Bill calls for universal health care insurance

Yawu Miller

As executive director of Mystic Valley Elder Services, Dan O’Leary faces the challenge of helping elderly clients with skyrocketing health insurance costs.

And increasingly, he is struggling to meet the health care costs of his own workforce of 67. Four years ago, it was a matter of paying $266,000 per year. Now it’s $400,000 a year.

“We struggle,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re hoping the federal government will come up with a reasonable solution. I’d like to be able to tell my employees ‘we’re going to provide you with the same level of care you provide our clients with.”

For Mystic Valley and other employers across the nation, providing health care has become a nightmare. Small businesses and large corporations are feeling the pinch, as insurance costs are rapidly rising. Last week, O’Leary and other activists gathered at Faneuil Hall along with New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey and Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney to rally support for House Bill 676, which would extend Medicare coverage to all Americans.

Their arguments were bolstered by a recently released Census Bureau study that found that the percentage of uninsured people under the age of 65 — 13.2 percent — is the highest it’s been in the last seven years.

Hinchey said the lack of health care coverage is a national problem that is linked to declining wages and increased poverty levels.

“The issue with national health insurance has a great deal to do with economic conditions in this country,” he said. “The failure of government to enact universal health care is an injustice to all citizens.”

Hinchey noted that the average CEO of a major corporation makes 430 times what the average employee is paid. He placed the blame on the Bush administration’s emphasis on tax cuts for the wealthy. When George W. Bush became president, there were 37 million people in the United States without health care. Now there are 45 million, according to Hinchey.

“The economic policies of this country have driven up the incomes of the wealthy and stagnated the incomes of the middle class,” he said. “There are 45 million people living in poverty. This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve had an increase in the number of people living in poverty.”

The bill Hinchey and others are supporting would institute what is called a single-payer health insurance system — one in which the federal government would be the sole payer for the nation’s health care needs. Funds for health care would be collected through progressive taxation — where taxes are levied as a percentage of income. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee health care for all its citizens.

But, as participants in last week’s forum noted, it’s not for a lack of need.

“The health care situation in this country is an absolute crisis,” said Kathleen Kessler of the AFL CIO. “It’s not right in this country, the richest country in the world.”

Both labor and businesses are affected by increasing health care costs. Corporations that provide health care, like General Motors, pass the costs onto consumers. Health Care advocates estimate that health insurance costs at General Motors add $2,000 onto the sticker price of every car the corporation sells.

Local governments, too are affected by rising costs. Of every seven dollars the town of Framingham spends, one dollar goes to paying health insurance for its municipal employees.

“So much for adding new programs or improving the infrastructure or improving the education system for our children,” said Kate Murphy, a registered nurse who sits on the town’s board of selectmen.

Last week’s meeting in Faneuil Hall was hosted by a diverse coalition of labor unions, health care and elder advocacy groups. Testimony came from both policy-makers and health care workers. Many said rising costs have transformed a health care system once considered the world’s best into a mess.

“Over 15 years of privatization, deregulation, job reengineering, managed care, hospital closures and cuts in essential services have resulted in an industrial model of health care that I call mangled care,” said Sandy Eaton, a registered nurse at Quincy Medical Center.

“As a result, no matter what kind of insurance you may or may not have, you take your life into your hands when you get plugged into this dysfunctional system.”