The marriage equality train has left the station. And the single payer train is leaving the station too. Take it to the bank and cash the damn check.
Marriage equality is becoming the law of the land state by state. As with so many issues of great national consequence, we should give up on those sad folks in Washington, and force our state governments and legislatures to enact real reform.
As with other historic steps, such as interracial marriages, women's suffrage or a worker's right to join a union, in relatively short time we will forget why it was that basic decency required such a major struggle. But we should never forget two things -- that this enormous victory in New York only came about due to generations of activism.
On the issue of bringing universal and affordable single payer health care to all Americans, which, like Dr. King, I believe is the fundamental human rights and civil rights struggle of our generation, the reform the American people deserve, as with marriage equality, will come from the states.
Vermont
On May 26, Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont, signed Act 48, a new law that will eventually create the nation’s first single-payer health care system. Governor Shumlin is the champion for single payer, as Andrew Cuomo was in New York for marriage equality. We will need to nationalize the battle for single payer, the closer we come, the more the insurance industry will fight--even in a small state like Vermont.
The state by state fight for single payer belongs to all of us. We must open our wallets, and work as hard for this as we do in a presidential campaign. We are up against corporate America, but this is a battle worth fighting and winning.
The insurers know, we only need one state (large or small) to enact single payer, for their days of destroying this country, to begin to end. I'm proposing that we bring the battle for single payer to the desk of Andrew Cuomo who is a champion of progressive values. Watch the video at the end if you don't believe me.
Also, do yourself a favor, read how this righteous cause of marriage equality went from a Cuomo campaign promise to reality, about how Andrew was relentless, focused, and determined, to fulfill his promise to LGBT community in New York.
As I watched this splendid spectacle of citizen power unfold last night in New York, I thought to myself, I wouldn't like these images if I ran a murder by spreadsheet insurance company. It's only a matter of time before their wall of hate, greed, exclusion, and injustice starts to crumble.
The fight for health care rights will start in Vermont and California and perhaps New York, then it will spread to other states. It's only a matter of time. The insurance industry is on the run, their days of death are numbered.
The United States would save $400 billion ANNUALLY with single-payer, Medicare for All. No more health insurance industry dollars gouging us all the way to Wall St.
If you want to understand our future, take a look at this chart from economist Dean Baker. You can go to the CEPR's budget-deficit calculator, which allows you to plug other nations' per-capita health-care spending into our budget picture and see what happens.
We must have single payer because our health care costs are twice what other industrialized nations spend, and our outcomes are dismal.
The simple and elegant central feature of a single-payer system is that financial consideration does not enter into the patient's decision to seek medical care, nor is it a factor in the doctor's recommendation for treatment for the patient. Imagine this. No money is exchanged between patient and doctor. There is no fighting with insurance companies to get claims paid, and no complicated bookkeeping on the part of either patients or doctors. Doctors make decisions based on health needs and not on insurance company rules.
This complicated and insane bookkeeping is unsustainable. Ask the AMA.
The doctor’s group released its annual National Health Insurer Report Card this week and found that 19.3%—almost one in five—of medical claims processed by the nation’s largest commercial health insurers is inaccurate. The report card found a 2% rise in claims processing errors over last year’s findings, which added “an estimated $1.5 billion in unnecessary administrative costs to the health system,” according to the AMA. The doctors' group estimates that if all health insurers were able to eliminate all claim payment errors, the health care system would save $17 billion a year.
This is what we pay to the private for-profit insurance industry, per person for the parasitic waste they inflict on our nearly bankrupt nation.
California
In California, State Sen. Mark Leno is sponsoring legislation, SB 810, that would establish a universal health care system. A similar bill passed the legislature in 2006 and again in 2008, but was vetoed both times by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Advocates say with a Democrat now in the governor's seat, this time could be different. But even if the bill does ultimately pass, it does not include funding for such a system. [Note: I'm on the board of California OneCare)
As I watched the historic activity on the floor of the New York State legislature last night, I kept thinking this is what we'll soon see as first Vermont, then California, and then New York brings an end to the murderous ways of the for-profit insurance industry.
New York
Vermont has passed its bill. In New York a bill was introduced in the Assembly and it has 60 Assembly and Senate co-sponsors.
It's breathtaking to see politicians on rare occasions, do the business of the people. The Republican controlled New York State Senate, defied our low expectations and decided to go with history not against it.
Even though New York has one of the most dysfunctional legislatures in the country, this historic victory could not be contained. We also have a new Majority Leader, a Republican named Dean Skelos. He voted against this bill, but he allowed the bill to come to the floor for a vote. I called his office last week and said the people of New York voted for Democracy, and all we demand is a simple up or down vote. An up or down vote is revolutionary in this country.
“The days of just bottling up things, and using these as excuses not to have votes — as far as I’m concerned as leader, it’s over with,” said Mr. Skelos, a Long Island Republican who voted against the bill.
Listen to Andrew Cuomo--start at about 6:00 to hear some very moving words about New York being the state which gave birth to many great progressive movements.
Let's have New York lead on single payer.