While the Kentucky legislature has generally ignored the economic and environmental consequences of coal, it did get a few minutes today to consider the effects on human health when the House Committee on Health and Welfare gave KFTC 20 minutes on its agenda.

Our three panelists made those 20 minutes count, focusing on the dangers not only to coal miners but to the health of whole communities in the coalfields.

KFTC member Beverly May, a nurse practitioner who works in Perry County, said she sees miners who have contracted lung diseases from exposure to coal dust and silica dust. “At home in Floyd County, I have friends in Hueysville, David and Allen that are plagued by dust from both nearby strip mines and from coal trucks passing by their homes. This is the same sandstone dust which causes silicosis in the workers, so I have to wonder, what does it do to children with asthma or elders or anyone who breathes it every day?”

She described the headwaters of Raccoon Creek, which are now polluted from nearby mining. “So I have to wonder, is the public water supply safe?”

Beverly May

Dr. Michael Hendryx

“The coal industry isn’t answering these questions because they don’t have to,” said May. “This body and the federal government have not held them fully accountable.”

Dr. Michael Hendryx, director of the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center and an associate professor at West Virginia University, said his research has revealed higher rates of chronic heart, chronic lung and renal failure mortality rates in coal-producing areas than in the rest of Appalachia or the nation, even after the rates have been adjusted for other factors such as smoking, age and education.

“We have some evidence that the effects become stronger as the level of mining increases,” Dr. Hendryx said. He attributed this to “significant impairment of air and water quality near mines.”  He also noted that poverty and economic disadvantage are major predictors of public health and that mining areas have the highest poverty rates.

A couple of Dr. Hendryx's reports can be found here and here.

Nancy Reinhart read a statement from Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. Among other findings, Epstein stated that 19 of the known chemicals used and generated in processing coal are known cancer-causing agents, 24 are linked to lung and heart damage, and several remain untested as to their health effects.

The oral testimony was supplemented with dozens of pages of documentation and medical research given to committee members.

Bill Bissett, president of Kentucky Coal Association, asked to rebut and was given a couple of minutes. He did not say burning coal or dumping toxic mining wastes in streams improved anyone’s health or offer any refuting evidence, but did say the coal industry offers some scholarships to eastern Kentucky students to go to medical school.

Here's a video of the 21-minute hearing.

in today's Herald-Leader because of budget cuts to the state Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement.

The state also had to return $1 million to the federal government because it didn't match a federal grant for mine inspections.  It might have to return another $800,000 more.

This lost federal money certainly isn't the only cost of our chronic need for revenue reforms.  Tom Fitzgerald, of the Kentucky Resources Council, says that mines that contaminate our headwater streams contaminated them for longer because of missed inspections--another way that our outdated tax structure is costing us our water, health, and public safety.

As the bill from Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus makes its debut without even as much as a public option, a new study finds that 45,000 Americans die every year due to a lack of health insurance--one person every 12 minutes.  Now is time to take action for single-payer, says Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. 

In an interview with Democracy Now!, Woolhandler challenges the idea that Baucus's bill represents any kind of reform.  "This bill is a dream for the insurance industry....Our Congress and Senate needs to confront our private health insurance industry...We need to get rid of the insurance industry, take that administrative savings and use it in a medicare for all plan that would cover all necessary services."  And what about the co-ops, that are supposed to serve as a substitute for the already-anemic public option?  Wollhandler says the notion that the co-ops can compete with the health insurance industry is like "sending a pee-wee football league in with the NFL." 

Woolhandler calls supporters of single-payer to take action.  "This is still a democracy, and we need to be holding our representatives' feet to the fire."

Here are some resources to learn more about legislation that introduces single-payer health care, including calls to action to support single-payer:

• From PNHP, more information about Rep. Weiner's single-payer amendment to HR 3200, and ways to contact your representatives to support this amendment.  Rep. Weiner's amendment would replace the language of the House bill with the language of Conyers's HR 676.
  
• From PNHP's blog, more info about the Senate's single-payer bill by Sen. Bernie  Sanders.
  

• From Democracy Now!, an interview with Rep. Kucinich about Rep. Kucinich's amendment that would allow states to implement their own single-payer systems.

Interested in speaking out for a national health care program? 

The schedule so far for health care forums, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the offices of these congresspeople:

• Representative John Yarmuth (District 3) has three tele-town hall meetings planned this month to answer constituents' questions about health care reform. 
  
• A live town hall meeting is being planned for September 2 at 6:30om at Central High School in Louisville.  You can call his office to register any time after early next week. The number is 502.582.5129.

• Representative Brett Guthrie (District 2) will speak outside of the Warren County Justice Center at 1001 Center Street in Bowling Green from 1:00 - 2:00 PM on August 22, 2009.
• Representative Whitfield (District 1) will hold tele-town hall meetings on August 27 for his constituents. 
  
• Neither Senators Bunning nor McConnell nor Representatives Chandler (District 6), Rogers (District 5), and Davis (District 4) have health care reform forums planned.  Their phone numbers are below:
  

Rep. Chandler -- 859.219.1366

Rep. Rogers -- 606.439.0794    

Sen. Bunning -- 859.341.2602

Sen. McConnell -- http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm

On the 44th anniversary of Medicare, and hours after the Blue Dog Democrats weakened the "public option" included in the House health reform plan, single payer activists are rallying in Washington.

More than fifty Kentuckians are participating in the rally and lobby day, which are being billed as "Medicare: Made in America" to celebrate the success story of Medicare, and to urge a single-payer, "medicare for all" health care system. 

Neither the Obama plan nor the House health reform plan are single payer systems.  Both maintain the private insurance-based systems--a point of major contention for single-payer advoates, who point out that private insurance companies soak up a disproportionate amount of resources, and a plan that maintains them will be expensive and will perpetuate disparities in access. 

Until yesterday evening, both plans included a "public option"--a government plan that would be open to anyone.  KFTC members were suspect of the reach of this public option.  Janet Tucker, who has organized around single-payer with our ally organization, Kentuckians For Single Payer Healthcare, said,

"Any public option should offer the same quality of care that Congress gets; should be afforable; should be open to everyone, including immigrants; and should address the racial disparities in health care.  Anything short of that is a fraud."

Now, on the anniversary of Medicare, it seems as if even the public option is becoming dilute to the point of nonexistence. 

The Kentucky Single-Payer delegation will be presenting Senator McConnell, who is leading the Senate's charge against any meaningful health reforms, with a petition singed by 7,000 Kentuckians who support of single-payer.

To echo their message, contact Sen. McConnell.  Tell him to stop denying our right to health care for all.

Phone: (202) 224-2541
Fax: (202) 224-2499

Resources to stay on top of the health care debates:

Physicians For A National Health Program -- articles, resources, and check out their blog, which has up-to-date entries that critique the House ad Senate plans.  The treatment of the "public option" posted on July 28 is especially interesting, detailing the shifting meaning of the public option.

Kentuckians For Single Payer Healthcare -- Kentucky's affiliate of PNHP.  Stay informed of state and local events to support single payer.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a helpful tool that generates side-by-side comparisons of all the health care reform options, from single payer to the Senate plan.  Check the "last updated" line...These bills are changing fast.

The Economic Policy Institute has several articles about paying for reforming health care, and the costs of not reforming health care. 

Also, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D, OH) has proposed an amendment that passed, and so far has stuck, that would allow states to adopt their own single-payer systems.  Healthcare for America Now has an explanation of Kucinich's amendment and what it means for single-payer.

The United States has the technology and the money, but its health care ranks 37th in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Insurance companies take 20 – 30 percent of our health dollars and yet give us no health care. Our access to health care is poor; many have to wait a long time and some never can get services because they do not have health insurance.

The insurance companies limit the doctors we can use, the number of visits, and what treatment to use instead of the doctor and patient together deciding about their health care.

The best solution to our health care woes is again in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Conyers (a Democrat serving his 21st term in the House) introduced a bill nine years ago – and every year since – to expand Medicare so that everyone would be covered regardless of employment, income or health.

The measure, called H.R. 676, has 77 co-sponsors and the endorsement of more than 15,000 physicians.

With single payer health care all U.S. residents would show a card and could choose their doctors, dentists, chiropractors, social workers, etc. and get the care without co-pays, deductibles and premiums.

The U.S. government would collect around 2 percent more in taxes from 95 percent of the population (less than what we pay for all these services and medications). The wealthiest people would pay a higher tax rate.

Doctors would be freed to spend more time with their patients rather than hassling with insurance companies, all with different paperwork, and the U.S. could save $400 billion dollars a year by single payer health care.

To find out more about the bill look at www.pnhp.org or www.kyhealthcare.org.

Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare will be glad to give free presentations within the Kentuckiana/ Kentucky areas – including showing of the film SICKO and Frontline programs on “Medicare for all” as it is sometimes called.

We need you to bring about the health care in the U.S. that we deserve. Please tell your U.S. representative and senators (the Senate version is SB703) and get your state legislators to endorse single payer healthcare. President Obama needs to hear from citizens at www.whitehouse.gov.

According to an Associated Press report, President Obama said at a meeting in New Mexico that if he were building a health-care system from the ground up, he would favor a single-payer system. But he currently favors improving the existing system because many people are satisfied with it.

Are you satisfied with the way insurance companies dole out denials?  Let him know!