It is almost serendipitous that just as I completed writing the title of this article, a news segment came on CNN regarding healthcare, a very sad story about a volunteer organization, Remote Area Medical that provides healthcare for Americans without insurance. Perhaps one could put it down to serendipity, or perhaps, it is purely a case of the fact of the urgency of the issue, and the fact that maybe one cannot go a full news day without hearing a story regarding healthcare, the lack of healthcare and the atrocities faced by regular every day Americans around healthcare and specifically insurance.
The thing about healthcare here in the USA is that actually medical care is not bad at all, so in fact, this debate is one that should really be a framed as a debate about health insurance. When one can get their care paid for, it is in fact great quality care that is often provided in a timely manner in environments full of the latest equipment, well trained doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. So in fact, I think that framing the healthcare debate as one about healthcare is a bit of a misnomer, because it suggests that there is something wrong with the provision of healthcare in America, which in fact, based on my experiences, which are varied and extensive right across the globe, there really isn’t, or at least, it is pretty much as good as any care I have had anywhere else, perhaps with the exception of France, where the system is excellent both at the point of delivery as well as in the manner of payment.
The particular segment on CNN featured Dr. Stan Broc, founder/Director of Remote Area Medical, a volunteer medical provider organization which provides healthcare to people in remote areas that are hard to reach and whose residents would otherwise have no access to urgently needed healthcare as well as Dr. Ross Isaacs a volunteer with the organization. Dr. Ross Isaacs described situations where for example, there are Americans with diabetes, who are forced to go without insulin for months because they cannot afford to pay for it. Fredericka Whitfield who was anchoring the news show, pointed out that some images from the organization’s video looked more like video taken in places in the third world, and indeed the story sounded like one that you would expect from a third world country. President Obama is currently concentrating on this very question, and has in fact dedicated his last two Saturday radio/web addresses to the question of healthcare reform. President Obama – wow, it feels so good to write that, so I will write it again, yes, President Obama, has very cleverly, as we have come to expect from him, tied the question of healthcare reform to the economy, tying economic recovery to healthcare reform, and managing to garner the support of small business organizations and even healthcare providers, who, faced with the reality that the question of healthcare reform is one whose time has come and is inevitable, have decided to jump on board to make sure they are not left off the negotiation table. To President Obama’s credit, again, of course the health insurance companies would not have come aboard, were it not for the fact that the President himself held out an extended hand, pointing out to them, that reform was an idea whose time has come, and as he often likes to say, there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and invited them to join along.
All of the above creates an environment that is ripe for reform. And thankfully so, because the way that healthcare is paid for currently really needs reform, as most of us by now are strongly aware of often from our own stressful, traumatic and even tragic experiences. Statistics show that blacks and Latinos are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to healthcare in the United States, which is why this is an issue that African Americans and Latinos should and must get involved in. Thankfully, credit again, to President Obama – sorry I can’t get enough of writing this Kenyan name, as a Kenyan myself in reference to the President of the USA! – we can easily get actively involved in the push for reform, thanks to Organizing for America, formerly Obama for America, which is now an arm of the Democratic National Committee, and consists of the millions of people who were actively involved in the Obama campaign. Currently Organizing for America is making a push for campaign style house parties on healthcare to help inform the public on the issues around this debate, to help garner support for the President’s measures, and turn that support into pressure on lawmakers to help pass the President’s preferred bill.
Currently at great contention is the question of a public option which the Republicans both in and out of congress, as well as insurance companies strongly oppose arguing that it would kill the private health insurance providers leading to yet more uninsured people. In fact, the argument of the Right as well as insurance companies against the public option provides, in my opinion, the strongest argument for a public option. The Health insurance companies and their Republican minders argue that in fact the government option will be too attractive to regular Americans, and will be so cheap, that the insurance companies will be unable to compete, and they will have to, god forbid, forgo their profits, and may lead to some being forced out of business! Well, if in fact, a public option would be so popular, meaning that it is what Americans want and need, and will indeed be cheaper, forcing price wars between insurance companies, leading to cheaper wider coverage, then, I argue that there is no better argument for capitalism, which in fact is touted by the right as the best way to force price competition and lower prices! The Right defeats their own argument in their extremely and increasingly frantic opposition to a public government option for the provision of healthcare. I can’t help but believe that this time, their frantic efforts cannot help but demonstrate even to the least informed among us, that surely, these companies along with their Republican minders, cannot be fighting for Americans but for their own profits, and as such, I actually like their efforts, because I think they really help the cause of the Left for a public option and indeed for comprehensive healthcare reform once and for all.
The lack of quality healthcare as I pointed out disproportionately affects Blacks and Latinos, and it is not due to the lack of clinics, hospitals or doctors, but rather, due to a lack of the ability to pay for healthcare. We therefore have to be involved actively and aggressively to help the President to pass a bill that includes the public option. President Obama, in his election, demonstrated the power of both the Black and Latino vote and political support, as indeed, he could not have been elected without the overwhelming support of both communities. Indeed, no American President can be elected in future, given the shifts in the electorate’s demographics without the overwhelming support of either both or at least one of those communities.
The Black gay community is even further disproportionately affected by the question of healthcare, not just due to HIV AIDS, which in fact, affects black women at rates similarly high, but also due to other health concerns, not least of all which include mental health, and substance abuse treatment programs, as well as other regular health issues such as prostrate health, diabetes, heart disease, quit smoking programs, pediatric care – as adoption becomes more available, as well as other STD health issues, many of which affect the community even more than HIV AIDS. We have to harness our political power, by getting active at Organizing For America (Friend Me on Organizing for America & Connect to your Facebook) and attending and hosting house parties similar to those that took place during the campaign to ensure that the public option, not only stays on the table but ends up as part of the bill, and is passed into law. Other useful organizations fighting alongside President Obama include Howard Dean’s Democracy For America as well as Move On both of which are organizations that support Democratic Party measures and initiatives and that are standing with the President on his most courageous reforms.
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