06
Sep
2005
The Brew & View is alive and well! Perhaps not in its original location, but we've moved our operations to the larger, and more accommodating, Rocket Cinema. We plan on continuing to bring the best independent and art-house films to the area, but just won't be showing them for the later shows. Thank you to the River Cities' Reader for the great coverage the past two weeks, and the great ode from Mike Schulz. But the Brew & View is not dead; we've just been reincarnated. Keep checking for movie times in this paper each week, and our Web site (http://www.qcbrewview.com) and movie line (788-VIEW) are still intact. Our new location is called Brew & View Rocket Cinema, just like our sister site in Chicago, Brew & View Vic Theatre. Thanks again to all our loyal patrons, and we hope you will continue to visit us in our new location.
Devin Hansen
Rock Island
Who Cares About Health Care?
I am beginning to wonder if we really care about health care in this country. Many of us are in good health and/or have good health insurance. But our health-care system is headed for a train wreck. Many are already suffering from inadequate care, and we must all wonder if care will be there for us when we need it. We spend more on health care and get less for our money than other developed countries (15 percent of our Gross Domestic Product versus 8.7 percent in Europe). The number of Americans without health insurance keeps increasing (now at 45.8 million people). The National Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because of lack of health care.
Meanwhile many large corporations are cutting benefits and raising deductibles, and often cutting off their retirees completely. Toyota decided to build its next North American plant in Canada to avoid health-care-related costs in the U.S. Many small business owners can't enroll in group insurance plans and can't afford the ever-increasing premiums, and so must cut benefits or drop health coverage all together. Big-box retailers (such as Wal-mart) make large profits but pay such low wages and keep so many employees on a part-time-only basis that they can't even afford the meager benefits the company programs offer. So these workers turn to the taxpayers through the Medicaid program for help. Medicaid is a state/federal program that provides health insurance for 50 million low-income families. But now the new federal budget calls for a $10-billion cut in Medicaid funding, throwing the problem back to the states. One state, Tennessee, which had had a model Medicaid program, has responded by dropping 300,000 people completely from the Medicaid rolls, and reducing benefits for another 350,000. These are 650,000 of the most needy citizens of the state. Other states are likely to implement similar drastic cuts in coverage.
Health care in our country is going downhill fast. We need to act now to reverse this trend - to help those who need it today and to ensure that adequate care will be there when we need it. We need strong political leadership and active citizen advocacy now. One local citizen group that is addressing these issues is the Health Care Forum of Progressive Action for the Common Good in the Quad Cities (http://www.qcprogressiveaction.org). As we move into the next election cycles we all need to ask our candidates how they plan to address this national crisis if they are elected, and make this an important factor in our decisions. We all need to care about health care for all Americans now.
The Reverend Franklin Samuelson
Moline
Devin Hansen
Rock Island
Who Cares About Health Care?
I am beginning to wonder if we really care about health care in this country. Many of us are in good health and/or have good health insurance. But our health-care system is headed for a train wreck. Many are already suffering from inadequate care, and we must all wonder if care will be there for us when we need it. We spend more on health care and get less for our money than other developed countries (15 percent of our Gross Domestic Product versus 8.7 percent in Europe). The number of Americans without health insurance keeps increasing (now at 45.8 million people). The National Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because of lack of health care.
Meanwhile many large corporations are cutting benefits and raising deductibles, and often cutting off their retirees completely. Toyota decided to build its next North American plant in Canada to avoid health-care-related costs in the U.S. Many small business owners can't enroll in group insurance plans and can't afford the ever-increasing premiums, and so must cut benefits or drop health coverage all together. Big-box retailers (such as Wal-mart) make large profits but pay such low wages and keep so many employees on a part-time-only basis that they can't even afford the meager benefits the company programs offer. So these workers turn to the taxpayers through the Medicaid program for help. Medicaid is a state/federal program that provides health insurance for 50 million low-income families. But now the new federal budget calls for a $10-billion cut in Medicaid funding, throwing the problem back to the states. One state, Tennessee, which had had a model Medicaid program, has responded by dropping 300,000 people completely from the Medicaid rolls, and reducing benefits for another 350,000. These are 650,000 of the most needy citizens of the state. Other states are likely to implement similar drastic cuts in coverage.
Health care in our country is going downhill fast. We need to act now to reverse this trend - to help those who need it today and to ensure that adequate care will be there when we need it. We need strong political leadership and active citizen advocacy now. One local citizen group that is addressing these issues is the Health Care Forum of Progressive Action for the Common Good in the Quad Cities (http://www.qcprogressiveaction.org). As we move into the next election cycles we all need to ask our candidates how they plan to address this national crisis if they are elected, and make this an important factor in our decisions. We all need to care about health care for all Americans now.
The Reverend Franklin Samuelson
Moline
