Bill Moyers and Insurance Industry...Michael Moore and Sicko

"I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie." – Wendell Potter, former Head of Corporate Communications at CIGNA referring to Michael Moore and his documentary, SICKO

Bill Moyers (Friday, June 10th, PBS) interviews former health insurance industry executive Wendell Potter, who left his position at Cigna Insurance after almost 20 years in the industry to become a health reform advocate.

Potter admits that Michael Moore was right on with his documentary SICKO and the industry went to great lengths to discredit Moore and insurance lobbyist used their skills to intimidate Congress. They had done the same thing to kill the Clinton plan in the early 1990s.

How well I identify with Cigna as they insured me for nearly five years under a group plan through the Authors Guild at the cost of nearly $15,000 a year (one person) and then I was constantly battling with them over minor coverage.

Luckily, I went on Medicare and AARP supplemental in 2007, one month before I had serious medical problems, two serious surgeries, skilled nursing facility for three months and 14 months of paid physical therapy and it cost me $185 dollars. Yes, that is all (other than the Medicare premium and AARP premium which was nothing compared to private insurance premiums). I was told I would not have had the good care: 100 days of skilled nursing facility, 6 days a week of physical therapy, usually 3-4 hours, and then out patient therapy (2 or 3 times a week) for another 11 months. I also did not have an HMO so I had my choice of doctors and I found a top surgeon.

Listen to what Wendell Potter has to say....

And if you’ve not seen SICKO you might want to consider doing so. It is well done, and should be an eye-opener for everyone as we face this ongoing medical insurance crisis.

Linda

Abraham Lincoln and William H. Johnson, Citizen

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809. We have begun a year long celebration of our 16th President, the man who saved the Union. On Bill Moyers Journal, Bill interviewed historian Eric Foner, editor of the book, Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World.
Until seeing this program the other night, I had not heard the story about William Johnson, Lincoln’s valet—a Black man who had gone with President Lincoln to Washington from Springfield, Illinois and became President Lincoln's part-time valet and barber, and messenger of the Treasury Department.

In November 1863, Lincoln wrote a note explaining that Johnson would travel with him to Gettysburg for the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery. Mary Lincoln did not accompany the President because their son Tad was ill with smallpox. Following the dedication, Lincoln wrote to Edward Everett who had been a speaker at the dedication, “Our sick boy, for whom you kindly enquired, we hope is past the worst." After delivery of his now famous speech, Lincoln also felt ill and on the return train trip to Washington "lay in a relaxed position with a wet towel across his head," placed there by Johnson.

Upon arrival at the White House, the president was put to bed and his doctor was called, who remarked, "Mr. Lincoln's case is not fully developed yet." With his humor which came forward so often, Lincoln said, "Now let the office-seekers come, for at last I have something I can give all of them." But it is believed he may have given small pox to his valet, or, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume he may have contacted it when Lincoln did? Johnson died. Lincoln requested that he be buried in what is now called Arlington National Cemetery, and paid for his burial and tombstone, and even took care of a bank loan he had signed for Johnson. The tombstone says, William H. Johnson, Citizen.

It was events such as that which showed the humor, the determination, and compassion of the man who is considered to be our greatest President.

Excerpt from the PBS program:BILL MOYERS: Until I read your book, I had never heard the story of Lincoln and William Johnson. William Johnson was his valet.

ERIC FONER: Uh-huh.

BILL MOYERS: One of the few people who accompanied him from Springfield to Washington when he became president. One of the few, perhaps the only person to actually read a draft of the Gettysburg Address before it was delivered. I didn't know this, that on the way back from Gettysburg, they both came down with small pox.

Lincoln's case was not very serious. But Johnson's was. He became quite ill. During his dying, Lincoln took care of him. When he died [1864], Lincoln ordered that he be buried in Arlington Cemetery. And then he had the inscription on his tombstone read: "William Johnson, citizen."

ERIC FONER: Right. And, you know, that is a wonderful story. Johnson is a black man, of course. And, you know, to say "citizen" meant something more than in a way that one might understand today because it was only a few years before, in 1857, that the Dred Scott decision had ruled, that Chief Justice Taney had said, "No black person can be a citizen of the United States." Only white people can be citizens. So to put "citizen" on this black man's gravestone is a kind of an affirmation of something. It's not just an empty phrase. It's an affirmation that, no, black people can also be citizens.

~Linda

Bill Moyers on the Economic Crisis and the Working Man...and Washington

Bill Moyers comments on his recent show...

BILL MOYERS: I had a history professor at the University of Texas - Robert Cotter - who believed the most remarkable quality of Abraham Lincoln was his empathy for people he didn't personally know. The working man. The soldier in battle. His widow and orphans.

Ordinary folks caught in the undertow of events. We could use that kind of empathy today. As Washington obsessed all week over the fate of one nominee to the cabinet, and as we watched hearings about the failure of watchdog agencies going to sleep on the job, we heard almost nothing of the people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives. Some of us born in the Depression still remember the song made famous by the Carter Family singers, called the "Worried Man Blues".

"I went across that river and I lay down to sleep. When I woke up there were shackles on my feet."

The day my father was fired from his job at Manly's Appliance Store, he came walking home as if he had shackles on his feet. I still remember the look on his face. He wasn't yet 50, but had suddenly turned old, the way a lot of people look today who are losing their jobs. Their stomachs are knotted with fear as the life they had come to expect is fading fast. Not because of their own failures but because our political and financial elites rigged the economy for their own advantage.

John F. Kennedy famously said, "Life is unfair," and so it is. But it wouldn't feel as unfair if the shackles wound up instead on the well-heeled feet of Wall Street and Washington's elect. That's the change we need, the change we can really believe in. "

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Worried Man Blues, Johnny Cash, Mother Maybelle Carter, June Carter, Helen and Anita.