Americans Should Not Stand for Lock-down on Single-Payer Discussion
by Laura Bonham
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/06-13As an ardent advocate of single-payer healthcare for many years, I am more than a little frustrated by Washington insiders—beholden to healthcare corporations—telling the American people that passing single-payer healthcare reform, specifically HR. 676, the United States National Health Care Act, can't happen. The fact is they are standing in the way of it happening.
They cite specious reasons like we're an entrepreneurial nation and need a uniquely American solution, or we can't afford it, or single-payer won't work in the U.S. Well it works quite well in the form of Medicare, an incredibly popular and uniquely American program. In a nutshell, HR 676 basically improves and expands Medicare to cover everybody.
The say it can't happen because Americans don't want it. Polling indicates otherwise; a January 30, CBS poll shows significant support:
Americans are more likely today to embrace the idea of the government providing health insurance than they were 30 years ago. 59% say the government should provide national health insurance, including 49% who say such insurance should cover all medical problems.
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Besides being the moral and compassionate thing to do (two values which Americans used to embrace), single-payer healthcare makes good business sense. In this study (PDF), research shows single-payer healthcare/Medicare for all would:
Create 2,613,495 million new permanent good-paying jobs (slightly exceeding the number of jobs lost in 2008)--jobs that are not easily shipped overseas
Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public revenues
Add $100 billion in employee compensation
Infuse public budgets with $44 billion in new tax revenues
The U.S. already spends far more on healthcare than any other nation; yet with all our power and treasure, we are the lone wealthy industrialized nation that does not ensure healthcare for all of our citizens. Fifty million Americans are currently uninsured, and twenty two thousand of those Americans die every year because they do not have access to healthcare.
Meanwhile, CEOs of healthcare corporations earn $3.3 million to $22.2 million in salary per year, paltry amounts compared to their stock options. When a CEO earns $1.6 billion in stock options ("Business 2006: Who Won, Who Lost," Associated Press, December 2006), who loses? The average American, that's who—the people who are dying, getting sick from lack of preventative care, facing bankruptcy from medical bills, losing their jobs and their homes. They are Americans who can't afford "health insurance" and certainly can't afford large contributions to senatorial, congressional, and presidential campaigns.
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If there ever was an opportune moment for guaranteed healthcare for all, now is that moment. Too bad our elected officials refuse to do what they were elected to do—represent us, instead of the interests of the very powerful and wealthy healthcare corporate lobby. Let your member of Congress know that single-payer healthcare/Medicare for all should, at the very least, be an option that should be discussed. While you're at it, give Max Baucus a call.
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