IT’S TIME FOR NATIONAL HEALTH CARE

Alfred Shaiken is a retired chief financial officer and the current vice-president of Connecticut Call To Action - Health Care For All. alneshaiken@snet.net.

I am a community advocate for national health care, everybody in, nobody out. I never cease to be amazed at the burden placed upon seniors, low-income people and working people that has resulted in these segments of the population losing faith in the ability of those in charge to respond to their problems, further resulting in the lowest voter turnout of any major country in the world.

Meanwhile, the rich and multi-national corporations are pouring billions of dollars into the political process, and into both major political parties. Believe it or not, the campaign contributions yield the greatest rate of return of any investment in the land. The obvious result is that many candidates who are elected end up being more concerned about pleasing their wealthy benefactors than representing the needs of working people, children, the elderly and the poor.

It is no accident that while pharmaceutical companies donate huge sums of money to the political process, American citizens pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Those same companies and their political donations ensure that the United States remains the only industrialized nation that does not have a national program providing health care for all.

As written by Hans Reimer: "We live in a society where workers between the ages of 19-29 are twice as likely to have no health insurance coverage as either children or older adults. If our economy by itself is unable to increase the availability of health coverage in the entry-level job market, then young workers will either have to go without needed care or the government will have to change public policy."

Whether through strong incentives or a pure mandate to provide benefits, 12 million young workers NEED their government to take aggressive steps in order to restore health insurance to the low-wage job market. Every person should be able to lead a productive life and should be given that chance. It's not a matter of charity. It should be a matter of obligation and conscience.

We live in a society without a national health care system, in which a person who loses a leg to diabetes can get an amputation, but not the insulin to manage the disease before needing the amputation; in which a child goes deaf simply because that child has the misfortune to lack clear immigration status and has no health care; in which a person screaming with pain from metastasized cancer gets pain medication from the ER but nothing more. Every case mentioned is obscene.

Our leaders are not listening. They are quibbling over a Patients' Bill of Rights that will have virtually no impact on our health care system. Worse, this legislation will be passed off as adequate health care reform. To break this barrier, our leaders need to hear resounding voices echoing throughout the land, demanding health care and social justice for all!

It is time to demand price controls be placed on the pharmaceutical companies. If this were done, seniors would not have to choose between paying rent, buying food, or filling their prescriptions. We have the wealth and resources today to end poverty, and to make health care available for all. What we need, in addition to the resources, is a rock-hard resolve to get the job done. Let's face it - social justice doesn't come easily. Power concedes nothing without a demand.

It is time to mobilize and organize. It is time to get out from behind the barricades and make our voices and demands heard. Our frustrations and disappointments must be set aside - it is our responsibility to join together and work for a national health plan that provides health care for all, that fits the needs of all: a program that leaves no one behind and results in 100 percent coverage for all.