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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2007)
May 16. 2007 Page A4 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f The Portland Observer O pinion System Squeezes the Most Vulnerable Charging more for hospital care by J i ik ; e G reg M athis M ore than 40 million A m ericans do not have h ealth insurance. They simply ca n 't afford it. So it m akes no sense that when uninsured individuals re ceive hospital care, they are charged more than those who do have insurance. W hy are the uninsured being overcharged? Insurance com panies negotiate rates for their custom ers; if you d o n 't have insurance, you lose out on that benefit. This is just another e x a m p le o f how big b u sin ess sq u e e z e s th e m ost v u ln e ra b le am ong us. A nd it's yet another sign that points to the growing need for universal healthcare in this country. A recently released study shows that, in m any cases, the uninsured are charged more than 2.5 times the rate s that insured patien ts are charged at hospitals. T here has alw ays been a gap between what the in su red and u n insured are charged, but that gap has w idened considerably in the last 10 years. W hy d o h o s p ita ls c h a r g e people with exactly the same injury d if f e r e n t a m o u n ts , b a s e d on w hether or not they have insur ance? If the injury is the same, if the treatm ent received is the same, shouldn’t the cost be the sam e? H ospitals o v erch arg e the uninsured to com pensate for the m illions o f dollars they lose each year in unpaid medi cal bills. As a result, a person w ho is on shaky financial ground may receive a bill that is nearly three tim es higher than som eone who is insured. T o make m atters worse, this individual could be subject to aggressive debt collectors; hospi tals have stepped up their co llec tions process in recent years. H os pitals and law m akers have been heavily criticized for this practice, and rightly so. D espite the scrutiny, no plan has been developed to level m edi cal costs for the uninsured. A llow ing hospitals to squeeze the uninsured with m arked-up rates is wrong, plain and simple. This practice must end, im m ediately. A universal healthcare program could solve this problem - for all o f those involved. Universal healthcare will ensure that those in need o f medical care can receive it, w ithout having to worry about how th ey ’ll pay the bill. It will also guarantee that healthcare providers will be paid for their services. T he current healthcare system does not work forevery American. It m ust be fixed. Law m akers must turn their attention to universal healthcare and explore how they can make this a reality and not ju st a cam paign concept. Perhaps this new D em ocratic C o n g ress can m ove this issue forward. O r maybe the crop o f presidential hopefuls will breathe new life in this ongoing discu ssio n . Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president o f Rainbow PUSH and a national board member o f the Southern Christian Leader ship Conference. The current healthcare system does not work for every American. It must he fixed. 11,1 fLlnrtlaitb Established 1970 USPS 959-680 ___________________________________ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 E ditor -I n -C hief , P i rusher : Charles H. W ashington E ditor : M ic h a e l L e ig h to n Ptim.ii R elations : M a rk W a sh in g to n C reative D irector : P a u l N e u fe ld t O ffice M anager : K a th y L in d e r R eporter : Sarah Blount R eporter : Nicole Rona! Hooper The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. A ll created design display ads become the sole properly o f the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent o f the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition o f such ad. 0 1996 TH E P O R T LA N D OBSERVER A L L RIG HTS RESERVED. RE PRO DUCTIO N IN W H O LE OR IN PART W IT H O U T P ER M ISSIO N IS P R O H IB IT E D The Portland Observer -O regon's Oldest M u lticu ltural Publication--is a member of the National Newspaper Association- Founded in 1885. and I'he National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York. N Y , and The West Coast Black Publishers A sm relation P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer, P 0B o x3 1 3 7 , Portland, 0 R 9 7 2 0 8 C A LL 5 0 3 -2 8 8 -0 0 3 3 F A X 5 0 3 -2 8 8 -0 0 1 5 news@ portlandobsener.com mists poriltindobs e n e r, com subscription@Dortlandobsener.com An Antiwar Message that Resonates Dr. King’s 1967 speech parallels today’s war by E ric S toner Forty years ago last month, on April 4, 1967, Dr. M artin Luther King Jr. rose to the pulpit o f New York's Riverside Church to deliver his first public- anti war speech regarding Vietnam. As an ticipated, critics railed against him roundly at the time, not only those from the m ainstream media, but also from allies such as the N A ACP. Now, how ever, his tory has vindicated the truths that Dr. King so bravely spoke that day, and his testim ony is widely seen as a prophetic masterpiece. W hile still m esm erizing, the ad dress can also be disconcerting. By sim ply sw apping the word "Iraq" for "Vietnam," and "terrorism " for "com m unism ,” Dr. King’s speech literally could be given to day. Before describing how the United States betrayed the Vietnamese, first by sup porting "the French in their abor- tive effort to re-colonize Vietnam," then by propping up the "vicious" dictator Diem, and finally by nearly w iping the country o ff the map through its extensive bom bing and u seo f napalm. Dr. King said: "They must see A m ericans as strange lib N O W D E L IV E R IN G Y o u r fa v o r ite n e ig h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s to r e n o w d e liv e r s g r o c e r ie s r ig h t to y o u r h o m e o r o ffic e . k t w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a r k e t.c o m you click, we deliver, (or pull up for pick up) erators." In Iraq, parallels abound. The United States supported Saddam Hussein as he m assacred his own people during the 1980s, obliter ated the country during the first G u lf W ar, im posed deadly sanc tions for nearly 13 years, and fi nally invaded and occupied it in 2003. offensive action in behalf o f ju s tice. We must with positive action seek to rem ove those conditions o f poverty, insecurity, and injustice, w hich are the fertile soil in which the seed o f com m unism grow s and develop The sam e undoubtedly can be said for terrorism , w hich cannot be defeated by violence. By simply swapping the word "Iraq" fo r "Vietnam," and "terrorism" fo r "communism," Dr. King's speech literally could be given today. In place ofnapalm , the U.S. mili tary now uses a more effective chemical to bum Iraqis - white phos phorous. And in our noble effort to bring dem ocracy, w e've also lit tered the co u n try w ith clu ster bom bs and thousands o f tons o f p o is o n o u s d e p le te d u ra n iu m . Strange liberators, indeed. Speaking o f the soldiers. Dr. King said: "W e are adding cyni cism to the process o f death, for they must know after a short period there that none o f the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their governm ent has sent them into a struggle am ong V ietnam ese, and the more sophis ticated surely realize that we are on the side o f the wealthy, and the secure, while w ecreateahell for the poor." G ne can only imagine the cogni tive dissonance o f our soldiers today, know ing that every reason that they originally were given to kill and be killed has been thor oughly debunked. M oreover, the U .S .-led C o a litio n P ro v isio n al Authority's effort to privatize nearly everything in Iraq, and our current advocacy for Iraq's new oil law - w hich if passed by the Iraqi Parlia ment will be highly advantageous to A m erican oil com panies — can leave little doubt whose side we re currently on. Speaking on the bogeym an of his time. Dr. King declared: "W aris not the answer. C om m unism will never be defeated by the use o f atom ic bom bs or nuclear w eap o n s." T he greatest defense against com m unism , he argued, "is to take Even the U.S. intelligence com munity has concluded that our wars have only w orsened the threat o f an o th er attack and fanned the flames o f extremism. Dr. King is perhaps most rel evant today, how ever, when he takes that extra step in his analysis to address the roots o f the conflict. "The w ar in V ietnam is but a sym p tom o f a far deeper m alady within the A m erican spirit," he noted, brought on by "the giant triplets of racism , extrem e m aterialism , and militarism." Calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor o f violence in the world today," Dr. King issued a piercing warning that reaches us across the decades loud and clear: "A nation that continues year after year to spend m ore m oney on mili tary defense than on program s o f social uplift is approaching spiri tual death." As the bloated Pentagon bud get sw ells fu rth er-th is year to over $6(X) bi 11 ion- America becomes more o f a one-trick pony, known the world over not for its kindness and generosity, but rather its brutality and quick trigger. W h ile th a t s p ir itu a l d e a th seem s c lo ser now than ev er, I believe Dr. K ing w ould still hold out the hope that w e co uld live up to o u rselv es. T o do so, we m ust sn ap out o f o u r cu ltu rally in d u c e d c o m a a n d le a d th a t "rev o lu tio n o f values" o f w hich w e are so d esp erately in need. Eric Stoner has written on peace and international affairs fo r sev eral publications, including "The Nation" and the "Peoria Journal Star. ”
