Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ithaca Community Members Rally for Single Payer Health Care

In light of Obama’s plan for single-payer health insurance reduced bypolitical differences in Washington, about forty Ithaca communitymembers gathered on the Commons last Thursday afternoon in a rally forsingle-payer health care featuring Terry O’Neill, president of theNational Organization for Women. She said in reference tosingle-payer, “Well, I say it should happen and it needs to happensoon. We need a robust and full public option.”Single payer health care is named as such because doctors andhospitals are paid by one entity, usually the government. It is verysimilar to universal health care, which has been implemented by nearlyall industrialized countries and some of the developing world indegrees ranging from a nationalized health system (as in the UnitedKingdom) to decentralized health care (as in France).O’Neill also stated that an improved insurance system was necessaryfor women because “women are two to three times more likely to die inchildbirth without prenatal care” and “in eight states and theDistrict of Columbia, insurance companies can say that domesticviolence is a pre-existing condition. Also, “the reason women shouldhave single-payer is because insurance is predominantly throughemployment. Women predominate in part time employment” as well asminimum wage and non-union jobs, which O’Neill said are the leastlikely to have comprehensive health insurance.O’Neill’s appearance at the rally was part of a short tour of upstateNew York, including stops in Syracuse, Ithaca, and Buffalo. AllendraLetsome, vice president of membership for NOW, continued on toRochester. Although construction near That Burrito Place churned behind them,speakers stood on the concrete benches at the edge of the BernieMilton Pavilion and addressed the standing audience through amicrophone. The mayor of Ithaca, Carolyn Peterson, said that sevenmillion dollars out of Ithaca’s fifty million dollar budget for nextyear would go towards health care. Peterson is a member of the U.S.Conference of Mayors, which passed a resolution in June 2008supporting single payer healthcare.The New York State president of NOW, Marcia Pappas, and TompkinsCounty chapter head Lori Gardner also briefly addressed the crowd.Local NOW member Beverly Livesay, longtime Ithaca resident and inattendance at the rally, said “I think it’s one of the crucial issuesof our time—we’re killing young people, we’re killing our elderlybecause of a lack of insurance.”According to 2004 Institute of Medicine findings, “The clinicalliterature overwhelmingly shows that uninsured people, children aswell as adults, suffer worse health and die sooner than those withinsurance.” The IOM also stated in a 2009 report that “Individualswithout employer-sponsored health insurance who are not eligible forpublic insurance must rely on a limited nongroup health insurancemarket to obtain coverage. The premium costs for nongroup coverage canbe exceedingly high and individual subscribers must pay the entirecost without a contribution from an employer.”Bethany Schroeder MFA ’85, president of the Ithaca Health Alliance’sBoard of Directors, is working to provide health care for those whocannot pay those high costs. The Ithaca Health Alliance providesgrants to those who cannot afford health care bills and runs a freeclinic on South Fulton Street. She said that in Ithaca health careresources are “necessary because we have a great many people who arewell educated but underemployed and they just don’t have the resourcesto pay for insurance.” Schroeder estimated that “seventy percent ofthe people that come to visit us come to get primary care from aphysician” and said that “they don’t have insurance and this is theonly way they can get the care.” The free clinic also providesholistic and integrative care, which approximately thirty percent ofvisitors utilize, according to Schroeder.A popular bill in Congress for advocates of single payer is H.R. 676.Ithaca’s local representative to Congress, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)of the 22nd district, cosponsored H.R. 676, also known as the UnitedStates National Health Care Act or the Expanded and Improved Medicarefor All Act, with eighty-six other members of Congress. The bill, ifpassed, would provide free medically necessary care to all individualsresiding in the U.S. or U.S. territories, including primary care andmedicine. It would also prohibit any for-profit institutions fromparticipating.Allendra Letsome, membership vice president for NOW, had advice tooffer to Cornell students. She remarked in a telephone interview that“the minute you leave the wonderful bubble of campus, your health carebecomes your own responsibility. When you make fifteen dollars perhour without health care coverage, your health care costs are going tobecome very relevant to you and you’d wish you’d said something.”
Emily Coon

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