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TechnoratiMayors Make Good Move On Health Care
It didn't get much attention last week— the country's obviously preoccupied with the state of the economy and out-of-control oil prices — but there was a significant development in the growing movement to fix the broken American health care system.
For the first time, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the high-powered national organization that met here in the summer of 2002 and gathered this year in Miami, adopted a resolution at its annual convention supporting national single-payer health insurance.
The resolution, adopted unanimously by the mayors, specifically calls on Congress to enact H.R. 676, the bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and 90 other members of Congress including the 2nd District's own Tammy Baldwin.
"This is a major achievement, a qualitative change in the movement for genuine health care reform," said Dr. David Prensky, a member of the Chicago-based Physicians for a National Health Care Program. "It shows that our country's mayors now support the kind of approach that every other industrialized country has — an approach that guarantees health care for everyone at an affordable cost."
Conyer's bill, which would guarantee everyone care for all medically necessary services much like Medicare does for the nation's senior citizens, realistically isn't going to get very far during this session of Congress. It's becoming clear, though, that the momentum for a universal health care system is growing.
What can finally turn the tide is this fall's national elections.
Voters need to hold candidates' feet to the fire on where they stand on this crucial issue. The time is long past due for our country to rid itself of the embarrassment that 45 million of our citizens have no health care coverage, not to mention the millions more with inadequate coverage that leaves them hopelessly in debt when they get ill.
A single-payer system similar to Medicare is the fairest and most economical way to correct this long-neglected problem. It's free of the costly layers of insurance bureaucracy and easy for people to understand. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to sort out the complicated ifs, ands and buts that mark our current system. Band-Aids have been placed over Band-Aids, saddling our health care system with incomprehensible rules and exceptions that require a law degree to navigate.
Yes, it will cost, just as Medicare costs us on our paychecks now. But the cost will be more than offset by the fact that employers and employees will no longer have to shell out monthly premiums that are threatening to bankrupt even our giant automobile corporations, not to mention the little mom and pop businesses struggling to survive.
The shrill cries of the anti-government crowd are becoming less frequent as Americans come to realize that the government itself couldn't do as poorly as have the private firms that produced our current health care mess.
We're wasting roughly 20 percent of our health care dollars on administrative costs that have nothing to do with treating illnesses. The government's Medicare program, which covers all the nation's seniors, spends about 2 percent on administration.
The nation's mayors have come to see the light. And the nation's voters can make sure that Congress finally sees it too.
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@madison.com
The Capital Times © 2008
11 Comments so far
Show AllIt is too bad that this article apparently got so little attention.
Single payer is a make or break deal for me. I have been in the medical field for over 25 years and have watched it going down the tubes as a result of the stranglehold the private insurers have on the system.
alaskamaid:
"yes, it will cost..." Of course, nothing is free. But it will cost LESS than it does now, and will cover everyone. That, to me, is a no-brainer. I have chosen my candidate largely on this basis - and, at this point, it has to be Nader or perhaps McKinney.
And if it is a service you "may never need", count yourself very lucky. On the other hand, if you do need it and don't have it, you may well be in, how shall I say, deep do-do indeed
"Yes, it will cost . . . "
That's right, just keep paying more upfront for services you may never need or use but have to have access to 'just in case' -- wouldn't it be better to divert some of what we ALREADY PAY that goes to 'defense' ?
To call for single payer, or even nationalized health care might be a step in the right direction, but if it is not linked to a call for a communist world, with free, top-quality health care for all, it is treachery.
Stated otherwise, who gives a s**t about health care when the a-bombs start to fly? The system will crumble at that point, anyway.
WW3 is an ever-present threat for the imperialist Titanic, and a stand-alone call for health care reform is just so much deck-chair rearrangement as the fiery iceberg approaches. The crew needs to organize, and lead the passengers in a mutiny that puts the power-mad captain and his stooges in irons, and take over the helm. The hour of doom is near, and there are definitely not enough lifeboats!!
NMLib: First, my sympathies for your pain. I have no medical insurance either, as a result I am open to alternative methods of dealing with any anomalies that come up. Have you thought of, or explored chiropractic? Sometimes the tuning of the spinal column can alleviate pain and expedite the proper functioning of the organs. Ditto massage. I have avoided surgery in at least 2 cases, possibly 3, by going to a health food store (the one in the Florida Keys is operated by a very wise woman who truly knows her product lines and which vitamins/minerals/herbs assist the body's healing capacities) and learning what I could do. Have to tried that route? I know some conditions are more difficult to treat, but I personally know of two with so-called life threatening diseases that both healed. I know 2 others who were in plane crashes told they'd never walk again and both are quite able to walk. Modern medicine likes to use labels to limit people, and keep them in categories where their condition is maintained as chronic, something to manage. This approach gives big pharma the equivalent of rental leases on our bodies.
If you have tried other approaches, again, my apologies. Sometimes even floating in the water (especially if you can get to water that has no chemicals, or not much, can be VERY healing0.
When Bill Clinton ran, many people said the healthcare system was going to change. I was excited and voted for him. Nothing changed. A friend says, "Well, at least they tried!"
I am in debt from major surgery and have another problem that's kept me in pain, daily, for months. I don't qualify for Medicaid and indigent funding won't pay for anything more at this time. I've just learned to live with the pain, which is affecting my quality of life, keeping me from doing most of the things I enjoy. Not to mention causing depression and irritability. I can only imagine what people with serious, potentially life-threatening illnesses must go through.
If the healthcare system doesn't get majorly overhauled after this next election, I may have no choice but to emigrate. The same friend, quoted above, tells me we'll get universal healthcare eventually, but I need to be patient; it's not going to happen overnight.
This country puts priority on corporate interest and unnecessary and illegal wars over its own citizens. No one holding public office should have access to healthcare until and unless he or she is willing to afford their constituents the same.
It's Obama or Hari Kiri.
bushiswrnd's observation of the media cannot be overstated. The same people that own the media also own the medical insurance business, war business...you name it.
That is why what we have referred to as the miltary industrial complex for the past 50 years is actually the military industrial media complex.
bushiswmd does not know that votes wasted on Nader are also wmd.
Hey, Daniel David! Thanks for the commercial.
"Now, back to our regularly scheduled program..."
Zweifel says high gas prices and "the economy" kept the healthcare story off the front pages. A two-alarm fire at Tony Franks Bar would have kept healthcare off the front pages.
Who is kidding whom here? The newspaper industry with its ties to Wall Street is going down the crapper because of its uniform policy of keeping America in the dark about anything important. Who is spending ink on in depth, well-sourced stories on privacy rights, government secrecy, the petro-euro, the 700 US military bases circling the globe, election fraud, Israel (the 51st state) AND healthcare for all? NYT stock is down 50% and the smartasses that run the rag haven't a clue about what the nation really needs. Gannett stock price? Look out below!
The newspapers and their co-conspirators in the electronic media tell us that this race is between Obama and McCain. Democrats tell us, "There is NO choice, this time." Funny, that's what they used to say in the Soviet Union...
Nader/Gonzalez will be on the ballot in as many as 45 states. He has been fighting for universal, single-payer healthcare longer than Obama's been acting cool.
**Vote for Obama and you can be sure there will be no single-payer,universal healthcare for Americans.**
How do I know? Obama told me (and anyone who has cared to read his plan). And on that, I believe him.
VOTE NADER/GONZALEZ "REALLY, THERE IS NO CHOICE..."
Well, while we're getting Congress to "see the light", let's be sure we don't elect a guaranteed veto-guy (McCain) or some idiot that might appoint Supreme Court justices who would declare national health care unconstitutional (also McCain.)
Obama is integral to progress on health care. Without him, NONE will occur. With him, a DEM Congress, and no more Scalia-types, you've got at least a shot.
This is really good news! (Of course, our local paper didn't have a word about it.) I also read recently that the majority of doctors now prefer universal medical coverage, whether it be "Medicare for All" or something along the lines of the French system. And polls for YEARS have shown that most Americans want simple single-payer insurance for everyone.
If it's only the health insurance companies that are opposed, what's keeping us from moving this agenda forward? I wish Dennis Kucinich would ally himself with some heavy hitters as co-sponsors of his bill, so that it gets some media coverage!