly 100 thousand less in income compared with other physician specialties, yet they are and have been the backbone of the U.S. health care system. PCPs manage the chronically ill patients, who would benefit the most from the much needed coordination and continuity of care that PCPs historically have strived to provide for them. Nearly have of the population has at least one chronic illness- with many of those having more than one of these types of illnesses. A good portion of these very ill patients have numerous illnesses that are chronic, and this is responsible for well over 50 percent of the entire Medicare budget. .
The shortage of primary care physicians is due to numerous variables, such as administrative hassles that are quite vexing for these doctors, along with ever increasing patient loads complicated by the progressively increasing cost to provide care for their patients. Many PCPs are retiring early, and most medical school graduates do not strive to become this specialty for obvious reasons. In fact, the number entering family practice residencies has decreased by half over the past decade or so. PCPs also have extensive student loans from their training to complicate their rather excessive workloads as caregivers.
Yet if primary care physicians were increased in number with the populations they serve and are dedicated to their welfare. Studies have shown that mortality rates would decrease due to increased patient outcomes if this increase were to occur. This specialty would also optimize preventative care more for their patients. Studies have also shown that, if enough PCPs are practicing in a given geographical area, hospital admissions are decreased, as well as visits to emergency rooms. This is due to the ideal continuity in health care these PCPs provide if numbered correctly to serve more, the quality improves, as well as the outcomes for their patients. Most importantly, the quality of life for their patients is much improved if there are enough PCPs to handle the overwhelming load of responsibility they presently have due to this shortage of their specialty that is suppose to increase in the years to come. The American College of Physicians believes that a patient centered national health care workforce policy is needed to address these issues that would ideally restructure the payment policies that exist presently with primary care physicians.
Further vexing is that it is quite apparent that we have some greedy health care corporations that take advantage of our health care system. Over a billion dollars was recovered for Medicare and Medicaid fraud last year through settlements paid to the department of Justice because some organizations who deliberately ripped off taxpayers. These are the taxpayers in the U.S. who have a fragmented health care system with substantial components and different levels of government- composed of several legal entities and individuals, which has resulted in medical anarchy, so it seems.
Health 2.0, a new healthcare social networking innovation, is informing patients about their symptoms and potential if not possessing various disease states- largely based on the testimonies of other people on various websites. This may be an example of how so many others rely now on health concerns from those who likely are not medical specialists, instead of becoming a participant, if not victim, of the U.S. Health Care System.
Thanks to various corporations infecting our Health Care System in the United States, the following variables sum up this system as it exists today, which is why the United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) is the best solution to meet our health care needs as citizens, it appears. We would finally have, as with most other countries, a Universal Health Care system that will allow free choice of doctors and hospitals, potentially. It should be and likely will be funded by a combination of payroll taxes and general tax revenue:
Access- citizens do not have the right or ability to make use of this system as we should.
Efficiency- this system strives on creating much waste and expense as it possibly can.
Quality- the standard of excellence we deserve as citizens with our health care is missing in action.
Sustainability- We as citizens cannot continue to keep our health care system in as it is designed at this time- as it exists today.
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/US_healthcare/index.asp
Dan Abshear
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i would like to know why we pay so much money to are politicians. mrs. clinton salary would take me almost 6 years to make it. you see i have been handicap for 7 years. i live on 28,300.00 a year. why do people that have millons wants to get paid? if all the big wheels would take a pay cut like the rest of the working people. i would like you to live on my money.
thank you
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It’s interesting Obama’s camp responded. I will send an ecard and ask my readers to do the same.
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