Deliver Us From Health Insurance Corporations

Dear God/ess, I just watched a Dateline Special on the Health Insurance Industry practice of denying or delaying claims to people who more often than not, die as a result. My friend and friend of all America, Wendell Potter, resigned as a Cigna Insurance executive when he heard news of the death of Nataline Sarisyan, pictured here, just hours after Cigna reversed their decision to give this young woman a liver transplant.

Deny, delay, death.

What would Jesus do?

Jesus would be appalled by the inequality and injustice of our healthcare system in America.

Those who are Christ centered in their work in this world know that to carry Jesus' work of healing, that healthcare is one of the number one priorities based on the biblical principles of stewardship and justice.

We all have failed to be good stewards of our nation's healthcare because we stand by as America spends two to three times per person as other industrialized countries with much worse overall health outcomes.

All persons are precious under the eyes of God/ess. A person's worth cannot be reduced to a price and bought and sold without moral and ethical considerations.

Jesus calls on us to work for the well being of the poor and the marginalized, to "rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow," said the Prophet Isiah.

Jesus was a healer and His ministry was based on Love and Healing. He never refused to care for a person because they couldn't pay.

What would Jesus do? Feed the hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, restore sight and hearing, and make the lame walk again.

The least we can do is provide sound legislation, giving healthcare to ALL of God/ess' kids.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, My first wake up call concerning the soul-less Health Insurance Companies came when I helped raise $3,000.00 for my seven year old patient who suffered a lower spinal cord injury as a result of a Motor Vehicle Accident. He is paralyzed from the waist down.

At the fund-raising dinner, I sat with the child's grandmother, who told me they would use the money to pay for the child's catheter supplies, diapers and medicine that the HMO would not pay for.

I was appalled! Insurance was not reimbursing for these crucial supplies?

Back at the office the following Monday, office workers specifically hired to wade through health Insurance denials and delays, fixed the problem. We were lost without this staff whose sole job was to battle Health Insurance and catch them at their cat and mouse game of swindling the American Public.

My second wake up call involved a time when I worked for an evening at a trauma unit at the hospital where I work.

A man was brought in with a brainstem injury because he stopped taking his Blood Pressure medicine.

Why? because he had just retired and there was a glitch in the delivery of his health insurance money.

We kept this man alive long enough for his family to arrive and say their last goodbyes.

I said to the nurses there that night, "This must be a rare occurrence, right? People who retire don't often have Health Insurance Companies just stop coverage, right?"

They said, "No, it happens all the time."

My wake up call is your food for thought.

Please dear Angels, help us come to a speedy resolution to this problem: Not by passing any bill just to say you did it, with no Change at all coming out of Washington, but a One-Payer System that takes care of all of us, is not Employer Based, goes from State by State, like a clean wind washing through our lives.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, My third wake up call concerning the nameless, faceless bureaucracy of the Health Insurance Corporations came when I realized that healthcare is not partisan, is not political, is not anyone's business except for a patient and her doctor and nurse.

But the Health Insurance Entities loom like Grim Reapers, standing between patients and their healthcare providers.

My job as a nurse is to save lives and the Health Insurance Companies, besides being beholden to only their shareholders, stand in the way of all of us, doctors, nurses and all healthcare workers, of doing the job of delivering help to our patients in a timely manner.

And when we are successful in preserving life despite Health Insurance meddling, our patient often goes on to face a huge medical bill because she doesn't have insurance, or thought she did until she had to use it.

Then she loses her home due to the impossibility of paying the healthcare bill. This happens in at least 50% of foreclosures here in America, and that percentage is growing.

My fourth wake up call came when I realized that giving some people healthcare is called an entitlement and the cost to society is enormous.

By giving all Americans Healthcare, we are suddenly on a level playing field. Suddenly we are putting all the money for healthcare in a common pot and the costs drop dramatically, and Health Insurance as we know it is dead. May they R.I.P.

Let us pause for a moment and relish what it WILL be like to never have to deal with Health Insurance Companies ever again, especially for doctors and nurses but for everyone breathing the same air, gazing upon the same stars at night, and tasting common tears when loved ones die due to Health Insurance intrusion.

Just knowing that your relationships are no longer perverted by these murderous thugs will be a matter for Divine Intervention.

And we now pray for this Intercessionary Mediation.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, Thank you for providing strength to the front lines of Healthcare Reform in this country. They are nurses, doctors, mothers like Hilda Sarkisyan, whose daughter was featured in the 1/26/2010 prayer.

They are fathers, too, and politicians like Jim Ferlo and Kathy Manderino here in PA.

They are college professors like the Executive Director Of Healthcare 4 All Pa, Chuck Pennacchio.

They are the stars of Michael Moore's SiCKO and all who flocked to see it!

California's State Board passed their Single Payer Bill yesterday, SB 410. I know they will pull it off just like Pennsylvania will and all the states in between and beyond. Perseverance is the answer as well as persistence and an attitude that success is the only true outcome.

Hilde Sarkisyan says her daughter is now an Angel in Heaven and is fighting for healthcare for all Americans. Bless her soul, I have no doubt that she is. How many more have joined her?

Angelic Intervention is showering Love upon this movement. The only thing that is asked of us is not to become cynical or full of doubt. All the good in the world must be gathered up and brought to our hearts for continuous renewal.

We stand at a critical place in American History. Healthcare is a human right's issue, just like Civil Right's, Women's Rights and Gay Rights.

Civilized Medicine must be brought to this current system and release all of us who slave at a job because of Health Insurance.

Free us to become productive and entrepreneurial. Free us to look after those less fortunate and more sickly.

For Nataline and all of her Angels are working on our behalf.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, Grassroots and political movements come and they go but the REAL Healthcare Reform Movement is here to stay. Last night we had dinner with a large gathering of Single Payer advocates to decide how to sweep Pennsylvania into the win/win position of implementing healthcare for all here in the Commonwealth.

I sat with Donna and Larry Smith, stars of Michael Moore's SiCKO. I've met Donna and Larry before and I just love them.

I found out that Donna was responsible for the story featuring Nataline Sarkisyan on the Dateline special about Healthcare Reform that aired last week. The story is helping Nataline's mother, Hilda Sarkisyan, take tiny steps towards moving further along in the grieving process. Hilda and her husband were off fighting Cigna Insurance when they received word that Nataline died.

I am concerned for the need for forgiveness in this tragedy. Wendell Potter, Cigna executive and eventual whistle blower, quit his job after Nataline died, just hours after Cigna agreed to pay for the transplant. Wendell went to visit the Sarkisyan's and apologized for his role in the health insurance game of delay, deny, and ultimately for the deaths of untold thousands.

But forgiveness is not done for the Insurance Companies. It's not done to let anyone off the hook. It's done because by not forgiving, you've locked yourself in a prison of hate and constriction.

It's done because if you don't forgive, you remain in the prison and continue to suffer.

But if you do forgive, you can go anywhere and be free. You can even be locked up behind bars and if you do the work of forgiveness, you are free.

My friend Ammon Hennacy, pictured here, after being imprisoned many times for refusing to pay the war tax, once said that the second he forgave the sadistic prison warden, his burden was lifted. The warden suddenly looked different, like an innocent child of God/ess.

Once we truly forgive the Health Insurance Company injustices, is that when our Healthcare System will truly transform? And not one moment before?

Om, Peace, Amen

The War on Medical Terrorism:
Why Single-Payer Medicare-for-All is the Cure for the U.S. Healthcare System

In the Guts Of Health Care:
What's wrong with our present Health Care and how we can implement and afford Universal Coverage through a Single Payer System?

www.nursingcareertransformation.com/simplenewslettersignup.html