Congressman Joseph Cao To Host 5th AAA Health Fair March 20

Congressman "Joseph" Cao Hosts 5th AAA Health Fair for Louisianans on March 20, 2010

Let's hear it for Congressman Cao, who continues to put his money where his mouth is on the issue of health care for Louisianans. Below is a copy of the press release issued today by his office:

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 3, 2010
CONTACT: 
D. Clayton Hall (202) 225-6636
 

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

Cao to Host 5th AAA Health Fair

New Orleans, LA – On Saturday, March 20, 2010, Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA-02) will host his 5th “Affordable, Accessible, and Accountable” (AAA) Health Fair at Craig Elementary School from 10:00am to 2:00pmCST.

Cao said: “While those in Washington continue to argue over the politics of a health care reform bill, I want to help the constituents of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes with immediate health care assistance.”

Cao added: “Our health care system should be affordable, accessible, and accountable.  I host AAA health fairs for people to actively engage in preventive care.  I invite everyone in the 2nd Congressional District to take advantage of these free services and vital information.”

Who: Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao and certified health officials

What: AAA Health Fair (Affordable. Accessible. Accountable.)

Where: Craig Elementary School – 1423 St. Phillip St., New Orleans, LA

When: Saturday, March 20, 2010

Time: 10:00am - 2:00pmCST 

The Louisiana Department of Insurance will be available to answer questions about insurance coverage, products, and rates. The U.S. Census Bureau will be on site to answer questions about the 2010 Census.

Provided services will include screenings, education, and/or referrals for the following items:

• Assistance with Prescription Medicines
• Children’s Health Insurance Enrollment (LaCHIP)
• HIV/AIDS
• Eye Exams
• Oral Health
• Mental Health
• Diabetes
• Blood Pressure
• Home Care
• Pregnancy Testing
• Stress Management
• Acupuncture

  For more information about the AAA Health Fair, click here.

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If this issue matters to you, please take a moment to contact Congressman Cao or his staff to say "thank you" for his dedication to the issue of affordable health care for all Louisianans. 

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Scary New Health Care Tax = Small Tax on Cosmetic Surgery

Should Congress Tax Elective Cosmetic Procedures To Help Pay For Universal Health Care?

Now that Senator Landrieu and Congressman Cao have given their support to the health insurance reform initiative, let's talk about some of those BIG SCARY TAX INCREASES that have someone (read:. "insurance companies") splashing all kinds of silly misinformation all over TV and radio commercials.


For example, perhaps Cousin Sally was just diagnosed with leukiemia. But Sally is widowed and works two part time jobs to keep her kids in shoes and food, and neither of her low-wage jobs provides her with health insurance. On the other side of the tracks, Banker Joan has traded her youthful years to become a wealthy businesswoman, and wants to finally enjoy her single retirement. So she would like to get nice, natural looking  facelift and peruse the single life in her golden years. The Question:  Is it wrong for Congress to suggest that a small tax on Joan's fully elective, cosmetic procedure is in order to help Sally afford to get medical  insurance, which will help Sally work longer, and ensure that she is around and healthy enough to take care of her kids for as long as medically possible?

It's a question of priorities. Every special interest group in our nation has political action committee (PAC), and guess whose PAC is spending lots of money to tell you that this kind of taxing priority is wrong, wrong, wrong? If you guessed the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (if you've misplaced your thesaurus, "aesthetic" translates as "pretty") then you are a winner! These are the doctors who are being paid (and have a personal financial stake) in telling you that Congress is trying to raise health care taxes - they just don't happen to mention that the tax is relatively small for each individual, and is only applied to non-medically required, purely aesthetic, elective cosmetic procedures.



These are the kinds of priorities that Congress is currently debating with a health insurance reform bill. What they are NOT debating is a "government takeover" of health care (remember, this is insurance reform, not doctor/patient reform; no matter what version of the bill passes, you will be able to keep your own doctor and your current insurance if you can afford and prefer it).



And since we're on the topic of priorities, let's discuss this proposed "cosmetic tax." What are the doctors who specialize in cosmetic procedures claiming is wrong with such a tax? Why, they say it is discriminatory. So apparently they're under the impression that people who can afford to pay out of pocket to have purely cosmetic procedures are some kind of protected class in our society...while apparently impoverished parents and children who suffer and die due to lack of insurance should be just swept aside as a national "oops, my bad."

Look, as a former policy specialist and an aging woman myself, do I think that this tax is likely to be primarily paid by women? Of course. Women are by far the largest consumers of elective cosmetic procedures (although men are gaining on us). But the key word here is "elective." If you really don't want to pay tax on a cosmetic procedure, don't get the procedure, or get it elsewhere (although you'll probably just end up paying for another nation's taxes if you do so). If you want the procedure enough to pay tax on it... well then you can probably afford your health insurance anyway. Consider yourself fortunate to be financially (and medically) stable in a time when millions of your fellow Americans are not.

Americans are by and large a compassionate, caring group of people. If 9/11 taught us nothing else, it taught us that when the shit really hits the fan, we as a nation want to be one community that cares for its own. So I really believe that once we learn who is truly in the business of trying to buy our votes - either with money, or with hyperbolic emotional half-truths and scare tactics, then we as a nation will do the right thing for our communities and our country. So keep an eye out, and remember to always ask the question: Who stands to benefit from this commercial, or that speech, or the other emotion-laded, fist-pounding diatribe? And once you find out who that beneficiary is, ask yourself whether they're really concerned with the best interests of you and your family, or simply with their own pocketbooks. Then you'll have an educated base from which you can confidently decide your own priorities.

The Ballad of Joseph Cao

The Ballad of Joseph (Joe) Cao

Why the Pro-Life Movement Should Support Health Care Reform

Why the Pro-Life Movement Should Support Health Care Reform

Much has been made of Congressman Cao's recent cross-party vote to support the health care reform bill that was passed by the House of Representatives this week, but Cao has been on the side of our health ever since his election. In fact, as a recipient of his e-mail newsletter (you can sign up on his website), I have personally received no less than 5 messages in the last 2 months from his office directly related to health care issues in our community, including information about local health fairs, instructions on where LA residents can get H1N1 flu vaccines, his work to re-open Charity Hospital, and more. Critics can say what they will, but no one can deny that health issues have been a priority for Cao's office ever since his election.

So why is Congressman Cao so willing to take on an issue that has most Republican (and not a few Democrat) officials quaking in their political boots? There could be many reasons, but for my money, I'll say it's because he is unusually far-sighted for a congressman, especially one from our neck of the woods. Cao's priorities are far from hidden. He wants Charity Hospital re-opened. He wants Louisiana residents to have access to affordable health care. And he wants the Right To Life platform to put its money where its mouth is and take charge of the issue. And ultimately, that may prove to be his most notable battle.

Our Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed by our Creator with certain "unalienable" rights, including the right to life. Lawyers may argue that the Declaration, being a separate document from the Constitution, does not itself endow any rights upon U.S. citizens, and that therefore the failure to save a life when we have the ability to do so does not necessarily violate the legal principles of our nation. I disagree. In a nation where we have both the money and the technology to save hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who would otherwise die simply due to lack of health insurance, I believe that we have a moral and ethical, if not historical, obligation to provide that life-saving insurance - whatever the cost.

Indeed, if any political movement of our generation should be backing the call to reform health care, it is the "Right To Life" movement. It doesn't take a genius to see the connection between fighting to maintain the life of a fetus and fighting to maintain the life of a fellow citizen. Or have we reached some sad social benchmark where we care more for the life of a potential person than an actual one?

What Congressman Cao has done with his vote is not only support the right of our citizens to have access to effective, affordable medical care; he has also united the good intentions of the Right to Life movement with the stark realities of a nation which has failed to provide the most basic necessities to maintain the lives of  the citizens it already has. What the Health Care Reform movement may not have taken into account when it began is what the liberal voting base may have to give up in order to see successful reform enacted. Congressman Cao has very likely struck the first blow in a battle that could ultimately determine the way we as a nation proceed with both issues. Ultimately, it is possible that neither the Right to Life movement nor the Health Care Reform movement can come to fruition without the other. The question now is, what is the liberal voting base prepared to give up in order to see real health care reform enacted? And what is the conservative voting base willing to lay on the line in order to to advance the pro-life agenda? If we follow both arguments to their logical conclusion, it seems to me that they unfailingly end up in a place where we must either place the ultimate value on all lives, or none of them.

For those of you who are wondering, yes, my inner feminist is actively screaming bloody murder at the very thought of losing ground on the battle for women's rights, especially in a nation that has not even been able to pass an Equal Rights Amendment. Yet I cannot deny that my perspective on the matter of health care changed when I lost my own health insurance due to a chronic illness - just as my perspective on the matter of right to choice might change if our nation could ensure that any unwanted child born would, at the very least, have access to the basic health and medical care needed to ensure her or his healthiest possible life - no matter what. So if the Right to Life movement wants to gain votes, here is its best chance. Let the Right to Life advocates fight as hard for the lives of our fellow citizens now as they have for the lives of the unborn in the past, and - for the first time in my life - they might in return see my vote and my check headed in their own direction.

Louisiana Congressman Crosses Party Lines to Support Health Insurance Reform

Louisiana Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao Crosses Party Lines to Support Health Insurance Reform

Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao has a history of listening to the concerns of his constituents.

History is being made in our very midst, Louisiana.

Yesterday at 11:15 p.m. the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass their version of the health insurance reform bill. For those of you who are counting, this is the first time in the history of our nation that either chamber of Congress has passed a comprehensive health insurance reform bill. Among the 220 votes supporting the bill (215 voted against it) we find our very own Louisiana Representative, Congressman Cao (pronounced Gow). As if the House vote weren't historic enough, Congressman Cao crossed party lines to throw his political weight behind the reform bill - the only Republican to do so.

As ever, the price for making history is steep. Obviously Congressman Cao runs the risk of alienating his largely conservative constituency by crossing traditional Republican party lines to support health insurance reform. And the news for his liberal constituents isn't perfect either - Cao was instrumental in removing any portion of the bill that would provide government subsidized funds for abortions. Critics of the Congressman will likely opine that he hopes to have his cake and eat it too (does that expression make sense to anyone?). But we here at HFL take a different view, and we'll tell you why:

Over the past several months, we have lobbied each of our representatives in Congress heavily regarding health insurance reform, and that means lots of e-mails, letters, phone conversations, and direct meetings when possible. Any member of Congress will send a return form letter if you write to them, but Congressman Cao has been by far the most responsive politician that I, personally, have ever dealt with. Not only was his response letter immediate, but it was also clear, well-written (you wouldn't believe the kind of crap that some representatives put their name on), and thoughtful. Regardless of one's own position on the matter, it would be difficult to read that letter and not feel that Cao has put tremendous energy and thought into the issue of health care in America.

Congressman Cao's aides are also intelligent, polite, and well-versed in political issues AND on his stance on those issues. This is in extraordinary contrast to, say, Senator David Vitter's aides, who in my personal interactions have managed to be mostly hostile, uninformed, and in all other ways pretty much totally unprepared to communicate with the general public. (We'll get to Landrieu's aides later). A politician's aides tell a lot about how seriously that politician takes his or her position as a leader, and Cao's aides have been unfailingly well informed and eager to involve his constituents. The Congressman also goes out of his way to determine his constituents' opinions on political matters. Rather than wait for opinions to find their way to his desk, the Congressman holds regular town hall meetings in his district, and his website posts surveys on major issues, allowing his constituents an ease of access that is relatively uncommon amongst the more high-brow political types.

But all of this is secondary to the strength of Congressman Cao's convictions, and the lengths to which he will go to be a positive, effective influence on the democratic process. His history of seeking out input from his constituents and his willingness to stand behind his values, putting his votes where his mouth is, make him stand out as a remarkably dignified figure amongst a crowd of glorified snake charmers.

So while we can't say that he does everything exactly the way we, as voters, might want him to do it, we can say this:  If Congressman Cao is brave enough to vote against his party lines for something he believes is truly in the best interest of his community, then those of us who traditionally vote Democrat can vote against our party lines to keep him in office. Because when it comes right down to it, party lines are just a convenient illusion, and one that tends to distract voters (and politicians) from the real issues. They are no substitution for careful consideration and ethical action, and we think Congressman Cao embodies an approach to representation that truly brings the "serve" back into public service.

If you live in LA's Second District, click here to share your thoughts with Congressman Cao.