Health Care Summit Leaves Patients and Doctors Out of the Conversation

By Margaret Flowers

The type of health care reform we see coming out of Washington will be determined by those who have a seat at the table. Right now the major players are health insurance industry lobbyists, pharmaceutical lobbyists and business. They are pushing for more of the same policies that have brought our health quality down, excluded millions of people and brought millions more into medical bankruptcy. If our reform is left up to these players, we will be mandated to purchase insurance without guarantee that insurance will be affordable or actually pay for needed health care. If our reform is left up to these players, insurance companies will continue to rake in enormous profits at the expense of patients’ lives.

There is a strong popular movement for the creation of a national health program which will include everyone, simplify access to health care and create a better environment for patients and health care providers. The majority of people and physicians in the United States want a national health care program. This was demonstrated loudly and clearly at the series of health care summits held around the country over the past few weeks. At each summit, single payer advocates attended and rallied. Is the White House listening? There is recognition that there is strong support for single payer but single payer is not on the table yet. In fact, the White House is having to screen their speakers more carefully and tighten their message in order to keep the strong single payer voice out.

Who are the voices of single payer? They are the patients who are excluded from getting needed medical care whether they have health insurance or not. They are the health care providers who struggle to navigate through the complicated system of paperwork and authorizations in order to get care for their patients. They are not the profit-makers. They are people who believe that health care is a human right. And this is what our health care reform comes down to – will it benefit the industry or the patients and providers? Is it the corporations or the people? Wall Street or Main Street?

There is only one way to get the White House and Congress to listen. We need to strengthen the single payer grassroots movement. We need your voice and we need you to join us in the streets. Like other rights-based movements in this country, the right to health care will be won on the street. To learn more about how you can be involved, check out the following websites:

www.healthcare-now.org – look at the photos and articles from the recent rallies

www.pnhp.org

www.guaranteedhealthcare4all.org