Last night I basked in the light of the Full Moon and requested clarity on the recent grief I was experiencing with the death of my favorite musician, DJ i_o, also known as Garrett Lockhart. I had a relationship with i_o through his music and his death hit me profoundly. I never met him, I was fairly new to his music, but there was something about his energy that lit up my spirit. I noticed this igniting whenever I heard his music or watched him virtually perform. We met at the very beginning of the pandemic, back in March 2020, and he kept my internal flame lit when chaos and change was occurring externally. He had no idea he had this effect on me, and so many others, during the stress 2020 had created for everyone. When he recently died, this ignited fire inside of me flickered with pain, a piece of me was extinguished. The past four days I reflected hard-core on why I felt this emptiness and pain inside of me, regarding a person I never personally knew. Thanks to the energy of last night’s Gemini Full Moon falling on my face, I was able to understand why I was so connected to him and why his energy lit up my spirit. Over the past several years, my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs began transmuting, and i_o’s entire persona churned my wheels of metamorphose faster and provided a sense of confirmation of what was changing for me.
i_o: ---> Taught me to be authentic, to be myself and not to care what others think, because it doesn't matter. What matters is being me and living in my own truth, and doing so is not selfish. That I must have confidence to step into myself, in its truest form, and be comfortable doing so, without fear of abandonment or rejection, which deflates my power. Instead, all humans have value and worth which gives us power. ---> Proved to me that living with passion for something is necessary. That our lives only have meaning in how it affects others lives and serving people is a big part of life’s purpose as we are all connected in its fabric. That being fulfilled in some way makes life worth living and without it we are challenged deeply with pain and suffering. ---> Reminded me that it's okay to question everything, to think deeply about things, and to not be fine with what's happening around us. That questioning the establishment is necessary and that status quo isn't necessarily the right way. That it's okay to not want to be conditioned and conformed. That it's alright to want freedom from the illusions and call them for what they are, even if it's not popular. Instead, finding and doing what makes me happy is uber important as a sense of rebellion against the falsehoods of what's supposed to make us happy. ---> Restored my faith in humanity. That it's okay to be an individual, yet part of a larger community. That I need to find my people and not try to fit into just any circle, but instead attract those that are too transmuting. They do exist, and more people are waking up and shedding old skin just like me. That there are people out there, on my vibration, that my spirit cannot wait to meet. In the meantime, I cannot be afraid to walk alone. ---> Showed me I can create a life of love amongst infinite possible ways to do it, and we don't need to compete with each other while doing it. Starting with love for ourselves, then doing what we love, and subsequently this will spread love to others. That I must do what comes easy to me, a sense of effortless manifestation as a sign we are on the right track leading with love. Thank you i_o for helping me gain the needed confidence in knowing I was already on the right path in my awakening. May your spirit live alive through these changes in myself and those others you have also transmuted. Even though he believed nothing mattered, he also believed everything we do affects others, and it is my hope that his death will evoke change in the people he impacted, which in turn will serve humanity well.
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Every month’s New Moon is a perfect time to set intentions, plant new seeds, and start afresh. Mother Nature has given us this tool to help us search for new and inventive ways to make progress in our lives. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Cancer which is about the purification of impurities.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 2:41 am EST on Sunday, June 21st, 2020. WORD FOR THE MONTH Hardwork FOCUS AREAS Home, family, emotions, feelings, intimacy, nurturing, safety, tenacity, and patience. HEADS UP Happy Sol-clipse! We have a dynamic combination of the Summer Solstice and a Solar Eclipse New Moon occurring almost at the same time, within 9 hours of each other. The Sol-clipse sets the tone for the next 6 months which indicates major new beginnings and is as life-changing as the first six months of 2020 have been. This is the beginning of a very profound time and you are here to be a part of it. Astrologer Divine Harmony has noted that the maximum eclipse is at the exact same time, to the minute, as the New Moon, a rare instance she has never seen, so it makes sense that nothing makes sense. This rare alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth is providing a portal for the movement of a lot of energy. Humanity within society sits in between this energy exchange. We have lived in a patriarchal society for a long time, very intense yang male energy. We as a society have been disconnected from the matriarchal, but a strong female yin energy has been rising and it will be coming full force in the time ahead of us. Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the word enantiodromia, to define the phenomena seen when the superabundance of any force produces its opposite when equilibrium is trying to be achieved. First, we are going to see an overabundance of female matriarchal energy before balance is restored. This coincidence of opposites was articulated by Greek philosopher Heraclitus around 500 BCE describing the dynamic motion back and forth between duality seen in nature and physics. Jung states in Aspects of the Masculine: "This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.” Basically anything in an extreme state will turn into its opposite extreme. This potent and dynamic Sol-clipse New Moon is screaming this energy. Heraclitus’ famous statement that no one steps in the same river twice is strong at play here. Although things are always constantly changing, core to our time-based life, things are going to be really changing for everyone. It already has and it's not over. We are called to pay attention and be cautious and responsible. Those three things are hard to do on their own, so a lot is being asked of us. We need flexibility and open-mindedness as we adapt to changing conditions. Be a problem solver instead of a complainer, as things are shifting whether we like it or not. In a Solar Eclipse, the Moon darkens the Sun as it moves between it and the Earth. This one is considered a partial eclipse so it leaves a ring of light around the eclipsed Sun, often known as a ring of fire. In hindu philosophy, fire symbolizes transformation, a burning down to ashes to make way for something new to arise. It is both the destroyer and creator of life. As all of humanity sits within the ring of fire at this New Moon, everything is transforming before our eyes. Everything. Transformational heat is generating within ourselves and society. Hindus use fire as a method to move into the next stage in the afterlife. What will our afterlife look like, post covid? There are a lot of scenarios our future can be after we emerge from the fires. Are we burning away ignorance? Hate? Fear? Greed? Anger? We have an opportunity to re-imagine our future. How do you see it? As the Moon casts a shadow on our Earth during this eclipse, many of our dark shadows will come to Light. We must face what is in the dark shadows personally, and in society, in order for transformation to occur. Light always will reveal what impurities are blocking us from it. What is blocking you? What is blocking us all? The answers are being revealed. What is toxic is going to become front and center. This New Moon is in the sign of Cancer, helping us learn lessons about the importance of family and home. Cancer is in the realm of the Mother, one who wants to birth a new world for us, but also calm our fears and nurture what is possible. Tap into this motherly, feminine energy at our disposal while we enter into a time of major change and transformation. We may get emotional and moody as we bring up old wounds and get rid of our old story. Have compassion on yourself and fellow humans. The Cancer New Moon is here to nourish us as we heal and do inner work, allowing us a sense of security in this dynamic time. With love and peace, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Temperance Card - Thoth Tarot The phases of the moon are among the most fascinating and reachable cosmic behaviors we can observe with the naked eye. Every New Moon marks the beginning of the lunar cycle, an energetic shift where our ideas can gestate and we search for new and inventive ways to make progress. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Gemini which is about resonating on a higher vibration.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 1:39 pm EST on Friday, May 22nd, 2020. WORD FOR THE MONTH Rebuilding FOCUS AREAS Adaptability, communication, ideas, planning, motivation, versatility, truth, listening, and imagination. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Gemini, which happens to be trine Saturn, meaning these two celestial bodies are 120 degrees apart and generally means a harmonious angle of support. The energy of this Gemini New Moon is screaming at us to rebuild what has fallen, get back to work, and make progress with longer-term goals. Progress may be slow, but Saturn gives great patience and perseverance to us. We will be willing to sacrifice immediate gratification to meet our long-term goals. What are they? Come up with new ideas. What excites you? The energy of the Gemini New Moon wants us to share these ideas with others, so speak about it to those with listening ears. There is a lot of mental energy at our disposal allowing us to keep busy and distracted at this time of isolation and global chaos. Sounds wonderful right? But do take some time to give your mind a break and hear what the silence is telling you. Our ancestors are giving us messages to help us get through these times, guiding us, providing clarity that is missing from our media. Be sure to take some down time to tune in. During the start of the month we had several planets going retrograde; Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter. This brings us continued confusion, misinterpretation, and misinformation. As a result, we may feel chaotic energy in our physical world, but in our inner world, we can really dive deep and achieve clarity, uncover new insights and inspirations. Our world, for the first time is united by a single cause--everyone, and anyone, has been affected by the current pandemic and all of its consequences, ecological, politically, economically, and socially. We are all one, whether an earthworm or human, in a point of singularity in history. This is a unique situation in our human history, full of purpose. This Gemini trine Saturn New Moon doesn’t want us living in fear—hope resonates on a higher vibration. Be willing to trade in an uncertain future for getting rid of the unsustainable past. Society is being rebirthed. Can you feel it? Vulnerabilities are being exposed everywhere. Cracks in our foundations are getting bigger and new ones are appearing. This is because the Moon represents the unconscious and this New Moon in Gemini, the sign of the twins, deals with having to face one’s shadow. We have seen the best and worst of human nature during this global crisis. We cannot keep living the way we were and expect to have a sustainable and resilient population of humans on this planet. Change must happen and we are being given an unexpected opportunity to rewrite our future. What are you going to change? We will all collectively live differently, and hopefully, change the path of our future to one of love, equality, community, compassion, and resiliency. Or, continue to live with injustice, greed, patriarchy, capitalism, profit over people, addiction, and poverty. We are at a place of choosing. What will be your choice? Some things to consider: Do you want cheap food, or good health? Why are we fostering collapse with government bailouts, instead of supporting/funding change? What would your community look like if everyone benefited from its resources, except for just the privileged? People are rising against a mechanistic system that is successful at removing our joy and replacing it with fear. Question everything at a time when our questioning is being suppressed. Gemini’s archetype is giving us the energy to go push through the suppression. We will all begin to feel this urge if we are living mindfully and in awareness. Are you awake at this time? Or sleeping? Walk in the light and the heart, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Addressing Health Injustice in the United States Through Accountability & Citizen Participation4/9/2020 PROLOGUE (COVID-19 update) I wrote this post before the coronavirus outbreak and I wanted to add some additional thoughts about this global pandemic as my words below are even more important and evident now. The novel coronavirus affects everyone, but some groups suffer more, such as marginalized populations who live in poverty and those who suffer due to health inequities. Coronavirus is exposing all of the weaknesses in the U.S. health system and has shown that the nation was less prepared for a pandemic than countries with universal health systems due to lack of universally accessible screening and the uninsured or underinsured still priced out of care. Those losing their jobs due to the economic shutdown will subsequently lose their health insurance coverage, showing us is just how unreliable the employer-based framework really is. In the interim, U.S. legislators have agreed to make American healthcare more like other nations by making COVID-19 treatment free or low-cost at the point of service, either by having the government cover the cost or by mandating private health insurers to cover services related to the pandemic. This helps bridge the insurance coverage gap for those who do not have private health insurance or qualify for Medicaid and was a pivotal and encouraging development. But this would have been far more impactful if it was already in place, removing any delay in care to anyone in an effort to control the spread. Amid this crisis, millions of Americans are now demanding that we have a government that works for all, making a stronger case for universal health coverage. As a result, it’s important that local and global public health leaders continue to pursue health equity during the outbreak response, aiming to protect vulnerable and marginalized communities from COVID-19. Even though Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights champion and First Lady of the United States, was Chair of the United Nations Commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the U.S. still stands alone within the developed world in not making healthcare a basic human right to all of its citizens, without a mandate to provide universal health coverage (UHC) independent of income. This means that healthcare is, instead, treated as a commodity for most people, something that is bought, considered a privilege and a benefit. Recently, all United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals of 2015, agreeing to try to achieve UHC by 2030, urging governments to move toward providing all people with access to affordable, quality healthcare services as a part of sustaining our human race and planet. Although these goals are a beautiful example of a universal call to action to protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, unfortunately, accountability is lacking. The goals are all aspirational. There will be no sanctions or the like on the U.S. for not adhering to these goals. Americans have to take it up with their government if it does not do so. The United Nations will not.
While states are formally accountable to their populations, people often have limited meaningful opportunities to hold their governments accountable. However, I firmly believe in the power of the people and their voting rights to help provide pressure for domestic accountability towards UHC if they are supported by a treaty such as the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH). This treaty is aimed at addressing the shortcomings in implementing the right to health, including through binding standards requiring accountability and enforceability. The FCGH Alliance is in the process of articulating these standards. These binding remedies would hold states accountable for health justice violations and would advance health equity by better ensuring that those responsible for the abuses answer for their actions. One of the key principles that the FCGH Alliance proposes for the Framework Convention on Global Health centers around empowering people to claim and enforce their right to health. However, this all begins with education and being informed. Yet governments, especially in the U.S., often fail to adequately equip users with a good understanding of the health system. Information makes one liberated and is the foundation of progress. If Americans become knowledgeable, they have power, and that power can impact their healthcare system, enabling health to become a right embodied in U.S. law, and changing the status quo in which powerful interests, whether wealthy segments of the population who want to keep taxes low or corporations that prioritize their profits, keep the commodity-based system intact. The recent U.S. comprehensive health law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, helped to increase access, decrease costs, and raise quality standards. However, the Act lacks any provisions regarding the duty of the government to develop capacity in empowering people to claim and enforce their right to health. The ACA does include transparency of claim denials by insurers, costs of services and quality scores by providers, but is mute on principles that empower people to demand accountability from the government itself. The FCGH would seek to improve national accountability to health commitments, including by promoting the principle of people’s meaningful participation in developing, monitoring, and evaluating laws, policies, and programs that may impact their right to health. A genuine opportunity to influence decisions related to their health equity must be available locally, regionally, and nationally for everyday citizens, non-citizens, and civil society organizations. For example, a discussion draft of the FCGH includes a section on Participation that could contribute to accomplishing this. Other organizations, such as the National Issues Forum (NIF) can partner with and develop local town and district health committees and working groups that include members of the public. There are plenty of options available that elected U.S. public representatives can utilize to empower their constituents. However, provisions in federal health legislation must be developed to enforce this participation, such as requiring a certain number or percentage of people from various jurisdiction to participate before laws affecting the right to can become enacted or providing funding to enable these participation opportunities. An FCGH can assist and advise on the best way to bring about this accountability and participation for each country, in this case, the United States. But for a treaty like the FCGH to be successful in the United States, Americans must be informed enough to accept it and put pressure on their elected representatives to support it. I see the FCGH Alliance as a partnership that can help Americans become more educated on health policy and their rights and cause this pressure to mount. In an effort to help move toward health equity in the U.S. through getting information to the American people, I have recently published a book to help close the gap of the health system illiteracy. This book aims to provide a snapshot of the core dialogue taking place in our healthcare system and provides a moral argument for health equity. I provide evidence showing how health inequity is the basis of the United States health system’s problems and the need for accountability and citizen participation as a requirement for any lasting change to happen. My book aims to provide a path for social empowerment for the often powerless American healthcare consumer. The balance of profit and social justice is a true dilemma in the U.S. healthcare system and leads to a level of inequality that is unconscionable. Its commodity-based system forces leaders of health organizations to be motivated by money, deterring them from the mission of caring for the sick and injured, promoting prevention, and keeping people healthy. For example, healthcare is unaffordable and inaccessible for many, yet executives of these companies take home salaries at the amount of millions of dollars. And many legislators make decisions that decrease coverage instead of increasing it, making healthcare more expensive for people, even while high compensation for executives continues. This commodity-based system has put incentives in the wrong places, compromising health justice. Implementing an FCGH in the U.S. would include catalyzing a domestic health financing and accountability framework that would protect limited resources for healthcare by demanding increased transparency and combating corruption through pathways such as improved resource allocation disclosure requirements and better enforcement of standards to ensure accountability for any misuse of public health resources. Moving to a system where the incentives change and the priorities shift to include everyone, will move us towards health justice. What a government prioritizes and spends its money on defines what is important to it, and extending access to quality healthcare to everyone has never been made a bi-partisan priority in the United States. One of the biggest issues in the U.S. healthcare system is not the lack of money for universal health coverage but how limited healthcare dollars are being spent. The U.S. is already paying what other countries pay for universal health coverage—except the U.S. doesn’t have it. Instead its current largely privatized and fragmented commodity-based healthcare system costs more than public healthcare for other countries around the world. It bears repeating: the U.S. is already paying for the cost of Universal Health Care and then some. An FCGH would provide legal backing in negotiating laws and policies that provide non-discriminatory healthcare to all, a long-standing global public health goal, and help elected public officials push back against policies that do the opposite through clear requirements for equitable distribution. Society suffers injustice when not everyone gets to share in the benefits and when distributions of resources are not equal. When health equity is compromised, health disparities shade society with injustice, which is the unfortunate reality in the United States. For example, 21% of non-elderly Hispanic people are uninsured, while only 8% of whites are. Additionally, babies born to black women with professional degrees are about three times more likely to die than babies born to white women with only a high school diploma or its equivalent. The FCGH shall be the foundation upon which marginalized communities in the U.S., such as people of color and low-income individuals, who have long been discriminated against and excluded from decision-making, will be ensured of avenues to demand their right to health and justice. No matter what our circumstance, environment, or influence, we are human, and basic rights for everyone in all positions of society must be observed to truly live in a moral, ethical, and just society. I am encouraged by the mission of the FCGH Alliance and its vision towards a more just society that ensures the right to health for all people by addressing health injustice through governmental accountability and citizen awareness and participation. Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom from Pexels “The improvement of medicine would eventually prolong human life, but improvement of social conditions could achieve this result even more rapidly and successfully.” - Rudolf Virchow, German Physician, 1879
A major public health milestone was achieved in The United States in 1985 when the Department of Health and Human Services published the Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health. This marked the inception of a new era in acknowledging minority health issues. While action has been taken nationally since to address the issues noted in the report, health inequity persists and remains a distinction within American society. The World Health Organization defines health inequities as systematic differences in the health status of different population groups. Society suffers health inequity when not everyone gets to share in the opportunities and when distributions of resources are not equal—a failure of distributive justice. These inequities have significant social and economic costs both to individuals and their communities. Achieving health equity means that everyone has the basics to be as healthy as possible. There is substantial evidence that social factors, including education, gender, ethnicity, employment status, and income level have significant influence on a person’s health. This is why health equity is a multiple-industry concern. There are a multitude of benefits gained from investment towards health equity, including reducing suicide rates among the transgendered, lowered readmissions, improved health outcomes, and reduction of health disparities to name just a few. Health equity is not only a moral issue, but also an economic one as well. Economic Load Wise policymakers, medical centers, insurers, and providers have realized that health equity affects the bottom line. A study published in 2018 by the Connecticut Department of Public Health noted that “race and ethnicity were associated with higher hospital charges and estimated excess charges (compared to white residents) of Black residents was over $1.2 billion and $378 million for Hispanic residents.” Higher utilization was found to be a prevention failure because of undiagnosed diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Another study in the International Journal of Health Services published in 2011 found that nationally “eliminating health disparities for minorities would have reduced direct medical care expenditures by about $230 billion and indirect costs associated with illness and premature death by more than $1 trillion for the years 2003-2006.” Specifically for health insurers, racial health disparities alone were estimated to cost the U.S. $337 billion between 2009 and 2018 as reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. These are limited healthcare dollars, wasted away. Numerous measurements were used for estimating the economic impact in these studies include, but not limited to, the following:
Investing in disease prevention not only saves lives but yields a significant return on investment. For example, increasing access to arthritis treatment for 10,000 people, reducing their pain by 18% and increasing their productivity and quality of life, could save more than $2.5 million according to the Alliance for Health Reform. There are system-wide impacts as well. Increased healthcare costs erode company profits leaving less money to invest in equipment or expansion, and force companies to increase prices for their products. GM estimated that providing health insurance for its employees added $1,400 to the cost of every vehicle built in the U.S. in 2004. Moral & Just Society Award-winning 20th century philosopher John Rawls was interested in what makes a just and moral society. He formulated a hypothetical theory where people are equal to each other, and all humans have worth in the Original Position, and if we take a Veil of Ignorance with each other, a social contract would develop that secures basic rights for everyone and protects those in all positions of society. His theory goes on to say that the advantaged have a responsibility to the disadvantaged. Those that are disadvantaged could include those in poverty, those with chronic diseases that affect quality of life, the disabled, etc. Therefore, in the end, it is in our ultimate best interest to do this, because everyone has the potential to be in the lesser position (loss of job, health, etc.) Rawl developed these theories during the Great Depression, when people's lives regularly changed overnight. John Rawls said, “A just society is a society that if you knew everything about it, you'd be willing to enter it in a random place.” Consider that powerful thought: are you willing to be born into a low-income, Black family in Philadelphia or Chicago? Statistically, this population has the highest rate of health disparities in the country, and as a result, end up in unhealthy situations that produces another statistic: highest homicide rate in the country. At the core of Rawls theory is that no matter what our circumstance, environment, or influence, we are human, and all human interests must be observed to truly live in a moral, ethical, and just society. An example of this is the immoral nature of deep racial and ethnic disparities that remain when it comes to health coverage and equity. The refusal of nearly 20 states to expand Medicaid, particularly in the south, has left hundreds of thousands of Americans with these demographics uninsured. Many health organizations are paying attention to health equity and they are doing so not just because it is the right thing to do, but because the financial incentives are increasingly aligning. Institutions that do not respect the importance of achieving health equity in their systems and communities will struggle as our country moves ahead toward a health system that is more patient-centered and accessible. ------ Kat is an award-winning writer, educator, reformer, health advocate, and believer of healthcare as a human right. She believes that most of us aren't comfortable watching people suffer when help is available, and when we assist each other in surviving, everyone benefits. She advocates for awareness, transparency, and a person’s right to know. Information about her most recent book can be found at www.toerrishealthcare.com/book-1. Every New Moon marks the beginning of the lunar cycle, an energetic shift where our ideas can gestate and we search for new and inventive ways to make progress. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Pisces which is about reflecting on and visualizing what you are becoming as the seeds begin to stir in the ground preparing to emerge.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 10:32 am EST on Sunday, February 23rd, 2020. WORD FOR THE MONTH Renewal FOCUS AREAS Imagination, healing, release, addictions, love, confusion, mystery, instincts, and nostalgia. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Pisces! This New Moon encourages us to spend time in reflection and release. A great cycle to meditate, dream, journal, and access the connection to our Higher-Self and see what needs to be healed and left behind. Pisces is the sign of the collective unconscious. Societal transformation is required and in our hands right now. Imagine what type of world you would like to live in this Pisces cycle. Release anything that keeps you from contributing your talents to this collective purpose of saving humanity and our planet. This is an invaluable investment to make in our lives, our world, and our futures. A strong sense of compassion will embrace you this Pisces season. Since Pisces is a water energy, it knows no boundaries. Water needs to be kept flowing since stagnant water becomes toxic very quickly. This flowing water energy wants us to work on how we deal with emotions. If we continue to have an emotional response to every situation in life, we will continue to suffer mentally. If we let emotions come and pass without acting on them, we can change our reality. Remove the boundaries, let your emotions flow, don’t contain them. All of us can learn to live in “the flow” a little better. This New Moon happens to fall within a Mercury retrograde cycle in Pisces, causing lots of confusion, smokey mirrors, and rose-colored glasses. During this time, we’re better off thinking with our hearts. When we think with our heads, so much can go wrong. The mind, controlled by the ego, is governed by past beliefs that are often not our truths. The heart is more reliable and has a direct connection to our inner-light. The two fish of the Pisces symbol represents the human in the physical world, and the soul in the spiritual world, together as one. We are both divine and human, and this New Moon is to remind us that we are spiritual beings living a human experience. There is more to existence than the physical world and appearances. With that being said, we are being called to tap into this intuition and touch our spirit, as this is a time of increased perception. Don’t miss out on it! Walk in the light and the heart, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Aquarius by Yuhon Every New Moon marks the beginning of the lunar cycle, an energetic shift where our ideas can gestate and we search for new and inventive ways to make progress. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Aquarius which is about clearing some space for new ideas, experimentation, and new growth.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 3:44 pm EST on Friday, January 24th, 2020. WORD FOR THE MONTH Flexibility FOCUS AREAS Uncertainty, change, renewal, emotions, patience, unpredictability, excitement, and rebellion. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Aquarius! This New Moon happens to square Uranus, which happens when two planets are 90 degrees apart. A square aspect represents challenges and conflict between the planets involved. Our best use of a square is to weigh the pros and cons and compromise. This creates some volatile energy, not necessarily the way we want to start our new year, but this can bring up some useful options for us. This cycle will bring with it shocks and surprises, so we must be on our toes, flexible, and centered. Stay grounded and work out why you are feeling restless or what is causing the feeling of impending drama and chaos, should it spawn upon you. Since Uranus is ruled by Aquarius, we are going to be triggered even more on an emotional level. Be ready to process emotions, even if you were not ready to. This is good though, because overall, humanity needs to get better at “feeling” our emotions, instead of just pushing them aside where they end up residing in our bodies in unhealthy ways. Actually sitting with how anger, loneliness, or jealousy feels can do wonders for our mental health. We tend to be afraid to feel our emotions, as society calls us weak if we do. But this is exactly what we are being called to do right now—feel, lightly reflect, and move on—instead of tucking the emotion away for it to explode like a volcano sometime later on when triggered. This is because when we feel, we heal. The key here though is not to place judgement on ourselves or think too hard about the emotions when we are feeling them, just feel them. This Uranus square to our Aquarian New Moon could also bring potential for expanded awareness from unexpected awakenings. There is room for growth everywhere, and this energy is helping us take notice of where we can expand next. Uranus had been retrograde since August 2019 and just turned direct on January 10th, so the radical awakenings are coming from the inside out. Aquarius is the sign of the humanitarian and of community. It is a sign associated with helping others and thinking about the collective. We are asked to honor one another and our planet, caring about our natural resources, and how our choices affect one another. We do not live in isolation, we never have. Humans are community-based animals and we depend on our planet to survive. Honor this energy and do something nice for your community, neighbor, or planet this next month. Become a steward of the Earth, afterall we live in her biosphere. Become a part of the larger cultural shift that is happening. In this spirit, I share with you a poem by Drew Dellinger titled “Hieroglyphic Stairway.” it’s 3:23 in the morning and I’m awake because my great great grandchildren won’t let me sleep my great great grandchildren ask me in dreams what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling? surely you did something when the seasons started failing? as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying? did you fill the streets with protest when democracy was stolen? what did you do once you knew?… Walk in the light, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Tree of Life - Rev. ch. XXII, 2. 1892 Across the world we all cannot agree on a lot of things because of different beliefs and cultures accustomed to societies, but one thing most nations can agree on is that healthcare is a right. On December 10, 1948, forty-eight countries agreed to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 of that document notes the right to health care: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.”
Today, almost 200 nations have agreed to this statement for a total of 30 articles universally protecting the rights a person has, because they are human. It sets a common standard for which all societies should pursue in order to maintain humanity’s fundamental needs. In response to signing this agreement, leaders from developed nations with the finances available have gone back to their respective countries and implemented universal healthcare as a form of social responsibility to this declaration. According to data monitored by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 35 of today’s 36 developed nations have universal health coverage with the U.S. being the only exception. Even though Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, was Chair of the United Nations Commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the U.S. still stands alone within the developed world in efforts to make healthcare available to all of their citizens. This means that healthcare is, instead, treated as a commodity, not a right. It’s something we have to buy, a privilege, and a benefit. It’s not something you get just for being born in the U.S. as you would if born in other countries, such as in Poland, Slovenia, Finland, or France. Instead, access to healthcare in the U.S. is through insurance, which provides an entire slew of limitations including affordability, subpar plans, risk of bankruptcy, and more. Since the U.S. takes a different approach with our healthcare system, we stand out in almost every health metric in comparison to the rest of the developed world, For example, our costs are exuberantly high, yet our quality is poor, health disparities persist, life expectancy is declining, and infant mortality rates increasing. The World Health Organization had its 1st Global Symposium on Health System Research in 2010 and concluded with this summary: Out of the countries in their analysis, 75 had legislation that provided a mandate for Universal Health Coverage independent of income. The U.S. was still not one of them. It has been over 70 years since the United Nations unanimously declared Universal Health Coverage as a public priority for our world. More recently, all United Nations Member States adopted the Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 stating that all U.N. Member States agree to try and achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030, urging governments to move toward providing all people with access to affordable, quality healthcare services as a part of sustaining our human race and planet. Although these goals are a beautiful example of a universal call to action to protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, unfortunately, accountability is lacking. These goals are all aspirational, and no Member State is obligated to anything other than their citizens. There will be no sanctions or the like on the U.S. for not adhering to these goals. We, as American citizens, have to take it up with our government for not doing so. The United Nations will not. While Member States are formally accountable to their citizens, people often have limited meaningful opportunities to hold their governments accountable. However, I firmly believe in the power of the people and their voting rights to help provide pressure for domestic accountability towards UHC if they are supported by a treaty such as the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH). This treaty is aimed at addressing the shortcomings in implementing the right to health including binding standards requiring accountability and enforceability. The FCGH Alliance, a Geneva-based NGO formed under the Swiss civil code, has extensive engagement with the World Health Organization, a champion for global health rights. The FCGH Alliance is in the process of articulating functional remedies for violations of the right to health. These binding remedies would hold U.N Member States accountable for health justice violations and would advance health equity by ensuring that those responsible for the abuses answer for their actions. However, this all begins with education and being informed. In our U.S. health system, this education gap is wide, as studies show that 90% of the general U.S. population is unaware of the details of our health system. In fact, I argue that Americans have been conditioned to be uninformed because they don’t want us to have the power that comes from knowledge, which often entails action. Information makes us liberated and is the foundation of progress. If Americans become knowledgeable, they have power, and that power can impact our healthcare system, changing the status quo that has comfortably kept incumbents from profiting at the expense of public health, keeping our commodity-based system intact. For a binding treaty like the FCGH to be successful in the United States, Americans must be informed enough to accept it, putting pressure on their elected representatives to support it. I see the FCGH as a partnership with informed Americans that can help health policy shift as consumers become educated and informed and pressure begins to mount. In an effort to help move toward health equity in the U.S. by informing the American people, I have recently published a book to help close the gap of our health system illiteracy. This book aims to provide a snapshot of the core dialogue taking place in our healthcare system and provides an ethical argument for health equity. I provide evidence showing how not having health equity is the basis to all of our health system’s problems and the need for accountability as a requirement for any lasting change to happen. My book aims to provide a path for social empowerment for the powerless American health consumer. The balance of profit and social justice is a true dilemma in the U.S. healthcare system and leads to a level of inequality that is unconscionable. Our commodity-based system forces leaders of health organizations to be motivated by money which deters from the mission of caring for the sick and injured, promoting prevention, and keeping people healthy and happy. For example, healthcare is unaffordable and inaccessible for many, yet executive leaders take home salaries at the amount of millions of dollars, meanwhile many legislators work towards taking away coverage instead of increasing it so that these compensations can continue. Our commodity-based system has put incentives in the wrong places, compromising health justice and the general American population is unknowingly supporting an immoral health system. Society suffers injustice when not everyone gets to share in the benefits and when distributions of resources are not equal. In healthcare, this creates an environment where health equity is compromised, and health disparities shade society with injustice, which is the unfortunate reality in the United States. Moving to a system where the incentives change and the priorities shift to include everyone, will remove this injustice. This is because what a government prioritizes and spends their money on defines what’s important to them, and extending access to quality healthcare to everyone has never been a priority. One of the biggest issues we have in the U.S. healthcare system is not not having enough money for Universal Health Coverage, but how our limited healthcare dollars are spent. Award-winning 20th century philosopher John Rawls was interested in what makes a just and moral society. At the core of Rawls theory is that no matter what our circumstance, environment, or influence, we are human, and basic rights for everyone in all positions of society must be observed to truly live in a moral, ethical, and just society. I am encouraged by the mission of the FCGH Alliance, and its vision towards a more just society that ensures the right to health for all people by addressing health inequities. Every month’s New Moon provides a fresh opportunity to wake up areas of your life, create space for renewal, new perspectives, and beginnings. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Capricorn which is about ending a decade-long chapter.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 12:13 am EST on Thursday, December 26th, 2019. WORD FOR THE MONTH Completion FOCUS AREAS Subconscious, reassessment, manifestation, success, taking charge, security, respect, structure, and order. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Capricorn! The last New Moon of the year, but when we end cycles, new ones always begin. This is the beauty of the cyclical nature of our Universe and subsequently our lives. Getting the chance to start over and begin again is refreshing and usually welcomed. We are entering that space now. Numerologically, we are completing a number 3 year and moving towards a number 4 year. This means we are ending a year of finding our sense of purpose and power through freedom and chaos and beginning one of organizing and finding the methods to implement that newfound power through vision and accomplishment. What that said, we’re looking at the foundations of our lives to see if we can rely on them. If not, we need to restructure things. Begin considering what foundations needs shifting for you. Even more, we are ending a decade and starting a new one, bringing us tremendous energy for slamming doors already on their way closed and considering what new ones to walk through. What you do now has a colossal effect on your future, as seeds are being planted now. Be the master of your garden by pulling out those weeds and prepping the soil for seeds that are going to take root. If you are not an active participant at this time, seeds may be planted for you through whatever the wind brings your way. Wouldn't you rather have some say on what you plant? Afterall, you are the one that will have to tend to it, regardless of how the seeds are planted. The Winter Solstice has just occurred and many of us are now at the darkest time of the year. Our bodies are physically impacted by this on so many levels, including metaphysically. The good news is immediately after the Winter Solstice we begin approaching longer time of daylight. This weighed heavily on societies throughout humanity, who as a response held various solstice celebrations meant to revere the death of the old Sun and welcoming back the light with the birth of the new Sun. Do the same for yourself. Take some time to honor what your life has been like the past year and past decade. Say goodbye and welcome in the new. Carl Jung once said that “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” We are called during these darkest moments of the year to confront what we have stashed there and experience it deeply. By honoring our darkness in this way we obtain an inner authority that produces a magnificent inner-consciousness we can tap into at any time. We have been taught to fear the dark, rather than seek to understand and heal it within us. We are called to do this so that we can be responsible for our own dark side and not project it onto others. Yes, we are all connected and feel everyone’s darkness. Cheers to the end of cycles and beginning of new ones, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Eight of Wands Thoth Tarot New Moons occur when the Sun and Moon unite in the sky, sharing the same degree of an astrological sign. The Moon starts a new cycle at this point and we’re invited to begin one as well. New Moons have been known throughout the times as one of initiation and intention-setting. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Sagittarius which is about the time before the beginning of another time.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 10:06 am EST on Tuesday, November 26th, 2019. WORD FOR THE MONTH Prepare FOCUS AREAS Truth, education, expansion, freedom, peace, future, impulsiveness, and optimism. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Sagittarius! Riding the wave of depth and emotions from Scorpio season, Sagittarius season thrusts us into adventure and expansion. Where do you want to grow? What are your passions? What gets you excited? Consider what new adventures can serve these purposes in your life. As with the last New Moon, this one is also opposite Uranus, continuing the erratic and restless influence. The difference this time is that Mars is joining this relationship to re-energize this already sensitive situation. This build up of energy can feel exciting or scary since Sagittarius is a fire sign, igniting infernos of various kinds. This can be exactly what’s needed for many of us, or utterly destructive for others. Regardless of what it is for you, continue to seek grounding and balance. Carnelian is an excellent crystal to assist in this. Throw a small one in your pocket or purse. The Sagittarius’ fire can be viewed from another perspective, represented as energy in its most exalted state, materially as electrical current and light. This is the opposite of incineration and combustion which is usually the sentiments with fire. Instead, this high-velocity energy creates, instead of destroys, inner spiritual energy and light. Light is a fluid of energetic vibration thought of as the basis of the first matter. Therefore, this energy is quite creative, forming, and manifesting. Light, as we know it, is a spectrum full of colors, and contains the same diversity that we see in humanity, only at the spiritual level. Meaning, we all have different spiritual wounds, healing, and requirements. Only you know what your soul will need this cycle. Stop and tune in to your inner-light, and prepare to manifest this coming 2020. Sagittarius is especially potent right now because its ruling planet, Jupiter, is in its sign. This only happens once every 12 years for about a year and we are coming close to the end of this cycle for Jupiter, before it moves on to Capricorn for about a year. So anything having to do with Sagittarius's archetypal energy is ramped up and high vibrational at this time (exploration, faith, truth, restlessness, ethics, learning, idealism, culture). So pay attention to what is up at the surface trying to get your attention, as whatever that is for you is seeking to be finalized in some way over the next few weeks as Jupiter leaves Sagittarius. We get the ability to peak beneath the surface, so take advantage of Sagittarius still in it's home-sign and free yourself from whatever is up for your notice. Think about all the space you will have in your energy field for the beginning of 2020. This is called proactive changing. It’s never too early to consider what our goals and priorities are for the next year of our lives. Aim your arrow towards your greatest desires and dream big instead of pointing aimlessly, and your effort will be more efficient. With light and love, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Every month’s New Moon is a perfect time for fresh beginnings, as the energy of the Universe opens up to receive new seeds to grow. All possibilities on the table for future planning. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Scorpio which is about chaotic awakening to new perspectives.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 10:39 pm EST on Sunday, October 27th, 2019. WORD FOR THE MONTH Surrender FOCUS AREAS Empowerment, change, self-acceptance, restlessness, surprises, transformation, stubbornness, instinct, and extremes. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Scorpio! This New Moon is highly charged, due to its opposition to Uranus, the planet of revolution, disruption, and surprises. Uranus happens to be in the sign of Taurus, an Earth sign, so do your best to stay grounded this month. You will feel the ground shifting at your feet this cycle. Scorpio is a water sign, and as a result we may have a hard time grounding this month and be overly emotional and “in our head” as a response to shaky ground. Try to resist this and stay grounded. Watch for chaotic energy everywhere, including your internal space. The best response is to be flexible and adaptable, ride the waves, especially since right now you cannot control its motion.We can have a positive ride on these waters if we look for alternative ways to find solutions to our problems. We are being pushed outside our comfort zones so that we can expand our consciousness and connect better with our intuitive knowledge. This is not a physical exercise, its an energetic exercise. Those that do not sink at this time in the choppy waters will be keen survivors with sharpened brains. This cycle is a beautiful time to release anything that is damaging to us, ask for transformation, and then ultimately healing. This immediately leads to a new perspective, which we all need at this current time in our global state. The Hindu Goddess Kali’s energy is highly potent with this cycle helping us to discern what is ego based, versus spirit based. Take time to reflect on what we hold attachments to. Why do we hold them? Are they ego focused? If so, Kali’s energy can help us sever those unhealthy, society-conditioned attachments with her mighty sword. If we don't focus on eliminating those desires, then it will lead to unstable energy in our fields. There’s a Zen Proverb states “Let go or be dragged.” Loss is a part of life in all ways; physically, emotionally, and metaphysically. The purpose as we move through our own cycle of ego is so that we can lose things we no longer need, then walk into spiritual wisdom. We are all being called to focus on acquiring our spiritual power. When life gets hectic this cycle, separate yourself from the situation and look at it from above. This concept is called Divided Attention, coined by Biet Simkin, allows us to see past difficulty at the bigger picture, and allows us to see beauty and love, ultimately allowing us to grow, mature, and evolve. Connect with your inner light. Our planet, and humanity, relies on us to do this With light and love, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Every month’s New Moon is a perfect time for fresh beginnings, as the energy of the Universe opens up to receive new seeds to grow. All possibilities on the table for future planning. Everyone can benefit from a burst of energy and initiative that marks the start of the New Moon’s 28-day cycle. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Pisces which is about transcending the Earthly experience.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 11:04 am EST on Saturday, March 6th, 2019. WORD FOR THE MONTH Vitality FOCUS AREAS Empathy, creativity, confidence, romance, spirituality, beneficence, philosophy, and forgiveness. HEADS UP Happy New Moon in Pisces. Whatever you have been working on or dreaming of can now flow with little effort. This is an excellent phase for making dreams comes true and to complete difficult tasks as the energy supports practical results and minimal mistakes. You can be efficient and have energy available to take on even the hardest of tasks. However, with this energy short term gratification is replaced by long term potential, so be sure to think way into the future. This structured ambition fuels inspiration and our motivation. This moon cycle we are called to remove any blocks that keep us receiving this month’s New Moon opportunities. In order for this to happen we must surrender and allow things to happen as they do. Pisces is a water sign, so take some time this month to refresh and ground your soul with water in some way—go swimming, take regular baths and the like to connect better with your intuition. Like electricity, water flows in and out, back and forth, and we must trust that the Universe is in control, just as our ocean’s water dances with the Moon through the beat of the tides. Be willing to have confidence that the flow and where we are in life is exactly where we need to be right now and that a higher order is in loving control. This watery and dreamy New Moon is spiritually enlightening. Healing and spiritual resources are at our disposal. Pisces is represented by two fish symbolizing an individual’s soul and physical body. If you have yet to connect with your spirit, you might just hear it this month. If you already regularly do, the energy of this month allows for you to receive its messages effortlessly. We just need to stop, tune in, and listen. This transcendental New Moon will reset our soul heightening our spirituality and allowing us to become more aware of everything. Are you ready? This is an excellent phase for karmic companionship. We are able to connect and find people on our level and vibration much easier this New Moon. We are to honor our close relationships this month as they provide the greatest source of help and guidance. Accepting imperfections in ourselves and in others is the first step in honoring them. When we work to love ourselves firsts, we become infused with new energy which we can lavish onto others in our relationships. As always, a drop of wisdom – put people at the center of your concerns, not profits, and watch how people do the same for you. With light and love, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. Our United States health system is dysfunctional. It leaves many without coverage, is the most expensive of the world, and drives many others into bankruptcy and poor health outcomes. Our two-tiered system of care maintains access for Americans with comfortable incomes but restricts access for everyone else, noted by Anthony Kovner, PhD as a particularly brutal form of rationing. Majority of us agree that things must change, but we hardly make much progress because we can’t seem to find something that unites us all in our great healthcare debate. I contend that there actually is common ground. Our current President once noted, “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.” However, at its core it really isn’t. An interesting analysis done by the Office for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that there seems to be a connection between life expectancy and how much we spend on healthcare. However, that's not the case for the United States. This may explain why we spend the most over any other comparable country in the world yet our health outcomes are poor and we have a higher level of disease burden than they do. What is it that we are doing differently from these other countries other than leading the world with the highest obesity rates? The most important difference is that we don't have Universal Health Coverage for our citizens and instead treat healthcare as a commodity. We are the only developed country in the world that does this. Universal Health Coverage is one of the most widely shared goals in public health around the globe. While countries do implement different funding mechanisms, they all focus more on who has access to the care. There are two specific instances where the United Nations unanimously declared Universal Health Coverage as a public priority for our world. The first was in 1948 when fifty-three-member countries signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights agreeing that all member countries would ensure their citizens have the right to adequate health as a public good and not a commodity. Then again with the Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 stating that all UN Member States agree to try and achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030 urging governments to move towards providing all people with access to affordable, quality health care services as a part of sustaining our human race and planet. Only the developed, industrialized countries (thirty to forty of the world’s two-hundred countries) have established health care systems. These developed countries achieve Universal Health Coverage in several ways, each with its own set of arrangements. None of them trust the free market completely and instead impose regulations like these: insurance companies must accept everyone and cannot make a profit on basic care, everyone is mandated to buy coverage or pay taxes to cover it, the government pays for the poor who cannot, and doctors and hospitals have to accept a standard set of fixed prices. Additionally, not all of the countries do what’s considered socialized medicine, instead many have private doctors and hospitals as a part of the equation. Let me repeat that—single-payer healthcare does not automatically mean socialized medicine. World Health Organization had its 1st Global Symposium on Health System Research in 2010 and had this summary: Out of the countries in their analysis, seventy-five had legislation that provided a mandate for Universal Health Coverage independent of income. The United States was still not one of them. I reached out to a woman who works for the World Health Organization to get some information about accountability towards Universal Health Coverage goals. I was told that the goals are all aspirational and no member country is on the hook for anything; except to their citizens. There will be no sanctions, or the like, for not adhering to these goals. We, as American citizens, have to take it up with our government for not doing so. The United Nations will not. It all begins with the idea that healthcare is a right. This comes naturally for me and I share this sentiment with majority of the population as well. Gallup, The Journal and Pew Research polls showed that most people believe it’s the job of the government to ensure healthcare as a right to their citizens. In other countries healthcare is treated like any other public service similar to how public libraries and police forces are financed by the government and controlled through progressive citizen tax money. Imagine if you had to give a credit card number first before the police comes to your 9-1-1 call. Our right to healthcare is in parallel with the right to public safety or even public road access. Keeping people safe with a police force benefits entire communities. Same goes for keeping people healthy, it affects their entire communities; work, home, neighborhood. This public service philosophy is pretty universal in every other part of the developed world where healthcare is viewed the same as being able to use the library. Often when I speak to people about whether or not healthcare is a right, some say “no” and that it should be paid for on one’s own. With a single-payer health system, everyone pays in their fair share when their taxes are filed. Many of the people who are currently not paying, will be. Simply framed, single-payer means we pay taxes to the government, based on how much we make, and in return we are provided a universal health plan that everyone gets with basics everyone needs. The government then becomes the single-payer in our healthcare. The same goes for how public education is provided; we pay taxes, they plan and manage the system, we show up to school. Our role, other than paying taxes, is to elect people who can rally for our education needs and hope our interests get a say in policy through them. We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not treat healthcare in this fashion. The right to healthcare and expanding coverage to everyone will actually save the health system money because the uninsured are not only an ethical problem but also a fiscal concern. Access to primary care can lower overall health care utilization because increasing access to preventive services will subsequently lower disease rates which cost the system a ton of money. Other benefits manifest as better medication adherence, better management of chronic conditions, reduced reliance on emergency care, and psychological well-being born of knowing one has coverage when getting sick or hurt. When people have access to health care, they live healthier lives and miss work less, allowing them to contribute more to the economy. Norman Daniels, PhD an ethics professor at Harvard University put it this way, "healthcare preserves for people the ability to participate in the political, social, and economic life of society. It sustains them as fully participating citizens." Consider what happens when one cannot get their medications when they have a chronic disease such as high blood pressure or Parkinson’s? Perhaps one could end up in the emergency room, increase disease progression further creating a lower quality of life, have a hard time in their relationships because they are depressed, loose their job because they can’t effectively work, and may end up with an addiction to help ease their pains. This type of life costs more than the one who has access to health coverage and sees their primary care doctor regularly for medication and wellness checks. Economic studies have shown that this is true. One published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that preventable causes of death are estimated to be responsible for 900,000 deaths annually, which translates to nearly 40% of total yearly mortality in the United States. The Surgeon General estimates that increasing use of preventive services to the recommended levels could save $3.7 billion annually in medical costs. Not only does giving people access to health coverage save the system money with prevention opportunities, it also allows for people to live better quality of life. Don’t we want that for our fellow human beings? I know we want that for ourselves. Another way universal coverage saves costs is that it will reduce uncompensated care, which is a measure of hospital care provided for which no payment was received from the patient or insurer. Since 2000, hospitals of all types have provided more than $620 billion in uncompensated care to their patients ($38 billion in 2017). More importantly is that providers do not bear the full impact of their uncompensated care. Rather, funding is available through a variety of sources to help providers defray the costs associated with it. Kaiser estimated in 2013 that $53.3 billion of taxpayer money was used to help providers offset uncompensated care costs. We are already paying for the uninsured through uncompensated care provider tax-relief. These are our public dollars. Why don’t we put that $53 billion into the system and expand coverage to keep people healthier, instead of paying off the consequences of the uninsured through tax relief to providers? Even more interesting—the following study by The Commonwealth Fund shows that we are already paying what other countries pay for and Universal Health Coverage—except we don't have it. Instead, it shows that our current privatized and fragmented healthcare system costs more than public healthcare for other countries around the world. I must repeat this—we are already paying for the cost of Universal Health Care—and then some. There are a lot of healthcare dollars in our system, they are just used ineffectively and in the wrong places. Beyond the examples above, the Institute of Medicine estimates that we waste a half-trillion dollars annually through inefficiency. The United States is unlike every other country because it maintains so many separate systems for separate classes of people. All other developed countries have settled on one model for everybody. This is much simpler than our system; it’s fairer and cheaper, too. Physicians for a National Health Program says that when it comes to treating veterans, we’re Britain or Cuba. For Americans over the age of 65 on Medicare, we’re Canada. For working Americans who get insurance on the job, we’re Germany. For the 10-15% of the population who have no health insurance, the United States is Cambodia or Burkina Faso or rural India, with access to a doctor available if you can pay the bill out-of-pocket at the time of treatment or you go without. There are hidden costs of our system’s complexity; fifty different sets of State insurance regulations for managing Medicaid, there are over eight-hundred different health insurance companies, we all pay different premiums, every employer is a different large group, our charges for services all differ based on provider groups and insurance company. This multi-payer way of financing care directly creates an administrative burden. BMC Health Services Research estimated that moving to a single-payer healthcare system can reduce our administrative expenditures by 80% and that a simplified financing system would result cost savings exceeding $350 billion annually. Combine all of that with the fact that we lose tens of billions of dollars to fraud a year that is born from this very fragmented and complex billing system. Further, the foundation for these administrative burdens all stem from the fact that we uniquely allow our health system’s organizations to profit. As a result, we pay premiums that are inflated with insurance marketing and advertising costs as well as multi-million-dollar compensation for its executives. This is why the National Health Expenditure analysis noted that private health insurance plans spend 11.7% of premiums and administrative costs versus 6.3% spent by public health programs. Our high administration costs and system complexity have directly added to the cost of our health services. In 2012 Harvard published an analysis by the International Federation of Health Plans that showed variations in hospital price by country. The results are shocking to say the least with the United States having a significant increase in cost for every single measure studied. Did you know that many of us are paying two-to-four times as much than other countries for procedures? This is because every other country has some kind of government mechanism built in to control prices. We negotiate when we buy cars, we get upset when cable costs too much, yet in healthcare we don't question these costs. This is partially due to the fact that we don't have a clue about costs because we are not the direct payer, an insurance company handles it for us. However, these are the prices we are indirectly paying, and comparable countries are providing the same services for a fraction of the price under some form of universal health coverage. The U.S. Census notes that 8.8% of the population, or 28.5 million people, did not have health insurance at any point during 2017, which is the highest rate than any other developed country in world. Who are these people? Majority of them live in Texas and other parts of the south, between the age of 19 and 64, make less than $25,000 a year, is either black or Hispanic, and live in poverty of some kind. It’s very clear the disparities of who has access to health coverage and who does not. I won’t go into the immoral nature of this now, but I want to make a point that deep racial and ethnic disparities remain when it comes to health coverage and equity. The refusal of nearly twenty states to expand Medicaid, particularly in the South, has left hundreds of thousands of Americans with these demographics uninsured.
In Germany their health system is considered multi-payer because they use an employer-based system similar to ours. However, they are able to achieve Universal Health Coverage since three distinctions are upheld: tight regulation gives government much of the cost-control clout that the single-payer provides, health insurance plans have to cover everybody and cannot make a profit, and those who do not work and cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket receive public assistance to pay their premiums. Another big distinction Germany has is their cultural affirmation of safety-nets. They believe strongly, as a part of their culture, to take care of the disadvantaged because they acknowledge and accept the fact that anyone can fall into a disadvantaged state at any time. Professor Karl Lauterbach, a member of the German parliament, describes it as "a system where the rich pay for the poor and where the ill are covered by the healthy. It’s a social support system that is highly accepted by the population." They don't argue politically over whether or not to include a safety net, because they accept its necessity and that healthcare is a right to all. It is no surprise then that Germany has a higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than we do. Single-payer, government-sponsored plans not only promise universal access, but also basic and essential benefits for every American. Some ways of approaching this can include a lot of government control, others can still include private insurers. The unfortunate circumstance in the great American healthcare debate is that our policymakers are fighting about how to take away care from the poor because they can’t pay for it. Instead, the overall goal should be to increase coverage and make it a public right for everyone. We can debate about how we do it during elections and in congressional conversations. Until then, I am calling for all politicians who are representing the people of the United States this 2020 election season to take a unified and bi-partisan approach to Universal Health Coverage and debate about the funding mechanisms and how we should do it, instead of fighting about whether or not we should. This is one opportunity where we can actually unite and get something meaningful done. Our elected policymakers must decide how much they value investments in our personal and community health. Remember, we are not isolated beings, we live in society with others, therefore an investment in one, is an investment in all. The closest thing to single-payer already working and established in the United States is Medicare, which is where the concept of Medicare-for-all comes from. The infrastructure is already built so it saves time and subsequently our taxpayer dollars. Medicare was established in 1965 to provide health insurance to all people age sixty-five and older, regardless of income or medical history. This is in direct alignment with the goal of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Since then, all other developed nations of the world, besides us, have implemented some form of Universal Healthcare for all of their citizens. Instead the United States only declared this human right for anyone over the age of sixty-five. No one else. The program was expanded many times in the past to include people under age sixty-five; those with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in 1972 and in 2001 for those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease). We seem capable of expanding coverage for those who are really sick, but not those who are poor. Medicare eligibility can further be expanded to help all people. Everyone who is working already pays for Medicare in their payroll taxes. This can be changed to be paid once a year during tax time. Options are available. It is often argued that Medicare-for-all would make us bankrupt and broke. What people often are missing is that although taxes will increase, our out-of-pocket monthly premiums will be eliminated. Forbes reports that “for the country as a whole this would largely be a financial wash.” This is in addition to what was noted earlier as well; we are already paying a whole lot more than other countries are paying for universal coverage and wasting money away too in efficiencies. Some form of Medicare expansion will not bankrupt us. The money to do it is already in the system. Yes, it will stop corporations from profiting off of us, which will make them upset of course, and as a result are the biggest opponents of Medicare expansions. The trade-offs of Medicare-for-all will take time, but what will happen with better efficiencies and usage of taxpayer dollars. I'm already paying $700 a month for a health policy through my employer that gives it to Aetna for me. I'd rather send my money to a federal system that will not profit off of me. Single-payer systems like Medicare-for-all will not be perfect, but will solve some of our fiscal and ethical dilemmas because it would be controlled by a government entity with public oversight and not a giant corporation that does not have our best interests in mind. Isn’t that the purpose of electing our politicians and having a government—so they can represent our best interests? At least that was the point of our founding Constitution. We could also keep private insurers and expand Medicare to all through the use of Medicare Advantage plans which are already developed, effective, and working. These are private insurance plans offered to Medicare beneficiaries that include additional coverage not covered by traditional Medicare. Private insurance plans that offer Medicare Advantage must compete with one another for Medicare's business which takes a market-oriented approach to competition and pricing. The Affordable Care Act put some regulations in place that required private insurance companies offering these plans to follow in order to help contain costs and maintain solvency—all in the interest of its beneficiaries (all of us who pay into the system for many years). Medicare Advantage plans are the managed care of Medicaid, except with regulation. State Medicaid managed care plans are not Federally regulated, which is why they are very inefficient, expensive, and full of moral abuses. A study published in Health Affairs found that Medicare Advantage plans, with the Federal regulation it has, costs less and delivers higher quality care than traditional Medicare. We can work out a deal with private insurance companies that wins for all stakeholders. Additionally, we get more choice, get the right to health, get to be one of several hundred million potential voters to help shape its structure, and become the true customer of American healthcare. This last component is extremely important because anyone under the age of sixty-five that has private health insurance is not the true customer in American healthcare. Large and small group employers are. Insurance companies don't sell to us, their plans are developed and designed and marketed to the needs of employers. Not consumers. Medicare Advantage plans are the only health plans, other than ones on the State Marketplaces and sold through brokers, that are targeted and developed for the individual. In an era of disruption, innovation, and entrepreneurship, health plans that are focused on individuals will evolve and be designed to accommodate individual needs. What we demand and want in healthcare will naturally arise from consumer demand when the individual is the customer. As health plans get disrupted, so will our providers who will regain autonomy and provide services for us that are designed to work the best for us, not designed so they are reimbursed the most by insurance. Expanding Medicaid coverage works too, but there are too many problems with the system because of its complexity between Federal, State, and managed care. If this complex system is simplified by getting rid of State regulation and moving toward standardized Federal regulation, then expanding Medicaid coverage through various programs such as buy-ins can work in the same fashion. But why keep young and the old citizens separate? Why have Medicaid for under sixty-five and Medicare for over sixty-five? It actually makes more sense to combine the two into one system for all the complexity reasons stated earlier, but also because it allows the older to spread their risk amongst everyone, including the much, much younger. In the same fashion as how large employer group plans are cheaper because they can spread the risk more, we can spread the risk amongst everyone in the country. Instead, we currently spread the risk amongst the poor (Medicaid) and the elderly (Medicare) in separate risk pools and wonder why we can’t control costs? I want to end by briefly touching upon the understanding that single-payer or Medicare-for-all programs will force physicians and other providers to take the biggest hit initially. However, providers have directly influenced our current situation and how we reimburse them needs to evolve. The fee-for-service reimbursement mechanism has pushed providers into a quantity-based mindset, which is why they see us for the short periods of times that they do. The Physicians Foundation surveyed U.S. doctors and found that about 40% see eleven to twenty patients per day and 27% see twenty to thirty a day. A forum of nurses note that they attend to an average of eighteen colonoscopies a day. We will no doubt have better health outcomes if our providers spend more quality time and interest in our health, instead of viewing us as items on a factory belt. Currently the system is not set up for the right incentives. We often look to doctors as if they are god's, without fault, but there is a reason why medical mistakes persists as the number three killer in the US—third only to heart disease and cancer. Providers need a serious reality check, and perhaps taking smaller salaries because what they provide is a public good and right to humans, should be considered. Absolutely, we should reform medical school tuition to help with this situation, but doctors have a duty to their fellow humans and maybe we need more ethical doctors who follow the oaths they take in medical school. Physicians that have high quality scores and do well with their patients, just like any other business, will succeed and do just fine. We want the low-performing doctors that have high complication rates to stop getting paid the same as doctors with high quality scores, and instead, go out of business. Remember the old adage “What do you call the person that graduates lowest in their class from Medical School? Doctor.” We as consumers are the only ones who can provide the guidance to our legislators on how to change the approach. Providers have been insulated from this market-based competition, and maybe that's exactly what they need. Change is what we need. Let’s start asking for it. Begin to take power back and become an informed health consumer. Share this with somebody you care about. I usually share this quote by writer and blogger Ian Welsh with my students at the beginning of all the healthcare ethics courses I've taught: “Morals are how you treat people you know. Ethics are how you treat people you don’t know.” This is a powerful way to frame the idea of values and how we interact with society. The personal values that we develop as a result of experiencing life creates the foundation for making decisions, guiding behavior, and establishing priorities. Twentieth century philosopher Lawrence Kohlberg devised a theory about how one becomes an ethical person. He called it Stages of Moral Development and concluded that people must go through one stage of development at a time before moving on to the next and that we move through these six stages as we find solutions to the challenges we face in life. Therefore, some people are unable to make certain decisions because of their ethical maturity. Even though someone is an adult physically, they can be morally immature based on the challenges they've been through and how they responded to them. The first two stages in Kohlberg’s theory are called Premoral, or before moral reasoning. Stage three and four are Externally Controlled Morals, or rules of society and culture. Most people remain on these levels. Stage five and six are called Principled Morals, or rules of a higher authority. These include making decisions with the thought that everyone is entitled to common rights. A respect for yourself and tolerance for others requires complex thinking about how you relate with others going beyond what is law. This is believing that all humans have worth and value regardless of their social status. For example, segregation at one time was legal, however, it was unethical and violated a higher law. Only 25% of the population actually gets to these last levels of highest ethical development and maturity. If our experience helps shape our morals, then we need experiences. People without kids do not truly understand people who have kids. The same goes for people with pets, or for people who have lost a child to gun violence. How can we truly feel empathy for somebody in a certain situation until we experience it on our own? Consider the following: How can people who have never been uninsured have empathy for somebody who has lived with no insurance? Can a politician that has never been without insurance advocate for single-payer system that includes all? Will the CEO of an insurance company make decisions to reduce premiums, if she never suffered personal bankruptcy due to health care expenses? Can a man that has never been sexually advanced, groped, molested, or raped develop policies effectively for a woman who has? Yes, it is possible. People with higher ethical maturity levels have the ability to do these things. These types of people, I argue, are the kind of leaders we need making decisions in healthcare. If one wants to buy a Mercedes they can go to a car dealer, pick a color, arrange financing, and have a new car. If one can't afford to buy a Mercedes then maybe they will leave the Mercedes dealer and pursue a Ford Focus or decide to just stick with riding the bus. Either way, you the consumer is in charge of that purchase. Mercedes isn't responsible or under obligation if one cannot secure financing or afford the car with cash. The luxury car maker has no ethical duty. Although healthcare is a business it has very different financial obligations than other industries within our economy. People do not want to purchase cancer treatments, chronic disease remedies, asthma inhalers, or request hip surgery. In the United States health care consumers are not in control of most health purchases outside of the retail market. This comes from the fact that consumers do not manage their healthcare dollars, instead, they send their premiums to an insurance plan that makes most decisions for them. Most health care consumers don't really understand their bills and can't tell you how much their products and services cost them. Health consumers know premiums, deductibles, and co-payments, which are the entry fees into the United States health system. Their choice and role in purchasing is minimal. As a result, we cannot treat healthcare like any other industry in the free market. A healthcare system cannot function without the boundaries of duty and obligation like Mercedes can. However, the reality for Americans is that we are operating outside of those boundaries in a system without duty to the human being. American healthcare is a commodity treated like any other industry within the market economy and is not managed like a human right. In 1948 the United States signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which included equal rights to adequate health and health care for nation citizens as a public good. As of today, this makes the United States the only industrialized and developed nation that hasn't secured health care as a public right for its citizens. Since someone else takes care of our healthcare dollars, and these healthcare resources are limited, using them must be done in a responsible way. The balance of profit and social justice is a true dilemma in our healthcare system, but is it not impossible to balance that scale. If leaders of an organization are motivated by money, it can deter the mission of caring for the sick and injured, promoting prevention, and keeping people healthy and happy. Fiscal responsibility is a duty to be responsible and accountable with money, especially someone else's, and is a marriage of numbers and values. Therefore, an organization's financial statement is their ethical statement. This is because what an organization prioritizes and spends their money on defines what's important to them. One of the biggest issues we have in the United States healthcare system is not having enough money for health care, but it is how that money is spent. Check out the salaries below of top health industry executives and consider what their organizations prioritize and what their values are: Nearly all large healthcare organizations make their top executives extremely rich. A perverse incentive to profit off the sick. Sarah Anderson, Global Economy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies said "If executives are loaded up with stock options and other types of equity-based pay, they have a personal incentive to boost shares prices by whatever means necessary.” One top earner is CEO Martine Rothblatt of the pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics who took home $37 million in 2018. United Therapeutics makes drugs to treat high blood pressure and for pediatrics with high-risk cancers. For comparison purposes, Seema Verma the CMS administrator who oversees Medicaid and Medicare is given $165,000 in salary paid by tax dollars. If CMS administrators were getting paid $5 million dollars with tax money there would be upheaval about how our tax money is spent. How come we don’t question how our other healthcare dollars are spent? Where do you think these executives fall within Kohlberg’s ethical maturity levels? In the current environment of 30 million people uninsured, and millions of others having high deductibles they can't afford, do you think it's acceptable for these types of compensations? Is it justified or fair that health CEOs took home 11% more of our money on average every year since 2010 according to an Axios analysis. What are the priorities of these executives when they take such high salaries? Is this fiscally responsible with our limited shared resources? Welcome to the executive compensation problem that exists in the United States. Other countries don't seem to have the same CEO compensation problem that we do. How big of an ego does the United States have? Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development theory notes that it is possible for people to be unable to make certain decisions because of their ethical maturity. This provides an explanation for how healthcare executives can take home salaries of multi-millions of dollars amidst all the challenges the health system currently has; people are unable to afford to get a necessary surgery, procedure, or medication because their deductibles are too high, every six minutes a patient dies in an American hospital from a hospital-acquired infection, preventable hospital errors persist as the number three killer in the US–third only to heart disease and cancer, and on average a hospital patient is subject to one medication error per day. Large corporations and CEOs will argue that these wages are necessary to attract the best and brightest executives to the healthcare industry. How is it that our executive health leaders think they deserve such pay when our system is in shambles? For most other people in the corporate world bonuses and raises are based on performance and hitting targets and goals. I can't imagine we are hitting targets and goals with the current state of our health system. Or maybe the targets and goals should change? CEO Wayne Smith of Community Health Systems had received $16 million dollars in total compensation yet recently settled a lawsuit alleging false billing and kickback allegations, both federal crimes. If our system was booming with better health outcomes, affordable coverage, less fraud, and no uninsured, then perhaps it would be justified to have executives taking such high pay. Further, if we treat healthcare as a right, or like most countries do as any other public service like the library or police, then our current system functions without morals (or pre-moral stage one-two) also known as immoral. If leaders in healthcare had a stage five or six ethical maturity level (principled morals of a higher authority) do you think they would take salaries such as these? It is hard to argue that these executive leaders are ethically mature.
Healthcare isn’t Pepsi, Coach, Kellogg, Hilton, Koehler, or Mercedes. People don't need to drink Pepsi, wear Coach bags, eat corn flakes, or stay at hotels to survive, but they do need access to healthcare for optimal health and wellness. Leaders in healthcare must have different values than leaders in other industries within the shared economy because of this striking truth. To put this into perspective let's examine the scenarios of CEOs taking a pay cut:
The opportunities are endless in what health executives can do with our health dollars instead of high salaries for themselves and the rest of their executive c-suite team: lowering of deductibles and copayments, adding additional coverage such as functional medicine, holistic practitioners, more psychotherapy sessions, coverage for massages, provide free or low -cost services/programs/screenings, or increases in salaries for workers. What is it that organizations are willing to give up to take on a large multi-million-dollar salaries for their executive teams? Again, an organization’s financial statement is their ethics statement. Do you think they are acting with social and fiscal responsibility? Specifically for pharmaceutical companies where executive compensation is higher than most health sectors, consumers do not directly feel the pain of the high costs of prescription drugs. This is because the costs are in co-pays which are set fees we can expect. These high costs are filtered through the system and hidden as higher premiums and deductibles because our insurance companies pay the rest of the bill for us with our premium dollars. We are not only paying for the drug itself, but also supporting a $66 million-dollar salary for its CEO. In 2017 healthcare reporter Bob Herman published an analysis of the salaries of over one-hundred CEOs of seventy of the largest U.S. healthcare companies since 2010 based on corporate financial filings and cumulatively these CEOs have earned $9.8 billion. Imagine the magnitude of those dollars and how they could be spent differently within our system. The Institute for Policy Studies note that $75 million is the equivalent of the cost of dental insurance for 250,000 Americans or the average annual health insurance plan deductible for 24,000 people. That is just a small fraction of that $9.8 billion. Even more, consider the cumulative cost of the rest of the c-suite that get similar salaries: CFO, CEO COO, CIO. An analysis done by Modern Healthcare noted that one company alone, Health Care Service Corp., the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurer in five states, paid the top ten executives cumulatively $56.7 million in 2015. There are several familiar guiding principles of healthcare ethics such as doing no harm, preserving life, being discreet, upholding justice, and respecting autonomy. Health leaders will never be given enough resources to satisfy all the demands placed upon them by a community, but they can turn to the guiding principle of justice to help them distribute their yearly budgets ethically. Justice refers to fairness and equality and stems from a rather simple but complex ethical concept called the Philosophy of Individual Worth. It is a duty and moral obligation for health systems to give the same treatment to everyone regardless of one’s circumstances. Leaders in healthcare have a duty to go beyond personal feelings and honor the individual’s worth. I mean, really, we want the same don’t we—for people to respect our needs, what we want, and believe? But this is hard to do and as a result, leaders in healthcare must have this skill, which I argue is only possible by some with higher ethical maturity. Justice is also the fair distribution of benefits offered by a society and includes the fair distribution of its burdens as well. Society suffers injustice when not everyone gets to share in the benefits and when distributions of resources are not equal. In healthcare this creates an environment where health equity is compromised and health disparities shade society with injustice, which is the unfortunate reality in the United States. Since we live in a healthcare system where someone else takes care of our healthcare dollars, the concept of good financial stewardship and the duty to be fiscally responsible with limited healthcare resources is supported by the ethical principle of justice. Award-winning 20th century philosopher John Rawls was interested in what makes a just and moral society. He formulized a hypothetical theory where people are equal to each other and all humans have worth in the Original Position and if we take a Veil of Ignorance with each other a social contract would develop that secures basic rights for everyone and protect those in all positions of society. His theory goes on to say that the advantaged have a responsibility to the disadvantage. Those that are disadvantaged could include those in poverty, ones with chronic disease that affect the quality of life, the disabled, etc.. Therefore, in the end, it is in our ultimate best interest to do this because everyone has the potential to be in the lesser position (loss of job, health, etc). John Rawls said “a just society is a society that if you knew everything about it, you'd be willing to enter it in a random place.” Consider that powerful thought: are you willing to be born into a low-income, black family in Chicago? Statistically this population has the highest health disparities in the country, and as a result, end up in unhealthy situations that produce a symptom of another statistic; highest homicide rate. At the core of Rawls theory is that no matter what our circumstance, environment, or influence, we are human, and all human interests must be observed to truly live in a moral, ethical, and just society. This is not what our reality is today. Especially not in our health system. If we want people to be tolerant of our ideals, we must be tolerant of others. This is why the balancing scales are often the symbol used for justice. Only one set of ideals getting priority does not work. Executive compensation metrics are a powerful reflection of the priorities of an institution. While the general population complains about, and suffers from, the ever rising healthcare costs, no one is championing efforts for fiscal responsibility and transparency of the spending of our shared resources by executive leaders in healthcare. Instead, the general American population is unknowingly supporting executive leaders becoming very rich off of the sick and our limited healthcare dollars. We have evidence popping up every day in our society that the status quo is not working. Just as health leaders reduce the numbers of nurses on the floor that care for patients in order to save health dollars, maybe we should consider eliminating a few million dollars of executive pay instead. What do you think will positively impact patients more: fewer nurses or less executive pay? According to a JAMA study, there is no link between CEO pay and hospital quality indicators such as re-admission rates, mortality rates, or community outreach programs. In other words, a highly paid CEO will not necessarily increase the performance of a hospital and the outcomes of patients. Its unsettling that CEOs at hospitals with high mortality rates are being paid just as much, or sometimes more, than those at hospitals with lower rates of mortality. Physician compensation is increasingly being tied to quality measures and I argue that executives should be treated the same given that they have a fiduciary and ethical responsibility to represent the welfare of the community in which the serve. An analysis by Kaiser Health News found it was more common for executive bonuses to be tied to boosting volume rather than increasing quality, which unfortunately sets up an environment where the incentives are to keep people returning to the hospital, not preventing them from needing to be readmitted. With that, I am calling for policymakers, tax payers, and health consumers to consider new public policy to tackle the injustice of excessive executive pay that exists in the American health system. I am proposing a professional consideration of placing caps and limits on executive compensation in these fields. This is argued based on the fact that healthcare is something every human needs, and is an industry that all is born into, lives, and dies in, it simply cannot be employed in the same manner as a company that sells running shoes. The recommended process for determining the appropriate compensation usually is to conduct a review of what similarly-sized organizations in the same geography offer their senior leaders. However, since healthcare is not like any other industry due to its ethical duties and obligations, the same process simply cannot apply. A new way of calculating executive compensation must be developed so that precious and limited healthcare resources can be distributed fairly and used effectively. Until that happens, I am calling for health executives to make a progressive move and donate their excessive compensations back into the system. Does anyone have the guts? I believe wholeheartedly that ethically mature leaders in healthcare exist that are capable of making major healthcare business decisions without the multi-million-dollar salary to prove their worth and competency. The present chaos that exist within our healthcare system shows that the current model of excessive executive compensation is not working and immoral. Begin to take power back and become an informed health consumer. Share this with somebody you care about. Every month the moon becomes darkened in the evening sky creating a doorway for our intentions to be received. We get a fresh opportunity to wake up areas of our lives, create space for renewal, new perspectives, and new beginnings at the monthly New Moon. No matter what spiritual background you come from, participating in this monthly exercise can help you connect to your soul’s purpose and plan steps to get closer to it. Give yourself permission to connect authentically with yourself this month. Since we live in a Universe that is constantly moving, each month the New Moon is at a different place in our Cosmos allowing us a chance to plant different intentions throughout the year. A new cycle begins this time in Capricorn which is about setting goals for manifesting in the outer world.
Be part of a collective event done by people all over the world! Write your list after 8:29 pm EST on Saturday, January 5th, 2019. WORD FOR THE MONTH Manifestation FOCUS AREAS Career, goals, management, ambition, accountability, self-discipline, intuition, and compassion. HEADS UP Welcome to the first New Moon of thirteen this year. It just so happens that this first New Moon of the year is also an Eclipse, so we get to manifest our dreams and wishes beyond this moon cycle for several months. Since during a Solar Eclipse the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth, it interrupts the flow of energy and gives us a kind of cosmic reboot. New Year’s resolutions made or not, most of us intuitively feel an energy shift whenever the year turns. The past few energy cycles focused on an inward journey of transformation and reforming the matrix of our inner world so that we can better prepare what will manifest in our outer world. Capricorn’s energy is about taking power in the external world, creating the change we want to nurture our dreams in a realistic fashion. Therefore, this cycle we are called to consider the future and preparing for it. Make a long-term commitment this month in achieving some desired goal in the future. With discipline, pure focus, and ambition, you can learn practical skills and have success. Capricorn is the most ambitious of all the signs with a strong drive for success, but one must be concerned with stepping on others in its climb to the top. We are at a time in society where we must consider our impact to the collective human race while we are striving for our personal goals. Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons, developed in Greek philosophy, should be everyone’s goal, as its in our best interest in the end. This tragedy is currently what’s destroying our world with greed and an imbalanced sense of entitlement at the basis. Consider the difficult landscape that you had to travel through to reach this point in your life. No one has had a perfect path. Capricorn’s New Moon energy wants us to assess what we need in order to grow and address our challenges found on our life journey. What are your fears? Knowing what sabotages us provides amazing awareness. And guess what… fears will sabotage your plans. Be mindful of what your fears are when navigating this month’s cycle. Up for review is anything that we didn’t fully process in 2018. What is still not working? Find cues to what these are by paying attention to what carries an emotional charge and/or what occupies your thoughts. It is highly possible that if we are not mindful of what theses things might be, a strong, disruptive, sudden change may occur with Uranus coming out of retrograde the same day as the New Moon. Sometimes we are pushed forcibly onto our path if we aren’t close to it. If you happen to be close to your path, this surge of energy will renew your spirit and set you off in fast motion. Our roads are often plagued with limitations, but by recognizing them we get opportunities to focus on what really matters within our boundaries. The lines have been set, now we are to work within them. Our home is where we start. Light some candles and clear your home environment of dense and negative energies by burning incense or sage. Regardless of how Capricorn’s energy plays out for you this month, one thing for sure is that we are strongly reminded that we are worthy of love. Take time this next month to recognize and acknowledge your emotions, the first step in learning to love ourselves. As always, a drop of wisdom – inspire and uplift others, instead of tearing down with sarcasm and negativity. With light and love, Kat Lahr HOW TO MAKE A NEW MOON LIST: Gather paper and a pen, pencil, marker or other type of writing utensil. Review the focus areas for this month and begin to think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. Write a list of what your hopes, dreams, goals, priorities, wishes, and prayers are for that moment. Typically no more than 10 is recommended. Be very specific, or extremely vague. Review last month’s list and revise them on this month’s list, if necessary. Place your notes somewhere safe and special to you. Some tape them to a window, under a lit candle, or leave them in their notebooks on their desks. Create the space that works for you. Leave it there all month until the next New Moon. Allow and have faith in the power of inter-connectedness in our universe to manifest your list. -- KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT -- Join my New Moon Club to get this reminder every month. |
Kat Lahr
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