Rep. Dennis Kucinich Tackles Healthcare

[eridani]

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20061128_rep_dennis_kucinich_tackles_health_care/

Rep. Dennis Kucinich speaks with Truthdig contributor Joshua Scheer* about the state of healthcare in America, his bill with Rep. John Conyers to provide universal coverage and why progress is inevitable.

Edited Transcript:

Truthdig:

What kind of healthcare congressmen get—what kind of healthcare do you have?
Kucinich:

Well, we pay for our healthcare. I mean, our healthcare is deducted from our salary. You know, we can opt for what kind of plan we want. The more comprehensive coverage you have, the more you pay. The solution to the nation’s healthcare problem is not to deny members of Congress healthcare coverage. It’s to make sure every American has the access to quality healthcare, and the only way to do that is for Congress to pass a bill that would provide for universal not-for-profit healthcare for all Americans. There’s a bill called “Medicare for all,” and this bill in this current Congress is HR 676—the Conyers/Kucinich bill.

Truthdig:

That bill—it’s Conyers and you? Do you think it’s going to pass?

Kucinich:

There are 75 members of Congress signed on in support of the bill. We recognize that there are 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, and there are another 50 million Americans who are under-insured; that the cost of healthcare has gone out of the reach of a large number of Americans, and so there’s only one real solution, and that is to make healthcare not-for-profit. I mean healthcare should be established as a basic right in a democratic society. Every industrialized democracy has healthcare for its people. ... You know, when I traveled the country as a candidate for president, the two issues that came up most consistently were healthcare and the integrity of the election process. Healthcare is one issue that unites Americans across party lines, across income lines. Because every person realizes that a single illness in a family can wipe out that family financially. So healthcare and the accessibility and affordability of healthcare is central to the government’s responsibility to provide—to promote the general welfare.

When you look at the fact that there are 46 million Americans without health insurance—another 50 million under-insured—when you see that businesses are cutting back sharply on healthcare benefits—at the bargaining table, labor is faced with giving up their hard-fought healthcare benefits—when you see that trade, meaning in this case jobs that move out of our country—there is an acceleration of jobs going out of the country because workers are not paid benefits in a number of countries where the jobs move to. Chief among those benefits is healthcare. Healthcare is central—it’s a central question— and it defines who we are as a nation and what we can become as a nation. We are already paying for a universal system of care, we’re just not getting it. ... Close to $2 trillion a year is spent for healthcare in America, but one out of every four dollars goes for the activities of the for-profit system: corporate profits, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork—anywhere from 15 to 30 percent, as compared to Medicare’s 3 percent. And so a for-profit healthcare system is crushing everyone, except the insurance companies. It’s crushing workers, who may actually be working 40 hours a week and not have healthcare coverage. It’s crushing businesses, particularly small businesses, who are finding that they cannot afford healthcare for their employees. It’s causing major manufacturers to renege on commitments they made to their workers years ago and to retirees years ago for healthcare.


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[evlbstrd]

1. I think there is solid support for this now.

It's made sense for a long time, but this country only really seems to react when there's a real crisis. Even with an increase in taxes to cover it, losing that huge health premium deduction from my paycheck for me and my kids looks like a good bargain.
The wingers love to whine about taxes, but , dammit, some things are worth paying for. That is, as long as you know that's where the money's going. But that's another thread.

[eridani]

2. The only way we are going to get there is--

--loudly and continually hollering "Everybody in! Nobody Out!" until the general public begins to hear it.

[Trillo]

3. "Not for Profit"

Imagine that.