On Jan. 9, healthcare providers, medical students, activists and concerned citizens held marches and rallies in Los Angeles and Sacramento in a renewed fight to extend health coverage to all Californians. Despite the lofty rhetoric coming out of Washington about the Affordable Care Act, there are many of us in California who know that only a universal, publicly-financed, privately delivered healthcare system is going to solve our nation’s uninsured crisis. SB 810, which Senate Appropriations will vote on next Tuesday, will cover all Californians, while the ACA will still leave thousands in our state uninsured.
Despite passage of the federal Affordable Care Act, a recent free clinic at the Los Angeles Sports Arena showed that the need for universal health coverage is too great. The clinic, organized by the non-profit CareNow USA, drew 5,000 people.
Last weekend, I checked out Occupy Wall Street’s satellite protest in downtown Los Angeles, Occupy Los Angeles. I was impressed by how well it was organized in a relatively short amount of time. Along with the tents that protesters are calling their homes indefinitely, were areas reserved for donations, food, Web broadcasting and even a makeshift library. Groups of people set aside space for intense discussions on issues of the day. There is a real community there, a place where people work together and share resources as well as ideas. It’s the kind of community we are fighting for now in this new revolution – one where camaraderie, compassion and the common good are all valued.
Some complain that the occupiers’ message isn’t clear. “What do they want? What are their demands?” the skeptics ask. But those who ask these questions aren’t paying attention. I believe the message is very clear. People want to remove the vise-like grip that corporate America has on every aspect of their lives. In a democracy, the people rule – not corporations. Health care is an essential part of life that corporations have absolute control over in America.
A small group of billionaires operating in shiny glass towers with virtually no accountability to the public are deciding who lives and who dies. These health insurance executives – denizens of Wall Street – have set themselves up as Greek gods on Mount Olympus. It’s time to topple them from that perch, and turn our healthcare system over to the people. For in a democracy, we the people – not the corporations – should run our health care system via a national health insurance model: Medicare for All. Below are voices from actions around the country, talking about how a broken healthcare system has affected their lives.
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Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program confronts health insurance executives in Washington D.C. as part of an action by October2011.org, a group in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Personal stories from Occupy Wall Street in New York.
Soundbites of this sickening display from Monday’s Republican presidential primary debate on CNN have been in heavy rotation among political junkies, bloggers and pundits across the country. In it, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asks Rep. Ron Paul of Texas what the fate should be of a 30-year-old uninsured man in a coma. The audience was made up of “tea party” activists, part of the extremist conservative movement that has all but taken over the Republican Party.
Is this what we as a society has devolved into? I hope not. I don’t believe the people in this audience are even close to representative of what the majority of Americans think. I think the majority of Americans would be horrified. The ugly behavior exhibited at the debate is the dark side of humanity that we have to constantly fight against.
It’s unfortunate that Wolf Blitzer chose to frame his question to Rep. Paul as if the uninsured are uninsured because they choose to be that way. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the uninsured – myself included – want health coverage, but either cannot afford the outrageous premiums on individual policies, or have preexisting conditions and can’t get insurance at all. Many have lost health coverage because they’ve lost their jobs in this horrible recession, and can’t find new ones.
Blitzer, a millionaire news personality, with very good health coverage from a major corporation, probably isn’t worried about ever becoming uninsured. And Rep. Paul has health coverage for life as a sitting congressperson. It’s infuriating that these are the kind of folks influencing the debate over health care.
It’s very telling, however, that Rep. Paul immediately answered “No” to Blitzer’s question, and then pitifully stumbled through trying to defend his libertarian nightmare of forcing the sick to beg charities for care. Turns out Paul knew someone in a similar situation. It’s been revealed that Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign manager, Kent Snyder, died of pneumonia and didn’t have health insurance. Snyder’s family ended up saddled with $400,000 in medical bills, and tried to raise the funds by soliciting donations.
It’s upsetting that Rep. Paul didn’t provide his own employee at the time with health insurance. It’s incredibly ironic still that the unfortunate Mr. Snyder, whose own support for libertarian ideology showed in his fervent support for Rep. Paul, eventually succumbed because of that ideology. Libertarianism may sound good to some in theory, but it falls apart in real life. What Rep. Paul and the shameless people in that “tea party” audience don’t understand is that no one person is an island unto him or herself. The mark of a civilized society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. People in civilized societies take care of one another. Otherwise, how are we different from mere animals?
