Why We Fight

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I will be discussing this and other state political issues on KRXA 540 AM at 8 this morning

Today I will be in San Francisco for the National Day of Protest against health insurance corporations and for truly universal health care - which only a single-payer system can provide. I wanted to take a moment and explain why I will be out there demonstrating against these criminals.

I currently do not have health insurance. My part-time job does not offer it and when I last looked into individual coverage I could not afford what was being offered to me. But more importantly, it's not health insurance that I need - but health care. They are not the same thing. Health insurance companies have a long and ugly record of denying care and claims even to those they insure. We have discussed here the horrifying stories of Nataline Sarkisyan and Nick Colombo, young people whose insurers denied them life-saving treatment until protests forced them to back down. In Nataline's case, as we will never forget, it came too late, and she died.

Courage Campaign (where I do some work) has partnered with the California Nurses Association and LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to put out an ad lambasting insurance company practices. It's based on the true story of Patsy Bates whose health insurance was canceled by HealthNet in the midst of her chemo treatments for breast cancer.

Speaking for myself, I see this ad and the protest at Moscone Center as fundamentally linked. Health insurance is a toxin, not a cure - the profit motive means that there will always be a desire to cut benefits, even in spite of government regulations (the recission practices Delgadillo is investigating are currently illegal under CA state law but they happen anyway).

Last year I was one of the leading voices on this blog against the mandated insurance plan proposed by Arnold and nearly passed by the legislature. It was not going to succeed in making health care more affordable and it was not going to succeed in making it more available. Mandated insurance plans haven't worked anywhere they've been tried in the US, including in Massachusetts - whereas single-payer systems have a long record of success around the world.

We protest, we fund ads, we get outraged, and we fight because we believe health care to be a fundamental human right. Every one of us deserves to have it when they need it, without regard to cost. When someone gets sick their first thought should not be "how will I pay for this?"

As we debate specific health care reforms, that focus on human rights needs to remain at the center of our work. Health insurance companies inherently disagree with it - to them health care is something only those who can afford it deserve to have. It is that mentality that we fight against and protest against today. I'm not naive; single-payer health care will not be an easy political victory. But as polls continue to show growing support for it, and growing revulsion at insurance company practices, it can't hurt to give Californians a reminder of why their health care is so screwed up - insurance companies are at the core of the problem. Today, we fight back.