While I was waiting in line to get in, I passed out about 30 copies of the Sudbury DTC report “Single-Payer Universal Health Care—An Idea Whose Time Has Come”. It was very well received, and I noticed the person in front of me reading through virtually every page of it. Several speakers inside the hall also spoke forcefully for a single-payer plan, and it seemed clear from the applause that they got that easily half of those there agreed. I’m not good at judging this kind of thing—it may have been an overwhelming majority that agreed. The people that I was talking to near where I was seated all did.
There were very few right-wingers there. There was a couple near where I was seated in the balcony, but I wasn’t aware of any others in the hall. They shouted out things from time to time, but really had no effect. They were clearly Republicans—they loved Romney—and were really quite bizarre. When Kerry at one point said that every religious tradition—and he then named about 6—included the notion that we all have some responsibility to help one another, the woman shouted out, “Speak for yourself”. You could just about hear everyone’s jaw drop in my area. People were looking around in disbelief.
Kerry knows the arguments. He made the point that we pay considerably more for health care than European countries do, and that there is a lot of insurance company administrative overhead. He mentioned that some of the opposition to a public option came from those who asserted that private insurance companies would not be able to compete with a non-profit government-run plan. He said he didn’t see anything wrong with making the insurance companies compete with a public option.
But in fact, he downplayed all this. He spent a lot of time talking about things like you shouldn’t have to fill out so many forms every time you see a doctor. He said that in spite of what we’ve been told, Congress is “80% in agreement” on a plan. The most substantive parts of that plan would prevent insurance companies from cancelling coverage, and some similar assurances. These are good and important, but they don’t address the elephant in the living room—the vast amount of money ($500 billion per year) that is wasted in this system on administrative overhead and that could simply be done away with and used for productive purposes, as most other industrialized countries have done.
While he said he supports a public option, he was clearly not pushing hard for it. He said he had spoken up for it in the Senate Finance Committee. But the real fight for a public option is not happening in committee rooms right now—it is happening in the public arena. And Kerry simply is not fighting aggressively for this. He said that there was a lot of strong opposition to the public option, as if that were simply a fact of political life that we had to live with. Someone asked about “co-ops”, and he didn’t really oppose them at all—he called them a “back-up” position.
When I was standing in line outside, a Kerry staffer came by and was talking to people. Someone asked him if Kerry supported a public option, and he said yes. I then asked was this a robust public option, or was it something like these co-ops? He said, “Oh, you’ll have to talk to him about that.”, and turned and walked quickly away.
So I don’t think Kerry opposes a public option, but I don’t see him as fighting for it in any meaningful way.
The organization Healthcare for All was outside passing out signs for people to hold. (You couldn’t bring them inside, however.) These signs simply said “Health Reform Now”. They said nothing about either a single-payer plan or about a public option. I asked one of the people handing out their signs why they weren’t supporting single-payer or a public option. He said, “Well, I do.” And I think that’s true—he was wearing an SEIU button. Then I asked him why this wasn’t on Healthcare For All’s web site. He said, “Well, we have to build up momentum first.” I guess that’s what he’d been told.
Healthcare For All is an umbrella group whose leaders gave up several years ago on a single-payer plan. They seem to see themselves (from what I can tell) as playing an “inside game”. I think they are manipulating the energy and good will of many volunteers who really hope for a good health care bill to emerge. I expect Healthcare For All to be out in force with their signs at the Labor Day rally for health care in Boston, and they will have plenty of signs to hand out. None of those signs will say anything about a public option.
This fits in with what the Obama administration has been talking about in every email I’ve gotten from Organizing for America. None of these emails talk about a public option—they talk about “health insurance reform”.
Maybe it’s not too late to change this. There are principled members of Congress who are insisting on a robust public option. They need our support. And if you you are going to the rally—as I am—I urge you to bring a sign, either for single-payer or a public option. If you believe in either or both, don’t let your voice and your presence be misconstrued.
–Carl Offner
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p>in bright colors….both sides.
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p>I agree. Although Health Reform Now signs are OK, they don’t really send the message from those of us who want the Public Option. Specifics are good.
As he stated in his “Call to Service”: