The American people have a right to have a say in what kind of health care we have in this country... democracy requires no less

Why should we let Trump or the Democrats dominate the discussion on health care?

Obamacare is a complete failure without any support from the majority of the American people.

Trump hasn't even eliminated the penalty for not buying into it which means he intends to penalize anyone who doesn't carry private insurance. How dishonest and deceitful can the Republicans get?


Even John Boehner has admitted the Republicans only intend to modify Obamacare even if they call it something else.

We need a National dialog in our neighborhoods and communities about health care. I hope this will be shared and discussed widely because whenever people are provided with all options, most people will choose National Public Health Care.

Let me explain what National Public Health Care is in relation to other forms of health care...

The best way to explain a National Public Health Care System is to explain it the way our public schools work... it would be based on the model of public education which works very well as intended when properly funded and properly administered:

Public funding.

Public administration.

Public delivery.

There would be neighborhood and in small cities and rural areas community health care centers that would include everything from general health to vision, hearing, dental care, dietitians, preventive health care education, family planning and mental health.

Instead of doctors and other health care professionals, nurses and workers being on private payrolls they would be public employees just like public school teachers and college professors and instructors.

Same thing for hospitals.

This would include everything in the way people need for health care... pre-natal through burial.

Everyone in; nobody out.

We could pay for this in a couple ways or a combination:

1. With a Peace Dividend. Cut military spending drastically and end these wars and shut down all the military bases on foreign soil.

2. With a payroll tax on employers and employees; just like with Social Security (this is the way Frances Perkins proposed paying for it.)

3. A tax on Wall Street transactions and/or a tax on the wealthy.

Everyone would just be able to walk into a health care center and get the care they need without long waits or waiting periods.

There could be satellite centers in schools and places of employment, in shopping malls.

There would also be an emphasis on preventive health care because it is much cheaper to stay healthy.

A National Public Health Care System is the most cost effective way to deliver health care.

What is important is that the American people be drawn into this conversation in the way democracy is intended with all the types of health care being honestly explained... the options are:

1. We continue with health care remaining private, for-profit health care managed by insurance companies with the American Medical Association establishing fees for procedures even for Medicaid and Medicare which is what both Obama-care, Romney-care and what the Republicans are proposing is. This is the reactionary, neo-liberal and conservative approach to health care.

2. Single-payer universal health care like they have in Canada with the government collecting taxes, including a pay-roll tax, quasi governmental administration where administration is shared by the public and private sectors, with private delivery. Doctors establish fees charged with government approval and some push back in an attempt to keep fees charged a little lower.

3. A National Public Health Care System as I have described.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world and the American people are entitled to a world-class National Public Health Care System.

Wouldn't it be nice if the politicians, Physicians for a National Health Program, American Medical Association and the party hacks and over-paid media pundits were as honest as I am in putting all the options before the American people?

I challenge anyone and everyone to challenge anything I have said.

I will debate anyone, anytime, anyplace on the health care issue.

It is time for the American people to be able to discuss health care free from any restrictions.

Health care reform should be an issue that brings us all together because we all need, and are entitled to, health care. The right to health care is a very basic and fundamental human right which should not be rationed to only those who can afford it.

By advocating for National Public Health Care we become an obstacle to Trump's thoroughly reactionary agenda and we lay the ground-work for a new working class based political party by establishing an alternative agenda which places human need before profit and we advance the cause of peace and social justice while laying the basis for the socialist alternative to capitalism as we challenge the Wall Street crowd for political and economic power using an issue which clearly explains why the private, for-profit "free enterprise" system doesn't work.

Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor envisioned a National Public Health Care System as part of the New Deal package of reforms and Franklin Roosevelt removed it under pressure from the American Medical Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers and the rest of the Wall Street crowd in the same way they ganged up on and defeated the Full Employment Act of 1945 put forward by liberal populist Texas Congressman Wright Patman and progressive Henry Wallace.

The time has come to stand up to this Wall Street crowd when it comes to health care.

After all, a National Public Health Care Program would create over twelve-million good-paying, real living wage jobs putting us closer to our objective of full employment by putting people to work providing the American people with free health care. Don’t expect this government to provide working people with the kind of health care reform we need without a struggle.

Education. Organization. United Action. This is the key to winning any reform.

What you can do:

* Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, your union newsletter, community publication, etc.

* Get your union, senior group, political party to pass a resolution.

* Talk to family, friends, neighbors, fellow workers. Here is a sample petition like the one I am circulating:

Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care--- general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore C.E.T.A., WPA and CCC.

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end. Restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

We are entitled to a Peace Dividend.

Name Address City State E-mail

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Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.
Contact info:

Here is a sample Letter to the Editor like the one I wrote to the Austin American-Statesman which was published:


National Public Health Care System Needed


Re: Feb. 9 article, “Trump looks to stabilize health insurance market”

So, the “health” — read: profits — of the health insurance industry supersedes the human right of access to health care?

Left out of the discussion is the real solution to this health care mess, which would eliminate the health insurance industry: national public health care based on the public education model. Publicly financed. Publicly administered. Publicly delivered.

It makes more sense to finance a network of publicly funded neighborhood and community health care centers across the country dispensing free health care for everyone instead of squandering the precious wealth of our nation maintaining over 800 military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street’s interests and wasting trillions of dollars on these dirty wars from which only the Wall Street merchants profit.

ALAN MAKI, LAKEWAY