Ill and UNINSURED in Illinois

• Emergency! Nov. 4 rally against Cook County health care cuts

  Number of comments: 0
  Stroger Hospital Emergency Room
  Yesterday, I had surgery at Stroger Hospital. My appointment was for 6:30 a.m. But the hospital was so overwhelmed that didn't get my operation until after 5 p.m.
  
  I spent the whole day lying on a gurney in' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 03, 2009, 9:30pm EST
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health-care activists arrested in Chicago sit-in

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Arrests at Cigna in downtown Chicago yesterday. (Via Illinois Media Progressives.)
  Police dragged seven health-care protesters from a pro-reform sit-in at Cigna's downtown Chicago offices yesterday, dragging them by hands and feet. Outside, a rally whose members included Illinois Rep. Mary E. Flowers (D-31st) chanted, "Cigna profits! People'" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 09, 2009, 4:30pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• RIP Nicholas Skala, Chicago advocate for single-payer

  Number of comments: 1
   
  
  
  Single Payer Action interview with Nicholas Skala, June 12, 2009
  Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
  
  I was shocked and saddened to hear of the death of 27-year-old Nicholas Skala. Mr. Skala, who died suddenly of unknown causes in his Chicago home last weekend, [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 11, 2009, 9:00pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Liar! Liar! Pants on fire! 10 lies about health-care reform

  Number of comments: 6
   
  
  
  I'm not normally one to give way to obscenity but WTF?!
  
  It seems as if Republicans like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have gone off the deep end and are trying to make Americans believe that health-care' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 09, 2009, 8:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Dis-invited from White House, Obama's Chicago doctor eloquent on health-care reform

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  Dr. David Scheiner, who was Pres. Barack Obama's personal physician for 22 years, until Obama went into the White House, speaks out forcefully for single-payer health care in this video, and he is no fan of the president's plan, or that of those that were being hashed out [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 03, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health-care reform: The progressives awake!

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  Rachel Maddow: The gloves come off on health-care reform.
  
  I feel a little more hopeful about health-care reform today. It looks as if progressives in Congress may be finally waking up from the dead.
  
  New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's move to showcase the hypocrisy' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 01, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health-care reform and the living dead

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  Zombies take over the streets of Chicago, July 25, 2009
  I haven't posted in a while. I've been feeling worse again, and I've been depressed over the way that health-care reform is going. I'm becoming convinced that if anything passes at all, it's going to be so watered' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 30, 2009, 1:30pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Hell no, we won't hush!

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  
  From Laura Flanders: "With popular fury at the status quo rising and hunger for a real, public option attracting over 70 percent approval in polls, the White House is urging public-option advocates to hush.
  
  "According to the Washington Post, in a pre-holiday call with [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 15, 2009, 2:30pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Better fairgrounds treatment than no treatment

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  In this video, former health insurance industry executive Wendell Potter, who left the field after almost 20 years to become a health reform advocate, talks to Bill Moyers about what caused him to leave his highly paid job.
  
  My first thought, hearing him describe the "health care" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 12, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Chicago doctor walks 700 miles for health care reform

  Number of comments: 0
  Dr. Ogan GurelTo highlight the hardships that plague the uninsured, Chicago docter Ogan Gurel is taking their stories to Washington, D.C. — on foot.
  
  Gurel is adjunct associate professor of bioengineering/bioinformatics at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and chairman of Aesis Group, a medical consulting firm. As [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 02, 2009, 10:30am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• $1.4 million per day to derail health-care reform

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  
  Why isn't Congress listening to Americans on health-care reform? This is why.
  
  Health care interests have spent $1.4 million per day this year lobbying Congress, according to Common Cause. Just imagine if that money were spent on health care for the uninsured' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 29, 2009, 1:30pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Hooray for Mary Flowers!June 25 single-payer hearing, Carbondale

  Number of comments: 0
   
  Mary E. FlowersIllinois Rep. Mary E. Flowers (D-31st) is still out there talking up her bill for an Illinois single-payer health-care system, H.B. 311.
  
  The Southern Illinoisan reports:"Flowers said she plans to be in Carbondale next week to discuss the legislation" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 22, 2009, 11:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Obama's Chicago doctor supports single-payer

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  
  What do you call a man who ignores his doctor's advice?
  
  Barack Obama.
  
  So reports Forbes, which notes that Dr. David Scheiner, the Hyde Park physician who was Obama's internist from 1987 until after the election, is critical of the president's' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 20, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Maher on Obama and health care: Right again

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  Bill Maher: Enough with the Obamathon
  
  Sorry if you've seen this already. I don't have cable, so I see these things when they come around on YouTube. Bill Maher is absolutely right here. Pres. "Go with the Flow" Obama is not giving us the leadership we [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 19, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Have you signed on to universal health care?

  Number of comments: 1
   
  
  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
  
  Please go to Sanders' Web site right now and sign the petition!
  
  Everybody in. Nobody out.' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 18, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Chronic recognition

  Number of comments: 1
  Ill and Uninsured in Illinois has gotten a tiny bit of recognition lately. The blog was accepted to Blogburst, a blog syndication service, which means a couple of my posts appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times' and Daily Southtown Web site. (This seems to have generated about five' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 17, 2009, 10:08am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health-insurance pirates: 'Go ahead and die!'

  Number of comments: 1
   
  
  Pirates of the Health Care-ibbean.
  Music by the Austin Lounge Lizards.
  This is brilliant! Why hasn't it gone viral?
  
  Embed it in your blog! Digg it! Post it on Del.ico.us. Please, somebody, put it on national TV!
  
  Chicagoans, of course, will be reminded of the' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 16, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Horrifying health ministries: Inspiration for health co-op plan?

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  
  Sen. Chris Dodd's health-reform site, now apparently closed after 26,363 votes on 514 entries from 484 people, got a lot of traffic from members of so-called Christian health ministries, who were apparently coached to post repeating messages (they all' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 14, 2009, 10:30am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health Wonks' health reform roundup

  Number of comments: 0
   
  I'm a little behind on things this week — struggling with two ailments while trying to get a little work done has sapped my energy — so I'm just getting to the latest edition of Health Wonk Review at Managed Care Matters.
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 13, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Springfield on health-care reform

  Number of comments: 0
   
  
  
  Following health-care reform has made me realize that I don't know as much as I ought to about how my state government works, not when you get down to the nitty-gritty details.
  
  As an excuse, I grew up in another state, so I' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 08, 2009, 5:30pm EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Tell Chris Dodd to support single-payer!

  Number of comments: 1
   
  UPDATE: After commentary from 484 people, Sen. Dodd has stopped accepting opinions at the YouTube SenateHub site. You can still contact him through more traditional means.
   
  
  
  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, invites you to [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 07, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Discouragement

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  I haven't written about my own situation in a while. Partly because I find writing about myself difficult, especially when there's no good news to report. This week I have good news and bad news.
  
  The good news is that treatment is progressing. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 06, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Can we have worse health care than today? Yes we can!

  Number of comments: 0
  Say it ain't so, Barack. Say it ain't so.
  
  Well, I never would've thought it.
  
  Of all my nightmares over health care, the one I never thought would come to pass is a system worse than we have now. Yet it's looming on [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 05, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Retail clinics no answer to medically underserved

  Number of comments: 7
   
  UPDATE: I unfairly maligned Walgreens' nurse-practitioner for not doing any tests; in subsequent research I learned that my new illness is best diagnosed clinically in its early stages. On the other hand, the dosage of antibiotics she prescribed was too little, as I found out when I phoned my' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 04, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Health reformers' calendar

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  Upcoming health-care reform events
  June 6: Organizing for America Health Care Kickoffs. Rewrite the script!
  June 8: Campaign for Better Health Care Summer Celebration, 5:30 p.m., La Decima Musa Restaurant, Chicago, $50.
  June 9: Chicago Single Payer Action Network meeting, 6:30 p.m. Access [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 03, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• June 6: Organizing for health care — rewrite the script!

  Number of comments: 1
  
  "On June 6th, thousands of people just like you are beginning to organize for health care reform by hosting or attending a Health Care Organizing Kickoff," says the Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America.
  
  Pres. Obama will join confirmed hosts and attendees in a [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 01, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Abandoned Cook County health care

  Number of comments: 0
  Creepy CPR dummy abandoned at Cook County Hospital.
  (Photo by Kyle Telechan, City Eyes Blog, via The Windy Citizen)
  
  Check out City Eyes Blog's series of eerie photographs taken in abandoned Chicago hospitals.
  
  The [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 31, 2009, 9:30am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Obama and the meaning of change

  Number of comments: 0
  >
  
  When Barack Obama promised "change," I didn't realize he meant the kind that goes ka-ching ... in the pockets of politicians.
  
  Yet he's done absolutely nothing to resist the influence of monied lobbyists on Washington. I suppose that's too much to ask of an Illinois [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 30, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• The truth about single-payer

  Number of comments: 0
  
  "Up to 30 percent of the costs [of private health insurance] have nothing to do with health care at all...." —Donna Smith
  
  "We could actually do everything we know is useful for every American with what we're spending now." —Dr. David Himmelstein
  
  "If [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 29, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• June 2 rally for health care, downtown Chicago

  Number of comments: 0
  The National Single-Payer Day of Action is May 30. We're a little behindhand in Chicago. The local rally doesn't take place till June 2, when the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, Chicago Single-Payer Action Network, Physicians for a National Health Program and others plan a protest outside corporate [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 28, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Competition? What competition?

  Number of comments: 2
  
  Source: Illinois Health-Plan Premiums Soar As Insurers Face Less Competition (pdf)
  
  Health Care for America Now!'s Illinois chapter struggles with blogging. First, they forgot to turn off the default list of Wordpress links; then, they had a variety of formatting troubles. They post infrequently. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 27, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Beating the drum for health care

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  Tomorrow night's 8:30 p.m. show at Martyr's, 3855 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, will benefit the Chicago Single-Payer Action Network. Admission is $10.
  
  The line up:
  Black Bear Combo
  Ami Saraiya
  Furious Frank & the Hobocamp Mud Show
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 26, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Forget sex appeal, all you need is health insurance

  Number of comments: 0
  
  From Runaway Box
  
  Here you go, boys, you don't need to buy her diamonds. Just give her health insurance.
  "I don't care about your diamond rings. I don't need none of those fancy things. If you really want to be my man, let me get all up [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 24, 2009, 11:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• RNs, doctors arrested speaking out for single-payer health care

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Via Private Health Insurance Must Go!
  Thank you, protesters. Bless you all.
  
  We shall overcome. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 22, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Who's afraid of the R word?

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  I'm not afraid of rationing.
  
  Over at The Covert Rationing Blog, the eccentric DrRich, who likes to refer to himself in the third person, takes a backwards look at the failed health-reform efforts of the [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 18, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• May 21: Free screening of Do No Harm

  Number of comments: 1
  
  
  Do No Harm, a documentary about the struggle, against relentless attacks, of two reluctant Georgia whistleblowers to draw national attention to hospital corruption and the plight of the uninsured, gets its Chicago premiere Thursday, May 21, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 14, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois

• Obama's hope = Baucus's nope?

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  When I spent 11 hours in the waiting room of Stroger Hospital's emergency department, it was December. The elections were not long over, and many of my fellow patients, waiting so stoically for treatment during the long hours, still sported hats, buttons and other [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 11, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  by Ill and Uninsured in Illinois