America, Heal Thyself

Last Thursday, September 18, 2008, Progressives For Pennsylvania held our second forum on the health care crisis in Pennsylvania. This time, the focus was on passing Pennsylvania's HB 1660 and SB 300, both of which would provide health care to all Pennsylvanians in a Medicare model of health care delivery.

This delivery system is publicly funded and privately delivered, and includes the free choice of physicians.

I certainly have nothing against socialized medicine, but just to say, our bill does not fall under that category, which is publicly funded and publicly delivered.

The first panelist to speak was Jim Ferlo, State Senator from Pittsburgh, PA., and prime sponsor of HB 1660.

He said that Single Payer is like a prairie fire that once it ignites you can't put it out, and it just spreads exponentially.

Social reform movements are never easy, Ferlo said, citing the Safety For Workers Act (Osha), Social Security and Medicare.

He also said that the National Media did not attend our event because they've been bought off by insurance companies.

Next up was Kathy Manderino, Pennsylvania State Representative for the past 16 years, and another prime sponsor of the bill.

She said that nothing breaks her heart more than when a constituent comes into her office after losing her job and health insurance, with white knuckle fear gripping that person's psyche.

She said that lack of health care coverage (now upwards of 48 million people nationwide and 1,220,000 in PA alone, according to the latest census bureau results), is a Domestic Threat, similar to a terrorist attack.

Our job is to educate Pennsylvanians about our bill, Kathy said. We have to convince our family, friends, neighbors, card playing partners, book club members, AARP and local clubs that if Single Payer is good for the rest of the world, then it is good for us, and why.

Manderino said that if we can't pass Single Payer, than we must realize that incremental change will bring us ultimately to a Single Payer system.

Dr. Walter Tsou, the next presenter, and co-writer of the bill, said that with all due respect to Ms. Manderino, Mitt Romney's Massachusetts Health Care Plan, and Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington State and Maine not to mention Governor of PA Rendell's plan all have caved in to Insurance Companies thus driving their States into greater debt.

We cannot spend less money as long as insurance companies are involved in the delivery of health care, Walter Tsou said.

In the next 5 years, employers will no longer pay for health care and the burden will shift 100% to the employee under our present very sick system.

Did you get that, dear Reader?

In 5 years, you will be paying 100% of your health care costs under the present system. This will more than double the number of uninsured in this country.

Bill George, President of the AFL-CIO was next, on video, giving us the pleasure of his passion regarding Single Payer. He said that the health care delivery system that keeps the Health Insurance Industry in place is not working. The Health Insurance Companies are the problem with their CEO salaries, their advertising budget, their ever increasing denial of claims to pay for their bottom line of greed: this also contributes to our ailing economy.

37 cents to every (health care) dollar is the current health care spending compared to the cost of Medicare which is 3 cents to every health care dollar.

The single payer alternative would save 32 cents on every health care dollar.

Dawn Ali, RN, was next, who serves on the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied professions (PASNAP). She also co-owned and operated the first African American nurse owned dialysis facility in Philadelphia for ten years.

She said she sold the business because of the drain on her energy in always having to fight to get the health insurance companies to pay for services rendered, which they were constantly trying to get out of paying.

She also said the nursing shortage is largely due to the impossible working conditions that most bedside nurses have to work under: mandatory overtime, large patient loads, not to mention the suffering caused by the refusal of health insurance companies to pay the bills.

Donna Smith, star of Michael Moore's SiCKO, and now Community Organizer for the California Nurses, said her job with the California Nurses is to ferret out patient stories and to follow up and advocate for these people.

She told one story of a 30 year old woman diagnosed with Chrohn's disease earlier in her life. First she was on her Mom's insurance then when she moved out, her pre-existing condition made it impossible for her to get insurance, and to pay for her mounting doctor bills.

Donna said this young woman told her story before an audience, saying, "I wonder what I might have become."

The Reverend Sandra L. Straus, director of Public Advocacy for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, gave a moving talk about Jesus, who healed the sick and raised the dead unconditionally.

Right-wing fundamentalist so-called Christians fail to be good stewards to our citizens.

What would Jesus do?

Weston Scott Fisher, third year medical student at Penn State University Medical College in Hershey, PA, sent out a plea to the audience to attend the second lobbying day at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, PA for Single Payer and HB 1660.

14% of all medical students are trained in Pennsylvania, but only 7% stay. These students lobby the legislators by telling them that if they pass HB 1660, they will gladly stay and practice medicine in Pennsylvania.

Dr Tom gates followed Wes. He said that our current system of health care delivery is broken beyond repair.

He said this is due to lack of access and to the fact that 56 million Americans are medically disenfranchised. They do not have a medical home. They use only the Emergency Room for care and often when it is too late.

The cost of health care world wide is 4 trillion dollars and the cost of health care in the US is 2 trillion. America consumes 50% of the health care dollar, yet we have an ever increasing infant mortality rate and an ever decreasing life expectancy.

Morton Mintz, media critic and the journalist who originally exposed the Thalidomide and Dalkon Shield scandals 40 and 20 years ago, said that Single Payer would prevent 100's of thousands of bankruptcies and yet the media refuses to cover this amazing story.

Mintz called this a grave sin of journalist omission and neglect.

And finally, our Mayor, Rick Gray stood up during the Q&A and said that if we can prove to him, by showing him the numbers, how Single Payer would save our town and every town and city and rural municipality in PA millions of dollars, he's in.

And he will tell all the other mayors in PA.

What he may not know is that the US Conference of Mayors June 23rd of this year adopted a resolution endorsing HR 676, the National Health Insurance Act, the National Single Payer bill introduced by Democrat Representative John Conyers of Michigan.

Progressives For Pennsylvania will make a point of meeting with our mayor very soon.

And the rest, as they say, will be history.