“Health Care for ALL” Rally
By Laura Salinger
From heated town hall debates to heated on-air commentary, the health care reform debate is rapidly becoming more divisive
nationwide. In Madison, hundreds of Dane County area residents recently descended on the Capitol to weigh in on the debate that has taken
the nation by storm. Unlike some more rancorous gatherings that have recently topped headline news, the gathering at Wisconsin’s Capitol
was peaceful and teeming with people who support reform. Among attendants was notable health care reform supporter U.S. Rep. Tammy
Baldwin, who has made the issue a cornerstone of her career.
“Access to affordable health care is the number one concern from Wisconsinites,” Baldwin says. “It’s the issue I hear more about than
any other — the one whose painful personal stories move and motivate me day-in and day- out. Real health care reform, transformational
reform that includes a public plan option, is within our grasp, and we must seize the moment.”
Gloria Meyer, a co-organizer of the rally sponsored by Dane County Grassroots Network and Organizing for America, says she remains
optimistic that health care reform is within reach, despite congressional setbacks.
“It’s been kind of a rollercoaster but I’m very hopeful,” Meyer says. “We are farther than we have ever been.”
While there are plenty of Americans who obstinately oppose government sponsored health care, they were not visibly present at the Madison
rally. From signs calling for “Reform Now” to those asking “Where is our Decency?” — the Capitol was pulsating with chants demanding
“health care for all” and “single-payer now.” Reform supporters spoke to the energetic crowd, recounting their own personal stories.
Pam Thompson, a three-year breast cancer survivor, says battling her insurance company has been more difficult than her battle with
cancer. Thompson, who is insured with presumably “good” insurance through her husband’s work, is fed up with UnitedHealthcare, an
insurance company that reported second quarter profit of well-over $800 million but won’t pay for her yearly diagnostic mammograms.
A diagnostic mammogram is a more thorough mammogram, which is thus more time-consuming and costly, yet is often recommended for
breast cancer survivors. At breastcancer.org, Dr. Cecilia Brennecke, a radiologist and medical director at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore,
Maryland-says, “When a woman is a breast cancer survivor, I perform diagnostic mammograms on her for the rest of her life.” Thompson,
who was also told to receive diagnostic mammograms by her oncologist, is fighting “tooth and nail” to get her insurance to pay for services
she says they have already agreed to pay.
“I have had to fight my insurance company for every claim they said they would pay,” Thompson says.
Dr. Robert Hoffman, a faculty member of the University School of Medicine and Public Health and a hospitalist at UW Hospital and Clinics,
sardonically lamented the “luck of those unlucky enough to get sick in the richest country in the world.”
Dr. Hoffman recounted the story of a male in his 30s who sought emergency room treatment for a diabetic crisis. With no health insurance
and a family to support, this man could not afford the much less costly diabetic treatment that would thwart the need for this very costly
emergency treatment. With proper health care, Dr. Hoffman assured the crowd, this man could have received a diabetic plan that would keep
him healthy and out of the emergency room. As it was, the man returned again to the emergency room-once again in the throes of a diabetic
crisis.
“We need reform now,” Dr. Hoffman emphatically said. “We need to stop paying for crisis care and start paying for preventive care.”
Rev. Harold Rayford, whose parents have now lost their health insurance from General Motors, says it is a moral obligation to provide health
care. Paulette Garin, Wisconsin coordinator for the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care who is pushing for a single payer
health care system, assured the crowd that single payer is not a socialist system but rather a tool for eliminating the bureaucratic middle man.
“Health care reform is the civil rights movement of our time,” Garin said. “Single payer is the gold star of that reform.”
At the end of the day, Carlene Bechen says it is time for unity. Bechen, a Dane County Grassroots member, encouraged participants to take an
active role in the health care reform movement.
“One thing we can be sure of,” Bechen says,” the pharmaceutical companies, the hospital associations and the insurance companies
are not divided. They are working together to stop health reform. So, we must stand united to demand health care for all in America and that
means we must also contact our legislators.”
Health care reform is currently a “wait-and-see” game in our nation, but that doesn’t mean Americans are waiting quietly. Of course, that
goes for Madison too.
