New Series of Short Videos on Al Jazeera Highlight Election Issues

Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour news channel available in more than 250 million households in over 130 countries. They have 65 bureaus across the globe, mostly rooted in the global South. As part of their US election coverage, they are airing this series of short videos focused on some of the issues that have shaped this election. The videos were produced by a team that includes New Orleans journalist Jordan Flaherty and filmed in cities across the US.

Miami - Immigration

Washington, DC - Foreign Policy

Arlington, VA - Health Care

Chicago - Money in Politics

Fort Lauderdale - Economy

Milwaukee - Economy

The channel has also been airing shorter versions that can be seen at the following links: Miami, Washington, Arlington, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and Milwaukee.

A Mother’s Thank You

On November 4, 2008, family and friends broke bread at Casa Tracie to watch the election returns and, most importantly, to celebrate Jacob’s return home after his second surgery at Children’s Hospital. Most of my family and friends didn't know Jacob's treatment was made possible by the Emir of Qatar.

See, I was not insured in 2008, and nor was Jacob. After the NAACP Gulf Coast Advocacy Center (my former employer) closed its New Orleans Office in 2007, I was left without health insurance. “No problem,” I thought. “I can just purchase health insurance for me and Jacob.” Unfortunately, I learned I had a “pre-existing condition” strangely discovered only after my employment and insurance ended, which left it all but impossible for me to obtain health coverage.

While not having health insurance was annoying, I wasn’t bothered so much. I’ve always been very healthy, and Jacob’s pain was only in my tush. So I never expected October 2, 2008. I cannot begin to express in words the sheer terror I felt when I learned Jacob had a golf ball sized tumor growing in his back, compressing his spinal cord and literally paralyzing him, that he would need extensive surgery and some rehabilitation, and there was absolutely no way on earth I could pay for it all. I inhaled so deeply I nearly fainted.

The Children’s Hospital administrator must have thought I was crazy when she asked me how I would pay and I responded “Cash.” She said, “You know the first day of tests alone cost almost $8,000?” I couldn’t understand how 2 hours in the hospital for tests could cost $8k, but I really didn’t care. I just said I’d figure it out. That was a Friday and Jacob was scheduled for his first surgery the following Thursday. He was having that surgery. About an hour later that same administrator called me back and told me about this program at the hospital, funded by the Emir of Qatar. Through his substantial grant, Children’s Hospital was able to provide care free of charge to children without insurance.

You have to shake your head in bewilderment. I live in the richest country in the world, but healthcare is a privilege. It was Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Emir of Qatar – a small Arab emirate in the Middle East, absolute monarchy, with a population of about 1.4million people - who paid for the surgeries that saved my son from paralysis. He walks today, quite well, and is an even bigger pain in the tush.

I thanked Emir Hamad bin Khalif in November 2008. Today, I thank President Barak Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and all the brave men and women in our U.S. House of Representatives who listened to thousands of stories like mine, and are, indeed, Profiles in Courage, because they did not allow their fears to hold this country back from the hope of a nation where healthcare is a right. I thank them because once President Obama signs the healthcare reform bill to law, the discriminatory effect of having been cast as someone with a “pre-existing condition” will no longer exist.

I thank them because this week, I will exhale.

Congressman Cao is Sole Republican Vote in Support of Health Reform

After months of grassroots pressure, and months of indecision and wavering, Congressman Anh "Joseph'' Cao became the only Republican in the House of Representatives to vote in favor of the Democratic health care reform bill.

Grassroots activists in New Orleans, who repeatedly confronted Cao on this issue, deserve at least some of the credit for this vote. As the bill moves to the Senate, it's time for activists to keep the pressure on Senator Mary Landrieu, who has also been noncommittal on the issue.

Protests in Support of Health Care Reform Planned for This Weekend

As health care reform slowly moves its way through Congress, the final shape of what the results will look like is still unclear. Unfortunately, real reform - like single payer - was never on the table, and Republicans and conservative Democrats have been standing in the way of even mild improvements, like a robust public option. In New Orleans, the fight over Charity Hospital continues, while Louisiana ranks near the bottom of most indicators of health. Overall the state is 46th in access to healthcare and healthcare outcomes, with the fifth highest rate of uninsured in the country, including a third of African Americans uninsured. The state is also fifth to last in employer-sponsored health insurance

Nationwide, chapters of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) have been organizing protests called Stroller Brigades, saying, "it is astonishing that we are still begging to make sure children are better off, not worse off," in the legislation. They demand that "Congress and the President support changes that provide comprehensive, affordable, accessible care for all children no matter where they live."

The Louisiana chapter of CDF is organizing rallies in several cities across the state, including Baton Rouge, Alexandra, and Lafayette. The New Orleans protest will be this Saturday, November 7, starting at the Hale Boggs Federal Bldg., 500 Poydras St. Participants assemble at 9:00am, and the march begins at 9:30am.

Photo of Save Charity Hospital Secondline by Taslim VanHattum.

Tamara Jackson, President of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force, Speaks out for Health Care Reform

This Wednesday, more than a hundred New Orleanians (as well as two brass bands and several other performers) demonstrated outside the Hale Boggs Federal Building to send the message to US Senator Mary Landrieu that her constituents support the public option in the health care debate.

Tamara Jackson, the president of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force – the alliance that represents 25 of the city’s 32 clubs - was one of the main organizers of the rally.

“I’m out today because we need a public option,” said Jackson. “A lot of the Social Aid and Pleasure Club Members - as well as many musicians we work with - have been suffering because they don’t have access to care.”

The Task Force previously led the successful fight against excessive fees the police department attempted to levy on secondlines, which threatened the very existence of the secondline tradition. They also have spent the past four years fighting to help their members return home, while also continuing to preserve the city’s traditions. “While we rebuild our lives, we also contribute to the culture that is so historic here in this city,” she says.

But this is the first time that the alliance has taken on a political issue not directly tied to the city’s culture. Jackson explained that all of their members believed in the importance of this fight.

“We talked about it recently with our members,” she said. “With people falling sick, we felt we needed to be proactive and do something. We decided its essential that the task force take on another role and advocate for the public option.”

Although this kind of direct political action may be new for the organization, it fits well with their history. “The Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs started as benevolent societies,” Jackson explained. “They helped establish burials for the members that were fallen, or helping someone who had fallen sick. And now we are faced with an insurance crisis, and a health care crisis. We are disenfranchised. We are everyday working people that are in need.”

Jackson, who worked at the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, now works at the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville. She explained that the loss of NOAH is another aspect of the city’s health care crisis. “Louisiana is suffering, we don’t have many health care options,” she said. “There’s no hospital in New Orleans East. You just have a few hospitals in the city that are open and providing services, and even those services are limited. You no longer have a charity hospital. Mental health patients, with the recent closure of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, will not have a place to go.”

Jackson hopes that Wednesday’s rally will send a message to our political representatives. “I’m really disappointed in Senator Landrieu,” explains Jackson. “When she ran for re-election she supported Obama’s plan. She used President Obama to get elected, and now she opposes it.”

Jackson stressed that her organization intends to stay in this fight. “This is a real serious issue,” she said. “A lot of people, especially African-Americans, don’t have access to care. We need to come together as a community. I have health insurance, but I’m still advocating for those that don’t.”

The Fight for Health Care Reform Continues

This Wednesday, a wide coalition of organizations has organized a rally to support the public option in health care reform. The rally will be held outside Senator Mary Landrieu's office - Landrieu is among the key Democratic votes who have been standing with Republicans in blocking meaningful health care reform.

One of the key organizations behind this rally is the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force, the coalition that represents virtually every S&P Club in the city. While these clubs are known for their central role in our city's culture through sponsoring secondlines most weekends, they deserve recognition for their social justice role as well.

Historically, S&P Clubs were founded as benevolent societies, offering insurance to their members and engaging in other forms of community support. This role continues to be an important aspect of most clubs - for example, several clubs hold benefits in the fall to buy school supplies for kids. Post-Katrina, the Task Force has played an even larger role in advocating for culture - for example, by fighting against city rules that would have nearly eliminated most secondlines - and also greater community needs, such as supporting the recent demonstration to save Charity Hospital.

Wednesday's rally will begin at 6:00pm at the Federal building at 500 Poydras St. At least two brass bands will perform, and speakers will include Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, the President of the New Orleans Medical Association and founding steering committee member of the Louisiana Consumer Healthcare Coalition; Robert “Tiger” Hammond, President of Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO; K Brad Ott, Co-chair, Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital; and Tamara Jackson, President of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force.

For more info on the rally, contact Michelle at 214-684-1426, or michellelongino@yahoo.com, or Gilda, at gildawreed@yahoo.com.

(Photo above by Taslim van Hattum)

Congressman Cao Addresses Health Care, Audience is Dissatisfied with his Answers

Last night, Congressman Cao faced hard questioning from a room of New Orleanians, and most of the smaller-than-expected crowd of about 60 was loudly dissatisfied with his answers.

Cao’s office apparently was nervous about public expressions of opinion they couldn’t control. In advance of the event, they attempted to forbid local organizers from passing out information about the state of health care in Louisiana.

The evening was dominated by questions about medical insurance, as one person after another tried to pin down the Congressman to a stance on the White House’s health care reform bill. Cao would only repeat that he was for reform, but not necessarily this bill. Questioners asked if Cao was more responsive to donors and supporters such as Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions than he was to his constituents.

One position that Congressman Cao did commit to was a stance against federal funding for abortions. In response, a woman in the audience gave an impassioned declaration that, as a man, he should not try tell women what to do with their bodies – to wide support from the room. Other audience members responded that, regardless of anyone’s opinion on the issue, the White House bill would not overturn the already-existing Hyde Amendment, which already prohibits such funding. Cao disagreed.

Finally, in response to a question from Tracie Washington of Louisiana Justice Institute, Congressman Cao declared that he would not support a health care reform bill that did not specifically prohibit federal funding for abortion. Many in the room expressed frustration and anger at his stance. One speaker declared that Cao was standing against the bill, but they did not see him standing for anything, especially Louisiana.

Health Care Advocates from Across the City will be Attending Congressman Cao's Forum, and Asking Hard Questions

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao, who dodged last week’s Community Conversation on Health Care, has announced a public health care forum for tomorrow night. Congressman Cao apparently decided last week’s conversation – which filled a church in Gentilly - was not important enough for him to attend, but was still a good enough idea for him to present something very similar.

Tomorrow night’s forum, like last week’s event, features a panel of health care experts, including: Nancy Cassagne, CEO of West Jefferson Medical Center; Mary Joseph, Director of the Katrina Resource and Referral Project at the Children’s Defense Fund; and Judge Calvin Johnson. The panel will take questions from forum attendees, and be moderated by WBOK’s Gerod Stevens.

Anyone concerned about health care in New Orleans, and what our elected representatives are doing about it, should be there, and be prepared to ask Congressman Cao the hard questions he has been dodging. If anyone knows the need for health care reform, its residents of Louisiana; our state is number 50 in most measures of health care quality and access.

Local activist Eli Ackerman has listed some questions for Cao on his blog. As Ackerman says, “Congressman Cao has developed the habit of not taking positions on issues (think stimulus) before he votes the reactionary position with his Party's leaders. It is important that meeting attendees make a real effort to force Mr. Cao to explain what he believes, how he plans to vote, and why.”

Cao’s forum will be Thursday, September 3, at 6:00 p.m, at H.C. Schaumburg Elementary School, 9501 Grant Street – in New Orleans East. For some background, check out the Louisiana Justice Institute’s "Healthcare: Myths vs. Facts" Powerpoint and factsheet, here.

If you're not with us, are you against us?

If you’re not with us, are you against us?

Where do Louisiana Democrats stand on healthcare reform?

Why are members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation having such a difficult time either supporting President Obama’s healthcare reform initiative, or at least supporting an alternative that effectively directly addresses the deadly healthcare circumstances in Louisiana?

For some of the more fortunate around the country, healthcare reform is more a question of only resources: how do we build a sustainable system that gives everyone the right to healthcare coverage and access to quality, affordable healthcare? How do we break free from the economically unsustainable system of healthcare that while profitable for healthcare insurers, will eventually bankrupt us all.?

But in Louisiana, the stakes are much higher. . . it’s a question of life and death for some Louisiana family every day.

No one can deny that Louisiana is the pitiful poster child for healthcare reform.

Just a few of the more compelling circumstances which cost the lives every day in Louisiana that our congressional leadership is apparently unwilling to address:

• Louisiana consistently has among the worst medical outcomes of any state;
  § 50th in deaths from diabetes;
  § 50th in breast cancer deaths;
  § 49th in infant mortality;
  § 46th in overall cancer deaths
  § 48th in deaths from colorectal cancer;
  § 42nd in deaths from stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.
• Overall we rank 46th in access to healthcare and healthcare outcomes (according to the non partisan Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2007). 61 or 64 parishes in Louisiana are medically underserved and 54 are classified as poor in terms of healthcare access)

If this is not compelling reason for our congressional delegation to support some kind of effective healthcare reform, perhaps nothing is.

• Louisiana has the fifth highest rate of uninsured in the country with a third of African Americans uninsured, more than half of Latinos (legally in the country) uninsured.
  
• And Louisiana ranks fifth to last in employer sponsored health insurance.
  

Because of these inhumanely high levels of uninsured, the dearth of employers who make healthcare available to their workers and the poor penetration and lack of competition among insurers and managed care organizations, Louisiana needs a public option or some other effective means to give our people real choice when it comes to quality, affordable healthcare coverage available to our citizens. An “exchange” composed of the effective oligopoly of Louisiana’s private healthcare insurers and managed care organizations is no real choice at all. We need a public option to protect us from the healthcare insurance industry that has in recent months showered Congress with millions in campaign cash.

Time and time again, hundreds of thousands of working poor folks and African American voters had placed their loyalty and their hopes in Democrats in elections for Congress in Louisiana.

Trust, especially when it comes to government and politics, is a finite virtue.

It’s time for Louisiana’s congressional delegation to stand with us, and not with the entrenched moneyed interests that share responsibility for the dire healthcare circumstances people in Louisiana suffer and die from everyday.

If you’re not with us, are you against us?