There is another alternative to this health care mess

Nina Turner sent me an email (see below) claiming the for profit Medicare for All is the only solution to this health care mess.

I sent her this:

It simply isn’t true that Medicare for All is the only alternative so why do you keep on saying this? In fact, Medicare isn’t even all that great with everything it doesn’t cover and all the co-pays and the expensive supplemental insurances required which most people can’t afford to pay out of their miserly Social Security checks.

You Democrats have not even improved Medicare or Social Security with needed reforms over the years; in fact, you have gone right along with the Republicans in attacking both which has created massive hardships for most people. And now you come along pushing this Medicare for All which you don’t even intend to bring into existence anyways; you are just using this in a very mean way to trick people out of their votes just as you Democrats have been doing since 1948.

And all the while you Democrats work hand-in-hand with the Republicans to prevent a new working class based people’s party from achieving ballot status so we can bring forward real reforms such as these...

What we really need, and what you are either afraid to say or fight for, is a National Public Health Care System:

Publicly funded.

Publicly administered.

Publicly delivered.

Just like public education.

And pay for it with what you, also, don’t dare talk about: a great big Peace Dividend which would require ending these dirty wars, putting an end to this nuclear arms race and instead of having over 850 U.S. foreign military bases dotting the globe put a health care center in every community and neighborhood providing the American people with free world-class health care.

Nationalize the pharmaceutical industry under public control and ownership.

This is the socialist approach to health care reform.

Please stop bombarding me with your phony crap.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 14, 2019, at 3:13 PM, Senator Nina Turner wrote:

Dear Alan,

When we talk about healthcare in this country, we must realize that we cannot settle for half-solutions, or half-movements. We must dedicate ourselves to achieving an America that cares for and helps every person, every family, every parent, and every child in this country…. because only all that we love is on the line.

I recently had the honor of speaking on a National Nurses United panel at the Sanders Institute Gathering that brought together leaders in healthcare movements not only from the United States but from around the world.

WATCH THE PANEL

Kelly Coogan Gehr, Assistant Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for NNU, laid the scene: a righteous movement for healthcare for all.

“What our enemies most fear is this: Medicare for All gives a fifth of our economy back to the people and increases the size, strength, and power of our democratic government.” – Kelly Coogan Gehr

Dr. Diane Archer, President of Just Care USA, explained why Medicare for All is the best and only option – because we cannot encourage a “middle-ground” system that would continue to include private companies that exclude patients that need care to maximize their profits while hiking up costs for everybody else.

“Commercial insurers drive up administrative costs and pocket profits for their shareholders rather than investing in their members’ needs, let alone the public health.” – Dr. Diane Archer

Jean Ross, Nurse and Co-President of National Nurses United, through Kelly Coogan Gehr spoke about the moral imperative behind a Medicare for All system and why our strength not only lies with the statistics, and the economic benefits, but also in the moral imperative of healthcare as a human right.

“One’s ability to stay alive should never be based in someone else’s ability to profit.” – Jean Ross

Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini described the reverence for and popularity of the UK’s single payer system but warned of spreading privatization – an import from the American system – that is jeopardizing the popular and quality care that has been provided in the UK for over 70 years.

“It is no exaggeration to say that The NHS in the UK is revered and is more of a national obsession than a great cup of tea or in fact the weather. It is revered as it provides that most basic of human rights; free universal healthcare at your time of need.” – Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini

Jo Beardsmore, co-founder of UK Uncut, convinced every person in the room that we must not only fight for healthcare for all but that we can win!

“Some people seem to think that to aim for an expanded and improved Medicare for All is too ambitious. But we know that it is only by aiming for such an ideal that we will mobilize enough people to take action to help us win. If we don’t aim high, we will fall. low, and will become compromised before we even start to negotiate. Big organizing techniques that NNU is using to make the movement happen.” – Jo Beardsmore

Finally, Libby Devlin, Southern Director of NNU, showed us that nurses in each and every state in the U.S. and around the country are already leading the charge because they know – and see every day – what is at stake.

“Every day nurses see the damage done by a lack of health care. They, better than anyone, know that a single standard of care that is safe, effective and therapeutic, regardless of ability to pay must become the public policy of this country”– Libby Devlin

The voices of the nurses in our country are important. They care for patients in their greatest time of need. As the healing hands at the bedside, they have been the consistent witnesses to the inequality of our current health care system. They bear witness to the need for systemic change. They believe as I do that our collective activism is the catalyst for change.

Medicare for All is possible.

It is right.

It is within our reach.

And we must reach for it… because only all that we love is on the line.

In Solidarity,

Senator Nina Turner

Founding Fellow, The Sanders Institute