John Conyers yesterday...and the Seattle PI today...ask us the same question: are you ready to rock the boat on healthcare and fight for genuine reform?
The answer is yes from a growing number of people....editorial boards across the country, 450+ labor organizations, 59% of physicians, the national nurses movement, and—I suspect—a majority of delegates to the Dem convention.
The Seattle PI writes this morning:
It's time to organize government health care into a single-payer system, one that covers all Americans. It's the most cost-effective route forward. Last year's health expenditures topped $2.3 trillion -- or $7,600 per person -- and those figures continue to grow faster than inflation.
Not only that, but U.S. industry is less competitive in a global economy when companies from other countries spend zero on employee health care.
David Himmelstein, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, said it's time for politicians to be bold and "rock the private insurance boat."
Rock away. Any chance delegates in Denver and St. Paul are ready?
More news today make our cause more urgent. Jon Cohn at the New Republic—who is the must-read for healthcare policy—points to the Census report showing more Americans on Medicaid and S-Chip, and the ongoing decline of the employer-sponsored and individual insurance markets:
In other words, if not for more robust public insurance, it's likely far more people would be without medical coverage. And that's true of the long-term, as well. Employer-sponsored insurance has declined over the last 30 years or so, as rising costs have made it harder for employers and employees to pay for it. If not for the expansions of eligibility for Medicaid and establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, many more people would be without insurance and, as a result, struggling to pay their medical bills.
So the case for expanding public insurance--ideally, to help cover everybody--isn't weaker because of the new numbers. If anything, it's stronger. Among other things, if you read the report itself, you'll see that the state with the second* largest increase in health insurance is Massachusetts. That's almost certainly a result of the new reforms there, which have swelled enrollment in state insurance programs.
Of course you know that John Conyers (D-MI) has a bill, HR 676, which would transition the US to a single-payer healthcare system. Lots of support in Denver at the convention for him, and for it...and here’s a blog post about his challengeto all of us to make 2009 the year of real healthcare reform.
Here is Conyers speaking to some of the young healthcare activists at the event: