Honoring Dr. King in Louisville by demanding health care for all
An interview with Dr. Garrett Adams
By Andrew D. Coates, MD
To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, January 15, Dr. Garrett Adams, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, invited Dr. Claudia Fegan to speak in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Fegan is a prominent figure in Chicago’s medical community and a nationally recognized authority on single-payer health care systems. She currently serves as associate chief medical officer for the Ambulatory and Community Health Network for the Cook County Health and Hospital System, and is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
Dr. Fegan spoke at the Louisville Urban League at a Jan. 15 meeting to honor and celebrate Dr. King’s life and work. The text of her remarks, “‘The time is always right to do what’s right’: Dr. King and health reform,” has been posted at the Network of Spiritual Progressives.
During her visit to the city, Dr. Fegan also met with students and faculty at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and with local physicians and medical students.
Dr. Adams, a specialist in infectious diseases of children, is the new president of PNHP. He has retired from full-time teaching at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. His previous duties included serving as medical director of communicable diseases at the Louisville Metro Health Department. He recently established a not-for-profit volunteer clinic on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee (www.beershebaclinic.org).
Thank you, Dr. Adams, for taking time to speak with us. To begin, would you please share with us some thoughts about how your recent efforts in Louisville connect with the overall effort for a national health program, and why you invited Dr. Fegan to speak?
One of the reasons that I was invited to be the new president of the Physicians for a National Health Program is because I am from Kentucky, a southern state. PNHP has recognized the contradiction that in the very areas of the United States where some of the worst health outcomes exist – areas that particularly would benefit from national health insurance – we have the lowest number of members. I have taken it upon myself to make an effort to expand the knowledge and understanding of the value of single-payer health reform in the South. I want especially to bring this message to African-American and Latino people who disproportionately suffer poor health results from the current system based on private health insurance.
That is why I invited Dr. Claudia Fegan, a highly respected African-American physician and a past president of PNHP, to help us celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Louisville.
So to answer your question, Dr. Fegan’s visit was targeted for Louisville’s African-American community, and it was a great success.
Before we get to the big meeting at the Urban League, please tell us about the discussion at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Dr. Fegan was invited to speak at the Louisville Seminary by a seminary professor. Several faculty members with significant health concerns have had unfortunate personal experiences with private health insurance and are convinced of the moral imperative that health care is a right to which all are entitled. Last year the Presbyterian Church USA made a formal endorsement of publicly funded national health insurance, so the subject is not unfamiliar. Dr. Fegan’s presentation was the first in a new series of health care discussions at the seminary sponsored by two professors, one of whom happens to be African-American.
It was an informal meeting over lunch attended by a racially mixed audience of about 30 students and professors. Dr. Fegan had new slides specially prepared for this audience, and she engaged the audience from start to finish; there were lots of questions and interaction. Many stayed later to talk and to ask her more questions.
When you met with medical students and physicians, did they bring similar concerns to your dialogue?
This meeting was targeted to bring together PNHP-Kentucky members, medical students, and the membership of the Falls City Medical Society, the area’s association of African-American physicians. Once again, Dr. Fegan was right on target with her presentation, including a selected group of fresh slides for this audience. A surgeon member of the Falls City Medical Society described his experience with French medicine and the “carte vitale.” A resident physician, who had driven all the way from eastern Kentucky, and a medical student were especially interested in the discussion. There were several new faces at the meeting. Dr. Fegan’s talk was informative and inspiring, but the opportunity to meet and talk with colleagues from a broader spectrum of our community was a memorable aspect of this meeting.
What do you find doctors and medical students saying about the Affordable Care Act? The national news media refers to it “the health care overhaul” or sometimes “sweeping health care legislation.” Is that their sense of the president’s reform?
I did not meet anyone over this weekend of health reform discussions that thinks that the ACA will resolve America’s health care dilemmas. Most recognize the advantages that are coming from it and appreciate the fact that something has been done, but they know that it’s not enough. The people with whom I met like the prospect of a single-payer national health plan.
How did the meeting at the Urban League come about?
We chose the Louisville Urban League as the venue for our signature remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for several reasons. First, it is located in the section of the city where many African-Americans live; it is a building with which local residents are familiar. It was a logical place to hold an event celebrating the life and work of Dr. King because the Louisville Urban League’s mission is “to assist African-American and disadvantaged persons in the achievement of social and economic equality primarily through education, employment, housing, family development and community development.”
Can you describe the Urban League event for us? Who spoke besides Dr. Fegan?
My feeling about the meeting was that it was exciting and joyous. The participation of community leaders was incredible. There were over 100 attendees. The first welcome was by Mr. Ben Richmond, the president and CEO of the Louisville League.
Mr. Richmond was followed by our own congressman, Rep. John Yarmuth. The congressman, distressed by the horror of the recent shooting of his friend and colleague Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, complimented us by his presence. A friend of the single-payer movement, Mr. Yarmuth struggled with the health reform debate in Washington last year. He told us that many times during the discussions he pointed out to his colleagues that an issue they were debating could be solved by single payer. Congressman Yarmuth stated, “I’m a single payer guy.”
Following Rep. Yarmuth’s remarks, Louisville’s newly elected mayor, Greg Fischer, welcomed the crowd. Mayor Fischer’s motto for the city is, “One City, One Community, One Family.” Mayor Fischer’s inaugural address emphasized the great importance to the city of addressing health problems. So, as he looked out at the crowd of faces of all ages and races at the Urban League, he was looking at his “One Family.” He praised our work for better health care for all. His presence and welcome was not only an acknowledgment of Dr. King’s legacy, but a tribute to those who continue to work for better health for all.
Finally, before Dr. Fegan’s address, Triza Cox led us in singing together the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Would you like to say something about how celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. connects with the struggle for national health insurance?
Dr. King understood 40 years ago that gross inequities in health care existed in America and that they were linked to poverty and racism. The subtitle of Dr. Fegan’s address was “Remembering Dr. King’s cry for justice in health care.” Dr. King said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” On this occasion, in Louisville, Kentucky, we responded to that declaration with a loud affirmative, that we demand justice in health care for all Americans, and we will not relent until it is a reality.
Shortly after Dr. Fegan’s visit to Louisville, the House of Representatives, with a new Republican majority, passed a symbolic bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act. Did the events “inside the beltway” in Washington seem to be on the minds of the people at the Urban League?
Not much. The American people are amazingly prescient. They recognize political grandstanding for what it is. These audiences understand clearly that the recent health law is incomplete, but they appreciate the progress it represents, and they are very supportive of President Obama.
What do you think the significance of the Louisville meetings was for the future of our efforts to win single-payer national health insurance?
We took a giant step forward for single payer in Louisville on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Many discouraged people were informed and inspired by the single-payer message that Dr. Fegan and the members of PNHP-Kentucky and Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare brought.
Do you have any advice for people who might want to try to emulate your work in Louisville and reach out in other places around our country?
Yes. “Reach out” is the right phrase. That is exactly what we need to do. As Dr. Arthur Sutherland of Memphis has said, we need to replace charity with social justice. There is no better way to eliminate inequities in health care than with single-payer national health insurance, an improved Medicare for all.
In December a panel of four PNHP-Kentucky physicians made a presentation in the African-American community. We were multicultural – one white, one black, one Latino and one Indian. An African-American gentleman in the audience said to me, “I didn’t know people like you existed.”
These events were meant to reach African-Americans. It is necessary for those of us who are not African-American or members of minority groups to try to recognize the subtleties of racism in ourselves, so that we can connect and share the single-payer message of “Everybody In, Nobody Out.”
(Andrew D. Coates, MD, is an internist and professor at Albany Medical College (N.Y.) and a member of the national board of PNHP.)