Health Care Marchers Cheered and Booed in July 4 Parade

Advocates from Progressive Democrats of America and other groups marched in the Fairport 4th of July parade. Their demands were simple: Health care for all; Everybody in-nobody out. These demands are neatly wrapped in a bill currently in the House of Representatives called HR-676. While many in the audience cheered and applauded as the contingent went by, almost as many others booed. Calls of “You'll ruin the system” and less-polite terminology erupted from some groups. Well, the system is already ruined, and what would you propose doing in its place?

We cannot simply continue on as usual. At the current rate, by 2050 every dollar earned by Americans will go to health care. For some Americans that day has already come. Sixty-two percent of all personal bankruptcies occur because of medical expense. Coincidentally, sixty-two percent of those are by people who have health insurance. Insurance companies are legally allowed to, and often do, drop patients as soon as they become ill and need care.

Critics argue that we can't afford single-payer universal health care. The truth is, we can't afford not to have it. In 1948 after the end of World War II, England realized that it no longer needed a war economy and diverted some of its resources into creating one of the first world-class health care systems. That system endures today, and is still one of the top five in the world. The US by comparison ranks number 37 in quality of care, but number 1 in cost. As the marchers chanted back: We're already paying for it, we're just not getting it. Unfortunately the US is still in a war economy. Congress just voted another $110 billion in supplemental (meaning not included in the budget) funding to continue occupation Iraq and Afghanistan. Didn't we learn from Vietnam, as Russia did in Afghanistan, that you can't “win” an occupation? This supplemental funding is five times what it would cost to fund a universal single-payer health care system for the same period of time.

Representative Eric Massa (D-29) is on board with HR-676 and is one of its co-sponsors. Unfortunately, senior Democrat Louise Slaughter (D-28) is not. Constituents in Slaughter's district, as well as those in the districts of Chris Lee and Dan Maffei, need to contact their representative and insist on support for HR-676. We also need to urge President Obama to sign it, as he promised during his campaign.

HR-676 would also standardize our piecemeal system of care for target groups. In the past month there have been news stories concerning health care for senior citizens, others for children, for women, for native Americans, and for veterans. This recent conversation with Bryan Casler really puts it in perspective. Casler is the regional coordinator for Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group that works with many veterans in need of care. I needed to contact the Veteran's Administration in Canada, or whatever agency handles veterans' health care issues. Then I discovered they don't have one…because everyone has health care. Everyone has health care. Oh Canada! HR-676 is clearly an idea whose time has come. Tell the boo-birds to go dump on someone else's parade.