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Winter 2010 Forum will focus on a topic that receives scant attention in our society - how to plan a good death for yourself and those you love. With a panel of local experts, we will explore the medical, legal and spiritual decisions that can make passing on easier for everyone concerned. Our goal is to give you the information you need to make informed end-of-life decisions and communicate them clearly to your family. A Painless way to Approach the Inevitable

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Every day, we make dozens of decisions without thinking about them: what to feed the kids, how fast to drive to work, whether to hit the snooze bar. We make most of these decisions without a second thought. We go with our gut.

For other decisions, though, we have to pause, consider our options, and bring our best judgment to bear. This can be uneasy territory -- and it can get especially fraught with decisions about our health, when we often lack a strategy for weighing all the i

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by MN Senator John Marty

"If anyone...has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know."
-- President Obama, State of the Union 
January 27, 2010

An open letter in response to President Obama's State of the Union request for a better approach to health care reform:

Dear President Obama,

During your State of the Union address, you explained why you are fighting for… Continue

SAN FRANCISCO — Democrats in California revived a bill on Thursday that would create a single-payer, universal health care system in the state.

While the move came as questions arose over the prospects of Congress adopting national health care legislation, the author of the California bill, State Senator Mark Leno, said that the timing was coincidental. Mr. Leno said it was basically a long-planned reintroduction of a 2009 proposal that was effectively tabled because of its potential cost. But… Continue

Everyone knows what happened last night in Massachusetts. Rather than spend time commenting on that, this post will focus on what it means for health reform. There are five remaining options for health reform to pass:


1 Ram it through. This would require the Senate and House negotiators to finish negotiations to merge their bills (which have been going on for months), as soon as possible. They would then need to send the merged bill to the Congressional Budget Office, who would take 5-1… Continue