Kerry receives award for pioneering healthcare policy

[ProSense]

Amsterdam, 12 August 2009 – Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announces the recipients of this year's International Brain Mapping and Intraoperative Surgical Planning Society awards. The six awards will be presented at the 6th Annual World Congress for Brain Mapping and Image Guided Therapy, August 26-29, 2009 at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, organized by Elsevier and the IBMISPS.

<...>

Pioneer in Healthcare Policy is presented to lawmakers who have demonstrated visionary and cross-disciplinary approaches to introducing laws that have contributed to the advancement of science, technology, education, and medicine. Presented this year to:

•Senator John Kerry, his support for medical research and his tireless efforts in healthcare reform

link

[babylonsister]

1. But wasn't I told recently Kerry did NOTHING to contribute

to health care reform? Imagine my surprise.

[beachmom]

6. Amazing what we are told, isn't it?

[karynnj]

7. I remember that too

and it ignored that Kerry did get an e-prescription amendment on last year's medicare bill. Not only is this a good idea - one doctor my family has uses it - so the prescription is at the pharmacy before I get there, it will cut down on errors. (Remember the pharmacist George Baily saves from misreading a prescription in It's a wonderful life.)

It ignored that he publicly said that personally he would prefer Medicare for all - twice - once to a single payer advocate who ambushed him and once on Daily Kos. It also ignored that he and Kennedy are allies and that he and Kennedy wrote the precursor bill to SCHIP.

I think it is better to believe what the Senator says his position is.

[JayMusgrove]

11. Yes, we are told LOTS and LOTS of lies even here on DU

By people who never get out of their mother's basement.

[blm]

23. You'd think they'd use some of that time to actually read the historic record of this nation, but,

instead they choose to graze like sheep in fields of crafted lies and distortion. And swallow it whole.

[Uzybone]

2. Excellent

[_dynamicdems]

3. Excellent. He deserves this. Thanks for posting!

:kick:

[Island Blue]

4. Well deserved!

:applause:

[blm]

5. His 2004 healthcare platform and Kids First bill in 2005 were really a huge start to the debate -

except the corporate media had no interest in letting the public hear how sound and logical his plan was.

It would have been a great first step to REAL and DOABLE universal healthcare.

[wisteria]

21. Yes, it would have. n/t

[YvonneCa]

8. Can it be that the world is waking up to the contributions of John F. Kerry...

...at last?

"Pioneer in Healthcare Policy is presented to lawmakers who have demonstrated visionary and cross-disciplinary approaches to introducing laws that have contributed to the advancement of science, technology, education, and medicine."

Presented this year to:


Senator John Kerry, for his support for medical research and his tireless efforts in healthcare reform.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Someone else...besides us :7 ...has noticed that he is visionary. Relentless. It's about time! :patriot:

[JayMusgrove]

12. Only in Massachusetts, the rest of the world

still thinks Kerry is just a President wannabe, who lost the election in 2004 because Amerika loves those Bush wars.

[karynnj]

14. Well, the rest of us have to thank you people in MA for

having supported him through 5 elections for Senate, even as he has been a right wing target.

I was constantly surprised at the number of threads in 2008 when Obama supporters were surprised how good he really was on every talk show - you would think it wouldn't take many for people to realize that the media worked hard not to show the best of Kerry in 2004.

[YvonneCa]

18. Well, then, it's time to change their...

...minds. :7

[blm]

26. Many people in other countries admire Kerry's work, especially on exposing BCCI. It's most Americans

and many on DU, even, who are unfamiliar with his historic contributions and what they have meant to the world and this country's historic record.

Ignorance is bliss for some, I guess...

[YvonneCa]

33. It's worse than ignorance...

...I think it's deliberate closed-mindedness. Some people bought the spin on Kerry (in 2004 or during VietNam) and refuse to hear the truth. 'Fingers in their ears' closed-mindedness, IMO.

[politicasista]

9. Kick

Excellent. :kick: :patriot:

[ProSense]

10. Brief background

104th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 2186

To provide access to health care insurance coverage for children.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

October 1, 1996

Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. KENNEDY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

PDF

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS (Senate - October 01, 1996)

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I am proud to introduce legislation today, joined by my friend, colleague, and esteemed senior Senator, Ted Kennedy, to help ensure that the 10 million uninsured children in this country get the health care they need and their parents get the peace of mind they deserve.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is an honor to join Senator John Kerry in introducing this visionary and practical program. Senator Kerry has been a consistent leader in the Senate in fighting for children, for health care, and for working families. This initiative sets a benchmark for the next Congress and the American people. It is a proposal that is a reflection of true family values.

Now the state's United States Senators, Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, want to take the Massachusetts approach national, with a tax increase on cigarettes that could reach 75 cents a pack or more. They contend that smokers and the tobacco industry can afford the cost of health insurance for the 10 million children who now have none, and that teen-age smoking will be discouraged in the process.

Senator Kennedy said early in February that uninsured children were rarely treated for chronic problems like earaches and asthma.

''We should make sure the sons and daughters of working families get a healthy start,'' he said. ''The best way to fund this is a tax on tobacco, which causes five million premature deaths a year and weighs down our whole health system.''

Their approach is one of several being talked about in Congress, where the President's proposal to expand coverage gradually so that half of the 10 million children not covered now will be insured by 2000 has been widely criticized, especially by Democrats, as inadequate.

link

But many more ambitious plans are in the works. Among the most detailed thus far is a proposal being drafted by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) that would provide grants to the states to help families afford health insurance for their children.

The plan would target families in that no man's land — that is, those who are not poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid but who don't get insurance on the job and can't afford to pay for it themselves. Under the Kennedy-Kerry plan, families would be paid a federal subsidy that would gradually decrease as their income went up.

link

John Kerry is the author of the "Nurse Reinvestment Act" which will help end the nursing shortage in the United States and is threatening our health care system. Kerry's legislation provides scholarships for nursing students, establishes training grants for nurses, offers grants to nursing schools for loan programs, institutes career ladder programs, creates a nurse retention and patient safety enhancement grant, and provides for a public service announcement campaign to promote the nursing profession. Dr. Charles H. Roadman II, Pres. of the American Health Care Association said Kerry was "deserving of praise" for his work to pass the bill.

Senator Kerry has been at the forefront of the battle against HIV/AIDS, authoring major elements of the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, legislation that was signed into law by President Clinton in August of 2000. He subsequently authored the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2002, sweeping legislation that would have significantly increased funding for treatment of these diseases while requiring the U.S. to adopt a comprehensive five year plan to win the global war against AIDS. That legislation was passed unanimously by the Senate and was a primary force in prompting the Administration to endorse global AIDS legislation this year. As he said in calling on America to take the lead in confronting the AIDS crisis in developing nations, “Responding is not only morally right, but deeply practical and fundamentally important to the cause of global stability and ultimately our own safety. How can countries or whole continents torn apart by an untreated epidemic successfully resist the call to violence, terror, and the trade of weapons of mass destruction?” Senator Kerry currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Center for Strategic & International Studies Task Force on Strengthening U.S. Leadership on HIV/AIDS.

[karynnj]

13. Nice set of links to show some of the major work that Senator Kerry did

In 2008, Senator Kerry spoke of having decided to publicly endorse Senator Obama while he and Teresa were on a trip to South Africa to do oversight on how the AIDS program was doing. (The video that once existed from SA tv is no longer there, but here's a link to email Kerry wrote then - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=142710&mesg_id=142710 ) His reason was the difference that Obama could make there and elsewhere.

[ProSense]

15. And this

Obama also revived the best policy idea of Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 campaign: a proposal for Washington to fund most of the bill for high-cost patients once their annual healthcare bills exceed a fixed level. Shifting those catastrophic expenses to government would lower employer premiums. So might Obama's surprisingly sharp-edged proposals to limit insurance company profits.

link

[blm]

16. Thanks for the compilation, Pro - I wish more people here at DU had the intellectual curiosity to

click on your thread.

[beachmom]

17. I second that. nt

[YvonneCa]

19. Third it. n/t

[ProSense]

20. Thanks

all, and for the recs.

:hi:

[YvonneCa]

34. You are most welcome...

...Prosense. :hi:

[ProSense]

22. Kerry Provisions on Vaccines, Anti-Discrimination Included in PEPFAR

Kerry Provisions on Vaccines, Anti-Discrimination Included in PEPFAR

Foreign Relations Committee Passes New Funding on Global AIDS, Lifts HIV Travel Ban

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) welcomed the inclusion of two of his provisions in the PEPFAR package that passed the Foreign Relations Committee today. One Kerry provision would lift the travel ban on people with HIV entering the United States. The other provision accepted in the manager’s package would bolster America’s commitment to producing life-saving vaccines. Kerry worked with Senator Frist in 2002 on the comprehensive AIDS bill that would become PEFAR. According to the UN, at least 33 million people have HIV/AIDS worldwide

“We know the urgency of this fight and the effectiveness of PEPFAR, and today we took a step forward in fighting this disease smarter, harder and with greater fairness and common sense than ever before,” said Kerry. “The inclusion of these reforms will end a discriminatory law that stigmatizes people with HIV, while putting us on a path to save millions of lives with the best vaccines available.”

Travel Ban Repeal

Since 1993, the INA has designated HIV as grounds for inadmissibility to the U.S. A cumbersome waiver option is available to those wishing to enter this country, but the process is incredibly restrictive. These obstacles result in an almost wholesale rejection of any HIV positive individual from the United States, no matter their reason for entry. Kerry introduced legislation last year that would repeal the outdated, misguided provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which bars HIV positive individuals from entering the United States, including HIV positive doctors and experts, as well as refugees seeking asylum

What’s more, under new regulations admission judgments are left to the discretion of the consular officers who likely do not have the medical knowledge to make these decisions. No guidelines are given on how to make these determinations and there is no appeal process whatsoever. If an HIV positive individual is given asylum in the United States, they are not allowed to obtain a green card or become a U.S. citizen – even if their asylum was given because of their HIV status.

Advanced Market Commitments for Vaccines

Kerry’s other amendment would promote participation by the United States in negotiations on Advanced Market Commitments (AMC) to develop key vaccines, and strengthen efforts to provide technical assistance for the creation of vaccines in developing countries. AMCs offer a powerful means to develop new vaccines against diseases that currently kill millions of people in developing countries. A pneumococcal vaccine is estimated to prevent up to an estimated 5.4 million childhood deaths by 2030 and a pilot AMC has already been funded among the United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, Russia, Canada and the Gates Foundation to develop a vaccine.

[karynnj]

24. Funny that most people know so little of Kerry's long term effort here, but Bono of U2 did

Bono praised Kerry as having been there (on AIDS in Africa) back when no one else was (in the 1990s)at a show in 2005 and then giving him a guitar backstage. ( Story on this link of the guitar - http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/10/13/logan_radar_woes_cause_bumpy_rides/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Living+/+Arts+News ) I don't have a link to the comments in the show which were in Rolling Stone magazine.

The odd thing is that increasing the aid on this is one of the few things Bush gets credit for, as he ultimately signed the legislation. Just as he gets credit for the first raise in CAFE standards in more than a decade - a deal Kerry and Snowe brokered in the Senate.

[karynnj]

25. Kick

[Luftmensch067]

27. Excellent post and well-deserved honor for Kerry!

I love all the great links in this thread! It's good to see Senator Kerry recognized for his indeed tireless efforts to improve healthcare for ALL in this country. I thought his 2004 ideas for cost containment and universal coverage were sensible and attainable. He has not stopped talking about them in the years since. In fact, his first public message after his concession was in support of health insurance for all America's children.

I have always particularly liked Kerry's championing of both e-prescription and a Federal reinsurance plan and his determination to offer everyone the same health plan the Congress has (what could be a clearer indication of a true belief in equal healthcare for all than that?!)

As he wrote in 2006:

Finally, it is untenable for 35 million adults to go without insurance. We need to use every weapon in our arsenal until everyone is covered, including making the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program affordable and accessible for everyone in America with targeted tax credits for small businesses, middle-class families, and people between jobs. Members of Congress give themselves great healthcare and give taxpayers the bill -- if it's good enough for senators and congressmen, it should be good enough for every American who wants to choose it.

(More from that article here: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/07/31/getting_moving_on_healthcare/)

[ProSense]

29. Thanks for adding that.

:hi:

[blm]

30. Had Congress acted on JK's bill, we'd be WELL on our way to full universal healthcare by now.

His plan was so SIMPLE, so LOGICAL, and so DOABLE.

[politicasista]

28. For the lurkers

:kick:

[Forkboy]

31. Kick for Kerry.

:kick:

[politicasista]

32. ..and the weekend crowd

:kick:

[Kaleko]

35. K & R

[flpoljunkie]

36. Kick!