Everything's Relative

Everything Is Relative

I have to admit it- I am idealistic. I wanted the health care plan to be single- payer, socialized medicine. I also understand now, that getting something done that has never been done before takes a big dose of realism.

Which is more important: getting something done at all, or getting it done perfectly the first time?

Being part of the effort of getting RainbowVision out of the ground helps me understand a small part of what President Obama has had to face. His project took a hundred years to complete. And it will still need continuous and arduous refinement until we even get close to the kind of success Germany has with their health care.

Progress takes time. The idea for a community like ours began to be envisioned by our population after the StoneWall riots, almost 41 years ago. RainbowVision was established in 1998 expressly for the purpose of providing Senior Care and Residential Services, from Active Adult levels through to Assisted Living in a resort/club style environment to the LGBTQI &A population. We officially opened in June 2006, with Assisted Living following in July.

We know that some aspects of community include living within close proximity and having opportunities for socialization. Additional aspects that define this community is its financial model which means sharing the financial responsibilities in order to make a lifestyle available to the greatest number of people. In this community, that includes access to various levels of assistance with daily living activities.

As in any business, more usage by more people keeps costs down, because it allows for bulk buying and the amortization of labor costs. Colonization or splintering has a negative effect on the economics and ultimate success of any community. Establishing a colony of one member’s vision or needs over another, by insisting on smaller organizational units within the community only drives up costs up for everyone. Smaller organizational units have less buying power, less opportunity to share costs, and most importantly, less income to subsidize those expenditures.

For example, if you need a can of paint, you will pay full price for the can, and maybe not use it all. If two people need the same color paint, we can buy a bigger can than it would cost for two cans, and if a third person needed that same color we could possibly get our room painted for a third the cost, with nothing left over. This is called “economies of scale”, and it is the basis for the financial model of this community.

This is more or less the same concept that is the basis for the all public health care plans in the world throughout history. The more people pay into the plan, the lower it costs to provide the service- hence “mandatory” participation is required. Not unlike buying a condo here requires paying for an amenity package of services, per initial contract agreement.

The concept isn’t new. There is safety in numbers. Our survival depends upon community unity; financially, socially and politically. That means all of us, not some of us. RainbowVision Santa Fe is now moving into its fourth year. Everything is relative, when we reflect on the fact that it took over a hundred years to get a universal health care plan in place.


THE HISTORY OF THE HEALTH CARE PLAN
Before March 23, 2010, the US was the only industrialized country that had no universal health care system. Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been signed into law, the United States will have a form of universal health care by 2014.
From the time of Teddy Roosevelt, the issue of health care reform has been on the table as a government item. Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign coincided with a health care revolution, when medical capabilities and costs were expanding rapidly. Germany had a compulsory health-insurance program since 1883, and the British National Insurance Act passed in 1911. The American Progressive Party pushed a much more specific program in state legislatures in 1915, but the plan was never adopted. The program's resemblance to German policy did not help once the United States entered into World War I. In 1919, with the Red Scare, state health insurance opponents branded the program Bolshevism.

As early as 1935, FDR wanted a national health care plan to be included in the Social Security Legislation. Harry Truman, the next president, wanted a fund that everybody would contribute to, like we contribute to social security, to provide the money for this plan.

In the second half of the 20th Century, health care reform saw it’s greatest triumph to date – the creation of Medicare and Medicaid as part of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”. The proponents of the plan saw the same arguments, the same fights and the same inevitable failures that have dogged it nearly every time. Johnson signed the Medicare bill with Harry Truman in attendance at the Truman Presidential Library. With a stroke of the pen, 19 million elderly citizens now had access to health care. Oddly enough, the U.S. did not immediately turn communist, forget its values and lose sight of its freedom. And Medicare remains the single most popular option for coverage in the United States.
Richard Nixon introduced his Comprehensive Health Insurance Act on Feb. 6, 1974. It would have built upon existing employer-sponsored insurance plans and would've provided government subsidies to the self-employed and small businesses to ensure universal access to health insurance. Even as the Watergate scandal was unfolding, Ted Kennedy brokered a compromise between the White House and Democrats. But pressure against the plan came from the left , particularly labor unions, who thought that with a Democrat sure to retake the White House in 1976, they could get a better deal on health care reform then. Ultimately, time ran out when Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. Faith in government had been badly weakened in the 1960s, from the Vietnam War, the culture wars raging at home, and a mounting sense that you just couldn’t trust the people in charge. The president resigning in shame was another massive blow to our collective psyche. It is one that has taken years, if not decades, to recover from.
The Clinton health care plan was a 1993 health care reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton. In August 1994, Democratic Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell introduced a compromise proposal that would have delayed requirements of employers until 2002, and exempted small businesses. A few weeks later, Mitchell announced that his compromise plan was dead, and that health care reform would have to wait at least until the next Congress. The 1993 Clinton health care plan is sometimes called "HillaryCare" by opponents.

With passage of the legislation on March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama has achieved the signature domestic goal of his presidency, and the most sweeping piece of social legislation since the 1960s Great Society initiatives that saw the passage of Medicare and Medicaid.
Universal coverage is a goal that has eluded Presidents going at least as far back as Teddy Roosevelt, and Obama's bill comes as close to that target as anyone has. One hundred years later.

What's In a Name?

What’s In a Name-Joy Silver


Some of you may remember New York's Sahara Club, in the 70's. Its history is one worth honoring- and we did so by introducing the Sahara as one of our dining rooms here at RainbowVision Santa Fe.

The “homosexual stigma” kept gay social spaces in “back regions” hidden from public view. These spaces were therefore vulnerable to illegal intrusions, such as criminal activities (many cities had Mafia-controlled gay bars) and police brutality and corruption (gay sexual activity often “hides” in red-light districts).

Because gay and lesbian clubs catered to people who were stigmatized or who engaged in “criminal acts,” bar owners in most American cities were forced to pay the police or organized crime for “protection.”

Lesbians or gay men rarely owned gay and lesbian bars.

In the East, during the mid 60’s, all clubs tended to be owned and controlled by organized crime families.

The Columbo crime family had concealed stakes in several bars, motels and cocktail lounges, including places patronized by “homosexuals.” A sideline in the operation of such spots was the blackmailing of wealthy or prominent patrons. The Genovese family was reported to control many of the bars and nightclubs in Greenwich Village and on Manhattan’s fashionable East Side catering to “sex deviates.”

Civil rights took a leap forward in the end of the 60's, for all minorities including gays and lesbians. Once the Stonewall riots occurred in the Village, there was no turning back. Ownership of clubs by those who also were patron/ matrons was now a possibility.

In New York, the first to risk disturbing this illicit economic boon to organized crime was the Sahara Club on 1st Avenue on the Upper East Side. The Sahara Club became the first bar owned and operated by and for women. Michelle and Leslie, who today continue as party promoters for women's social events, took this great risk in the late 70's.

Pat Benatar and Ellen de Generis were among the first to perform at The Sahara, launching their careers as prominent performers.

Thank You, Truman Capote

Last week I put together a piece for “The Spectrum” - RainbowVision Santa Fe’s community newsletter. The piece was about Truman Capote, who we have honored by naming the library for. His spirit must have been demanding recognition, because suddenly everything Capote surrounded me.

First, I found a book about him in the room I was staying in. It consisted of interviews of people who knew him, peppered with interviews by the author of Capote as well. Then, I found a history of Hollywood’s nightclubs and restaurants, starting with its advent about 1915. Any book like that would have to eventually include Capote, since he was a well know figure in LA and NYC, particularly in places that served alcohol.

But the event that brings it to the EERIE level is the film on TCM, which I happened to have on, at some odd hour of the day I never watch TV. There was Truman Capote himself, in a ridiculous murder mystery farce that include stars like Dom Deluise, Peter Falk and Maggie Smith. Truman Capote was strange and wonderful, brilliant and terrible, and above all, never hid his sexual orientation. His bravery gave heart to many of us to accept ourselves, and to be out. At least, I know he did that for me. Truman, I miss seeing you on those TV Talk shows, and thank you, for your brilliance.