45,000 deaths a year from lack of health insurance is not a statistic-- it is a national tragedy that must be recognized as such.
We must work together to support a stop to this national tragedy. Let us not lose sight of the goal of universal health care. Let's be realistic and focus on the ends, not the means.
A study by Harvard Medical School researchers released today found that 45,000 Americans die each year for lack of health insurance. This my friends is a national scandal and the moral issue of our times.
The United States, alone among the rich countries of the world, does not recognize the right to universal health coverage. Tragically since Harry Truman's call for national health insurance, powerful interests have been framing any such proposals as "socialized medicine." We now have a two-tiered system where those who have insurance (as long as it is not cancelled) get high-quality, high cost treatment, and those who don't are left to the limits of emergency medicine. The system has evolved so that disparities between those who have and those who haven't has grown, at the same time that the costs have escalated enormously. The time is now to stop this scandal.
In doing so we must be realistic about the country we live in. Conservatives outnumber liberals and there are more who believe that government is the problem than government is the solution. Not all 59 Democrats in the Senate are liberals or progressives. We have a large Democratic majority in the house but not a large liberal or progressive majority. For better or worse, our majorities are based on a coalition of liberal to conservatives Democrats, many of them pro-business, and subject to strong influence by business lobbyists, including health insurance companies, many of which by the way are technically non-profit organizations.
I support President Barack Obama's leadership in health care reform. Since the primary campaign I have been disappointed that he has not been more decisively a progressive, and has followed instead a call for bi-partisanship. Well given all the conservative and Red State Democrats this approach, while exasperating at times, may be the only one likely to solve, once and for all the national tragedy of lack of universal health care coverage.
I favor a public option as do the vast majority of people here. But I agree with President Obama that this is a means, and not an end. No universal health care bill is likely to be perfect. But let's not let the excellent be the enemy of the good, or more importantly try to stop a bill, however imperfect that may help us end our shameful national tragedy.
We are at a crossroads. Let's pressure legislators to support the best bill possible. But let's focus on the goals, particularly the moral one, universal health coverage for all Americans.