My OFA (Organizing for Astroturfing) Adventure
It may be that 1.5 million Ohioans are uninsured at some time during any given year, which is the operating definition of the Census Bureau, but they are not, as the first point contends, uninsured “today.”
The second assertion comes from the far-left and conceptually challenged Center for American Progress. CAP’s alleged average national per-family premium addition due to uninsured care is $1,100; Ohio’s average is $1,000. CAP naively assumes that every dollar of care provided for free is automatically added to premiums. That’s obviously baloney for more reasons than can be counted here. One of the biggest is that the figures providers report as non-reimbursed care often are at “list” prices that don’t reflect what patients with negotiated rates would pay. Another is that providers include fixed costs in their figures, while the true out-of-pocket costs of providing uninsured care are mostly variable.
The third claim, also from CAP, is an updated torturing of a 2003 study from the Institute of Medicine, which at the time speculated that “insuring the uninsured could yield $65-$130 billion in better health each year.” Six years later, CAP has almost doubled that figure to $124-$248 billion. Ohio’s share of the higher number is $7.1 billion, which OAF, deceptively using non-speculative terms, entirely and erroneously ascribes to “productivity.”
The guide also has a small space where an OFA visitor can handwrite his or her own message to their congressperson.
Now let’s get back to my OFA field trip.
Since Congressman Driehaus’ office is on the 30th floor of a downtown office building, most of his constituents can’t come to see him unless they pay to park somewhere (as I did). Of all the sites he could have picked as his one and only First District office, he picked one at its furthest southeast end downtown. This doesn’t seem like a guy who’s a man of the peeps.
I got there at 3:25 p.m. You might think that I was worried about being late. After all, the rest of the 3:00 p.m. OFA crowd might have filled up the available meeting room and my precious activist voice might not be heard.
Not exactly.
That’s because I was the first and only visitor from Organizing for Astroturfing, er, America, that day. This either means that no one from OFA had committed to visit Driehaus’ office during any of the previous six hours or that, if they did, they didn’t show up.
Because Driehaus was not available, the front-desk person located the congressman’s community outreach/field representative, who told me that he had to be on a conference call shortly. He gave me his business card and said that he would be glad to meet with me at some other time to discuss ObamaCare. Since I didn’t get a chance to do so during the visit, I separately spoke with that person on Wednesday and told him that I oppose ObamaCare and that the congressman, both as a representative and as a Catholic, should vote against it. Frankly (I didn’t say this at the time, but should have), if alleged Catholic and Cincinnati Bishop Elder High School graduate Steve Driehaus doesn’t understand how fundamentally immoral ObamaCare’s statist health care is, especially from a Catholic perspective — even if abortion is totally excised from it — he’s beyond help.
Because my visit to Driehaus’ office was so brief, I was able to get to Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s office 13 miles away on time to meet my 4:00 p.m. “commitment.” Ms. Schmidt was not there. The front-desk person at Ms. Schmidt’s office (which, by contrast, is located in a building where visitors can park for free), showed me that he had three earlier visitors who had dropped off their OFA “fact sheets.” One, who had written the word “FREEDOM” in large letters inside OFA’s message box, used the opportunity to encourage Ms. Schmidt to continue to oppose ObamaCare. I did as well, without bothering to print anything out. The other two visitors to Schmidt’s office that day were ObamaCare supporters.
So let’s recap: In 15 possible visiting hours on Monday, the two members of Congress had four OFA visitors — two for ObamaCare and two against. I have since followed up with the offices of Schmidt and Southwestern Ohio’s 8th District congressman, Republican John Boehner. They have reported slightly higher turnouts, but they were averaging nowhere near even one person per office per hour overall as of late Tuesday afternoon.
I doubt that readers are blown away by the grassroots support Organizing for Astroturfing, er, America, has been able to generate.
Now you know that if OFA brags about how many of its people pestered their congresspersons this week to support the president’s statist health care designs, you can subtract at least two alleged supporters, and perhaps many more, from that total. Based on my experience, if OFA tries to claim that thousands upon thousands of its “members” visited their representatives, you have great reason to doubt them. Beyond that, even OFA doesn’t really know if the people who had committed to visiting really did.
I sense an epic fail. How will the establishment media report it? Or will they?
Oh, of course the guardians of our democracy will report the facts!
Ever since Dan Rather got to the truth about those memos he was sold he’s been the lead man at CBS!
Ever since Katie Couric gave Joe Biden the same level of “gotcha” grilling she gave to Sarah Palin she’s been a model of journalistic ethics!
/sarcasm off
While a few cracks in the facade have started the leg-thrill media are still in puppy love with Obama and are fatally attracted to his socialist agenda.
Makes sense. Any person supporting the president is part of a “grass roots” organization that is exercising their constitutional right to free speech. Anybody disagreeing with the president is part of a “mob,” “un-American,” an “evil-monger” or worse, a “Nazi.” Reid, Pelosi, and Obama should all be ashamed of themselves. It’s actually kind of funny, though, that the original community organizer, Obama, is now upset that the community is organizing against him. What a coward and a fraud. You get what you vote for, America. For all those lovely liberals and independents that put this lowlife into office, please remember that it was your childish belief in “Hope and Change” that got us to this point, rather than looking at a person’s entire record and list of actual accomplishments (not to mention the people he associates with, such as the Reverend Wright or Bill Ayers, to name a few). The only thing now is to stand up and be heard.
We must now make a decision, you and I. Like the great Colonel Joshua Chamberlain commanding the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg, it is time for Americans to make a stand. Chamberlain and a handful of men saved the Union at Gettysburg during the Battle of the Little Round Top by standing firm and not allowing the rebel forces to advance any further. Now it’s time for another handful of Americans to save the Union by protesting against what Obama wants to do to this country. Stand up, America. Write to your elected officials. Show up at town meetings and make yourself heard. Contribute to blogs whenever you see some left-wing garbage being printed and point out the lies and inconsistencies in liberal propaganda. And, most important, vote out of office anybody who supports this socialist healthcare bill and support any candidate, in either party, that actually wants some fiscal responsibility and the elimination of the pork that has tainted and corrupted the entire federal government. Only by actually making your voice heard can we stop complete socialism from taking over this nation. If Chamberlain could stand up for what he believed in, so can you. We don’t have much time left and the issue is still in doubt, but you can make a difference. After all, Chamberlain had to face Confederate bullets. All we have to face are the SEIU thugs, MoveOn.org, Media Matters, the AFL-CIO, the trial lawyers, and about every other union and illegal alien out there. But if Chamberlain could stand tall and succeed, so can we.
As a former Cincy guy who went to LaSalle HS (the vaunted Lancers) and hated Elder, Steve Driehaus, the congressman and Elder grad, ought to be ashamed.
Libertyship46: Well said! The “All we have to face” part was a bit daunting but unfortunately true. It is an awesome sight to see everyday patriots choosing to take part in the town halls. I am full of hope for the future of this country that there ARE still people willing to take a stand for the greater good and not fall for an oppressive regime.
Wow, a Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain reference. I’m apparently not the only one who reads history. Our position is more akin to John Mosby at Miskel’s Farm. We may have been caught unprepared, but if we hang tough and fight as fiercely, we can be victorious.
I rec’d the same email and sent it to flag@whitehouse.gov
What? No visit to Mike Turner, the 3rd District Repub who voted for SCHIP and for the god-awful Food Safety and Farm Tyranny bill? He’s a squish and should be sentenced to several hours of Goldwater and Reagan speeches. He also doesnt return phone calls or emails, so at least he’s as arrogant as one would expect from a RINO.
I admit, I had to re-read the first couple of paragraphs; I was experiencing some cognitive dissidence. Why didn’t I get this email? I am a member of OFA: Ohio Freedom Alliance. From the Mission statement:
The Ohio Freedom Alliance is a diverse group of Ohio residents who have come together to preserve and protect liberty in America as it was originally intended by our founding fathers. Members of the OFA are from all different demographics and political affiliations. The Ohio Freedom Alliance was founded in order to facilitate greater communication and cooperation between various freedom-minded individuals and organizations. Our intention is not to replace or dilute the efforts of existing organizations, but rather unite all freedom-minded individuals and groups. Through this network of OFA affiliated individuals and groups, we can all be more effective together than we can be alone.
I know there are only 26 letters available for acronyms, but I found this co-incidence curious.
They aren’t going to protest unless they get paid. They don’t vote unless there is some benefit in it for them personally.
ACORN has its’ roots in New Orleans style politics where politicians pay the alphabet soup organizations for endorsements. The money is used for “get out the vote” drives or as we call it “walkin’ around money”. Former Governor Edwin Edwards (currently in Federal Prison), former Congressman William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson (just convicted and soon joining EWE) and Senator for life Mary Landrieu are experts in this field.
Without the “walkin’ around money” these people don’t care about much.
Libertyship46: Yowzah! That was bracing morning reading. Chamberlain is indeed an inspirational figure; so is Gen. MacAuliffe at Bastogne, saying “Nuts!”
Don’t take ANY of these “studies” at face value!
The IOM said in a 2002 report (“Care
Without Coverage: Too Little, Too
Late”) that 18,314 die each year due to a lack of preventive services, a timely diagnosis or appropriate care; then attributed lack of insurance as the sole cause for this. It was assumed that the insured and uninsured populations were exactly the same, which we know that they’re not — especially from 1971-1987 from which the data was taken– and no other behavioral characteristics or structural barriers as causes were considered.
This laughable back-of an-envelope methodology was based on old studies and 15-30 year old data (at the time), which is summarized here: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411588_uninsured_dying.pdf . Then this study was subsequently bastardized by The Urban Institute (and Families USA) into reports-cum-press releases of their own. This then became the basis for the 2003 study you reference.
What, a shortage of outraged, “grass roots” Obamacare advocates? I guess Soros will have to get his checkbook out and bus some ACORN-types in! Or perhaps all the leftists’ “usual suspects” were at work that day…HA! More likely playing video games or scamming some government agency for free college tuition. I thought the Dimocrats were better organized?
With a group, I attended a MoveOn.org demo at Sen. Bill Nelson’s office – with our handlettered opposition signs. I noticed that our group went INTO the office and left handwritten messages with our home addresses on them for the Senator. The MoveOn group did not – maybe because they were not actually Florida voters? or even legally in the country.
We outnumbered them by a few and were better mannered too. We managed to put this together, signs and all, with less than 24 hours notice. We get the notifications from the MoveOn or other pro Obama groups, make our signs and turn out. Be sure and arrive early if you go to one of these demos and take pictures of the busses being unloaded – it is often done in a far corner of the parking lot.
Smile and counter chants with facts – it drives them crazy, since all they have is slogans and many don’t even understand them. Every once in a while you encounter a couple of moderates caught up by friends – you can make some headway there with reasonable arguments and facts.
Among Democrat HR Honorable Members, has the White House instituted a two-track system for Congressional office visits, town halls, and conference calls, with a fast track for registered Organizing for America visitors and a slow track for everyone else? A number of us here in Marin County have been trying to talk sense about Obamacare to Lynn Woolsey, head of the Progressive Caucus — like talking to a brick wall, but worth the effort. She isn’t having any town hall meetings. Instead, she held a conference call that was not announced on her website, despite requests for information. People must have been able to register for this call in advance, but who and how? When I visited her office in person, the staffer asked me point-blank if I was from Organizing for America. Do other readers have reasons to suspect that this two track system might exist? How can we compare notes and reach a reasonable conclusion?
9. Roux:
“They aren’t going to protest unless they get paid. They don’t vote unless there is some benefit in it for them personally.”
Don’t you worry, when the price is right they will show up. ACORN has hundreds of millions earmarked to stimulate them. The money of those who are against Obamacare is earmarked to those who “support” Obamacare. In Los Angelos, the going price is $10-15/hr. joining the astroturd, er, I mean astroturf.
From an acorn grows an oak tree; from ACORN grows AstroTurd.
I think what is needed is some clarity…
A half-wit Glen Beck enthusiast with an exquisite feel for irony but lacking the self-awareness to detect it in himself intercepts covert idiotic radio and television messages and uncovers archived secrets and scandals of deceitful proportions, this, as the moderator intones “Some times you just have to believe in something, even if it isn’t true!”. Aghast, he goes next door to his WASP neighbor, cautiously excited, as the aforementioned was a over-medicated GOP precinct worker whom the teabagger enthusiast wanted friendship of. The lanky, thick-skulled, pie-eyed neighbor is slumped over the imported compressed sawdust dining room table, poisoned just thirty seconds before by his wife, just home from target practice, who most likely already knew of the patriotic enthusiast’s forthcoming revelations. A prickly line of sweat covers the enthusiast’s forehead now, as the realization hits him that the same pundits and other agitators him and his now brain-dead compatriots once cowered before and backed and talked of in hushed tones, have tricked him into their war against himself and the very same comrades, whom, through the years, the enthusiast and brain-dead supporters would have wished torture upon each other. A dick-less peon of the patriot walks in and casually assaults the Glen Beck fan in his kitchen for murder and sedition against the government. The mad bitch swings crazily to the enthusiast’s left side, towards his new dental work, while briefly remembering that his mother was a helicopter dust-off operator and had a large black dog. Just as a wild roundhouse whizzes by is left temple, the alcoholic lemming-like imbecile drops to his knees, almost punching his own unit and flings a can that was crammed in his pocket onto the lawn, littered with previously deposited cans of spud-free Lackey, an alcohol-free lager. A grime-smeared full sized Chevy pick-up truck is parked outside, with pro-nicotine pro-nuclear crap on the side panels. I digress however; The mad kid, two days before, had just got back from a backwoods cookie party, catered by the same quasi-religious zealots and Pharma-corporation manipulators. He had his black horse-hair coat, and a black party archbishop’s hat with three bars for a skull-and-crossbones. And this day he looked like the victim of a pogrom.
I’ll be at the Recess Rally at Schmidt’s office on the 22nd. With my camera, ready to take a thumping by SEIU goons.
My dream is to get a post beating interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News. Now that’s astroturfing you can believe in.
Nice bit of gumshoe-work, Blumer. Very nice. Very revealing.
I wonder what the receptionit’s response would have been if you had asked to see his schedule for the day you were there? I wonder what it looked like? Oh, not in today… or ever? Let us know if you ever get a meeting. After all, you made the effort to show up and to pay for parking. It’s not like a ton of people showed up. The least the Congresscritter could do would be to give you a quick call.
I have been calling and E-mailing Driehaus for the last couple of weeks and today I received another Demo talking point answer. He votes the way the leadership tells him to. Let’s make him a one term congressman, and take away their lifetime pensions also.
From Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:
http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2007/anderson_hospital_charges.html
Hospitals collect about 39% of what they bill cash (uninsured) customers but they bill them over three times as much as Medicare customers pay. That’s right. Hospitals actually collect almost 120% from the uninsured as an entire group compared to what they collect for the same services provided to Medicare patients. Hospitals actually only collect a couple of percent less from the uninsured as a group than they do from the insured as a group for the same services. It is Medicare/Medicaid that freeload off of both the insured and uninsured groups’ payments. The insurance industry is doing their best to claim a cost where none exists and the hospitals are trying to keep their actual non-losses on uninsured out of the public eye.
The uninsured cash customers are just a innocent scape goat for what the industry wants to do for its own reasons.
#20, thank you for that additional info.
I also heard during the week from a talk-show caller that hospitals collect 130% or so from the insured, about 94% from Medicare, and 86% from Medicaid (last two may be flipped).
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of what hospitals collect for services to the uninsured comes directly from state and local governments already, and is NOT included directly or indirectly in the premiums of the insured.
I went to a hospital in Cleveland. I paid in the emergency room BEFORE treatment was done and paid when the fifteen stitches came out BEFORE I saw a doctor. I received a bill for the balance and paid that too. I chose not to use medical insurance.