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WORD COUNT
608
MAY 20, 2009
WHY WE
WERE ARRESTED OVER HEALTH CARE – by Margaret Flowers, M.D.
On May 5,
eight health care advocates, including myself and two other physicians,
stood up to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the Senate Finance Committee
during a “public roundtable discussion.” We posed a simple question:
Will you allow an advocate for a single-payer national health plan to
have a seat at the table?
The answer
was a loud, “Get more police!” And we were arrested and hauled off to
jail.
The fact
that a national health insurance program is supported by the majority of
the public, doctors and nurses apparently means nothing to Sen. Baucus.
The fact that thousands of people in America are dying every year
because they can’t get health care means nothing. The fact that over 1
million Americans go into bankruptcy every year due to medical debt –
even though most of them had insurance when they got sick – means
nothing.
And so, as
the May 5 meeting approached, we prepared for another one of the highly
scripted, well-protected events that are supposed to make up the “health
care debate” using standard tools of advocacy. We organized call-in days
and faxes to the members of the committee requesting the presence of one
single-payer advocate at the table of 15. Despite thousands of calls and
faxes, the only reply – received on the day before the event – was,
“Sorry, but no more invitations will be issued.”
We knew
that this couldn’t be correct. We had heard Sen. Baucus say on that very
same day that “all options were on the table.” And so, the next day, we
donned our suits and traveled to Washington. We had many knowledgeable
single-payer advocates in our group. And as the meeting started, one of
us, Mr. Russell Mokhiber, stood up to say that we were here and we were
ready to take a seat. And he was promptly removed from the room.
In that
moment, it all became so clear. We could write letters, phone staffers,
and fax until the machines fell apart, but we would never get our seat
at the table.
The
senators understand that most people want a national health system and
that an improved Medicare for All would include everybody and provide
better health care at a lower cost. These facts mean nothing to most of
them because they respond to only one standard tool of advocacy: money,
and lots of it.
The people
seated at the table represented the corporate interests: private health
insurers and big business and those who support their agenda. The people
whose voices were heard all represented organizations that pay huge sums
of money to political campaigns. These interests profit greatly from the
current health care industry and do not want changes that will hurt
their large, personal pocketbooks.
And so, we
have entered a new phase in the movement for health care as a human
right: acts of civil disobedience. It is time to challenge directly
corporate interests. History has shown that in order to gain human
rights, we must be willing to speak out and risk arrest. We must engage
in actions that expose corporate fraud and corruption. We must make our
presence known.
And that
is why the eight of us, knowledgeable health care advocates and
providers, most of us parents, some of us grandparents, spoke out one by
one at the Senate Finance Committee. And it is why we will continue to
speak out and encourage others to do the same. Our voices must be strong
enough to drown out the influence of corporate dollars.
Health
care must become the civil rights movement of this decade. The
opportunity is here. And we can create a single-payer national health
care system.
Yes, we
can.
---
Dr.
Margaret Flowers is a pediatrician in Baltimore and co-chair of the
Maryland chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
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