Get Ready to Rally May 30

The health care reform package promoted by the Obama White House, Big Pharma, the insurance industry and SEIU has put the public on notice. If we want health care as a universal service, that is, a right not a privilege, we must demand it every way we can.

May 30 is a national day of protest to demand a national single-payer health insurance system. Rallies supporting the Conyers 'Medicare for All' bill, HR 676, are scheduled across the country.

Even the advocates of the middle-ground position, 'public option,' which keeps private insurance in place but offers a publicly funded alternative choice, are getting ready to charge. Here's Josh Holland writing for AlterNet:

With much fanfare, Big Health trotted out a six-month old "promise" -- a toothless, non-binding pledge lacking any specifics -- to make various nips and tucks that would slow the rate at which health costs grow to "only" 4.7 percent annually. It was hailed by the Obama administration and many observers as a breakthrough in the battle for reform.

Until recently, the health care industry has been dead-set on preserving a disastrous but profitable status quo ... Fearful of a growing movement towards real, substantive reform, it's trying to co-opt the process under the guise of "getting a seat at the table." That they've given up, for now, their oppositional stance is what has so many tongues wagging about the significance of the proposal. ...

But while health lobbyists are trying to maintain the industry's grip on trillions of dollars of business, Health Care for America Now, a broad coalition of groups including ACORN, the AFL-CIO, Campaign for America's Future and MoveOn.org, is fighting for the inclusion of a public-insurance option that would add to the current mix of employer-based insurance and government programs for the needy -- one of the centerpieces of Obama's health care proposals during the campaign. ...This week, the group launched a series of ads targeting wishy-washy Dems by name.

Which helps to expose who is owned by private insurance. Holland goes on:

The creation of a public health insurance option is what the insurance industry fears most. The idea is to allow businesses and individuals to continue purchasing coverage from private insurance companies if they desire, while also establishing a public insurance program modeled on Medicare as an alternative. The government would subsidize the premiums paid by low-income families, but anyone could buy in. ...

Actually, what they fear most is single payer, which takes profit out of health care delivery. Holland thinks single payer is out of reach:

The idea of creating a choice of a public-insurance plan is a bit of political jujitsu intended to get the U.S. to something approaching a single-payer system incrementally and without taking on the powerful insurance lobby head-on (Over the past 10 years, the insurance industry has ranked second in dollars spent lobbying Congress and the White House. The top spot is held by the pharmaceutical-and-health-products industry. Big insurance is one of the most influential lobbies in Washington, and it has trillions of dollars at stake in the health care battle.)

He concludes:

[With] significant pressure on members of Congress and the Obama administration to challenge the status quo, we might just be able to avert a looming public policy disaster.

The problem is the disaster isn't looming--it's here, and has been for some time. As a half-way challenge to corporate power, HCAN is offering public-option to health activists as a means to opening the way to single payer. But if it comes through, but doesn't--or can't--succeed, the same question is on the table: Is health care a human right or a privilege, fast becoming a luxury? ey