ilîl IJo rtla n h (©bscruer
Page A4
August 24. 2005
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Sour Note 40 Years After Medicare: 45 million have no health coverage
by
H olly S klar
When Medicare and Medicaid were
signed into law on July 30, 1965,
former President
Harry Trum an received the first
Medicare card. He would be shocked
that 40 years later, more than 45 m il
lion Americans have no health cover
age, half o f all personal bankruptcies
are health-related and lack of universal
insurance is increasingly hurting our
economy as well as our health.
Truman had proposed national health
insurance for all Americans in 1945.
He said, “By preventing illness, by
assuring access to needed community
and personal health services...and by
protecting our people against the loss
caused by sickness, we shall strengthen
our national health, our national de
fense and our productivity.”
If Americans without health insur
ance were a nation, the population
would be bigger than Canada - plus
Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire
and Vermont. Canada, like other in
dustrialized nations besides ours, pro
Contrary to myth, the United States
does not have the world's best
health care. It has the costliest.
vides universal health coverage.
Contrary to myth, the United States
does not have the w orld’s Best health
care. It has the costliest.
In the words o f Dr. C hristopher
Murray o f the World Health Organiza
tion, "Basically, you die earlier and
spend more time disabled if you’re an
American rather than a mem ber of
most other advanced countries.”
The U nited States is ju st num ber
29 in the W HO healthy life ex p ect
ancy ranking. We lag C anada by
nearly three years and J apan by nearly
six. The U nited States does w orse
than 36 countries in child m ortality
under age 5 — well behind South
Korea and Singapore.
Lack of health insurance is killing
many more Americans than terrorism.
Uninsured Americans get about half the
medical care of those with insurance.
They receive too little care, too late, get
sicker and die sooner.
For exam ple, uninsured women
with breast cancer have a 30 percent
to 50 percent higher risk o f dying
than insured women. U ninsured car
crash victims receive less care in the
hospital and have a 37 percent higher
m ortality rate than privately insured
patients.
One out of three Americans below
age 65 - 85 million people - lacked
M M M M M H N K M H M M i
private or public health insurance for all
or part of 2003 to 2(X)4. Millions more
are underinsured.
Average family health insurance pre
miums will reach a projected $14,545
in 2006, more than double the 2001
average. Much health spending is squan
dered on the mountainous red tape,
profits and executive pay of private
insurance and drug companies.
The National Coalition on Health Care,
an alliance of about 100 corporations,
pension funds, medical associations,
insurers, unions, consumer and reli
gious organizations, says, “Com pre
hensive health care reform is long over
due. Every year that reform is delayed,
by
J udge G reg M athis
The Democratic Party has
come to expect the black vote to
automatically belong to them and
has done very little to earn that
support. Sure, the obligatory
promises are made during cam
paign season but, more and more,
it is very difficult to get certain
members of the party to use their
political muscle to fight on our
behalf.
The upcom
ing co n firm a
tion hearing of
Supreme Court
nom inee John
G. Roberts is no
exception: the
latest buzz in
Washington has
D e m o c ra ts
backing down
from a m ajor
fight to stop Roberts’ nomina
tion. Because this is not a battle
Democrats can win, many legis
lators feel that a public fight is not
a good use of political resources.
C onsidering R oberts’ past
views on critical issues that af
fect people of color and women,
Democrats must not think in
terms of win or lose and instead
wage this war in the name of the
American people, particularly
Painful Loss at State
Partisanship dooms
attempts to help schools
During his career as a private
attorney, Robert argued against
those that have supported the Title IX, which prohibits sex-
party without question for de based discrimination at educa
tional institutions, criticized fed
cades.
While serving as special assis eral affirmative action programs
tant to the attorney general dur and opposed the Violence Against
ing the Reagan Administration, Women Act.
It is pretty much a given that
Roberts supported the attack on
minority voting rights by work Roberts will secure the minimum
ing to block an amendment that 70 votes needed to override any
would require those complaining strategy that could block his nomi
about biased voting laws to show nation. Nevertheless, Democrats
ing the conservative opposition
to preserve theirs as well. Some
Democrats say fighting a loser’s
battle weakens their chances for
preventing a more conservative,
thus more threatening, nomina
tion in the future. I say a strong
battle waged now will put the
White House on notice that the
Democratic Party stands for the
rights of the people.
In June, the Senate apologized
for failing to outlaw lynching.
From the 1800s to
the 1960s, th o u
san d s o f b lack s
w ere
d rag g ed
through the streets,
b ea te n , to rtu re d
and hung by white
lynch mobs. With
this apology, led by
key members of the
Democratic Party,
-JudgeGregMathis
the Senate took a
sincere step in dem
cannot tuck their tails and let his onstrating that they were, in some
nom ination pass easily. With way, interested in justice. Now
Democrats backing off, conser it’s time for the Senate to show a
vative groups that previously little more backbone and prove
expected to spend millions sup they are willing to fight for ju s
porting Roberts’ nomination can tice now and avoid the need for
now use those funds to support an apology later.
Judge Greg Mathis is chair
campaigns that seek to erode
rights w e’ve fought decades to man o f the Rainbow PUSH-Ex-
obtain.
cel Board and a national board
As the Democrats look to safe member o f the Southern Chris
guard their funds, they are allow tian Leadership Conference.
by
D avid W ynde
B obbie R egan
and
ening restrictions on local com
munities’ ability to
support their own schools.
Partisan politics also doomed
p ro p o sa ls from G ov. T ed
Kulongoski and House Speaker
Karen Minnis that promised at
long last to restore some stabil
ity to school funding in Or
egon.
And finally, the Legislature
scuttled a plan that would have
allo w ed P o rtlan d P u b lic
Schools to continue to collect
$15 million a year in existing
property taxes, at no cost to
any other school district.
Fifteen million dollars would
fund Portland public schools
for a full three weeks or pay for
about 200 additional teachers.
That financial lifeline for our
48,000 students was lost in the
meat grinder of the final days
of the legislative session, vic
tim of political deal making and
deal-breaking by legislators who
will nonetheless likely claim in
their next campaign that edu
cation is their top priority.
The Oregon Legislature ad
journed without having acted
on significant measures to help
our Oregon schools. Partisan
ship took priority over policy
and our school children are the
losers.
The Legislature passed a
$5.24 budget for K-12 schools
for the next two years - that
falls far short of the level needed
to maintain current service lev
els. In Portland Public Schools,
that hit alone costs us the equiva
lent of 100 teachers. Further
more, this level of funding does
not begin to address the short
fall caused for M ultnom ah
County school districts when
the local income tax goes away
in 2006-07.
Despite a number of prom
ises and proposals, the Gover
nor and Legislature made al
most no progress on several
issues that could make a differ
ence to school districts across
the state, such as controlling
costs for health care and retire
David Wynde and Bobbie
ment, looking at more creative Regan are co-chairs o f the
funding mechanisms or loos Portland School Board.
A strong battle waged now
will put the White House on
notice that the Democratic
Party stands fo r the rights o f
the people.
that a law only had a discrimina
tory effect as opposed to proving
it was intentional. Even the late
Sen. Strom Thurmond, a well-
known segregationist, disagreed
with Roberts and voted for the
amendment. As Deputy Solicitor
General, Roberts penned a brief
that argued Roe v. Wade, the
decision that overturned all laws
that restricted or banned abor
tions, was “wrongly decided.”
Holly Sklar is co-author o f “Raise
the Floor: Wages and Policies That
Work fo r All O f Us."
■MM
Democrats Must Fight for Justice
Oppose Supreme Court nominee
tens of millions of Americans live in
peril, without health insurance; millions
are harmed, and hundreds of thousands
die needlessly, because of sub-stan
dard care.”
The coalition calls for “health care
coverage for all.” It offers four dif
ferent scenarios for universal cover
age: em ployer and individual m an
dates and subsidies; expanding M edi
care and other public health insur
ance; creating a new public program
m odeled on the Federal Em ployee
Health Benefits Plan; andestablishing
a universal single payer, publicly fi
nanced program.
The first three scenarios would net
$320 billion to $370 billion in savings
over the first 10 years; the fourth sce
nario would save $1.1 trillion. Like
untreated cancer, the health care crisis
is spreading throughout our families
and economy. It’s time for health care
for all.
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