By Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Today we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare. Events are happening across the nation to mark this significant occasion, and yesterday I and about 10 other single-payer health reform advocates walked the halls of Congress and distributed literature to underscore its importance.
Medicare is a true American legacy which has brought health security to many of the most vulnerable members of our society. Because of Medicare, fewer senior citizens are living in poverty. Because of Medicare, health disparities which are growing in younger populations begin to decline after the age of 65. Medicare serves as a model of a universal (for those 65 and older) health system which operates with significantly lower administrative costs as compared to commercial health insurance so that a greater proportion of Medicare dollars pay for direct patient care.
During the recent health reform process, it was puzzling to health advocates to hear members of Congress and the president say that we must keep what works and fix what doesn’t and then see them keep what doesn’t work – commercial insurance. It was puzzling to hear legislators say that we needed to keep the American legacy of employer-sponsored health insurance while they ignored the true American legacy of Medicare.
We took every opportunity to let legislators know that the most effective solution to our health care crisis is to improve and expand a Medicare-like health system to everybody. To the detriment of the people in this nation, while the single-payer movement did grow, our arguments were largely ignored by Congress. The result was increased privatization of health care with its inherent inequities and soaring costs.
Now that a health bill has passed, we face a new challenge altogether. Instead of pushing to expand Medicare, we will have to struggle just to keep our current Medicare, and other social insurances, from being further weakened and privatized. This is a struggle that must not be ignored. We cannot cede any more ground to those who profit at the expense of our human lives.
The president appointed a new commission in April of this year, close on the heels of the passage of the health bill. Known as the National Commission for Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, this group of 18 is packed with and sponsored by those who will gladly use this opportunity to gut our feeble social safety nets. The same marketing tools used so successfully in the health reform process are being employed again: scripted public events used to create the illusion of popular support, public hearings designed to give the appearance of public input and co-optation of progressive institutions in support of neoliberal policies.
The single-payer movement has once again, come together to stand united to oppose the actions of the deficit commission. Four representatives of organizations who are members of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care (LCGHC) testified at the deficit commission public hearing in June. However, given the extent of influence being wielded by the billionaire Peter G. Peterson Foundation, it is unlikely that our testimony will influence the commission members.
Our greatest strength as a movement is to hold our legislators accountable by urging them to oppose changes that weaken Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. To that end, members of the LCGHC spent July 29 walking the halls of Congress. We delivered a letter from the LCGHC, copies of our testimony to the commission, a pledge for members to sign and information about single payer to each of the 435 members in the House and to most of the senators.
In addition, we met with staff in the offices of the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to present them with nearly 1,000 postcards signed by people from across the nation asking them to oppose cuts to Medicare and instead to create improved Medicare for All. We asked that the caucus make a public statement confirming their commitment to not only oppose such cuts, but to actively work to defeat such recommendations.
The deficit commission is charged with the task of submitting their plan to Congress in early December and Congress has committed to vote on their recommendations. The timing of these events has been arranged to occur after the November elections when there will be a lame duck Congress. Such timing makes the task of holding elected officials accountable more difficult but it remains crucial that we attempt to do so.
The struggle for health justice will go on. We must plan now for the future. For this reason, I urge you to meet with your member of Congress and senators during the August break. They will be campaigning in their home districts. You can find information to use in these visits at www.pnhp.org. Ask your legislators to sign the pledge available at www.healthcare-now.org. Publicize the results. And let your legislators know that you will be watching. If they pledge to oppose cuts before the election and then turn around and vote for cuts, no matter what excuse they give, then you must pledge to withhold your vote for them in the 2012 election.
This is the power that we the people possess: the power of the vote. And having the courage to use this power, this tool, at this point in time will bend the arc of justice to the needs of the people of this country.
So, on this day of celebration, Medicare’s 45th, please pledge to yourself to be a defender of our much needed social insurance programs. Step up and join with us to preserve and protect Medicare, a true American legacy.
Margaret Flowers, M.D., is congressional fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org).