By Cliff Cawthon
 
Healthcare is a human right, and our rights have been violated too long. President Obama stated recently in a weekly web address that “the status quo is broken.” The profiteers have failed and the system is in shambles. The United States spends more on healthcare than any developed nation and in turn we have 46 million (15% of pop.) without healthcare. 8.1 million are children. We need a renewed system, something that works and something that is a public, not-for-profit system.
 
The President kicked off his town hall tour in Green Bay, WI, a city that has kept down costs and in turn it has provided fertile soil for political support for Obama’s initiative. This strategy of ‘going public’ is designed to harness the existing popular support for his new initiative. According to a Rasmussen poll, 65% of Americans favor the idea of universal healthcare and this public health option initiative is a universally available option designed to compete with the private sector.

 
Moderate Democratic and Republican legislators— many of whom have large investments in the industry— have revolted against President Obama’s initiative with the theme “anything but public”. Their argument is that a public option would cost too much, take away choice, and enjoy an unfair market advantage. The American Medical Association and the opposing legislators profit from the disenfranchisement of millions of Americans while the government picks up the check (i.e. corporate welfare). For the last few decades this has become plain fact.
 
In a Politico.com article by Patrick O’ Connor & Carrie Brown, “Centrist Democrats Raise Big Concerns”, the authors cite the New Democratic Coalition and the Blue Dog Coalition’s attempt to “ensure that that government-backed health care plan doesn’t undermine the private market”. The article explains that their alternatives for national healthcare would also “ensure” that Rep. Allyson Schwartz (PA-13, NDC vice-chair, co-chair of the healthcare committee) would receive $38,823.00 from the health professionals sector for the 2009-10 period (opensecrets.org), in addition to 8 of New York’s congressional representatives and our junior senator Kirsten Gillibrand ($23,825.00 from health professionals, opensecrets.org). Make no mistake: these politicians are receiving legalized bribes.
 
Our policy interests and course is clear: the interests of a few cannot outweigh the welfare of the many. The objections to universal healthcare—whether by a public plan or a single-payer system that has worked for other developed nations—are largely based on private economic interests; fear of the status quo, and class prejudices.
Many of us in the progressive community would like to insure all Americans under a single-payer plan that uses our large national tax base to fund healthcare (as opposed to ‘defense’ or ‘corporate subsidies’). This is our opportunity and we cannot pass it up. In WNY, the Healthcare Education Project is organizing pillars of the community to engage in the debate towards progressive solutions and if any readers want to get involved e-mail Sergio Uzurin at sergio@hepny.org. It’s now or never; we cannot settle for “market solutions” from conservatives and moderate profiteers that are beholden to special interests. Let us call on those who say that they represent our interests and remind them to do just that; after all, isn’t the government not-for-profit?