The following speech was presented to the Central Kentuckians for SINGLE PAYER Universal Healthcare reform Forum, Saturday, August 29, at the historic Kentucky Theater....
A. GOOD MORNING! It’s a beautiful day to talk about healthcare reform!! I am excited, FOR I know we will have MEANINGFUL Healthcare reform! Americans proven over and over that when we follow the truth, and act with justice we stand united and come together for our greater good—AND WE WILL DO IT AGAIN!
You know, on the way over I met a man who suffered a serious heart attack and they took him to the nearest hospital over to St. Joe and they fixed him up good. The nun from the billing dept came up and asked how he was going to pay.
“Do you have insurance?” “NO,” he said in a raspy voice.
“Well, do you have any money?” “No, no money at all.”
“What about family?”
“Ah, all I got is this old spinster sister of mine who is a nun.”“SIR! I’ll have you know, we nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to GOD!”
His face lit up as he said, “GREAT! In that case send the bill to my brother-in-law!”
B. I am going to share with you FOUR BIG TRUTHS:
1) THAT SINGLE PAYER universal HEALTHCARE is the MOST economical, most effective and fairest system possible. Everybody in, nobody out, no pre-existing conditions, no terminations, no exclusions, denials, rationing, or bankruptcies, quality health care for all!
2) THAT SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE is a CONSTITUTIONAL imperative, that is, our federal government has an AFFIRMATIVE DUTY to act on our behalf;
3) THAT SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE is a MORAL IMPERATIVE
4) THAT CONTRARY TO THE ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA, OUR GOVERNMENT IS GOOD, and has for our 230 year history has helped make America the finest country on the planet.
C. The FIRST TRUTH---- SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE IS THE MOST ECONOMICAL, EFFECTIVE AND FAIREST SYSTEM.
1) YOU just saw the terrific film, Sick around the World, and you saw how good other’s systems are compared to ours—THEY ALL have UNIVERSAL, NON-PROFIT health care system, and many have Single Payer. THE REASON Single Payer works is that it is SO MUCH MORE EFFICIENT it will make every dollar we currently spend go nearly TWICE as far.
Essentially SINGLE PAYER replaces the more than 1300 for-profit private insurance companies with ONE BIG INSURANCE POOL, ONE BIG PLAN that is owned and operated by…..US, the people of the United States of America, and JUST LIKE MEDICARE, along with Social Security, the most successful and endearing government program, WE THE PEOPLE will administer this non-profit UNIVERSAL PLAN. PUBLICLY financed with our tax dollars and PRIVATELY delivered by our current medical system. MEDICARE FOR ALL.
2) HOW IS THIS MORE ECONOMICAL? Right now we have 1300 for profit HEALTH INSURERS whose primary mission is to MAXIMIZE PROFIT AND MINIMIZE CARE.
**NOW LET ME GET THIS OUT THERE right away—the PEOPLE in the private insurance industries, including the CEO’s are not bad people, many are community leaders, compassionate and generous people. It is not them, but THE SYSTEM that is bad. They are just doing their job, which is to maximize profits…
At any rate, our CURRENT SYSTEM allows the private insurance companies to make many billions each year by PUTTING PROFITS OVER PEOPLE—BY basically denying care & by denying coverage to those most in need, cherry picking the healthiest clients, then being tight fisted on what they cover even with them. Their profits have risen nearly 5 times since 1999, well over $15 billion per year, the top 10 CEO’s average $14 million per year salaries..
All these private insurance companies have huge overhead. They spend about 22% of their revenues on administration, marketing and profits—HUGE profits, not to mention the money they spend to grease the politicians’ palms!! THEN there are the additional costs to the DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS, the providers of care, for they must deal with all the bureaucratic red tape of all the different insurance companies.
SO IN TOTAL, this needless overhead consumes about ONE THIRD—33% --of every dollar we spend on health care.
With SINGLE PAYER we can save more than $350 BILLION a year on this wasted paperwork, enough to provide coverage to everybody without paying more than we are now.
TO REPEAT: IN TOTAL ABOUT 33% OF EVERY DOLLAR WE SPEND GOES TO WASTED ADMINISTRATIVE FEES and corporate profits and bonuses. By contrast MEDICARE’s administrative costs are AROUND 4%!!
ONE BIG POOL, ONE BIG PLAN, owned and operated by…US, you, me the taxpayer!! EVERYBODY IN, NOBODY OUT. A HIGHLY EFFICIENT MEDICARE FOR ALL!
3) HOW IS S/P THE FAIREST, MOST EFFECTIVE REFORM? We currently spend twice what other developed countries spend per capita but get much less quality and quantity. The very unfairness of putting profit over people is why every other advanced country—all of whom have higher rankings than the US—have gone to a UNIVERSAL H/C and most have a SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM.
4) HOW DOES IT WORK? Every employee/worker will pay around 3% of their salary AND employers will pay around 4.5% PLUS there will be a slight tax rise for the wealthiest among us.
5) HOW DO WE GET CARE? You simply go to the doctor of your choice DR/PATIENT RELATIONSHIP PROTECTED. THERE WILL BE NO DENIALS FOR PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, you cannot lose your insurance if you get seriously ill OR lose your job, YOU CAN NOT GO BANKRUPT from medical bills—AND—BONUS—it will cover everything—ALL DR visits—NO CO-PAYS, DEDUCTABLES, limits or exclusions AND it includes all DENTAL, EYES, even nursing homes.
6) WILL STOP rationing and death squads! NOW we have a system where the for-profit private insurers are DENYIN’, DENYIN’ DENYIN’ AND PEOPLE ARE DYIN’, DYIN’, DYIN’!
7) ALSO, SINGLE PAYER will RESCUE the American free enterprise system.
Without health care reform, small businesses will pay nearly $2.4 trillion dollars over the next ten years in health care costs for their workers, 178,000 small business jobs will be lost by 2018 as a result of health care costs, 11. The Economic Impact of Healthcare Reform on Small Business, Small Business Majority, June 2009.
Right now small businesses have a disadvantage compared to large companies. As an employer I can tell you that nothing was more gutwrenching then when one of our employees or their child got sick and they could not afford health insurance. Especially a single mom, no way to pay $12,000/year! It lowered morale, made others sick, hurt productivity. And now over 30% of small businesses offer no plan. WITH single payer, all companies big and small are on a level playing field. And for BIG companies their costs will be lower and they will be more competitive with foreign companies.
8) Finally, SINGLE PAYER will be a boom to our economy! MANY new jobs in health care will be created. More schools to train MORE doctors, more nurses and tech and support. Those working in HMOS in lower and middle position will get two years of unemployment, MONEY for re-training and opportunities to join the expanded MEDICARE administration.
SECOND TRUTH—SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE IS A CONSTITUTIONAL IMPERATIVE
1) THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, history’s most respected and enduring political document, practically screams for A SINGLE PAYER healthcare system! The pre-amble to the Constitution is its spirit, it lists the reasons why our founders set off on their bold experiment of self-government, and the reasons for creating the CONSTITUTION and new country. Here is what it says:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, ]promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
TO PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE! Nothing today can better promote the general welfare than Single Payer Universal healthcare my friends!
THIRD, SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE:
Now when I speak of a morality here I refer to a greater moral purpose that exists beyond any and all religion. We all have different paths, but I truly believe they diverge at the point of heartfelt human compassion. And that is what I am talking about. So when I mention God, that is my own personal insertion and is not necessarily representative of all who have an equal sense of morality but follow a different path.
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1) There is no question but that God AND the highest callings of MORALITY would have us—the RICHEST NATION ON EARTH—FIND A WAY, to provide health care for all, before another private health insurer, an unnecessary MIDDLE MAN, makes another billion dollars in profit.
2) WE have heard over and over: “to bear each others’ burdens, that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, to love one another as you love yourself, that as you do to the LEAST of these you do unto me.”
3) It is fundamentally immoral to make human health, a matter of human life and death, a slave to profits! We KNOW this, we KNOW this in our hearts. This is NOT difficult. It’s so simple a caveman would know it, and CERTAINLY a child.
4) We must live up to Alexis De Tocqueville’s observation about America in his book, Democracy in America:
"America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great."
Is there any doubt that a health care delivery system that puts PROFITS over PEOPLE is contrary to being a good and moral nation? It is therefore a moral imperative to adopt a Single Payer Universal, everybody, in nobody out healthcare reform.
FOURTH TRUTH, GOVERNMENT IS GOOD!
1) CONTRARY TO THE ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA, our government for over 230 years has been the backbone, the glue, the enabler of the wealthiest, freest, and fairest nation in the history of the world.
2) HOW DARE them lie about the proven quality and effectiveness of our government!
3) From DAY ONE in America our strong UNITED federal government has overseen the building of our nation’s infrastructure, created the world’s most esteemed system of justice; Social Security, Medicare, public education, Mail delivery—through rain, snow, sleet or gloom of night!, The MILITARY, the coinage of money, our beautiful national parks, scientific and medical research, the space program, FOOD AND DRUG safety, consumer protection, interstate highways, product safety, workplace regs and child labor laws, etc, etc,
4) When naysayers ask Does government work?
a. WHO provides a first class military that’s successfully provided for Common Defense? THE GOVT.
b. When you get up and turn on the radio or cable tv—OUR GOVT!
c. WHO INSURES that when you eat your breakfast without worry the food is safe—GOVT
d. WHO INSURES that when you drive in a safe car, down I-75—THE GOVT.
e. WHO INSURES tht if you breathe clean air and drink clean water—THE GOVT
f. WHO INSURES that take drugs that are safe, do what supposed to—THE GOVT!
g. When you mail a letter in snowstorm and it arr. Next day—GOVT!
h. If you get a Medicare check/soc. Sec/unemploy----THE GOVT
i. Student loans, food stamps—OR corp bailout, subsidy—GOVT
j. Visit a beautiful national park—THE GOVT
k. WHO INSURES Vaccination and protection from diseases—THE GOVT
l. WHO INSURES THAT YOU Feel safe about having money in the bank—THE GOVT.
m. Had a baby, or need to miss work to give care—GOVT.
n. WHO SEES that you have Workplace safety regs, child labor laws—THE GOVT.
o. Contract and commercial transactions protected—THE GOVT.
p. WHO PROVIDES Justice, law and order, fire protection, disaster response—GOVT
q. WHO OVERSEES Safe products, informative labeling, truth in advertising—THE GOVT
r. If you got a good free public education—THE GOVT.
5) THROUGH THESE AND MANY, MANY more ways does the government help create the environment, the atmosphere which enables us to FULLY PURSUE life, liberty and happiness. Govt helps form the COCOON out of which the FRUITS OF INDIVIDUAL freedom can flourish, be it in commerce, science the arts or whatever. GOVT is a BOON to commerce and creativity, NOT A BARRIER.
6) Often we lose sight of the big picture and need a new set of eyes to see reality. For America this new set of eyes can often come from immigrants. My grandfather loved his new country, he EASILY saw that his opportunity to create a business, serve customers, grow a family were only possible through a strong, compassionate, citizen-oriented GOVERNMENT.
The GOVT came in and saved his business after the FLOODS in Eastern Ky— SBA loans. The GOVT helped insure his kids got an education.
His govt created laws of commerce and treated all equally, and on and on.
7) My grandfather UNDERSTOOD so much that America would and could not be America without its Government. He loved it so much he said “Taxes are the CHEAPEST RENT I could pay to live in the GREATEST COUNTRY in the world.” He named three sons after presidents—Woodrow Wilson, my dad, uncle Warren Harding, and Herbert Hoover, who was born on election day, 1928. It was a close election and they had to wait three days to name him. If Al Smith would have won he’d have been uncle Al Smith!
8) THE BOTTOME LINE: GOVT is the enabler of this beautiful inter-connected quilt we call America. And GOVT. therefore has AFFIRM. DUTY TO insure affordable, quality H/C for all like in other countries.
9) SO HOW DARE they lie about the Government of the United States of America. NOW the people falling for the lies are good people. But they are misled. And who can fault them—who has time…..
10) So we must engage others with love—LISTEN, acknowledge truth, but CORRECT mis-statements, point to all that govt has done FOR OVER 230 YEARS.
11) BUT----JUST WHY IS THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY SPREADING THE LIES AND PROPAGANDA that government is bad, even worse—EVIL? BECAUSE THEY ARE REAPING BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profits, and HUGE salaries and bonuses in the current system that they PAY for. They are spending $1.4 MILLION per day lobbying Congress, and millions more on the deceitful propaganda in order to keep their profits, profits made at our expense.
12) Worse, they are corrupting our democracy, paying off politicians who act on THEIR behalf instead of OURS. * WHEN WILL THEY ACT FOR US, FOR THE PEOPLE, AND NOT FOR THE BIG MONEY special interests?? ****
13) The KEY TEST of any policy matter is WILL IT BEST BENEFIT THE LONG TERM GREATER PUBLIC INTEREST?? But too often politicians do what benefits them or the hand that is feeding them, keeps them in power and then when they leave a lot go to that industry for big bucks.
14) So, HERE IS WHAT TO DO! Call your congressperson and Senator. Write letters to the editors. Find people you TRUST will put the PEOPLE FIRST, make candidates COMMIT TO SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE and to following the KEY TEST—what will best benefit the LONG TERM greater public int.
15) Personally, I have no ulterior motive except that which best promotes our long term greater welfare. I have from the time of my youth, been trained by uncles and parents that noble political service means doing what is right for THE PEOPLE. I have long been interested in public policy and always strove to promote that which is best for the LONG TERM GREATER GOOD. I study the truth, the facts, what works elsewhere, what is just, moral and effective and that is why I am so passionate about SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE. IT IS NOT ONLY GOING TO BEST BENEFIT US IN THE LONG TERM, but it will help us RIGHT NOW! PEOPLE NEED IT NOW, BUSINESSES NEED IT NOW, AMERICA NEEDS IT NOW!
CONCLUSION
The true test for any nation, especially one that claims so righteously to be “under God” is how it treats its poorest citizens, those meet disaster, AND how they treat their elderly—can they have an old age in which they will find security and care.
To our great credit we went a long ways for the elderly with Medicare. And now it is time for us to complete that equation.
SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE is ECONOMICAL, IT IS MORAL, IT IS CONSTITUTIONAL it is doable and it is TIME!
YOU + ME = WE and WE can do it!
THANK YOU!
Richard Frank Dawahare 8/29/09
