Claim Denied

It begins here. Only you can change this.

“I believe that you go right for the jugular." said Michael Fox.

07/08/2025: 9:52 am - DAPHNE, AL, USA

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If we are too cautious in demanding change, we offer nothing worthwhile. Watered-down, colorless iced tea attracts neither rave reviews, nor votes. The cries of “Throw me something, Mister!” echo in my head from the crowd of the New Orleans Marti Gras parade. At least that crowd gets beads and doubloons. We get diddly-squat.

Why is that? Could it be because any rancorous debate might upset the proletariat. I am tired of the timid. We can, for instance, debate and overcome the for-profit healthcare industry. They have no business case and have earned our utter disgust.

It is time to put an end to this cruel system. The first rule, do not harm, is not followed.

Now is time to upset the proletariat as we approach the midterms of 2026. We must open these debate doors to flesh out and undergird our candidates in the 2028 election. A platform! Give me a just platform!

“Democrats must convince millions of qualified but (as yet) nonvoting Americans to dispense with the fictions that “both parties are the same” or that their vote “won’t make a difference.” The choice now is not Democrat vs. Republican, or progressive vs. conservative; it is right vs. wrong, humane vs. cruel. Tens of millions of people will be harmed by this cruel legislation; tens of millions more will know someone who will be harmed. They are not just victims and witnesses, but foot soldiers in the battle to hold to account Republican tormentors.” Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian

How do you “must convince millions”? What shall the wagon that we put our shoulder to hold? Forge that platform! It is missing in action. That platform is what will draw the shoulders to the wagon. The 2024 Democratic Platform was delivered in the 11.9th hour, and was simply motherhood. I demand concrete and forged steel. Meat for the masses. Spare me putrid mother’s milk

Lots say a healthcare leg can’t be forged as there are good reasons it won’t fly. I say that was then! This is now. Single payer healthcare for all has merit right now. Put it on the last-to-be-published platform before the greedy insurance and big pharma companies can mount a campaign against it. Pass it in the dark of night if we must!

You cannot live with the current system, now can you? So let me ask you the cost of an unhealthy workforce. See this post by Thom Hartmann.

Thom Hartmann says one of the drivers supporting the status quo is fear of the change to single-payer heathcare. Do people know they will no longer need insurance? That insurance costs them $500 to $1500 per month and leaves them at risk for a bankruptcy from a $200,000 medical bill.

There are ways to overcome the fear. Also, people are not going to vote on this issue. It will be settled in Congress, and signed by a new President. Looks like January 20, 2029. We better start writing the bill to fund HHS adequately. Pointedly from Thom Hartmann:

“The United States is the only country in the developed world that doesn’t define healthcare as an absolute right for all of its citizens.

That’s it. We’re the only one left. We’re the only country in the developed world where somebody getting sick can leave a family bankrupt, destitute, and homeless.

A half-million American families are wiped out every year so completely that they must lose everything and declare bankruptcy just because somebody got sick. The number of health-expense-related bankruptcies in all the other developed countries in the world combined is zero.

Yet the United States spends more on “healthcare” than any other country in the world: about 17% of GDP.

Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden and Japan all average around 11%, and Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia all come in between 9.3% and 10.5%.

Health insurance premiums right now make up about 22% of all taxable payroll (and don’t even cover all working people), whereas Medicare For All would run an estimated 10% and would cover every man, woman, and child in America.

How and why are Americans being played for such suckers? We are the only developed country in the world with an entire multi-billion-dollar for-profit industry devoted to parasitically extracting money from us to then turn over to healthcare providers on our behalf. The for-profit health insurance industry has attached itself to us like a giant, bloodsucking tick.“

Thom Hartmann has written extensively on how to get through this dark period. His insights are profound. He discusses why previous changes to tax codes and healthcare relief have failed, but our times right now are quite different. Now we have personal financial devastation inflicted by our healthcare system.

Single payer healthcare would save every American households $6,000-$15,000 per year immediately. Certainly it would do away with the 500,000+ annual U.S. bankruptcies because somebody in the family got sick.

Let us kill the health insurance industry that a half-dozen corporate giants dominate. Their profits are measured in $ billions every week. That industry fattens its wallets by letting you die, saying “no” to coverage. That is an industry that truly deserves to die. It is time.

They begin right here to maximize profits. Some stamp every claim Denied! You are being played for a sucker. It is time to change this malicious game.

And healthcare is only one leg of a needed platform of the future. Killing Citizens United is another. And what about college and trade school tuition? And what about school lunches for kids? And what about billionaires paying for it through new taxes on corporations and the wealthy? (Eisenhower had a 90% corporate tax rate.) This is doable. Hoarding wealth is wrong. And what about…

HOT BUTTONS is a reader-facing periodical from a business development executive (retired) driving to provoke thought. To receive new perspectives, become a free or paid subscriber.

We can forge our better fate in 2026 only if we can build a foundation inspiring enough of our voters to weigh in. Let us demand a coherent platform.

In the meantime, we must take to the streets en masse on July 17 to honor Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon. We can surpass the June 14th protesters in numbers. That was 11 million to 13.4 million. I hear both.

This month, let us go out there 20 to 25 million strong!!! And yell, as Jackson Brown sang, til you go down. Yes, take to the streets.

With your subscriptions I can write this newsletter. I’m grateful to everyone who sponsors me, and one thing I want to add:

Thank you for finding my voice. You have given that a place and a meaning.

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