Universal Health Care

Floor Speech

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Thank you, Congresswoman Watson, for organizing this and allowing me to participate tonight. I also want to thank our colleague, Representative Conyers, for his long-time passionate leadership on universal health care. I don't know if he is going to get here tonight, but he certainly has been a steady and consistent voice for health care and health care reform. Thanks to his efforts and that of so many others, I believe we are on the brink of accomplishing this long-awaited goal, and that this time we will be successful in providing affordable, guaranteed health coverage for all Americans.

When I first ran for office in 1990 for the State legislature, I proclaimed that as my goal in public service, that one day to be able to contribute to the victory of allowing all Americans to receive health coverage. I have always felt that this richest nation in the world, that it is a shame and really an embarrassment that Americans, unlike citizens and residents of every other industrialized nation in the world, that we don't make health care accessible to all of our citizens. It is unacceptable and in many ways un-American. It is not in the tradition of our country, which is to take care of each other.

There are lots of people across the country who are ready to make this fight. Another one of the heroes I wanted to highlight tonight is my friend and until recently when he retired from active practice my physician, my personal physician, Dr. Quentin Young of Chicago. Quentin Young was the chairman of medicine at Cook County Hospital. He was the president of the American Public Health Association. He is a founder of Health and Medicine Policy Research Group in Chicago, and a co-founder of the Physicians For a National Health Program. And in each of his roles, expanding access to quality health care has been his top priority. He is one of the most articulate and passionate and consistent long-term spokespeople for single payer health care in our country, for providing affordable, comprehensive and quality health care for all.

And as Dr. Young frequently says, ``We feel universal health care is no longer the best answer, it is the only answer. There was a time when there were alternatives that might have worked, but that day is passed.''

He goes on to say, ``I certainly think it is attainable. It has been attained in certain countries that aren't very different from us. I totally come down on the side of health care being a human right. It is very hard for me to see a coherent let alone a moral or decent argument against it because illness doesn't distribute itself according to the ability to care for yourself and be cared for. It strikes children. It strikes the poor. It strikes the most needy, and the most ill-protected disproportionately. That is the correlation.''

Cardinal Bernardin, also from Chicago, a hero on health care, said it best. He said, ``Health care is so important to human life and dignity that it is the responsibility of society to offer access to decent health care to every person.''

And I was pleased that he didn't say every citizen. He said every person. So the answer is that it should be considered a right guaranteed by society, which means it must be a responsibility of government.

And as we enter this new round of discussions, more and more people and organizations have come to agree with Dr. Young and JOHN CONYERS' conclusions. New coalitions have formed, including small and big businesses, consumer and labor groups, providers and the faith community, and organizations representing people with disabilities and living with chronic diseases. The time has come for action.

In 2002, the Institutes of Medicine estimated that 18,000 people a year died because they were uninsured. They were unable to afford preventive services, screenings that would have provided early warnings, prescription drugs or medical care. Today the Urban Institute estimates that annual death from uninsurance are up to 22,000 people every year. That is 432 people each week, 60 people each and every day who die because the United States of America alone in the industrialized world does not guarantee affordable health care to our people. It is a horrendous statistic.

But it is only a partial description of the catastrophes we face. Our health care system is becoming completely dysfunctional for patients and for those who care for them.

Even being covered by insurance is no guarantee. The Commonwealth Fund has just released a new study that concludes between 2003 and 1997, the number of uninsured Americans grew by 60 percent. There are now 25 million insured people who could face financial catastrophe if they become sick or injured.

Consider this: One in five Americans under the age of 65, many of them insured, live with medical debt. I say under 65 because many people are waiting for that birthday, can't wait to get there because then finally Medicare, a national health insurance for people over 65 and those with disabilities who qualify, do get health care.

Medical bills are the leading cause of about half of all personal bankruptcies. High deductibles and co-pays, limits on payments, denials of needed care, all of these shift burdens to individuals and families who are already struggling. These numbers are staggering, and it's a national shame that while spending 50 percent more than any other country in the world on health care, we fall so dismally short in providing a health care guarantee.

But it's also important to remember that behind each number is a person, our friends, our neighbors, our family, our colleagues, ourselves; people like the Wells family from Illinois, who accumulated over $175,000 in medical expenses while waiting for their employer's 6-month waiting period for coverage to expire.

Or Susan, who can't afford the tests her doctor wants her to have to deal with her high blood pressure; or Constance, who moved back to Illinois to care for a family member and can't find a job that provides affordable benefits.

I want to close by saying that winning the fight for guaranteed health care for all is not just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do. Too many potential entrepreneurs are locked into jobs that provide health care, unable to leave and create new businesses that keep our economy strong and provide new jobs.

Too many businesses that are providing coverage for their workers are competitively disadvantaged because their foreign competitors operate in countries with national health care. They too want us to get it together and adopt universal health care.

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