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On May 5th, 8 Health Care Advocates, including 3 physicians, stood up to Senator Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee during a “public” roundtable discussion with a simple question: Will you allow an advocate for a single payer national health plan to have a seat at the table? The answer was a loud, “Get more police!” And the advocates were hauled off to jail.
The fact that a national health program is supported by the majority of the public and health care providers means nothing to Senator Baucus. The fact that thousands of people in America are dying every year because they can’t get health care means nothing. The fact that over one million Americans go into bankruptcy every year due to medical debt even though most of them had insurance means nothing.
And so, we prepared for another of the highly-scripted well-protected events that are supposed to make up the “health care debate” using standard tools of advocacy. We organized call-in days and faxes to the members of the committee requesting the presence of one single payer advocate at the table of 15. Despite thousands of calls and faxes, the only reply, received on the day before the event, was, “Sorry, but no more invitations will be issued.”
We knew that this couldn’t be correct. We had heard Senator Baucus say on that very same day that “All options were on the table.” And so, the next day, we donned our suits and travelled to Washington. We had many knowledgeable single payer advocates in our group. And as the meeting started, one of us stood up to say that we were here and we were ready to take a seat. And he was promptly removed from the room.
In that moment, it all became so clear. We could write letters, phone staffers, and fax until the machines fell apart, but we would never get our seat at the table. The Senators understand that most people want a national health system and that a national health system would include everybody and provide better health care at a lower cost. These facts mean nothing because Senators respond to only one standard tool of advocacy: money, and lots of it.
The people seated at the table represented the corporate interests: private health insurers and big business and those who support their agenda. The people whose voices were heard all represented organizations which pay huge sums of money to political campaigns. These interests profit greatly from the current health care industry and do not want changes that will hurt their personal pockets.
And so, we have entered a new phase in the movement for health care as a human right: acts of civil disobedience. It is time to directly challenge corporate interests. History has shown that in order to gain human rights, we must be willing to speak out and risk arrest. We must engage in actions that expose corporate fraud and corruption. We must make our presence known.
And that is why the 8 of us, knowledgeable health care advocates and providers, most of us parents, some of us grandparents, spoke out one by one in the Senate Finance Committee. And it is why we will continue to speak out and encourage others to do the same. Our voices must be strong enough to drown out the influence of corporate dollars. Health care must become the civil rights movement of this decade. The opportunity is here. And we can create a national health care system. Yes, we can.
Signed by:
Mark Dudzic
Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Physicians for a National Health Program
Russell Mokhiber
Single Payer Action
Carol Paris, M.D.
Physicians for a National Health Program
Katie Robbins
Healthcare-Now
Pat Salomon, M.D.
Physicians for a National Health Program
Adam Schneider
Health Care for the Homeless
Kevin Zeese
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