Follow The Money

For almost 10 years, we have been living with an ever-expanding corporate profit model of healthcare. I used to describe these years as a failed experiment, but experiments have findings which should lead to improvement and advancement in the quality of our lives, and this one doesn't. The reality is that our government has consciously decided not to analyze the results and to further degrade the quality of our healthcare, allowing one segment of our society to profit at our expense. This is the case in New York State and across the country.

Behind all the complexity and illogical fragmentation of the healthcare system is money, money, money. It is about money going everywhere but to the healthcare workers who provide the care.

It's about:
• The pharmaceutical industry and out-of-control pricing.
• The health insurance industry and for-profit conversions.
• The hospital supply industry.
• The for-profit dialysis industry.
• For-profit and greedy proprietary nursing home operators.
• Outlandish hospital administrative salaries.
• 30% bureaucratic waste.
• And the list goes on….

There Is A Solution
We all need proper healthcare as children, adults, and senior citizens. We should promote a vision that healthcare can and must be effective, efficient and, most importantly, humane. There is no defense for the present system; therefore no one ever needs to be apologetic about promoting a national health plan.
We can promote one by:
• Freely supporting the Conyers' Bill-the U.S. Health Insurance Act for a National Health Plan.
• Supporting the healthcare principles of the Health Care Access Resolution (House concurrent resolution 99).
• Fighting any privatizations, for-profit conversions, or cuts in Medicaid or Medicare.
• Insisting that prescription Medicare packages must not be gimmicks taking us all in the wrong direction.
• Understanding there is much more than what we are being told regarding the Canadian health system.
• Listening to healthcare workers, public and private sector workers, retirees, those with disabilities, and anyone who has had significant contacts with the workings of the healthcare system.

Please understand that without real campaign finance reform, our elected officials will never speak out and create the necessary balance with the profit model. Administrators of hospitals and health insurance corporations will never advocate for their workers because the status quo pays them big bucks.

Unions are quickly coming to the conclusion that they can no longer protect their members solely through the bargaining process. The movement for honest healthcare reform requires grassroots organizing and activity. Flexible, respectful coalitions will build our success. There is more than enough ground to cover. Let's all be leaders in this movement.

When you choose your project, be analytical: does the project create an infrastructure for an eventual national health plan? And always remember, gimmicks for short-term fixes or for power plays hurt healthcare workers, which hurts us all in the end.

Finally, in any healthcare advocacy, make it your litmus test to follow the money. Make sure that the money gets to the provision of effective, efficient, and humane healthcare.