Market-based health reform will be a bonanza for insurance industry

As if to justify the recent vitriolic castigation of insurance companies, this L.A. Times article chronicles how the insurance companies stand to reap huge windfalls from “health reform.” These anticipated windfalls would be achieved at a direct cost to those that insurers are supposed to insure. For example, a new move in the Senate Finance Committee would require insurers to cover only 65% of an insured’s costs in order to qualify for the Exchange, even though the current inadequate norm is over 80%. Such windfalls were articulated (here and here) by the NESRI/NHeLP Human Right to Health program as an eminently predictable outcome of any market-based health reform effort, but the corporate socialism catalogued below goes well beyond what is inherent in any such approach. In short, the insurance companies are getting their money’s worth for the millions and millions of dollars they are spending every week to influence this process. The only potential fly in their ointment, of course, would be a public plan offering better value than their plans (a low standard, that), so they are now fully engaged in trying to kill even that pale imitation of a functional single payer system. The more things change . . . .

Posted by Steve Hitov, National Health Law Program

How Kennedy’s passing reminds health reformers of human rights imperative

Senator Edward Kennedy’s many inspiring messages include:  

“Let us at long last make the basic right to health care a reality for all.”

And at the Democratic National Convention last summer:

“This is the cause of my life — new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”  

Lessons for policymakers will endure, and, as Robert Creamer argues in the Huffington Post, the most fitting tribute to Kennedy would be if we now stopped “debating the fundamental principle that all of us deserve the same quality health care – no matter how much we earn, or who our parents are, or where we live, or the color of our skin, or how old or sick we may be. That principle is accepted worldwide as a central element of what it means to live in a civilized society. It is a core tenant of what we understand to be universal human rights.”

Read Creamers’ powerful post here, and take action here to demand that the U.S. Senate treats health care as a human right, not a commodity.

Two Online Calls for the Human Right to Health Care

 

Vermonters rally for human right to health care

 

 

With the national health care debate raging through the summer, two new online articles call attention to the need to reframe the fight for real health care reform in human rights terms.

In the August 20th article entitled  ”Reframing the Health Care Debate: Is it too late for human rights?”, Desiree Evans, of Facing South, suggests that our country’s elected officials lag behind widespread grassroots support for economic and social rights like health care.  Evans goes on to say “Human Rights groups like Amnesty International and NESRI say that the current health crisis presents an opportunity for bringing a human rights perspective to domestic health policy — to shift the debate from health care as a commodity to health care as a human right.”  

In the August 19th article “Taking on the Right over Healthcare Reform: Lessons from Vermont,”  Jonathan Kissam, of the Vermont Workers’ Center, suggests that an organizing campaign for health care reform that is rooted in a commitment to the human right to health care will enable health care advocates to build a large and engaged base.  He goes onto to suggest that “placing the voices of people most affected front and center” and ensuring the leadership of those “who have suffered under the current system” will be key to building a real movement for universal health care and a just society.

NESRI mourns Marilyn Clement, human rights advocate

NESRI deeply mourns the loss of Marilyn Clement, a great human rights advocate. Marilyn was an inspiration to all of us, and she set a wonderful example of what it means to work for rights and justice for all. One of her many legacies is the emerging shift in discourse from health care as a commodity to health care as a right. Rights-based health policy changes will follow, eventually, and when that happens, we will remember Marilyn’s pioneering role.

Please visit Healthcare-NOW to read a statement about Marilyn’s life and work. Listen to Marilyn’s speech at a celebration held in her honor on June 7, 2009.

New online action by Amnesty International for a national, Medicare-like public health care plan for all

Amnesty International USA has launched an online action for a national, Medicare-like public health care plan for everyone:

“Real health care reform could help bring the U.S. government closer to fulfilling the human right to health care. Yet Congress continues to treat health care as a market commodity, rather than a public good. Congress must stop pandering to the insurance industry and instead provide a Medicare-like public plan that is accessible to everyone. “

AIUSA asks their members and other activists to email the Senate leadership. Amnesty calls on Congress “to provide a Medicare-like public plan that guarantees access for all, offers comprehensive benefits, and is publicly funded, without using private companies as middlemen.”

According to Amnesty International USA a “human rights assessment demonstrates that when private companies stand between us and our rights, too many people are unable to get the care they need. Publicly financed and administered health care is the strongest vehicle for creating a system that is truly universal, equitable and accountable.” 

You can also email your own representative. Take part in this action to tell your Congressperson that health care is a public good, not a commodity!