 HC-best-group-shot.jpg Daily Planet Staff Photo
From Daily Planet Staff Reports
Remember to support the concepts of single-payer and a strong public option, protest organizer Paul Choi told the nearly 300 attendees at the end of a 70-minute public protest rally for health-care reform on June 27 in downtown Asheville.
The rally, featuring eight speakers in sun-drenched Pritchard Park, was sponsored by WNC for Change, which calls itself a local grassroots organization. Choi is the director of the group that grew out of the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
“We’re in a major fight,” Choi said, referring to the effort to change the United States from a private health-care system to one that involves some level of government involvement. He said health care, ultimately, is a moral issue.
Following the downtown protest, about 50 of the protesters met with Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, at Westgate Shopping Center in West Asheville in a gathering that was billed as a show of support for Shuler and health care reform.
Shuler said that, since the economy needs to be allowed to recover, baby steps will be required on the path to health care reform.
“Do I see a single-payer system at this point in time?” Shuler asked. “The president told me himself, it’s just not the right time.”
However, Shuler said among his main concerns were access to health care and affordability.
In contending that there is strong local support for a single-payer or government-run, health care system, Choi presented Shuler with a petition of 1,195 signatures collected since June 21 in support of health care reform.
Meanwhile, at the downtown rally earlier, the first speaker, Errington Thompson, a general surgeon and a weekly talk-show host (880-AM) in Asheville, began his address by asking everyone to briefly bow their heads out of respect for the death of pop star Michael Jackson, who had died two days earlier.
Thompson referred to Jackson as “a man of great talent” — and also as one with some personal issues.
Thompson triggered loud cheers from the crowd when he referred to the GOP as a “corporatist party” that supports the status quo as long as profits remain healthy.
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Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy addresses health care at the rally, as Buncombe commissioners’ Chairman David Gantt (second from right) listens intently.
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In contrast, Thompson said he sees Democrats falling into three categories — Blue Dogs, whom he defined as conservatives; a middle-of-the-road contingent and, finally, those who, along with some independents, “want some universal health care.” The crowd cheered his enthused reference to the third category of Democrats.
In U.S. society, Thompson said there are “haves,” “have-nots” and “in-betweens.” More cheers erupted when he urged support for the “have-nots” — via universal health care.
Another speaker, David Gantt, chairman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, began by noting that “every civilized country has nationalized health care.”
He noted that President Harry S. Truman on Nov. 14, 1945 said there was a need for nationalized health care. “Folks, we’ve been trying to get this for 54 years,” Gant said. “Is there anyone who doesn’t agree” that the U.S. needs national health care?
The crowd cheered in an affirmative response to Gantt’s question.
“We have an opportunity in 2009 to get this through ... Our current system is broke and we’ve got to fix it.”
He noted that Obama “is going to assure health care for everyone,” adding that he has “heard figures” that 50 million Americans lack adequate health coverage.
What’s more, Gantt said, “This is a problem that cuts across all economic boundaries ... While we’re trying on a local level” to alleviate the situation where possible, “it’s got to be on a national level” to be sustainable because “there’s so many economies of scale.”
At that point, Gantt asserted that “every religion in the world — there’s parts that talk about helping” one another.
He then urged the crowd, “Support the single-payer — that’s the only way it’s going to go. Make sure everyone is covered.”
In referring to the opponents of nationalized health care, Gantt said, “The hypocrisy is pretty deep.”
To fight the opponents of nationalized health care, Gantt said, “Write letters, get involved and let’s be the kind of country we need to be ... If the insurance companies don’t like it — to hell with them!” The crowd cheered at Gantt’s fiery rhetoric.
Next, Terry Bellamy, Asheville’s mayor, praised the city’s efforts to improve health care locally by working with its employees, focusing on wellness and disease management.
“With the Asheville Project, we turned upside down the traditional model of health care ... We urged people to see the doctor when they’re well,” versus the traditional model of seeing a physician only when one is sick.
As a result of the aforementioned program, the city has seen a 2 percent reduction in health-care costs, Bellamy said.
She lauded the city as a national model for handling health issues.
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WNC for Change Director Paul Choi
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The mayor then addressed the subject of the rally by saying, “By October, the president wants a bill on his desk that he can sign on health care.”
Bellamy noted that “there are people not present for today’s discussion,” who have opposing views on the issue.
“We have to help everybody understand” by engaging in a dialogue with all parties involved, she said.
As the crowd cheered, Bellamy said, “Include this activitism beyond today, until October, until it’s passed.”
Another speaker, Luke Hyde, 11th District Democratic Party chair, carried a book — “Six Great Ideas” by Mortimer J. Adler — to the microphone and noted that its title is apt for a talk on health care reform..
“I’m here to tell you — philosophy does matter,” Hyde said, adding that Adler — in his book — makes the case for truth, beauty, goodness, liberty, equality and justice enabling one to make sense of the world.
To that end, Hyde said Obama is a president for whom philosophy also is important, which he termed a relief after eight years with a president with little or no apparent philosophy. The crowd cheered at his apparent jab at George Bush, who Hyde did not name.
Hyde said he has three beliefs about the health-care situation — it should be universal, it should focus on prevention and wellness and it should focus on everyone.
“I want to say to everyone today: Gentlemen, ladies, start your engines. Let’s get health care!” The crowd applauded heartily.
Dr. Jenni Mullendore, who works for the Buncombe Health Department, said that in 2008, estimates reported that 51 million Americans “couldn’t get the care they needed because they lacked health insurance.” The number did not include mental-health cases, she said.
To offset the problem, she said she knows of many people who volunteer their services, “but this is not a sustainable solution ... I’m here today because I find it unconscionable” that the U.S., with its immense wealth, would allow the needless suffering of so many people.
“I find it unethical that private insurers get rich by denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
“We need to take back control from private insurers and medical suppliers ... Affordable health care for all! No American should suffer because they lack health care!” The crowd roared in approval..
Dr. Dick Walton, retired director of Mountain Area Health Education Center, said there are models in the U.S. “where the patient comes first,” such as The Mayo Clinic.
In such cases, “all of the physicians got together and agreed they’d charge one price,” he said.
“We need a one-payer system. We’ve added 55 million people since 1980” to those lacking health-care coverage “and we haven’t added one medical school.”
“Right now, 57 percent of urban family care physicians are ‘foreign-trained’” — and that figure is even higher in U.S. rural areas, he said.
“So we can’t even train doctors!” he lamented. “Right now, we’d don’t have the people” trained as doctors and other health-care providers to serve a nationalized health-care system.
Among his recommendations is reforming the primary care renumeration system, noting that “family medicine is the lowest-paying area of medicine” at a time when doctors are emerging from medical schools with astronomical debts to pay.
He also recommended changing primary care medicine’s focus, “so people have medical homes,” and investing in primary care information and technology, resulting in the creation of national systems of data.
What’s more, he recommended attracting more medical students to primary care by redirecting medical training money.
He added, “Duke University, for the last few years, particularly has tried to get rid of primary care training, which I find unconscionable ... We also need to increase debt forgiveness” for physicians who choose to pursue primary care.
“If you add people (customers) and decrease the number of family physicians, it’s not going to be cost-effective” under a nationalized system.
“How does the Mayo Clinic succeed? Pay is commensurate for family care physicians as other fields.”
Elizabeth Peverall, a family physician in Burnsville, said, “You’re going to hear on TV today that with the single-payer system, we’re going to have rationing. Well, guess what? We’ve already got rationing.”
She also said the TV ads would claim that under nationalized health care, patients will not be able to choose their own doctors and that there would be a waiting list to see doctors. She termed these assertions as incorrect also.
The final speaker, Leslie Boyd, a social issues and religion reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times, spoke of the poor heath care her son Michael received in Savannah, Ga., where he lived, eventually resulting in his death.
“Thirty thousand people die every year for lack of medical coverage — that’s 10 times the number of people died in 9/11.”
She added, “Three-fourths of us either want single-payer or public (health care) — either is OK with me.”
“My precious son is gone,” Boyd said. “It’s about time big business quit running this country — and let’s take it back!
“If these people (in Congress) won’t give us what we want, we’ll vote them out of office” and elect others “until we get what we want.”
In referring to the present health-care system, Boyd said, “This is inhumane, immoral and we need to stop this now. Being here today is just the beginning.”
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