Health Care Reform Rally Draws 150 people to LHA
LYNN, MA – Over 150 people gathered at the Lynn Housing Authority on Tuesday, June 30th to have a public conversation with Congressman John Tierney about reforming the current for profit health care system. The event was organized by a coalition of grassroots community organizations that are a growing force for change. The coalition partners consist of the North Shore Labor Council, Lynn United for Change, Neighbor to Neighbor, ECCO, Mass Senior Action, the Lynn Health Task Force, the Highlands Coalition and IUE-CWA Local 201. They were all part of organizing the Obama Inauguration “Party With a Purpose” Celebration that drew 400 people on January 20th, and the Bank of America Protest, drawing 300 people on March 30th of this year.
Leslie Greenberg of the Lynn Health Task Force kicked off the evening by talking about why we need health care reform. “The corporate response of their governing health care hasn’t worked. Our health insurance premiums go up each year, the amount of services covered goes down, and it’s the insurance companies who come out ahead with obscene profits. I have been working on health care for over 20 years, and we need to put patients before profits.”
Bob Reynolds of the North Shore Labor Council, explained that the solution to this problem would be a single payer health care system. “Single payer health care means that everyone pays into 1 single pool of government run health care insurance fund, and then the fund pays the drug companies, hospitals, doctors, clinics, labs etc. No one is excluded, and everyone gets to choose their doctor. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather discuss health care with my elected officials, than with corporations who are in it to make money and accountable to no one but their share holders.”
Lori Berry of the Lynn Community Health Center, was there to speak about the patients that come into the Health Center, who cannot afford the rising costs of co-pays and deductibles, and therefore cannot use their health care. “Access to healthcare right now is a huge issue. It would be like giving 500 people tickets to come and sit in this room tonight, knowing that there were only 150 seats,” Lori said. “I was surprised when I found out that over 40% of our patients have medical debt, of those 80% had some kind of health insurance plan.”
“We know that we cannot win better health care benefits under the current system,” said Alex Brown, Vice-President of IUE-CWA Local 201, representing the workers at the GE plant in Lynn. “Taxing health care benefits is the wrong way to go. There are fairer sources of funding, and it discriminates against women and older workers. It’s just a bad health care policy.”
Congressman Tierney framed the current problems in the health care system. “The major problem in health care is the insurance companies. During our hearings in Washington, I asked the CEOs of the health insurance companies what valued they added to direct patient care, and they could not give me an answer. That’s because they add nothing. I asked them if they would stop their practices of rescinding health care benefits, and they all said no.”
“President Obama said that he would sign a single payer health care bill if we could get it through Congress, but he believes that we could not.” Tierney added that “we’re fighting for is a strong public option that emphasizes preventative care, using new medical technology, and comparative care. According to a New York Times poll 72% of the public supports a public plan. You need to call your family and friends in districts where they haven’t gotten it yet.”
Other elected officials in attendance were Lynn School Committee member Maria Carrasco, Mayor Chip Clancy, Lynn City Councilors Dan Cahill, Paul Crowley and Darren Cyr. Mayoral candidate Pat McManus, and City Council candidates Eugene Schneeberg and Gina Grandberry were also in attendance.
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