Whether you have health insurance or not, in his opening statements to the Healthcare Summit yesterday, President Obama aptly notes “So this is an issue that is affecting everybody. It's affecting not only those without insurance, but it's affecting those with insurance. And when you talk to every single expert and you just talk to ordinary people and you talk to businesses, everybody understands that the problem is not getting better, it's getting worse.”

For those of my peers who are now without jobs and consequently without insurance, or struggling to maintain whatever high-deductible insurance they can without employment income, the worsening affects of the health insurance industry in its current form are all too prevalent in their day to day lives. The U.S. ranks highest in healthcare costs worldwide.
Who gains from healthcare reform
I suppose that would depend on what kind of healthcare reform we are speaking of. If we are speaking of the current healthcare reform as being presented, then the effects of this reform would do little to diminish the profit margins of the large insurance and pharmaceutical companies. I was one of those Americans who tuned in yesterday morning to hear the summit at Blair House live via internet. What I witnessed was a lot of posturing, and talk about a lot of different things: dropping insureds, risk pools, preferred providers, pre-existing conditions, arguments on across the board rate deductions, and more posturing. I did not hear about the quality of health care provided, the decisions of care necessities being returned to physicians, and I specifically did not hear about a single payer public option.

Jonathan Cohn from The New Republic succinctly digested the days talk to three goals: “Making sure everybody has insurance, making sure coverage is good, and making sure that, over time, medical care will cost less. Thursday's discussion revealed the stark differences between the two parties--not just over how to pursue these goals but also over whether they are even worth pursuing.”

It goes without saying that these goals are worth pursuing, doesn’t it? Americans must ask themselves if as part of the fabric of their democracy, they want to include the thread that will make and keep all Americans healthy. We are all invested in our healthcare and the healthcare of our families. For everyone who has ever lost their insurance, for anyone who has ever had their rates arbitrarily increased (as in all California Blue Cross customers just this week) and for anyone who has ever had a condition diagnosed and now feels they are unable to leave their job for fear of losing coverage, these are matters of concern.

Who carries the brunt
In an article in the L.A. Times, Tim Rutten states that the present reform will hurt counties with large illegal immigrants most. Since nearly 30% of Californians are born in another country, it seems that the lack of coverage for illegals would affect California most. At the very least, immigration reform would have to come on the heels of healthcare reform if we were to remain a humane society.

Absence of the single payer option
The option for a single payer public option was notably missing from the discussion. The fact that any reform in our healthcare is being discussed without this option, it would seem, signifies the compromised positions of all of those in Washington who have succumbed to the financial bargaining of the industry lobbyists. 

Educating the public
The power of the industry cannot be underestimated. In June, 2009, Wendell Potter gave testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Potter left his position as Head of Public Relations for CIGNA after witnessing first hand the people of his home state of Tennessee standing in long lines in the rain to receive medical care in animal stalls. "I didn't intend to [speak out], until it became really clear to me that the industry is resorting to the same tactics they've used over the years, and particularly back in the early '90s, when they were leading the effort to kill the Clinton plan. Potter left the industry and has been working to educate the American public on the practices of the healthcare industry ever since. Potter’s testimony states-

“The average family doesn't understand how Wall Street's dictates determine whether they will be offered coverage, whether they can keep it, and how much they'll be charged for it. But, in fact, Wall Street plays a powerful role. The top priority of for-profit companies is to drive up the value of their stock. Stocks fluctuate based on companies' quarterly reports, which are discussed every three months in conference calls with investors and analysts. On these calls, Wall Street investors and analysts look for two key figures: earnings per share and the medical-loss ratio, or medical "benefit ratio," as the industry now terms it. That is the ratio between what the company actually pays out in claims and what it has left over to cover sales, marketing, underwriting and other administrative expenses and, of course, profits.”

Discussion on public health plan
As more and more people started to speak up for the public option, the insurance companies forged efforts to stop it. The power of the insurance companies is formidable and not to be discounted. The filmmaker, Michael Moore, had an entire campaign launched against him because of his expose on the healthcare industry in his film entitled “Sicko.” In Moore’s movie, he interviewed patients who had been dropped by insurance companies due to a diagnosis, or denied service or treatments. He also interviewed patients from other countries who enjoy a single payer public healthcare system. Most, if not all, people in countries who have a national healthcare system, agree that it works and that they like it.

The single payer public option
According to the health care research group Public Citizen, “The term "single-payer" generally means a system in which rather than having private, for-profit insurance companies, the government runs one large non-profit insurance organization. That organization pays all the doctor, drug and hospital bills — it is the "single-payer" of all medical bills. In most single-payer plans, every American would be enrolled and would pay into the fund through taxes.”


We already have this system in place for our senior citizens through Medicare. So while there are lots of fear mongering ads proclaiming that this would be “socialized” medicine, Dr. Sidney Wolf from Public Citizen notes that only the finances would be socialized. In fact, we socialize our police force, we socialize our library systems. Our roads are socialized.  That is, we as taxpayers provide money for these services to exist. The doctor’s practices and hospitals would and do remain private.

Disruption
President Obama has stated, when asked about a single payer public option, that “we don’t want a huge disruption.” The question is disruption for whom? Certainly not for the millions of Americans that would benefit from such a plan.  Dr. Sidney Wolf of the PNP put it best when he said "what we need is a culture of courage, as opposed to a culture of cowardice."

According to James Capretta with Real Clear Politics, “The only way to slow rising costs without lowering the quality of care provided is to improve the efficiency of the interactions between doctors and hospitals and those they care for. The question before policymakers is what is most likely to lead to better care at less cost.” If this is truly the question, then we must put and keep the single payer public option on the table.  Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  The single payer public option is the only truly different approach to our healthcare system.

Silencing on the forefront
Recently, Dr. Margaret Flowers, currently the Congressional Fellow of Physicians for a National Health Plan, was arrested trying to get a letter to the president which outlined the PNP’s recommendations for a single payer public option health plan reform. Their studies reveal that an effective system could be in place in just a year. There are currently 46 million Americans without any insurance whatsoever. There are 14.8 million currently unemployed. The more we are silenced, the less meaning “We the People…” holds. I invite your opinions on this heated issue. examiner