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.
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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. ”