Last night I attended an Open Health Care Forum organized by my friends (and fellow Cardinals) Emily Langner and Deb Hall. The esteemed panelists–Katie Robbins from Healthcare-Now!, Donna Smith from the California Nurses Association (also featured in Sicko!), and U.S. Congressman John Conyers, author of HR 676–spoke for the majority of the program before it was opened up to questions.
U.S. Congressman John Conyers and Katie Robbins at the Open Health Care Forum at Wesleyan University, May 28, 2009
All of the panelists spoke about the need for a national single-payer health care system. I can’t recall ever having been to a health care event specifically geared toward the single-payer argument, though it is an end that I believe we should strive for myself. However, I also believe that there is more than one path between what we have now (which can hardly be called a health care system) and a single-payer health care system, and it was my impression that the panelists have chosen the direct path.
Wherever you stand, if you want to learn more about single-payer or HR 676, you can’t do much better than to hear about it straight from Congressman John Conyers, who authored the bill. You can see his remarks and those of others in the videos from the panel are below, which are arranged in chronological order. I ran out of tape after about 93 minutes, so the second part of the Q&A video was recorded to my digital still camera in two video clips, with a dramatic difference in quality.
Full Disclosure:I am the Online Organizer for the Connecticut Citizen Action Group. However, this being my personal blog, it is maintained on my own time using my own resources. The content of this blog post should be attributed to me, and not my employer. All that said, take my opinions on health care reform with as much salt as you like.
Yesterday at midnight marked the end of the 2008 General Assembly session (the “short session”) and one of the bills that passed the Senate but did not even have a chance in the House was the Paid Sick Days Bill. Christine Stuart reports at CT News Junkie:
A bill that would allow workers to accumulate one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked died Wednesday night.
The Paid Sick Days bill passed the senate, but was stalled for the second year in a row on the House calendar. Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, who championed the bill, said its defeat was making her sick.
“It’s dead,” she said as the clock approached midnight. “Next year.”
The fact that the General Assembly turns into a pumpkin at midnight, on a day known well in advance to all involved, every goddamn year is a problem. It’s a problem because good legislation like the Paid Sick Days bill gets left aside, as if waiting another year is just a minor inconvenience for people like Suely (in the above video). The Paid Sick Days bill was especially important at a time like this, because it’s already costly enough to live — high gas prices raising the price of a great many of life’s necessities, not to mention gas for commuting to work — without being able to afford to take one day off if you’re sick. Now more than ever, working sick is going to be a necessity because if you couldn’t afford to take a day off before, you sure as hell can’t now.
I know that this shit happens every year in Connecticut. But the fact that good bills being killed by the clock is an annual event doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I also know that the General Assembly is made up almost entirely of people who really care about Connecticut and the people of their district. So why are so many important bills left until the last minute?
Because it’s an effective way to kill bills like this without getting your hands dirty. Especially in an election year.
A good friend of mine from high school was featured in the Sioux City Journal after the company underwriting her employer’s group health insurance dropped them less than 2 months before she finishes her Hodgkins Lymphoma treatments:
Sarah LaBrune was doing everything we’d like young people to do. She graduated from high school and earned her degree at Buena Vista University. She got a full-time job as a reporter at the Dakota County Star newspaper in South Sioux City. She worked in a profession she loves and began chipping away at a $17,000 college debt. She made car payments of $200 per month, wrote her $350 rent check each month and boosted the economy by shopping in her spare time.
Oh, and she paid her $429 monthly health insurance premium, securing coverage under a group plan offered at her workplace by the John Alden group.
Good thing LaBrune had the insurance. She was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma, a malignant cancer, in her neck and chest last spring. She had surgery May 30 and began chemotherapy June 29.
LaBrune met her $1,000 deductible and $2,000 out-of-pocket requirements in the initial surgery. Through midautumn she had spent an additional $1,000 on co-payments for prescriptions, visits to the doctor and a wig.
But her insurance picked up the rest, an amount she said exceeded $101,000 through September.
“At least I didn’t have to worry about insurance,” LaBrune said.
But she did. Employees at the Dakota County Star received a letter Oct. 10 from the John Alden firm. The letter said the insurance company would terminate coverage for employees of the newspaper Nov. 14.
I choked when I read she was paying $429/month for coverage under a group plan. When I left my last job, I was eligible for full benefits under COBRA for about $300/month. So not only was she paying her premium, she was paying a HIGH premium.
Though Sarah is a good friend, I don’t know all of the specifics of her treatment. All I know is that she’s had a perpetually sunny outlook on the whole situation, and is clearly better than anyone I know at making lemonade out of life’s lemons.
Still, it’s time to fix our health care system. Sarah is lucky she had coverage to begin with, and also fortunate that she was able to find coverage to finish out her treatment (I can’t imagine it’s easy to find any company willing to insure a cancer patient), but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t millions of people who slip through the cracks. HealthCare4Every1.org is the Connecticut organization working to bring universal health care to nutmeggers.
Oh, and to the person who wrote this comment on the Sioux City Journal article in response to another comment calling for universal health care:
” How wrong you are. This young gal would probably die while waiting on a long list for treatment if on a universal health plan. “
Now, we are in the time between regular legislative sessions when we can start to build for the next session, which starts in February. I will go more into what issues I plan to work on in the future, but ensuring quality and affordable health care for everyone and property tax reform are certainly high priorities.
Tim O’Brien and his colleagues in New Britain have put together quite a thorough rundown of how this year’s session will positively impact the city:
“There are many ways, big and small, that we were able to help New Britain—grants enabling the city to lower property taxes, support for education, health care, job training, local arts groups and more,” said Representative Tim O’Brien. “The New Britain delegation worked hard this year, and we are ready for more important work to come.”
“We worked hard to help our city and its agencies do the good work that they do,” said Representative John Geragosian. “Unfortunately the Democratic budget did not pass, which would have gone a long way toward tax relief. But the budget we did pass will be good for the city.”
“While so many of the total system changes that were initially introduced were not able to be made this year,” Representative Peter Tercyak said. “It made it extra important to help New Britain in one area after another. I’m very pleased with what we were able to bring home this year. This will make a vitally needed difference, especially for medical care, in New Britain.”
In business, we entrepreneurs have the luxury of starting with a blank piece of paper and creating a new enterprise from scratch. In government, it may be politically easier to build off what we have, but that is no excuse for being timid. Opting in to a 21st century Medicare plan should be an option for families and businesses alike, allowing anyone regardless of pre-existing conditions to buy into a core health care package which promotes health and wellness as well as treatment for disease and injury. Too much of health care has not moved from the mainframe to the Internet (much never even made it to the mainframe); required electronic record keeping will prevent most of the duplicative and contradictory medications and procedures which cost our system hundreds of billions each year. This is the makings of a core package, which can not discriminate against any applicant; constantly updated for efficacy and new innovations, this core package will be the starting point for private and public systems alike; now let the plans compete: that’s the American way.
As a bit of a postscript to this past weekend’s series of videos on universal health care (part 1, part 2, part 3), here is the trailer to Michael Moore’s new film, SiCKO
Key issues raised by New Britain Democrats this year remain unresolved at the state Capitol with less than two weeks to adjournment. Your calls to the Governor and Legislative Leaders will help on several fronts.
Ask them to:
Adopt Universal Health Care: The Democratic Town Committee, calling for the passage of reform legislation, has endorsed universal health care that meets five principles of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with the following criteria: (1) universal: no one is left out; (2) continuous or portable : it stays with you regardless of marital or employment status; (3) is affordable to individuals and families: regardless of your economic circumstances; (4) is affordable and sustainable for society: it works for, rather than against, our economy; (5) is better for our health and well-being : it produces access to high-quality care for all. Join the campaign for universal health care at www.healthcare4every1.org
[...]
Contact the Governor 566-4840
Contact the House Speaker 240-8585
Contact the Senate President 240-8600
Prefix all of those numbers above with the area code 860 if necessary.
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