Working for Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth since 1952
The New Orleans City Council Points the Way
With the huge increase in unemployment in recent months tens of millions of people are losing their health insurance. At the start of March 2020 about 160 million people in the U.S. had health insurance through the job of a family member. Now an estimate from the Robert Woods Foundation says that 25 to 43 million people will lose their insurance because of a family member layoff.
The poorest of these working families will be able to get on Medicaid. The ability to get on Medicaid was made easier through the laws commonly called Obamacare. However, because of a court decision states didn't have accept the easier standard and 14 states didn't. For those workers who are not poor they'll have to find an insurance company that will take them and the money burden will be large. The Woods Foundation Report makes one projection that 12 million will go on Medicaid, 6 million will pay for private insurance and 7 million will have no insurance at all.
How will the states pay for all the increased people on Medicaid? Already they are running huge deficits because they're not taking in their usual tax money. How will they pay for an average 240,000 new people in each state going on Medicaid?
We know there's an alternative to this, Medicare for All. It would be far less expensive than our current patchwork system and save thousands of lives each year.
On May 7 the New Orleans City Council unanimously passed a resolution of support for a federal "Medicare for All" bill. Council President Williams said, "The United States is the only large wealthy nation in the world without universal health care. This pandemic painfully highlights the health care disparities that have existed for years and has put a spotlight on the systemic inequalities at the root of our health care system, which treats good health as a privilege."
Why not get as many City Council's a possible to take this tack and to support a Medicare for All bill. (see a model letter to your City Council in the next panel)
See National Nurses United for more information about Medicare for All.
Model Letter to Your City Council
[ Search online for you City Council emails. Easiest thing is to send you post to all of them. ]
I call on the Council to pass a resolution calling for adoption by the U.S. government of the Medicare for All bill filed in 2019. A resolution of support of that bill was adopted by the New Orleans City Council on May 7.
The Medicare for All plan was always a fine idea, but after the huge job losses in the pandemic it becomes a necessity. A brand-new study by the Robert Woods Foundation estimates that between 25 to 43 million people will lose their employer-based health insurance because of unemployment this year. Most will be able to go on Medicaid, but an estimated 7 million people will have no medical insurance at all. That is in addition to the 27 million people whom the Census reported as having no health insurance in 2018.
This would be catastrophic.
Employer-based health insurance is a shaky proposition in the best-of-times and we have no idea when those good times might come again. Medicare for All means no cost to the patient at the point of service. It would be paid for out of federal taxes. It would not depend on your job status at all. Many studies show the plan would be far cheaper to the nation than the mix of current insurance plans and unpaid for trips to emergency rooms. The most recent study done by the Yale School for Public Health and released this February has shown that the plan would save $450 billion a year and save 68,000 lives a year.
Please support Medicare for All and publicize your stand widely. Join in the growing demand for this necessary life-saving legislation.
The cost of losing employer insurance
So you go on Medicaid. What's the big deal? We'll, it's not that easy. You've got to be really doing poorly for that. In CT your yearly income for a couple has to be less than $27.000. A family of four is given a break for all the costs of raising children so if you make less than $41,000 you're eligible.
What about the increased cost when you lose your employer insurance and have to buy your own? Almost no one has completely free employer insurance these days, but it's still a big cost when you lose it. In one case we know about an employee contribution of $600 a months became a $1,300 a month payment when the plan had to be paid for by the laid off worker. *
What are the costs of an insured person who gets Covid-19? Well, the hospitals charge the insurance companies and average of $10,000 for a simple case and $20,000 if there are complications. Insured people don't pay that but they do pay the deductibles which range from $1,600 to $5,000 plus any co-pays.
And if you have no insurance at all? Back in mid-March Time magazine wrote about a woman who was charged $35,000 for COVID-19 testing and hospital care.
*There is a temporary program when people are laid off from an employer with 20 or more employees. It's called COBRA. The laid off worker can pay for insurance at the group rate that his former employer paid. Obviously he or she is going to pay more because the employer isn't paying anything for it. COBRA lasts for 18 to 36 months
Filed in Congress this Proposed Law
Our nation is facing a catastrophic health care crisis that Congress must address. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, 87 million Americans were uninsured or under-insured. That number is rapidly escalating as millions of workers are not only losing their jobs but are also losing their employer-based health insurance as well. In fact, it has been estimated that as many as 35 million Americans will lose their employer-provided health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic and about 11 million Americans could soon enter the ranks of the uninsured.
The cost of hospital treatment for the coronavirus amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. Tragically, we have already seen people who have delayed treatment due to concerns about cost. In this pandemic, lack of insurance will lead to more deaths and more COVID-19 transmissions.
During this unprecedented crisis, no one in America should delay seeking medical care because of the cost. We cannot live in a nation where if you are rich you get all of the treatment that you need, but if you are poor or live in a working class family you are out of luck.
The Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act would empower the government to leverage the existing efficiency of Medicare’s payment infrastructure to ensure COVID-19 relief funding goes directly to patient care, without changing families’ insurance coverage or touching the Medicare trust fund. Under the bill, the federal government would pay all of the costs of treatment for the uninsured, and all of the out-of-pocket costs for those with public or private insurance, for as long as this pandemic continues. No one in America who is sick, regardless of income or immigration status, should be afraid to seek the medical treatment they need during this national crisis.
Methods of Protest During the Virus
"Honkathon"
ICE detention immigrant detention centers crowd people together and are breeding ground for virus. On April 5 dozens of cars drove around ICE headquarters in Hartford honking to call for freedom of loved ones. Inside each car was either a single person or people already in isolation with each other.
Protesting While at Home
Jewish Voice for Peace held a "virtual rally" of 30,000 people online (Zoom and Facebook) opposing the sanctions on Gaza. They had groups of short (2 minute) speeches separated by a few minutes of actions. As shown in this picture members had created hand drawn signs calling for an end to the siege of Gaza. JVP put Zoom on Gallery mode and took screen shots of the hundreds of signs and then emailed photos or tweeted them to politicians, media, etc. At another point people were asked to make 30 second videos about Gaza on their cellphones and to make a tweet including the video @somepolitician.
The event was viewed ONE MILLION times on Twitter.
What the KingsBay 7 ask you To Do
November 6, 2019
Dear friends,
Thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support for our dear friends and family members facing years in federal prison. The guilty verdict on October 24 was not a complete surprise as the court did not allow the expert witnesses. The jury in Brunswick, GA never heard from former National Security Council member, nuclear war planner, and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, international law expert Francis Boyle, or theologian Jeannine Hill Fletcher.
Nonetheless, together the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 and all of their supporters have offered a profound witness for the world. There is more to do.
Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. waits in the local jail for the sentencing date, likely in January. The six other defendants wait at their homes under curfew and travel restrictions. Reports on each of the four days of the trial are listed below. You can find many articles and interviews since the trial on our website.
According to supporters in Brunswick, there are lots of new conversations about Trident's nuclear weapons since the trial! Thanks to all who traveled to Georgia. A couple of hundred supporters came and filled the regular courtroom, plus an overflow courtroom, while others held vigil outside each of the four trial days. We passed out hundreds of flyers to locals as they walked by the courthouse.
It was a week of community and the power of witness. Sunday's Festival of Hope involved moving statements from each of the defendants, other speakers, and song. Every day we gathered for meals. Early in the week Plowshares activist Patrick O'Neill shared with us, “We’re not hoping for a hung jury. We aren’t here wanting to get an acquittal. At this trial, we want to speak truth to power.” Here is a video of the KBP7 activists and supporters as they came out singing from court following the verdict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MONkguTdryA
PLEASE TAKE ACTION
There is a lot you can do to spread the word of the Plowshares action and to multiply their efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.
1. Send Letters to the Editor to Your Local Newspapers
Inform your local community with letters and opinion columns on how Trident nuclear weapons relate to economic and racial injustice, the climate crisis, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and how the exclusion of expert witnesses affected the trial outcome. Click hereto view four templates of letters you can modify, personalize, or submit as is.
2. Send a Letter of Recommendation to the Judge – Pending
The KBP7’s legal team is preparing templatesof letters of recommendation supporters can use to write letters to Judge Lisa Godbey Wood for her to consider before sentencing. The letters would describe the defendants' good character and be apolitical in nature. It's very important that the letters be sent to our lawyers' office only. We will include our lawyers' address with the template from the legal team when it arrives sometime in the next week. Watch for the email.
3. Donate
Thank to your donations, we have mobilized thousands of people around the world to speak out for the abolition of nuclear weapons. We have educated communities about the unprecedented dangers of the Trident II D5 missile system. We have supported our seven friends in their prophetic witness for life and peace. As you can see, our efforts are ongoing. Please help with expenses, housing, and supporting defendants' families following the verdict and the upcoming sentencing.
- Send checks to: Plowshares, PO Box 3087, Washington, DC 20010
- Donate online: GoFundMe
4. Follow and Share Us on Social Media
Click the links below to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubefor our daily updates and then you can share them and expand the circle.
5. Send Liz McAlister Birthday Greetings!
Elizabeth McAlister's 80th birthday is on November 17. Please keep her in thought and prayer in this time between trial and sentencing. If you would like to write to her or send her a card you can use whatever color ink you want! Liz's current address is 30 Broad Street, New London, CT 06320.
6. Vigil at the Kings Bay Base
At the main gate every third Saturday.
7. Write Post Cards to Fr. Stephen Kelly
In Brunswick, at the county jail. Click the link for important instructions. For example, you must use his formal given name, Stephen Kelly.
8. Join Us for the Sentencing
It will be in Brunswick, probably in January. We will let you know as soon as we know.
9. Watch and Share the Gallery of Videos
The GA Festival of Hope, the tribunal, press conferences, and more!
by Ralph Hutchison
- Monday, October 21, 2019 - Jury selection began at 9 a.m. with nearly 80 prospective jurors filling the courtroom with media present. About 45 supporters were seated on metal folding chairs in a small overflow room watching on a 32-inch screen. Despite a few signal interruptions, we were able to follow most of the proceedings. By lunch break at 11:10 pm, the judge had finished the opening round of voir dire—it’s French, she said, for “speak truth”— and was ready to move into a private round in a sidebar with individual prospects who had identified potential conflicts and the lawyers for both sides, including the five defendants who are representing themselves (pro se) in the proceedings....(read more)
- Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - "Welcome back," said federal Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to the jury and the packed courtroom as we sat down. And in the same breath, she said, "Mr. Knoche, please call your first witness." The prosecutor's job, technically, was not that challenging. The defendants had already told the jury they had committed the acts of which they were accused. All that was left was to determine what kind of crime, if any, was committed by seven peace activists who performed a nonviolent, symbolic, religious action in pursuit of nuclear disarmament....( read more)
- Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - Day three of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 trial in federal court in Brunswick, Georgia, began with an objection raised by Stephanie Amiotte for the defense, which had been presented with a new piece of evidence minutes before the prosecution intended to put its witness on the stand. The judge disallowed the document but said the information could be presented in testimony. And with that, we were off. The final defense witness testified the damages exceeded thirty thousand dollars—fences fixed.... (read more)
- Day of the Verdict, Thursday, October 24, 2019 - Judge Lisa Godbey Wood came into the courtroom at 9:37 a.m. to review the charge sheets and jury instructions with the lawyers. Bill Quigley entered a few objections into the record, and by 10:10 the jury was brought into court. Prosecutor Knoche presented the closing argument for the government.....(read more)
…And into plowshares turn their swords. Nations shall learn war no more!
Peace and blessings upon you,
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Support Team
EMAIL: Media: kbp7media@gmail.com
General: kingsbayplowshares@gmail.com
WEBSITE: www.kingsbayplowshares7.org
Iran
Listen to Iranian workers, feminists
Program of the 4/28 Conference
Our plan
3:45 doors open
4 p.m. Welcome and Introduction
Video of David Wallace-Wells (several minutes)
Very brief video of Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez
Complete Video "A Message from the Future" AOC & Molly Crabapple
Keynote: Richard Smith
Q. and A.
Andres Bernal
Q. and A.
Break for food and activist tables
Collection to Offset Costs of the Event
Very brief video of George Monbiot
How Nature Can Save Us From Carbon Breakdown (Animation)
Dan Fischer - Narrated Power Point
Q. and A.
Video: Coops, Cincinnati and in Jackson
Discussions:
What Does this Mean for Bridgeport?
An Ecosocialist World and How to Get There
Influencing CT and other Climate Groups
6:40 End - Replace Chairs and Tables