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The
Lesson of the Struggle for Healthcare Reform: Is American Democracy
Truly the Best that Money Can Buy?
by Frank "Pancho" Valdez
When we elected Barack Obama to the White House last November along with a Democratic majority in Congress, many of us felt that the time was indeed now for real healthcare reform ("real healthcare reform" defined as single-payer). How wrong we were.
Despite the grave need for real healthcare reform, it appears that our esteemed members of Congress have once again allowed themselves to ignore the needs of the American people, even though 47 million Americans have no healthcare coverage, and between 18,000 and 22,000 die annually because either they were denied treatment or just could not afford it.
Single-payer healthcare is without a doubt the only viable, economically sound and humane form of healthcare. Yet Congress will not even discuss it. The President has already decided that we "don't want to lose our employer-based health insurance."
The majority of the American public polled, including physicians and nurses, expressed their support for single-payer hands down! Yes, many of us are glad just to have healthcare coverage, but we are tired of seeing the price of our premiums and deductibles increase while the quality of care declines. President Obama is clearly out of touch with the real needs of most of the American people on this issue.
Is real healthcare reform going down the tubes because, as Obama clains, "we won't wish to lose our healthcare insurance?" Not hardly. Is real healthcare reform failing because it's a foreign socialist idea? Puh-leeze!
Montana Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has received a whopping $3.4 million from HMOs, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and other healthcare-related corporate interests since 2003! Yes, this is the same Senator Baucus who tabled discussion on single-payer and who had thirteen single-payer activists ejected from the Senate building and jailed because they dared question him during the "healthcare reform hearing." The hearing was open only to Baucus' major financial contributors from the corporate healthcare cartel!
Another Senate personality who is clearly in a conflict-of-interest situation is Christopher Dodd from Connecticut, whose wife Jackie sits on the board of four healthcare corporations and is paid $200,000 annually.
Locally, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez has received from last count $158,349 from the corporate healthcare bosses. He has also received $91,750 from energy corporations. His refusal to support strong environmental legislation along with single-payer healthcare becomes more clear as his campaign contributions come to the surface.
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez has received $131,381 from the healthcare companies, $214,213 from "lobbyists" and $31,550 from energy-related firms. He too has refused to support single-payer despite its obvious advantages.
At a higher level, Nancy-Ann DeParle, President Obama's chief healthcare "advisor," has raked in $2 million from various corporate healthcare interests since 2008. Once again the true meaning of opposition to single-payer becomes clear.
Another point to be considered is that any challenge to a corporation making profit is considered a mortal sin by our right-wing yahoos. The very notion that we would challenge corporate America's "right" to make a profit is tantamount to treason in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!
Like most people disgusted and alienated by the eight years of George W. Bush, I voted for Obama with the hope that change would come about. As you can see, change is translated into dollars for the same old bulls..t! How tragic!
We must begin asking ourselves: what is the true meaning of life in these United States? How is it that only the rich and powerful have the attention of elected officials? How can 2-3% of the total population carry so much influence while the rest of us are ignored? Is this democracy?
Nations like France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan all have healthcare for their citizens. The reason is quite obvious. These nations also have powerful trade union movements and political parties that represent the interests of working people! The labor movements in these nations along with the worker-oriented political parties would never stand for the shenanigans that our government has dealt us. Remember that Germany and France refused to involve themselves in the war in Iraq. Spain eventually abandoned Bush once it became clear that it was a losing situation. Again, these nations have very strong advocates for the working folks in their labor unions and political parties.
As a former Democratic precinct chair, I can say with first-hand experience that the electoral process we have in this nation is a farce! Last presidential election, the Chair of the Texas Democratic Party unilaterally refused to allow Dennis Kucinich a spot on the ballot. Kucinich, the only real progressive, proudly supports single-payer and opposes the war in Iraq. Again I ask: is this real democracy?
Sisters and brothers, I firmly believe that the time has come for all of us to begin seriously considering alternative means to express our political views. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties will ever allow for the interests of the working class to be fully supported. The tentacles of the corporate monster has both parties by the gonads and will never relinquish control. We the People must begin serious discussions among ourselves and decide: either we continue playing this pointless political game, or we find a real solution! Remember, the definition of insanity is repeating the same failed thing over and over, expecting a different result. It will not happen!
The American left must put aside petty differences, come to an understanding, unite, and form a viable independent political party. By "independent," I mean independent of the control of the corporations that are the primary cause of so much injustice in this nation and across the globe! Greens, Reds, Anarchists, Populists, Real Liberals, Trade Unionists must make it happen! Our nation, our families, we ourselves, deserve much better!
Frank "Pancho" Valdez is a 43-year veteran of the civil rights, peace, labor and healthcare reform movements. He is chair of the San Antonio Healthcare-Now Coalition. He can be contacted at 210-882-2230.
by Frank "Pancho" Valdez
"A
professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man.
In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinuishable from a streetwalker."
— H. L. Mencken, journalist and social critic
In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinuishable from a streetwalker."
— H. L. Mencken, journalist and social critic
When we elected Barack Obama to the White House last November along with a Democratic majority in Congress, many of us felt that the time was indeed now for real healthcare reform ("real healthcare reform" defined as single-payer). How wrong we were.
Despite the grave need for real healthcare reform, it appears that our esteemed members of Congress have once again allowed themselves to ignore the needs of the American people, even though 47 million Americans have no healthcare coverage, and between 18,000 and 22,000 die annually because either they were denied treatment or just could not afford it.
Single-payer healthcare is without a doubt the only viable, economically sound and humane form of healthcare. Yet Congress will not even discuss it. The President has already decided that we "don't want to lose our employer-based health insurance."
The majority of the American public polled, including physicians and nurses, expressed their support for single-payer hands down! Yes, many of us are glad just to have healthcare coverage, but we are tired of seeing the price of our premiums and deductibles increase while the quality of care declines. President Obama is clearly out of touch with the real needs of most of the American people on this issue.
Is real healthcare reform going down the tubes because, as Obama clains, "we won't wish to lose our healthcare insurance?" Not hardly. Is real healthcare reform failing because it's a foreign socialist idea? Puh-leeze!
Montana Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has received a whopping $3.4 million from HMOs, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and other healthcare-related corporate interests since 2003! Yes, this is the same Senator Baucus who tabled discussion on single-payer and who had thirteen single-payer activists ejected from the Senate building and jailed because they dared question him during the "healthcare reform hearing." The hearing was open only to Baucus' major financial contributors from the corporate healthcare cartel!
Another Senate personality who is clearly in a conflict-of-interest situation is Christopher Dodd from Connecticut, whose wife Jackie sits on the board of four healthcare corporations and is paid $200,000 annually.
Locally, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez has received from last count $158,349 from the corporate healthcare bosses. He has also received $91,750 from energy corporations. His refusal to support strong environmental legislation along with single-payer healthcare becomes more clear as his campaign contributions come to the surface.
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez has received $131,381 from the healthcare companies, $214,213 from "lobbyists" and $31,550 from energy-related firms. He too has refused to support single-payer despite its obvious advantages.
At a higher level, Nancy-Ann DeParle, President Obama's chief healthcare "advisor," has raked in $2 million from various corporate healthcare interests since 2008. Once again the true meaning of opposition to single-payer becomes clear.
Another point to be considered is that any challenge to a corporation making profit is considered a mortal sin by our right-wing yahoos. The very notion that we would challenge corporate America's "right" to make a profit is tantamount to treason in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!
Like most people disgusted and alienated by the eight years of George W. Bush, I voted for Obama with the hope that change would come about. As you can see, change is translated into dollars for the same old bulls..t! How tragic!
We must begin asking ourselves: what is the true meaning of life in these United States? How is it that only the rich and powerful have the attention of elected officials? How can 2-3% of the total population carry so much influence while the rest of us are ignored? Is this democracy?
Nations like France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan all have healthcare for their citizens. The reason is quite obvious. These nations also have powerful trade union movements and political parties that represent the interests of working people! The labor movements in these nations along with the worker-oriented political parties would never stand for the shenanigans that our government has dealt us. Remember that Germany and France refused to involve themselves in the war in Iraq. Spain eventually abandoned Bush once it became clear that it was a losing situation. Again, these nations have very strong advocates for the working folks in their labor unions and political parties.
As a former Democratic precinct chair, I can say with first-hand experience that the electoral process we have in this nation is a farce! Last presidential election, the Chair of the Texas Democratic Party unilaterally refused to allow Dennis Kucinich a spot on the ballot. Kucinich, the only real progressive, proudly supports single-payer and opposes the war in Iraq. Again I ask: is this real democracy?
Sisters and brothers, I firmly believe that the time has come for all of us to begin seriously considering alternative means to express our political views. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties will ever allow for the interests of the working class to be fully supported. The tentacles of the corporate monster has both parties by the gonads and will never relinquish control. We the People must begin serious discussions among ourselves and decide: either we continue playing this pointless political game, or we find a real solution! Remember, the definition of insanity is repeating the same failed thing over and over, expecting a different result. It will not happen!
The American left must put aside petty differences, come to an understanding, unite, and form a viable independent political party. By "independent," I mean independent of the control of the corporations that are the primary cause of so much injustice in this nation and across the globe! Greens, Reds, Anarchists, Populists, Real Liberals, Trade Unionists must make it happen! Our nation, our families, we ourselves, deserve much better!
Frank "Pancho" Valdez is a 43-year veteran of the civil rights, peace, labor and healthcare reform movements. He is chair of the San Antonio Healthcare-Now Coalition. He can be contacted at 210-882-2230.