Featuring:
Joanne Landy, MPH
Former Executive Director, Physicians for a National Health Program, NY Metro Chapter; Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy; Editorial Board member, New Politics
and
Mark Hannay
Director, Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign; Steering Committee member, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage and Health Care for All New York; Public Policy Associate at Gay Men’s Health Crisis during the Clinton health care reform period of 1993-4
Moderated by NYC DSA
Democratic socialists believe not only that health care is a human right, but that it is a public good that ought never be on the private market. Join us as with two distinguished speakers who have been active in the struggle for universal health care for many years, as we explore the current attempt to change our health care system.
The health insurance industry is spending millions of dollars to block any health care reform that would have an impact on their profit. President Obama and some of the Democrats in Congress are pushing for a strong public plan that could compete fairly with the insurance industry and deliver care to the uninsured. This plan is not single payer, let alone socialized medicine.
The public option was sold to many progressives two years ago as a back door method of getting to single payer gradually and without a struggle. Now Sens. Schumer and Baucus and probably Rep. Rangel are putting a number of poison pills into the public option legislation that are likely to prevent it from becoming single payer.
The forum will describe the existing system and the balance of forces for and against change. We will explain why single payer is the best (only) solution as well as go into the value of a strong public option. Furthermore, we will debate the tactical decisions made by the “health care reform movement” in light of above and discuss some of the specific things that Schumer and others want to include in the public option that prevents it from developing into single payer. We will end by discussing what community members can do to take action, whether they believe that it is more strategic to concentrate on single payer or the public option.
