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Healthcare is a Right and it is Time for Action
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Healthcare Kickoff 6 June 2009, Boston, Massachusetts
On 6/6/09, President Obama in his weekly address to the nation to help kickoff his health reform agenda highlighted that: there is an urgent need for health reform this year; the status quo is broken; if we do nothing, everyone’s health care will be put in jeopardy; and that’s why fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve – it’s a necessity we cannot postpone any longer. The President’s full address could be accessed: www.WhiteHouse.gov.
Forty empowered Massachusetts residents, including one from Alabama, attended the healthcare reform kickoff on 6/6/09 at Faneuil Hall/Quincy market, Boston and concluded their meeting under the statue of Samuel Adams, who rebelled against the British Empire and gave us our country. We believe the discussions to have, or not to have, healthcare for all is over and it is time for action. We, therefore, respectfully ask our legislators to provide healthcare for all. Our system punishes people when they are sick. The sicker we are the more the punishment. Developed countries reward their citizens when they are sick and the sicker they are the more the reward.
On 10/7/08, candidate Obama, declared, ‘healthcare is a right’. If so, every citizen must be accorded this right. Our legislatures must be accountable to everyone, especially those who need their help the most and those who voted for them. We should now start compiling names of our legislators who oppose universals health coverage, listen to their arguments, respectfully disagree with them and work hard to convince them to be accountable to all. It is our duty, our responsibility and our privilege to do so.
The majority of us who attended the kickoff event were supporters of the public option plan because that is on the table. Advocates of the single payer option plan also attended the meeting. They were pragmatic and engaged in useful discussions. They argued that if enough people push for a single payer option plan, we would definitely end up with a public option plan. Therefore, the debates about the two options were helpful. Everyone agreed that we need a centralized healthcare plan and that the Massachusetts health reform should be considered only as a case study for the Federal health reform agenda. For example, while 97% of Massachusetts’ residents have health insurance, many families who are above 600% of the Federal Poverty Level are not receiving the subsidized health insurance. Families with annual income between 60 – 75 thousands are struggling to keep up with their private health insurance payments (see numbers 4, 9, 12, and 16 below).
Discussion questions:
* The discussions were centered on who is left out? There are approximately 50 million people uninsured and another 50 million underinsured. This makes up a third of the US population. Which third of the population should be left out? Will any members of our legislature put themselves and their families in this group?
* The United States is the richest country in the world but ranked number 33 in life expectancy and the 32 countries ahead of us have universal health insurance. Shouldn’t we aim to be like them?
* Isn’t it cost effective to cover everyone?
* What is wrong with our decision making process?
* How did we get into this situation and how do we get out of it?
Summary of Suggestions:
* We decided to call and encourage others to call, Senator Kennedy to acknowledge his commitment to healthcare for all and to give him the support he needs to pass the public option plan.
* The administration needs to respond quickly to misinformation coming from the GOP and health insurance representatives. For example, we are not buying the argument that providing healthcare for all will make us ‘the Peoples Democratic Republic of the United States”- in other words, communists. This is insulting and underestimates the public’s intelligence. If providing universal healthcare for all children under age 18, for everyone above age 65 and for veterans, is communism, we could proudly say we are already communists but we all know that this has nothing to do with communism. Healthcare is a universal right.
* Issuing regular talking points for supporters to minimize miscommunication and to inform the public about developments and progresses should be considered by the administration and we should all help.
* There is no need to protect health insurance companies and lobbyists at the expense of patients. For example, preexisting conditions to deny services are example of unfair treatment of patients by insurance companies.
* Standardized and reduced costs must be part of the health reform agenda. Now insurance companies have varying premiums and charge different rates for the same medical conditions.
* The cost of rising healthcare must be addressed and must be controlled. We already spend a lot of money on healthcare but we could use the same level of expenditure and do more. Proper regulation to prevent billing errors including overbilling must be part of the reform.
* Medical professionals should help explain the problems of the status quo because the current system limits their work. Doctors should not spend too much time on paper work but look after their patients. The reform must also address the needs of caregivers.
We support the public option plan because it will:
* Cover everyone and will expand health care to rural areas.
* Cover everyone employed. As of now, not all employees are covered by employer-sponsored healthcare plan.
* Provide bridging cover to those who become unemployed until they are reemployed. Health insurance should be portable.
* Provide bridging cover to unemployed students who just graduated from college.
* Promote preventive healthcare programs including dental and vision services at subsidized rates.
Personal stories from those attending the meeting:
1. I work for a large corporation and have an excellent health insurance but as a person with autoimmune disease, if I were to leave my job, I would not get any coverage.
2. Every member of my family has spent some period without health insurance either through unemployment or an early retirement at age 62 and not qualifying for Medicare. Those gaps affect people at their most vulnerable time. It is important to know that people between 62-65 begin to feel the effects of age related medical conditions.
3. My son resides in a nursing home with brain injury and when he needed wisdom teeth extraction, he had to wait for 8 weeks.
4. I was bitten by a dog when I was working for the primary in Coventry, RI. I went to Norwood Hospital in Massachusetts and was charged $50 for co-pay for each visit, the emergency visit and for four follow up visits to complete the treatments. I found out later that my insurance company also paid $1,100.00 for each visit. The total was $5,725 and this is too much.
5. I am a US citizen married to a French citizen and have been living in France for the last 30 years. I returned to Massachusetts in 2008 and qualified for health insurance as a resident. I am appalled by the worrying and concern Americans have about the cost of and access to health insurance. We have a very good system in France and I will have to return there when I am older but I would also like to have the same choice in my country.
6. My father is self-employed but does not make enough money to afford health insurance. He is a medical doctor and tells me that he is OK but it scares me that he cannot afford to go to a doctor.
7. The US is the only developed country that does not have universal healthcare insurance. This is outrageous. I have Medicare and live in Massachusetts but even in Massachusetts healthcare is not affordable for many. I have a friend who is not able to pay and is without health insurance and living in fear. We should have affordable health insurance for all.
8. Healthcare is important to all of us. In Alabama access to healthcare is terrible. Many people cannot afford co-payments and deductibles. We need urgent help.
9. The Massachusetts municipalities are lobbying the State legislators to take healthcare off the collective bargaining table. This is very scary.
10. I am lucky, I have good healthcare coverage but I worry all the time that I may loose my coverage. However, it is important to find a way to cover those who do not have health insurance or who are underinsured.
11. I have good health insurance, so should not everyone? We also know that 50% of personal bankruptcy is the result of medical expenses.
12. My story is about my patients. As a doctor and a Medical Director of healthcare services for the homeless, I witnessed families became homeless. I have also witnessed homeless people unable to access the care they need despite living in a community with many renowned medical experts. The US stands for humanity and equality for all, yet we neglect the most in need in our country.
13. I am employed and I have employer-sponsored health insurance but I have had some medical problems and witnessed the rising cost of healthcare even for insured patients who require multiple doctors appointments and medications. I worry about losing my job or retiring early and I also worry about people who do not have health insurance.
14. I have no story to tell because I am healthy but there are thousands who are ill but do not have health insurance or have been bankrupted by health problems. I support a single payer option.
15. For many years I did not have health insurance because my employer did not offer health insurance. I did not see a doctor for 15 years. I turned 60 in 2003, became ill and needed major surgery. I received help from the hospital and all the providers reduced their fees but I ended up with $15,000.00 debt. I am now on Medicare but still paying my previous bills using my credit card.
16. My health insurance is the largest expense I have. I am unemployed and my benefits have run out and I now paying $1,600 every month for my health insurance and $1,400 for my mortgage.
17. When I graduated from college, I lost my healthcare insurance. The only job I could find was a part-time work without healthcare benefits. Recently, I got cold but could not afford to go to a doctor. I developed pneumonia and spent two days in a hospital. I missed work, lost my job and it took me two years to pay my hospital bills.
18. I have not been able to afford health insurance since 2000 and I am interested to have affordable health insurance.
19. I come from privileged family and as a result I am also privileged. I cannot imagine how others are burdened by the cost of healthcare. I believe access to healthcare is human right and our current system violates this important principle. We need change.
20. I am 75 years old and live alone. I now leave in fear that I will not be able to manage proper healthcare and services I need.
About members of the Healthcare Advisors’ Blog:
There are fifteen of us representing the DFA’s “Healthcare Advisors Blog”. We consider ourselves very lucky because we have healthcare benefits and we are able to access preventive care programs available to us. We served President Obama’s campaign as his healthcare policy advisors and we are committed to healthcare for all. Our commitment is not about us. It is about our fellow citizens who are voiceless, who do not have health insurance coverage and who live in fear and who were ignored. It is us, who have full healthcare benefits, who must speak out. We should not wait until we are affected. In the past, when we failed to speak out, many have suffered.
Thank you for your support and please call your Senators and Representatives to ask them to support the public option plan: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Omar is spot on about the presumption that a "National" system will be mullified by greedy doctors and pharmacuetical companies just like the crooks in our legal, educational and every other system we have in America. We must find another way to make a slow adoption into health not a quick investment in care. Everyone must take better care of themseles first.
The government can do the slow adoption easily by creating "Self-Care" centers throughout the country. Most people can weigh themselves and read a chart on how to lose weight. That's all they do at weight watchers. Most people can take their own blood pressure, and read a chart. (If you fall into the danger category, go to the weight watchers chart.)
We need health care reform, but it starts with reform. Reformation of the current system will required every single American to stop looking for an easy way to get someone else to care for them. I remember that my grandmother would say that she could plow 6 acres on 8 peanuts and a raisin and she never even met a doctor in her 99 years on earth. If she can do it, I figure I can get by with my three meals, green tea, viamins in a caplet, and clean fresh water.
The health care system is crushed. Stop making employers pay for the crushd system too. Let us all keep our premiums for one year. Eat right, exercise and then see. Maybe the doctors will lower their fees and greedy insurance companies will lower their rates.
I am seeing an increasing sense of consensus building among health care activists, and your meeting is a good example of this. It is important for everyone to advocate for what they feel will work best, but the thing we want to avoid is doing so in a way that simply hurts our overall cause. At this point, I feel like the public option is realistically on the table with plenty of support, and our goal, however we do it, it to make sure that key elements remain in place to make sure the system is effective. It would be nice to start thinking about what is absolutely non-negotiable in a new system. I know that President Obama began this discussion in his letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus. We should continue this conversation.
As an oncologist/hematologist/internist now with over 20 years of experience in all facets of health care (academic, private, federal, biotech), I wanted to attend but got held up at work.
Health officials were aware the health care industry would break since the 1990's. Surprisingly, it took till now for us to get focused. I think the intervening wars pushed things out a bit from earlier predictions (2004). Waste fraud and abuse remain rampant in the system. Life is an inalienable right in our Constitution. Society should not deliberately contribute to ill health, as it does currently.
Besides managing societal causes of ill health, the focus of effective patient:doctor relationships must return, adhering to core moral ethical principals and optimal outcomes. Seeing a doctor should be a positive experience in the face of adversity, not a bankrupting one. Resources should simply be devoted for better than expected clinical outcomes. The huge array of business tit for tat activities designed to create financial return at both patients' and caregivers' expense must be expunged. I don't think current business models work well for medicine or for discovery; they simply encourage violation of core principals to exaggerate and show profit where there is none (also exploiting naive investors).
Simplification and focus on quality should trump everything else. Like patients, doctors are tired of holding together a broken system in lieu of fighting disease.
Omar Eton MD
Thank you for this excellent report Enku. The figures you cite, and the personal stories you relate, are an embarrassment to our great nation. We cannot afford to let this historic opportunity slip away. Special interests mobilized to defeat President Clinton's health care plan fifteen years ago, and they are mobilizing today to defeat President Obama's effort. It is welcome news that the president has decided to become personally involved in the struggle. We must work together to finally make health care a right for everyone.
I also agree with you, and others on this site, that we need a public option. Last week, at the America's Future Now conference, which I attended, Dr. Dean made the key point that the issue is choice: "'Americans should be the ones to choose. If they like their current, private insurance, they can keep it. If they aren't satisfied, they should be able to choose a public plan. Respect Americans' ability to decide.'" In response to Dr. Dean, a prominent single-payer advocate noted that although a public option "is not enough to satisfy single-payer advocates....if Congress can refrain from watering it down, it does represent an enormous step toward universal, quality health coverage" (http://tinyurl.com/ne8db7). I agree with this postion, and I think many public option advocates do as well.
A very interesting and frightening review of an Oregon Town Hall health care meeting featuring Howard Dean and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) was posted on SinglePayerAction.org
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=886
In a blog posting, single payer activist Joe Walsh wrote that he was “ashamed that I had spent 40 years in the Democratic Party, and was glad I finally left it in disappointment.”
“This meeting was modeled after the Bush/Cheney idea of a Town Hall — control the tickets, load the place with party officials, and exclude any real people who might ask the hard questions.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said: Health care is a right not a privilege.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/health-care-is-a-right-no_b_212770.html
Indeed, healthcare is a right!
Thanks for the great report and call for action. Healthcare is a basic right as well as a public service. President Obama has said ealier: "So let there be no doubt: Healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year." Time is ticking and those resisting change can be formidable, especially when desperate. Frederick Douglass said: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did. And it never will." Hope there are even more leaders in the Congress like Senator Sanders to join the President to achieve real reform soon. Failure is not an option.
Nelson Mandela said: "It always seems impossible until its done." Please keep up the good fight.
Thank you, Enku for sharing this Healthcare meeting with us. Every person and every vote counts. I have rarely felt as disenfranchised as I do today as a resident of the District of Columbia. A public plan is necessary for the same reasons that the health insurance industry is opposed to it: the competition will be fierce and the costs will be lower. The status quo is hard to move. I have been reading the Kennedy Draft Plan "Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans," and would draw attention to some key principles set out in it. "It is the right of patients to select the doctor of their choice." "A strong doctor-patient relationship is essential to the practice of medicine, and patients have a right to an effective doctor-patient relationship." "Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have the right to judge what is best for their patients." And there is to be no interference with these rights. The rights include coverage for preexisting conditions. As your report and this ACT make clear, all of us, doctors and health care providers and the public, all need protection. A lot is good with American medicine, but it is being increasingly contorted and offering increasingly expensive--not necessarily good--care. We all know it excludes too many.
The trigger option plan:
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/BlueDogsTrigger.pdf
The coalition has the following twenty representatives:
1. Jason Altmire (PA),
-
2. Michael Arcuri (NY),
3. Joe Baca (CA),
4. Marion Berry (AK.),
5. Sanford Bishop (GA),
6. Leonard Boswell (IA),
7. Chris Carney (PA),
8. Ben Chandler (KY),
9. Jim Cooper (TN),
10.Jane Harman, (CA),
11.Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD),
12.Tim Holden (PA),
13.Frank Kratovil (MD),
14.Patrick Murphy (PA.),
15.Mike Ross (AK),
16.Loretta Sanchez (CA),
17.Adam Schiff (CA),
18.Zack Space (OH),
19.Mike Thompson (CA),
20.Charlie Wilson (OH).
US Congress:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do, by Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Clinton.
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/06/public-option-smokescreens-and-what-you.html
I just read Robert Reich's blog and it scared me to death. I called Senator Kennedy's Washington office to see how we can help get healthcare passed with a public option (with no trigger). The staffer I spoke with said that petitions to senators and congresspeople are always helpful (particularly to those who support the trigger option or those who do not support any reform). He also gave me an email address to send comments to the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It is
healthcomments_help@help.senate.gov
Feel free to send them personal stories, testimony of healthcare professionals and anything else you think is useful.
Thanks so much for your help.
I think health care (HC) is a right, and Obama said that it was, but I don't see it appearing in the general discussion about HC reform. I think that this is an error. As it is, HC reform is being mostly pushed on economic grounds. This poses a potential problem because if it is presented as a solution to an economic problem then it is vulnerable to economic criticism and part or all of the plan might falter because of high costs and the taxes needed to pay them.
If HC is presented as a right then the government has an obligation to provide it or see that it is provided; it cannot abandon it for convenience or lack of resources.
Even in the Sanders talk linked to above, he presents HC as right tentatively: "If HC is a right...".
Finance will certainly be the major portion of the debate and nuts & bolts of implementation, but its a weak foundation, and it bothers me that I don't hear this POV being articulated hardly at all.
My intuition is that there are two principle ways to see/sell it as a right.
1) much of the medicine available to people with access to it is a direct or indirect product of public funding, either through research grants (NIH, NSF, etc) and/or subsidized medical education and facilities. Therefore, having private for-profit organizations ration access to public goods is inherently unjust.
2) as a democracy, the people are the government and protecting itself is one of the primary tasks of all governments and so citizens are as entitled to defence from disease or disability as they are entitled to defence from rampaging hordes of terrorists. If we have a right to expect to be protected from death or injury from foreign aggression, then surely we have an equal right to expect to be protected from death or disability from disease or diminished health. This is at least in part already acknowledged in federal programs like the CDC. What's the excuse for not going whole hog?
Good question John, what's the excuse for not going whole hog?
Let us ask our legislators John's question. What is your excuse?
While we are at it, let us also ask them: Do you and your family have health insurance? What will you say to those who are uninsured and underinsured but living in the richest country in the world?
Thank you for your support and please call your Senators and Representatives to ask them to support the public option plan: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
- President Obama in Wisconsin Today: We need the Public Option Plan to keep the Private Insurers Honest
By Enku K on Jun 11, 2009 3:59 PM EDTFrom Huffingtonpost Today, 6/11/09
Speaking at a town hall in Green Bay Wisconsin, President Barack Obama addressed head on what is the hot debate of the day: whether a health reform overhaul should include a public option for health insurance.
The President said:
"I also strongly believe that one of the options in the exchange should be a public insurance option," Obama declared, in what was one of his most forceful statements of support since the health care debate began. "And the reason is not because we want a government takeover of health care. I've already said, if you've got a private plan that works for you, that's great. But we want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and it will help keep their prices down."
The remarks came just several hours after the American Medical Association said it would oppose a public option for coverage. But in a reflection of just how delicate this debate has become, the 250,000 member physician group largely backtracked from its opposition later in the day.
For the entire story, go to this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/11/obama-reasserts-support-f_n_214392.html
Thank you for your support and please call your Senators and Representatives to ask them to support the public option plan: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Friends,
Today, President Obama used his weekly address to underscore the fact that the skyrocketing costs of the health care status quo are unsustainable. In addition to the $635 billion already allocated in the budget, the President announced $313 billion in savings “that will rein in unnecessary spending and increase both efficiency and the quality of care.” Altogether, approximately $950 billion has been dedicated to offset the cost of reform over the next 10 years.
The President has made it clear that reforming health care is not only a moral imperative, but also a crucial step towards restoring our country’s fiscal discipline. In his weekly address, he says:
“I know there are some who question whether we can afford to act this year, but the real question is whether we can afford not to act. With every passing year, health care costs consume a larger share of our nation’s spending, and contribute to yawning deficits that we cannot control. So let me be clear: health reform is not part of the problem when it comes to our fiscal future, it is a fundamental part of the solution.”
You can watch the President’s full address by visiting www.WhiteHouse.gov. After you watch the address, please visit www.HealthReform.gov and share your story about the health care status quo and why you support health reform.
Director, HHS Office of Health Reform
Jeanne Lambrew
Thank you for that very nice post. I too support President Obama's health care policies. I have been making phone calls in support of President Obama at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/?source=feature
Thank you again for that great blog post.
--
Douglas Marino
The 50 million uninsured and another 50 millions underinsured need us. Keep calling and ask others to call our legislators: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have to respond quickly to misinformation coming from the GOP and health insurance representatives. They are going to continue arguing that providing healthcare for all will make our country 'European style socialist'.
The United States is the richest country in the world but stands number 33 in life expectancy. Those ahead of us provide health care for all. We are already providing public option plans to our veterans, to our children under eighteen and to those above age 65. Even the employer-sponsored health insurance is heavily subsidized by the Government. We must complete the process and provide healthcare for all because healthcare is a right.
Will those who oppose healthcare for all give up their benefits? I do not think so!
This is a story of an Iowan farmer and his family, which was aired on National Public Radio.
You can read or listen to the story at this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105299368
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Videos of some of the 64 House Healthcare Heroes standing strong for a public health insurance option
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- Re: Healthcare is a Right and it is Time for Action
By Healthcare Advisor's Blog on Jun 8, 2009 10:44 AM EDTThank you Enku so much for this report. As an oncologist/hematologist/internist now with over 20 years of experience in all facets of health care (academic, private, federal, biotech), I wanted to attend but got held up at work.
Health officials were aware the health care industry would break since the 1990's. Surprisingly, it took till now for us to get focused. I think the intervening wars pushed things out a bit from earlier predictions (~2004). Waste fraud and abuse remain rampant in the system.
Life is an inalienable right in our Constitution. Hence, society should not deliberately contribute to ill health, as it does currently and more so than ever. Epidemic diseases of Industrialized Nations are myriad and much mo re insidious than in third world countries. Epidemics in diabetes, morbid obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and hence heart disease and cancer can be correlated to our work sites and habits. Besides managing societal causes of ill health, the focus of effective patient: doctor relationships must return, adhering to core moral ethical principals and optimal outcomes. The shrewd components creating robber barons of health care (individuals and systems) must be removed. Seeing a doctor should be a positive experience in the face of adversity, not a bankrupting one. Resources should simply be devoted for better than expected clinical outcomes.
Omar Eton MD
Cambridge MA 02139