Minnesota’s politicians have reneged on their repeated pre-election promises for health care reform for the last 60 years.
Quite frankly, we are fed up with this foot-dragging amid all kinds of phony schemes they have concocted in the name of reform which seek to put the burden of health care costs on the backs of the working class instead of where the primary burden belongs--- on those who profit from the labor of working people.
We thought we would help guide Minnesota politicians along in their efforts to achieve health care reform.
Health care is a human right.
Introducing a real solution to the present health care mess created by a profit driven system which places profits before the health care needs of people.
People before profits.
A proposal for real health care reform legislation from the working people of Minnesota.
Introducing the:
Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act
From here on in this Act of the Minnesota Legislature shall be known as the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
The intent of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be to provide Minnesotans with a world-class public health care system.
The sole purpose of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be to keep people healthy and get them well when sick.
The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall provide no-fee/no-premium universal health care for every single person present in Minnesota.
The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall provide prenatal to burial health care which shall include, but not be limited to: eyes, dental, mental and general health care including any prescribed medications and shall include any physician directed physical therapy; home health care and nursing home care shall be included along with any hospitalization and the care associated with any hospital stay.
The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall include public financing of the complete Health Care System.
The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be publicly administered with the only goals and objectives explicitly limited to providing Minnesotans with health care in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
All those employed in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be public employees protected under the terms of one collectively bargained labor-management agreement between the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System and the Union freely chosen by majority vote of the members in accordance with the all labor laws and protections.
All and any discrimination in employment and in receiving health care under the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be prohibited--- including, but not limited to, discrimination based on: race, sex, age, class, religious and political beliefs.
All health care professionals, from administrators and staff to doctors and nurses employed in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall receive free education and training with any required subsidies through university and for any required periodic training associated with their employment and delivery of health care.
No restrictions shall be placed on any private health care providers who shall be free to compete with the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
Anyone is free to avail themselves of private health care for which they shall be liable for all payments except when required health care may not be available through the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be paid for thusly:
A payroll tax on all workers which shall not exceed more than four-percent of income. Any worker making less than what the United States Department of Labor and its Bureau of Labor Statistics determines to be a real living income based upon cost of living factors shall be assessed one-percent of income and during periods of unemployment and/or income below the requirement no tax shall be collected.
Employers will be assessed a flat fee based upon the number of employees. One to ten employees: $600.00 per month. Eleven to thirty employees $650.00 per month. Thirty-one to eighty employees $750.00 per month. Eighty-one to two-hundred employees $800.00 per month. Over 201 employees, employers shall be required to pay $900.00 per month. These figures shall be base tax-rates subject to yearly adjustments to be determined by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
If additional revenue is required to finance the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System; this revenue shall be raised by specially designated increases in the taconite tax and stumpage fees from the mining and forestry industries respectively.
No funds collected for the purpose of funding the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be used for any other purpose.
All funds presently designated for any other health care programs, whether local, state or federal shall herein after be designated for the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
All present local, state and federal health care programs operating in Minnesota shall be phased-into and merged into the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.
Any and all health care education provided by public institutions shall be administered with the objective and goal of providing the required support for the success of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System with any duplication between colleges and universities to cease when it is possible to combine these educational services with the goal being to cut costs while providing the best possible training to maintain world class standards of health care for all Minnesotans.
Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be appointed by a specially created Committee of Minnesota Legislators with the inclusion of one representative of the public, one representative from organized labor, one representative from the union representing employees of the Health Care System and one representative from business.
In order to initially secure the required staff for the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System all public university and college administrators together with all Administrators of any and all government programs in Minnesota shall have their pay and/or salaries cut by thirty percent to subsidize the training and education of the professional staff from doctors to nurses as required. This pay-cut shall remain in effect until the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is fully staffed and therein after the responsibility of free education in the health care field shall be the responsibility of the State of Minnesota.
ALL children and their families in Minnesota shall be informed that a free education through university/college will be provide to any student meeting minimum required grade standards established by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System provided they agree to work in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System for salaries not to exceed base pay of $65,000.00 a year for no less than 12 years; this salary shall include, but not be limited to, doctors and all Administrators. A special effort shall be made to recruit students from Indian Reservations and working class communities in rural and urban areas based upon the assumption that these students will be the most caring for those in the communities they come from. The pay schedule shall be modified on a yearly basis in consideration of cost-of-living factors as scientifically calculated by the United States Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The responsibility for placing the required number of employees and personnel in local communities shall be determined by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System based solely upon the health care requirements of the Community with providing Minnesotans with a world class health care System always in mind.
Public education centering on keeping people healthy shall be a primary responsibility of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System for two reasons:
Healthy people are a far less burden on the health care system;
To be healthy is a human right.
The Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be empowered to order employers (public and private) to remedy any and all problems related to human health. The cost and expense of correcting any and all problems shall be the responsibility of the Employer. All workers, without fear of recrimination, shall be educated and encouraged to report all health related concerns in their place of employment and in the communities where they reside.
Whenever possible, people will be allowed to have their choice of doctors; however, the primary goal of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide everyone with quality health care through fully trained and caring health care professionals.
The intent of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide all Minnesotans a universal health care system where health care is once and for all placed over and above the profit system. The sole objective of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide people with health care; not the health care industry with profits.
Roger Jourdain was the long-time serving Chairman of the Red Lake Nation who pioneered bringing health care to a community of Native American people who previous to his advocacy of health care as a human right had no access to heath care.
Rudy Perpich was the Governor of Minnesota who proposed increasing the taconite tax to provide better government for people, which included adequate health care.
Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson were the socialist governors of Minnesota who were among the first to advocate for a comprehensive, all-inclusive public health care system.
The Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act provides the only practical and pragmatic health care alternative to private, for-profit health care.
The time has come for Minnesotans to boldly move forward in the area of health care reform based upon progressive Minnesota traditions.
Minnesotans have soundly rejected the for profit health care system, and at every opportunity Minnesotans have articulated their desire for what is embodied in the Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act.
The time has come for the democratic will of the majority of Minnesotans to prevail when it comes to health care reform.
Consideration for similar national health care reform should be brought forward as part of the country-wide discussions now underway.
We propose that a national health care act be brought forward based upon the Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act.
We further propose that this national health care act become known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt – Frances Perkins National Health Care Act; so named in the memory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, who courageously stood up to the American Medical Association and the wealthy few in defense of a public health care program serving the health care needs of the American people to be included as part of the “New Deal.”
Any country spending trillions of dollars on wars and death and destruction can meet the health care needs of its citizens--- it really is as simple as this.
Initiated and Proposed by:
Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Red Lake Casino, Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee
Grand Casino Workers for Justice
Mystic Lake Casino Workers Organizing Committee
100 Concerned Members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party
Thief River Falls Political Action Committee
Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA