Fourth Down and Goal on Universal Healthcare: Will Tim Walz Catch the Single Payer Universal Healthcare Pass Thrown by President Barack Obama? Or will Harris/Walz Fumble the Future...Again?
Day Four analysis of Economic and Healthcare Policy from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
In today’s New York Times, Carlos Lozada scrutinizes revisionist history and flip-flopping by United States candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris has flip-flopped on her support of Universal Healthcare. She publicly endorsed National Improved Medicare for All in 2023, then did a U-turn to appease campaign-finance donors, and instead committed to continuing to support the United States Commercial Health Insurance industry and their Denial of Care business model.
In his OpEd, Lozada writes: “Crime is a nonpartisan issue,” Harris affirms in the 2009 book. “Democrats, Republicans and Independents all suffer from crime. And they all want to be safe.” Her views on law enforcement are not liberal or conservative because, when it comes to safety, “ideology doesn’t matter.”
Analogously, this is how the Healthcare Policy edit would read:
“Lifelong healthcare maintenance and access to medical care without barriers, denial or bias is a nonpartisan issue. Democrats, Republicans and Independents all suffer from Denial of Care; delayed care and unaffordable care. And they all want to be healthy and leveraged economically.” Her views on healthcare are not liberal or conservative because, when it comes to Public Health & Safety, “ideology doesn’t matter.”
But when it comes to heatlhcare in the United States, many Americans, industries and lobbyists believe access to medical care should not be available for all citizens and residents.
(Then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama speaking in Chicago about the need to enact H.R. 676 in 2003. H.R. 676 was the first National Improved Medicare for All bill in the United States. It was sponsored by Congressman John Conyers, the late former United States Represenative who died on October 27, 2019. The bill was called The Expanded & Improved Medicare for All Act. Today’s updated iteration of that bill is S. 1655, The Medicare for All Act.)
I was in this room in 2003. It was one of many Universal Healthcare events former President Obama was part of back then.
I had been bankrupted by Denial of Care, while working, while “insured,” for medical care and resulting health needs related to a cycling hit-and-run injury I suffered in 1996.
I walked into Dr. Young’s office at the national office of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) in Chicago and said, without being introduced formally, “I have skills. What can I do?”
That year, I flew to Washington, D.C. with Dr. Young as his Media Relations Manager to meet a cohort of physicians to present H.R. 676, the first Single Payer National Health Program / National Improved Medicare for All bill in U.S. history. (Full disclosure, Dr. Young became my Primary Care Physician.)
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (also patient of Dr. Young’s) saw the need for Single Payer reform. He visited our office with his then campaign manager and team to endorse Single Payer publicly. He trusted our data, our papers, our research, our studies and our premise.
The thing about luminaries, visionaries and exceptional activists is they see where the trajectory of policy is going. They see the future of harmful policies before that harm actualizes. Everything he / we predicted about the Commercial Health Insurance industry and corporate healthcare—all the Harm-for-Profit—actualized.
Over the last 25 years of Managed Care, the haste (Denial of Care with PxDx and nH Predict Ai and algorithms); the greed (commercial health insurance companies now operate like investment banking firms and private equity groups); and the speed (the Commercial Health Insurance industry moving to vertically integrate with hospitals, pharmacies and clinics in an effort to own medical records and data) have all accelerated.
By March of 2020, when the SARS-2-Covid virus roared into United States Emergency Rooms, Long Term Care Facilities and Intensive Care Units, other nations watched on, awe-struck by the horror and number of deaths: Why are so many people dying so quickly in the United States? The wealthiest nation in the history of the world, and still? The “Best Healthcare System in The World” and yet?
They, along with ethical medical professionals and informed citizens could not comprehend why restricted care and Denial of Care were still legal.
Because Americans frequently delay and forego healthcare altogether because they fear the costs, comorbidiites and chronic illness plague the country’s population. Peventive care is nearly impossible to access and lifelong healthcare maintenance without gaps in care is entirely elusive for persons who cannot pay out-of-pocket for concierge care or favors. (“I know a guy, I’ll make a call for you.”
Americans also have no choice in who they see for Physical Therapy, Primary Care, Mental Healthcare, Maternal Care, Specialist Care or other services as the Commercial Health Insurance inudustry dicates who, when and for how long they can see the physicians operating in Commercial Health Insurance networks. And now that Commercial Health Insurance dominates publicly-financed programs like Medicaid and Medicare, Public Health and Safety have unraveled. The social and economic byproducts of poor Public Health saturate the headlines daily.
Celebrites call on young people to access Mental Healthcare but they can’t afford it. Families are told to place their elders in Long Term Care Facilities but private equity groups have ravaged LTCs and caused deaths through understaffing and budget cuts that impose risk. Employer-sponsored coverage—an antiquated concept born out of World War II remains in tact despite the fact that it stagnates talent development, training, innovation and investment in operations. Americans at the Democratic National Convention encourgage equality, equity and “not going back,” but in the context of Healthcare Policy, we are one of the most regressive nations in the industrialized world. One need not look any further than the waiting lists for Mental Health care at Behavioral Health Departments at hospitals across the United States to underscore how unhealthy a society the United States has become.
Another trend that has escalated since 2003 as part of aggressive vertical integration, monopolies and consodlidation of wealth and power is Commercial Health Insurance companies now employ physicians directly. This monumental conflict of interest contradicts every moral and ethical chord of Do No Harm and Best Practice. Physicians are called upon to care for every patient without bias, barriers, delays or denial. Commercial Health Insurance companies utilize bias, barriers, delays and denial as their business model. (It’s still legal as of this writing.)
At the Democractic Convention, contrary to what many celebrities, politicians and elected officials in the Democratic Party are promoting, Americans patients have no choice, no body sovereignty and no right to healthcare in the United States.
Yesterday evening during his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Tim Walz mentioned “the right to healthcare.” However, healthcare is not a Human Right in the United States. It is not published in state constitutions or the United States Constitution. The quants at these companies ensure ROI for investors by purging, dumping and cutting quarterly to guarantee shareholder returns. In fact, healthcare in the United States is a commodity traded on Wall Street, only instead of investing in widgets, investors who invest in Commercial Health Insurance are profiting from Denial of Care—illness, injury, illness and death. That is how the industry records quarter-over-quarter profits as they bulldoze businesses, the human spirit and bodies into graveyards.
When the Demcratic Party members and voters talk about the ban(s) on Sexual and Reproductive Health medical care, isn’t systemic, intentional Denial of Care by Commercial Health Insurance the same? Board Room Violence at Commercial Health Insurance companies is powerful. The industry’s weapon of choice? Onerous, time-draining, overly complex and confusing administrative bureaucracy. It’s all by design—a slow drip. And who decides and dictates health outcomes in the United States? Private sector Board Rooms.
(Dr. Quentin Young, Founder, the Medical Committe for Human Rights at Cook County Hospital, Chicago. Young was the Chairman of Medicine at Cook County Hospital from 1972-1981.)
Barack Obama was unapologetically for Single Payer reform while an Illinois State Senator. He was well aware he would have to comprise his ideals, ethics, intellect and morals when he ascended to the Oval. The Corporate Healthcare, Commercial Health Insurance and Pharma executives and lobbyists financing his campaign demanded quid pro quo. No Universal Healthcare, they demanded. So, he implemented the ACA as an incremental legislative checkmate.
The Affordable Care Act marketplace is dominated by Commercial Health Insurance companies. It is flawed, messy, clunky, ineffective, not comprehensive and patients are continually overcharged and denied care. It has gaps and Denial of Care persists. Premiums, deductibles…it’s all a hustle for the grifters who have no interest in medicine or true Public Health. But Obama and his closest advisors knew legally that by implementing the incremental ACA step, they’d strategically have the entities and individuals opposed to S.1655 in legal checkmate.
Lozada today reminded us that in an interview with The New Yorker published in 2014, Barack Obama reflected on the powers of the presidency and the slow, incremental pace through which leaders can bring about major change. “At the end of the day,” the president concluded, “we’re part of a long-running story. We just try to get our paragraph right.”
The ACA had many holes in its offense and strategic playbook but it has held the line against the forces of opposition, self interest and greed over the years. President Obama did his job in moving the ball forward incrementally within the law toward Healthcare for All, true equality and true equity. Now that the ACA has held the line, going into 2025, Walz and Harris need to bring S.1655 across the goal line.
With the lives of 350 million United States citizens and residents now on the clock, a smart and strategic fourth down play call is vital: Reject campaign finance donations from the Commercial Health Insurance Harm-for-Profit industry and enact a Single Payer National Health Program / National Improved Medicare for All.
Or, as Harris/Walz call in the play to the huddle from the sidelines, will they instead signal in: “We are going back. Go Back. Go Back. Go Back.”
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