The Health of our Nation: CodeBlueNow

The Seattle Times printed an opinion piece today from two former governors on "Re-creating our health care system".  Arne H. Carlson, a Republican and former governor of Minnesota, and Booth Gardner, a Democrat and former governor of Washington, highlight the instability in our current health care system in the US and the risks such instability poses to our democracy.  They emphasize the importance of citizen / community involvement, prevention, leadership and dialogue.  I was in complete agreement with everything they wrote until I reached the following:

We must focus on affordable health care coverage for all of us.

I was extremely disappointed when the Clinton Administration’s efforts to overhaul our health care system started using the code words of "affordable health care" rather than "universal health care".  It’s hardly surprising, given the intense lobbying pressure from the AMA, the insurance companies and other interest groups with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. 

I believe a basic level of health care is just as much a right — and just as important to the proper functioning of our democracy — as a basic level of education, and I think that the only way to provide this basic level of health care to all Americans is to have a single-payer health care system funded by the government.  I’ve written more about this recently, and so won’t write more here, except to say that I sure as heck hope that CodeBlueNow lives up to its name and proposes something more progressive than "affordable health care"!