Healthcare, Not Warfare -- How
often we have shouted these words or prayed or whispered them
in the past. And how fervently we are hoping for some significant
change in the Congress and in the heart of this nation. More
importantly, how hard are we working to get this change?
Now, during the season of “PEACE and
GOOD WILL,” where do we stand?
We may be closer than we have been
in almost 40 years as we move toward the commemoration of the
Martin Luther King Jr. birthday. We are preparing to award
the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Healthcare award to Congressman
John Conyers who will be one of the most powerful men in the United
States, as he weighs the options for his powerful House Judiciary
Committee.
His healthcare bill, H.R. 676, the
United States National Healthcare Act, will be reintroduced in
the Congress in January. It will be handled by the House
Ways and Means Committee if it is allowed to go forward to hearings. It
is the bill that could begin to turn around the continuing priority
for war and war equipment and weapons of mass destruction. The
passage of this bill could be the best possible reward to Congressman
John Conyers as he rounds out his career.
Not only is President Bush in denial
about the war. ”Denial” is a mild substitute for “deception
and lies.” He goes on killing (and causing our youngsters
to be killed) suggesting it is a movement toward “succeeding in
this war.” And he continues to suggest that privatization
and more money from our pockets to pay the insurance companies
and the Wall Street brokers will heal the healthcare crisis. We
know better, and we have a great legislative possibility of turning
this priority around to the needs of the people.
What would success in Iraq mean? Would
it be freedom from fear or freedom from hunger? – some of the
main reasons for terrorism across the world during the past 400
years. Would it mean healthcare for all? Would it mean
U.S. control of the resources of the Middle East? Isn’t that
the real goal?
Ok, let’s go to healthcare. Why
would the passage of a national healthcare system such as H.R.
676 make such a change? The way it would work is that it
would cover virtually every medical need of everybody in the United
States, and we would be spending less money than we are now on
premiums, deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses, including
insurance company denials.
Everybody
would be able to access hospital, medical, dental, optical, hearing,
durable medical equipment, long-term care, prescription drugs,
drug and alcohol treatment, mental health services and more. Each
of us would pay into a payroll premium based on our income. 95%
of us would be paying less than we are now. Only the very rich
would pay more. Very importantly, this would be a tremendous
victory because it would add a human rights entitlement to our
law, showing how important the rule of a just and equal system
of law is to the well-being of our people.
It would mean that many people doomed
to prison would get drug treatment instead.
It would mean that there would be more
jobs in the healthcare sector providing for healthcare for all.
It would mean that the huge insurance
and pharmaceutical industries would no longer eat up one third
of our healthcare expenditures for their profits, advertising,
payment of lobbyists in Washington and in every state in the union,
administration and multi-million dollar CEO salaries.
It would mean that all of us would
have the healthcare we need and be able to turn our energies to
the other issues and tasks that we face.
It would mean that we could help encourage
other countries, particularly those that are weak and vulnerable,
to avoid privatization of healthcare and go to a more humane program
of healthcare for all.
I just turned on the telly, and there
was Pete Stark on CSpan, the new Chairman of the Sub-Committee
on Health of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“To not have universal care is a crime!”
he said without blinking an eye.
Those of us who care about healthcare
must be in touch with Pete Stark and say to him and to Congressman
Charles Rangel, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee that
is supposed to hear our bill, that we want them to hold hearings
on H.R. 676. We even suggest a date for those hearings. How
about the week of the anniversary of the assassination of Dr.
King – a time where we would memorialize his statements and his
commitment to healthcare for everybody?
Someone in Rangel’s office said today,
“We can’t do that. H.R. 676 national healthcare is ‘dead
in the water.” I doubt that those sentiments represent Congressman
Rangel’s real views. Certainly, they won’t represent his
views if we do our job well. Let’s hold 1,000 healthcare
TRUTH HEARINGS nationwide in every city and town in this country.
Let’s organize a monthly call in or postcard-in or other concerted
action that helps clarify to Congress that we voted for healthcare
and for an end to this war and we want them to move seriously
on our agenda.
Yes, we want healthcare for all children
and we want control over drug prices. These are important,
and the new Congress is committing to work on these – but that
is not enough. We want a national healthcare system for all. The
people who are working and feeding those children also need healthcare.
Healthcare-NOW is calling for Healthcare
Truth Hearings in every city and town in this country. People
who want to help organize such a Truth Hearing in your neighborhood
and who would like to tell their healthcare story to such a hearing
– let us hear from you.
CONGRESS IS WEAK
The way it is shaping up, many of the
members of Congress are afraid to come out for Conyers’ H.R. 676
because the insurance companies and pharmaceutical drug companies
are their supporters. It would be an interesting exercise
for all readers to look up the amounts of money their Congress
Members have received from various sources. You can do it
from the website of Healthcare-NOW at www.healthcare-now.org,
under Campaign Tools, choose Write Congress, then fill in your
zip code. Or click this direct link
and fill in your zip code. Send us your findings.
Congress is also afraid to go for peace. Even
though, under the Constitution, they have the power of the purse
– to stop funding the war, Congress is holding back. What would
happen to the Iraqi people now that we have destroyed the infrastructure
of their country? What if we cut and run – left the money
there with the Iraqi government for the Iraqi people to determine
how to rebuild? What if we left the oil there for the Iraqis
to divide up as they have proposed, rather than demanding that
the international oil companies have to receive the profits? What
if we provided the money for all kids to go to college rather
than to the army?
Why not come on home and deal with
the healthcare disaster here in our own country? What would
a transformation in the uses of the hundreds of billions being
spent on war mean to the healthcare crisis and other crises in
this country?
Do we need the war to end to pay for
national healthcare for everybody?
No, as a matter of fact, we have enough
money to pay for healthcare for all. Under the Conyers bill,
we would all be paying into the healthcare system on a sliding
scale according to our income. The hundreds of billions now
going to the insurance companies would be transferred into equal
quality healthcare for the uninsured. Everyone would get
their choice of doctor.
However, we would need to be sure that
Medicare which would continue as the administrator of the healthcare
system would be secure on into the future. Medicare will
cost us less money because Medicare uses less than 3% for administration
compared with upwards of 30% administrative costs by the insurance
companies. So the elimination of this overhead, profits,
etc. would help provide coverage for all.
But, it is a matter of priorities. As
long as we have a government that requisitions billions of our
dollars, the priority should be support for Medicare – a much
improved Medicare for All, single payer, H.R. 676, rather than
missiles in space or other potential weapons of mass destruction.
No other country has weapons in space.
There is no enemy out there. All other industrialized nations
have national healthcare. Maybe this equation means something!
During this season of “PEACE and GOODWILL,”
we hope and pray for you and yours and all of the people who can’t
afford healthcare both here in our country and around the world.
If you are up for organizing a
hearing in your neighborhood or other activities, be in touch
with Healthcare-NOW. We are waiting to hear from YOU. 1-800-453-1305,
www.healthcare-now.org.
If you’d like to be on our national mailing list, let us
know. Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW. Click
here to contact Ms. Clement and Healthcare-NOW.
Billie Spaight of the Healthcare-NOW
campaign is responsible for the design of the Healthcare! Not
Warfare! banner.
Click
here to read any of the articles in this special BC
series on Single-Payer Healthcare.