Access to Health Care Should Be a Human Right

By Shelley Kessler, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, San Mateo County Central Labor Council

“Every day of my life, I sit at the kitchen table across from the woman who devoted 36 years of her life to my family, and I can’t afford to pay for her health care. What’s wrong with America and what will you do to change it?”

It was a question posed to Democratic Presidential candidates by a retired and disabled steelworker who lost his retiree health benefits due to his company’s bankruptcy. This is a dedicated man who lost his career, lost his health, and is losing his faith in his country. But the question goes beyond the candidate forum at which he spoke.

Every person who was on that stage has health care, most of it paid for by taxpayers. All the candidates expressed support for some kind of universal health care, but only Congressmember Dennis Kucinich was willing to promote a Medicare for All system (through HR 676) to cover all people who live here.

Access to health care should be a right. You would think that the trillion dollars being spent to kill people in a foreign land could be used to save people here at home.

Could that be the answer to the question posed by retired steelworker Steve Skvara at the AFL-CIO sponsored debate, that America needs a shift in priorities?

Here in California we have some staggering statistics that are an embarrassment. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation 2007 report, “healthcare costs increased 123 percent between 1990 and 2004, far more than inflation, economic growth or wages. In fact, wages have only increased 20 percent over this same time period.”

The California Budget project reported recently that:

• One out of five non-elderly Californians—6.5 million—lacked health coverage during all or part of 2005. The uninsured include a broad range of Californians, although individuals in low-income working families are substantially more likely than are others to lack health coverage.

• Lower wage employers—those who pay at least 35 percent of their workers $20,000 or less per year—are least likely to offer such benefits. Just 38 percent of the state’s lower-wage employers offered health benefits in 2006, compared to 76 percent of higher-wage employers.

In addition, the rising cost of health insurance has led employers to drop coverage or increase workers’ share of premiums, putting health coverage out of reach for many low-income individuals.

Consequently, the share of Californians under age 65 with job-based health coverage declined from 60.2 percent in 2000 to 55.5 percent in 2005. Workers without access to affordable, job-based health coverage often find that privately purchased health coverage is not an option because it is unaffordable or impossible to obtain.

Rising health care costs, eroding job-based health benefits and the large number of Californians without health coverage are clear signs that the state, along with the rest of the nation, faces a health care crisis.

And the data collected by the California Labor Federation finds that the crisis is hitting the ranks of unionized workers. The results of their polling of 1,000 public and private sector union members reflect the growing concern:

• For 30 percent of California workers, health care is the most important issue facing the state, tied with education.

• At least 75 percent feel the current system needs major reform or complete overhaul.

• Many blame insurance companies (44 percent) and drug companies (37 percent) for problems with the current healthcare system and believe that at a minimum, profits should be legislatively limited for such an important issue.

• Most agree that healthcare is a major issue in bargaining; the high cost of health care is being pitted against wage increases, forcing people to choose between the two, or limiting health care for retirees who will need it most as their health declines with age.

Our experience is showing that in this crisis, even well-intentioned small and medium employers are being forced, by rising premiums and rate increases (85 percent), to cut coverage, shift the costs to workers, and fight to keep their businesses alive.

It is patently unfair and impossible to put the burden on small groups of people—whether they are employees or employers— to solve an issue that is national in scope. Even with hard fought attempts to address as much as possible within their communities, our local elcted officials, unions, community organizations, business people, and health care providers can only do so much. We are past the point of relying on band-aid solutions to deal with the major bleeding.

Meanwhile, drug companies, insurance companies, and the parasites who feed on human misery are laughing all the way to the bank. They aren’t skipping care for themselves or their families; they aren’t choosing between their own health care, food, or housing. Their friends in high elective offices aren’t making those choices either, but they are allowing and forcing those choices on us.

And the health care crisis has ramifications beyond just the physical health of individuals and families. Health care costs are a leading contributor to financial hardship for middle income families. Many cite illness, injury, or medical bills as a contributor to their debt and, for some, bankruptcy. LA Times reporter Lisa Girion documented that major insurance companies such as Blue Cross, have repeatedly cancelled the policies of, or denied coverage to, clients who have paid for health coverage when those clients actually get sick!

It all makes me ill, but now I’m afraid to say it out loud!

Yet there are solutions. Seriously, it is time to invest in solutions at every level. It takes political will, a commitment to solve these problems, and a willingness to acknowledge that everyone needs to help lift the load proportionate to their ability to do so. That’s right—from each according to their ability; and some are far more able than others. You know it and I know it.

The Wal-Marts of the world shove their responsibilities onto the backs of us taxpayers and frankly I’m tired of it. Many companies who enjoy mega-profits don’t pay their fair share of any social responsibility; if they did, the whole society would benefit. And it’s about time.

Our government can run viable programs to solve these issues; “high quality Medicare for all” should be our battle cry!

We know that universal health care could work. Take the Veterans Administration—invest in upgrading the system, the care facilities, and the staff, and spread around the country, renovating the existing hospital institutions that were closing (since no one could afford to go to them) and bring healthcare to the nation!

Sound like a pipe dream, or heaven forbid, socialized medicine??!! Well hell, this is supposed to be a civil society, and being social is part of it, so after we join hands and sing Kumbaya, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

The California Budget Project had an idea: “Build a program for national health care reform that expands coverage to the uninsured by pooling individuals to spread risk, rather than shifting health care risks and costs to individuals. It could be the most effective means to increase access to and the affordability of health care in California.”

In California, we could pass Sheila Kuehl’s bill for single payer health care which provides for comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and prescription drug coverage to every California resident. At minimum, we must do something to control costs and guarantee affordable healthcare; take the mega-profits away from the insurance companies and the drug companies, and find a way for the business community to share in the burden so that workers can have good healthcare, too.

Here in San Mateo County, the Blue Ribbon Health Care Task Force is taking steps to give the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors the ability to get our adult population who live at the 400 percent of poverty level access to health care. There is a broad partnership that has worked for over a year to craft a potential solution, with all facets of San Mateo County engaged, and whose dedicated members and staff will continue to work in the next phase to develop viable steps to reach that goal. This is a noble effort and we should all be proud that our County is trying to meet the needs of this community as best as possible, given the national scale of the problem.

But many more people are struggling to make ends meet. They don’t qualify for assistance, yet can’t provide for all the needs of their family or themselves, no matter how many low wage jobs they work.

So on this Labor Day—in addition to honoring the work that people do, their right to collectively have a voice about their working conditions, along with the dignity and respect they deserve—take a moment. Think about your health and how hard life is when you don’t have access to the care you need. Then pick up a pen, the phone, or your keyboard and communicate to your elected officials. Tell them that we all deserve the health care that they get; after all, we pay for it, over and over again.