Dems & Independents: More They Know, More They Like Healthcare Bill

The [new AP] poll's questions included a true-or-false quiz on 19 items, some of which are in the [new health care] law and others not. People were also asked how confident they were about their answers. For the most part, majorities picked the right answers. But a sizable number also got things wrong. And right or wrong, people were unsure of their answers. Two-thirds or more were uncertain about their responses on eight of nine core provisions of the legislation.

Analysis of the findings indicated a split as far as the impact of accurate knowledge, between Democrats and independents on one side and Republicans on the other. Accurate knowledge of the law made no difference in overwhelming opposition from Republicans... However, for Democrats and independents, the more accurate knowledge people had of the bill, the more they liked it.

---"AP Poll: Health care law making us muddle-minded," By Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar and Trevor Tompson, Associated Press (9.22.10)

This poll is, perhaps, the most helpful clarification to date of what people are really thinking in their confusion about the provisions of the new healthcare legislation (the Affordable Care Act). It affirmed how confused and unsure they were of what the bill will do. For example, asked how the Congressional Budget Office had scored the cost of the legislation, 81% answered it wrong, saying it would increase the government's debt, when the CBO concluded it would reduce the federal budget deficit over time. (But yes, there remain those many important areas related to the definition and actual provision of covered care that sooner or later must be addressed.)

Both in this poll and another recent poll, a lack of understanding played a clear role in the majority of people being against the bill or neutral toward it. Of course, stated another way, it's also true that the majority of people were for the bill or neutral toward. The understandings of Dems and independents determine the outcome; it matters how much they know, and how confident they are about it. From the article:

Overall, three out of ten in the poll said they favored the law, while four in ten said they were opposed. Another 30 percent were neutral. The findings on support and opposition differ from another recent AP poll, but the two surveys cannot be compared because they were drawn up and carried out differently. The other survey, an AP-GfK political poll, found 41 percent supporting the bill and 46 percent opposing it, with only 12 percent neutral.

The new survey was conducted Aug. 31 to Sept. 7, and involved interviews with 1,251 randomly chosen adults nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

And more, the poll indicates that 40% of the respondents believe the law did not go far enough in reforming our health care system. Poll results, as a whole, suggest that Republicans are misreading the publics support for repeal. From a related article:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has divided the nation, and Republicans believe their call for repeal will help them win elections in November. But the picture's not that clear cut. A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1...

The poll found that about four in 10 adults think the new law did not go far enough to change the health care system, regardless of whether they support the law, oppose it or remain neutral. On the other side, about one in five say they oppose the law because they think the federal government should not be involved in health care at all.

Those numbers are no endorsement for Obama's plan, but the survey also found a deep-seated desire for change that could pose a problem for Republicans. Only 25 percent in the poll said minimal tinkering would suffice for the health care system...Republicans "are going to have to contend with the 75 percent who want substantial changes in the system," said Stanford political science professor Jon Krosnick, who directed the university's participation."Republican legislators' passion to repeal the legislation is understandable if they are paying attention to members of their own party," Krosnick added. "But if they want to be responsive to all Americans, there are more Democrats and independents than there are Republicans."

---"AP Poll: Many think health overhaul should do more," by Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldiva and Jennifer Agiesta, Associated Press/The Providence Sunday Journal (9.26.10)

Then on September 23--last Thursday--the first of the new healthcare law's provisions went into effect. And for the many positively affected by it, that was welcome news. Actually, most all of us benefit from some of those provisions. On the 23rd and 24th, newspapers, television news, and on-line outlets reported the changes and implications in succinct, bullet-point format. Friend and health care blogger, Sandy Parker, weighed in with the others:

Posted: 23 Sep 2010 08:39 PM PDT

Today was the day the first set of benefits under the Affordable Care Act became available. Starting today (in the words of AmericasFairHealthCare.org):

•Full access to coverage - Children under 19 can no longer be rejected from health care plans due to pre-existing conditions. New plans cannot exclude anyone from coverage for a pre-existing condition.
•No more "lifetime limits" - Insurers can no longer limit the amount of coverage someone can receive over their lifetime.
•Free preventive care - New health insurance plans must provide preventive services such as mammograms and immunizations.
•Expanded coverage to young adults - Young adults can stay on their parents' health plan until age 26.

Consumer Reports also offers an excellent concise Guide to New Benefits—including the fine print. The New York Times has run no fewer than seven articles in the last three days related to health care reform. Together, they give a sense of the benefits, concerns and controversies swirling around, six months from the day the ACA was signed into law. [T]hey are summarized on the Times' excellent Health Care Reform News webpage.

--"Today was a big day," by Sandy Parker, So what do you think about that? (9.23.10)

Just addressing this handful of changes now in effect--changes that will help a lot of people--makes them appear more comprehensible, and more likely to be viewed favorably by many more people they actually help. While not addressed in any of the articles cited above, there can be little doubt that the confusion and misunderstanding that many people harbor about the new bill are directly related to the polarized politics surrounding it--the pull-out-all-stops approach, the truth-twisting and misrepresentations, of Republicans and other politically and financially interested groups. The purpose has been to mislead and confuse. And they have largely succeeded.

It is reported that President Obama will soon make yet another attempt to communicate the basic facts and advantages of the plan to the American public. If it is that clear that the better Dems and independents understand the bill, the better they like it, it will be all the more important to Dems in the mid-term elections that Obama be more effective this time.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSXIViw_RWvU3uweKkhKfhAVGgqgD9ICHR1O2
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_POLL?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The Telltale Heart

A quiet-time reflection: More important, perhaps, than assessments of our capabilities and successes, is how we assess and work with our shortcomings, our failings--both individually and institutionally. Related is the timeless Christian admonition, now so seldom heard, that it is not so much a matter of whether we succeed, but the heart and love with which we serve. Good things to occasionally reflect on.

 

God With Us

     Here, some poems from different sources, times and perspectives, but with common or related experiential understandings. But they are limited to the reference points and lexicon of their place and time for words to express them.

 

W.H Auden   

(from Anthem)

Let us praise our Maker, with true passion extol Him.

Let the whole creation give out another sweetness,

Nicer in the nostrils, a novel fragrance

From cleansed occasions in accord together

As one feeling fabric, all flushed and intact,

Phenomena and numbers announcing in one

Multitudinous ecumenical song

Their grand giveness of gratitude and joy,

Peaceable and plural, their positive truth

An authoritative This, an unthreatened Now

When, in love and in laughter, each lives itself,

For, united by His Word, cognition and power,

System and Order, are a single glory,

And the pattern is complex, their places safe.


Walt Whitman

(from To See God)

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

I see something of God each hour of the twenty four,
and each moment then,

In the faces of men and women I see God
and in my own face in the glass,

I see letters from God dropped in the street,
and every one is signed by God's name.


Emily Bronte

(from Last Lines)

No coward soul is mine,

No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:

I see heaven's glories shine,

And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

Oh God within my breast,

Almighty, ever-present Deity!

Life--that in me has rest,

As I--undying Life--have power in thee!

...

With wide-embracing love

Thy Spirit animates eternal years,

Pervades and broods above,

Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and man were gone,

And suns and universes ceased to be,

And Thou were left alone,

Every existence would exist in thee.

There is not room for Death,

Nor atom that his might could render void:

Thou--THOU are Being and Breath,

And what THOU art may never be destroy'd.


David
(from Psalm 139)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thoughts from afar.

You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately aquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, you know it all.

You enclosed me behind and before,
And laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it...

For you did form my inward parts;
You did weave me in my mothers womb.
I will give thanks to You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well...

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book they were all written,
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.


San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross)

(from The Spiritual Canticle)

Where have you hidden,

Beloved, and left me moaning?

You fled like the stag after wounding me;

I went out calling for you, but you were gone...

Seeking my Love

I will head for the mountains and for the watersides,

I will not gather flowers, nor fear wild beasts;

I will go beyond strong men and frontiers...

Why since you wounded this heart,

don't you heal it?

And why, since you stole it from me, do you leave it so,

and fail to carry off what you have stolen?
...
In the inner wine cellar

I drank of my Beloved, and when I went abroad

through all this valley,

I no longer knew anything,

and lost the flock that I was following.

There He gave me His breast;

there He taught me a sweet and living knowledge;

and I gave myself to Him, keeping nothing back;

and their I promised to be His bride.

My whole soul has now surrendered

With all its gifts to his dominion.

I have no flock to tend

Nor any other preoccupation,

For His love alone is now my occupation.


Rumi

(from The Religion of Love)

The sect of lovers is distinct from all others;

Lovers have a religion and faith of their own.

Though the ruby has no stamp, what matters it?

Love is fearless in the midst of the sea of fear.


Hafiz

(from Carrying God)

No one can keep us from carrying God

Wherever we go.

No one can rob His Name

From our hearts as we try to relinquish our fears

And at last stand, victorious.

We do not have to leave Him in the mosque

Or church alone at night;

We do not have to be jealous of tales of saints

Or those glorious, intoxicated souls

Who can make outrageous love with the Friend.

We do not have to be envious of our spirit's ability

Which can sometimes touch God in a dream.

Our yearning eyes, our warmth-needing bodies,

Can all be drenched in contentment

And Light.

No one anywhere can keep us

From carrying the Beloved wherever we go.

No one can rob His precious Name

From the rhythm of my heart, my steps and my breath.


Jesus

(from The Gospel of John)

Abide in me, and I in you...

Just as the Father has loved Me,

I have loved you;

Abide in that love...

If you keep My commandments,

you will abide in My love;

just as I have kept the Father's commandments,

and abide in His Love.

This is My commandment:

that you love one another,

just as I have loved you.


The Apostle Paul

(from Galatians 2 & Collosians 3)

...I died to the law

that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ;

and it is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live,

I live by faith in [Christ]...

If then, you have been raised up with Christ,

keep seeking the things above, where Christ is...

For you have died,

and your life is hidden with Christ

in God.

On the Kootenai, with Friends

I'm back from Montana, my 7th annual fly-fishing trip with friends on the Kootenai River, friends I met fishing the river. Richard Smith, who organizes the trips, Alan Pedlar, and Roy Geiger, all L.A. lawyers now mostly retired and living in Portland, Santa Cruz, and Sedona. All West Coast, except me.

And its not just about fishing. Whether the fishing is great or not, the weather good or not, it's most about being with people you like and enjoy, in a place that you like, as well--a place that still takes your breath away, however many times you go there. It's about fun, comaraderie, and great conversation over dinner. It's also about other friends there: the same guides we've fished with year in and year out--and Tim and Joanne Linehan, the outfitters who provide us the River House, the guide service, and the fantastic dinners we share. I can't imagine a year without sharing time on the river with these terrific people, these friends.

Summer Poems

by Mary Oliver

from her collection, Red Bird (2008).


Summer Morning

Heart,

I implore you,

its time to come back

from the dark,

it's morning,

the hills are pink

and the roses

whatever they felt

in the valley of night

are open now

their soft dresses,

their leaves

are shining.

Why are you laggard?

Sure you have seen this

a thousand times,

which isn't half enough.

Let the world

have its way with you,

luminous as it is

with mystery

and pain--

graced as it is

with the ordinary.


Summer Story

When the hummingbird

sinks its face

into the trumpet vine,

into the funnels

of the blossoms,

and the tongue

leaps out

and throbs,

I am scorched

to realize once again

how man small, available things

are in this world

that aren't

pieces of gold

or power--

that nobody owns

or could buy even

for a hillside of money--

that just

float about the world,

or drift over the fields,

or into the gardens,

and into the tents of the vines,

and now here I am

spending my time,

as the saying goes,

watching until the watching turns into feeling,

so that I feel I am myself

a small bird

with a terrible hunger,

with a thin beak probing and dipping

and a heart that races so fast

it is only a heartbeat ahead of breaking--

and I am the hunger and assuagement,

and also I am the leaves and the blossoms,

and, like them, I am full of delight, and shaking.