Note: We have bought the tickets for the Chomsky talk at the  Econvergence Conference so you don’t have to buy your own, Peter Bohmer

Political Economy and Social Movements Syllabus-Fall 2009

The reading for the first Tuesday class is Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, Parts 1-4

I watched President Obama’s health care speech last night, Wednesday, September 9th,  and it was about what I expected. There was no mention at all of a plan that would really mean universal and affordable health care coverage. The idea of a single payer plan where you could choose you health care provider and the government would negotiate how much they would pay to the hospital, doctor, dentist, etc. was totally absent in Obama’s discussion.

Obama did mention that he favored a public option where people who did not have health care coverage and maybe small businesses could pay a monthly fee to the government and in return would have their health care covered.  Even here Obama mentioned that he was willing to compromise further on this idea  and that the plan would have to be self-supporting.  Insurance companies are likely to increase their profits as more people will be required to have coverage and  the public plan will be limited. The subsidies to low and moderate income are likely to be quite low meaning that health care will still be unaffordable for many people.

Obama excluded abortions from his proposals and excluded any money going to undocumented immigrants.  Both of these are things we need to fight for.

The behavior of many of the Republicans was reprehensible, it looked like the white citizens councils of the 1960’s–overwhelmingly white and male and reactionary.

On a more hopeful note on Tuesday, September 8th, I joined the Mad as Hell Doctors Tour which was a caravan of mainly doctors that started in Portland, went to Seattle and will caravan to D.C. demanding Single Payer Health Care. The main group sponsoring the caravan is Physicians for a National Health Plan. (Check out their excellent web-site). At a very exciting town hall meeting that   these two group organized, a group of very persuasive doctors talked about how the for profit health system prevented them and other health care providers form carrying out their mission of curing people.

Single Payer makes so much sense. Doug Henwood in the latest issue of Left Business Observer examines why the capitalist class, the corporate elite, so strongly opposes single payer. He argues that the big health insurance companies are  only a small part of Corporate America and not very significantly interlocked with them. They should not have the power by themselves to stop single payer.  He concludes that major corporations in other sectors fear the loss of profits that would occur to the large health insures like Aetna,  Humana, etc might happen to them next and thus oppose it.  Henwood also adds that if  workers had good health care independent of their jobs they would be less afraid to lose their jobs and more willing to fight for better working conditions and wages which could reduce profits. To these reasons i would  add that the insurance companies and the pharmaceuticals are fighting against it with all their energy and power and the rest of the elite does not want to oppose them.

We need to build a grass roots movement to fight for single payer health care. The next meeting of the newly formed Olympians for Single Payer Action is Tuesday, September 15th at 7 P.M at the Olympia Center, downtown.

There is a rally at 5 P.M today Monday, August 31st  at Sylvester Park calling for Health Care for and a Town Hall Meeting at 7 P.M. at the Washington Center meeting called by Congressperson Brian Baird.

There will also be an meeting to organize for single payer health, tomorrow, Sept., 1 at 7 PM at the Olympia Center (see below)

My thoughts on the current health care debate and reform plans follow.

It is important that we stand up to the right-wing attack on health care reform. We should challenge the lies of the right and their love of our current  broken health care system with 50 million uninsured and many millions more with inadequate coverage.  This does not mean that we should support Obama’s and the House and Senate Democrats health care plan no matter what they propose.

A decent health plan would cut out the insurance companies and include dental care, mental health care, prescription drugs and alternative medicine and be affordable to low and moderate income people and include coverage for immigrants. This together with a lot of federally funded and community controlled free clinics could make for a quality health care system for all, real universal health care.

Single Payer or Medicare for all is not even being considered by the Democratic Party leadership. It should be and should be raised by us in all forums including Town Halls, in rallies, in letters to the editor. We should not just support Obama and Congressperson  Baird because their  inadequate health reform plans are being attacked by the insurance companies and Fox News.

The so-called public option would permit people not being currently covered by their employer or by already existing public programs to choose a Medicare like plan where they would pay a monthly fee to the federal government and they could choose their doctor, hospital, etc. If the government could negotiate lower rates they would pay to hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies this public option plan could be quite a bit cheaper than one from a private insurance company. One growing problem is that the public option may either be removed from the proposed legislation or so weakened with restrictions that it will basically be meaningless. For example, if the government cannot try to get sharply reduced prices for prescription drugs or hospital stays, and/or if it disproportionately covers the sickest people who have the most needs and costs and the public option choice  must break even and not cost the government any money,  its price to people who purchase it will be very high. The price of this public option will be even higher if it has to break even immediately and/or hold large reserves. With these possible restrictions, compromises the public option will not be affordable and will not put much pressure on insurance companies to reduce its prices.  These are the restrictions on it being proposed in Congress by influential Democrats such as Senator Schumer of New York.

So let us build a movement for a health-care plan that really is accessible to all and affordable  and that is paid for by taxes on the wealthy and on corporations.  This is what we should organize and educate for rather than supporting the positions of President Obama, Congressman Baird and Senators Cantwell and Murray because the Republicans are attacking them. Their plans will leave many people without health coverage and the insurance companies will continue to make billions.

Let us make our voices heard today for a single payer health care system for all.
Monday, August, 31st 5 P.M–Rally at Sylvester Park for Health Care
7 P.M–Town Hall meeting with Brian Baird  at the Washington Center

Let’s organize locally for a single payer system for all:
Tuesday, Sept. 15th, from 7 – 9 pm
Olympia Community Center in downtown Olympia,  Room 204
222 Colombia St. NW

Also check out the music video that follows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UU8cPNcjKs