Winning the fight for our lives

AFRO-American

It is critically important that every one of us understands all that is at stake in our national health care debate.  As more and more Americans are coming to realize, we are in a fight for our lives.

Last week, the ongoing political struggle that may well determine whether universal health care will ever be recognized as a fundamental civil right once again took center stage during President Obama's "Summit" on health care reform.

As Iowa's Democratic Senator Tom Harkin observed: "We don't allow segregation on the basis of race, gender or disability.  Now, we must stop segregating people on the basis of their health."

What civilized person could disagree?  Yet, as this year's health care debate has graphically illustrated, Democrats and Republicans do disagree - at least on how to overcome this inequity.

Our policy arguments are not about the human costs of this health care "segregation." In fact, the widespread extent of Americans' suffering is well-known.

For some time now, we have understood that at least 18,000 Americans die every year because they lack the affordable health insurance that could have saved their lives.  More recently, Harvard University research has asserted that the annual death toll could be as high as 45,000 casualties. 

If radical terrorists were killing tens of thousands of American every year, there would be national outrage and an overwhelming public demand for the President and the Congress to act immediately and decisively.  Yet, the uninsured neighbors in every community who are perishing as the result of callous political indifference and delay are just as lost to their families.

Many of their concerns are shared by the millions of Americans who are fortunate enough to have health insurance coverage.

A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation poll found that 1 out of every 4 Americans is worried that he or she will lose health insurance coverage during the next 12 months.  They also are worried about rising health insurance costs and whether an injury or serious illness might push them into bankruptcy.

Their fears are well-founded.  Shrinking employer-based coverage, combined with insurance industry efforts to deny individual coverage to those who are aging or might have a "preexisting condition," are leaving more and more Americans "segregated" from health security.

Even those who qualify for individual coverage are facing prohibitive costs, as demonstrated by the 30-39 percent premium hike now confronting the policy-holders of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield coverage in California.

These premium increases, I should note, are being imposed at a time when Anthem's parent company, "Wellpoint," like most other insurers, enjoyed a $4.75 billion profit in the last year alone.

"If we don't act," President Obama observed, "this is just a preview of coming attractions.  Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance; millions more will lose their coverage altogether; [and] our deficits will continue to grow larger."

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the same Robert Wood Johnson poll also found that 3 out of every 4 Americans want the President and Congress to continue to make health insurance reform a top priority this year.

Whether we live or die - keep our homes or are pushed by ill health into bankruptcy - should not be determined by having the wealth or good fortune to afford the health care.  Yet, for all the high sounding declarations and political "spin," this is precisely where Democrats and Republicans disagree.

We Democrats understand that health care reform is essential, demanding a heightened sense of national urgency.  To varying degrees, moreover, we have accepted the practical reality that active regulation and participation by the federal government is required if we are to fix our fatally broken system.

In all candor, not all Democrats would agree with Congressman John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan and me who - along with scores of our more progressive House colleagues - have been pushing for the last 7 years for a true, single-payer, national health care system based upon Medicare.

Yet, although we would go further toward assuring universal coverage, there is little doubt that the Democratic reform proposals that have passed the House and Senate would do much to alleviate the hardships that millions of Americans are struggling to endure today.

In contrast to our Democratic initiatives, those Americans who watched or listened to President Obama's "Summit" last week also heard a scripted Republican position that asserted a different message.

"We can't afford the health care reform plans that the House and Senate have passed," the Republican endlessly complained.  "Let's start over."

African Americans have heard this reactionary message before.  We have not forgotten the 1950s and 1960s when those who were resistant to civil rights also used code words, misinformation and Senate filibusters to obstruct and delay passage of the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and other protections that now are so fundamental to our lives.

We must not forget the lessons of that earlier time, especially the resistance to Medicare that we Democrats had to overcome before America achieved that milestone of civil rights in 1965.

Today, we are again in a struggle for our lives – and, once again, America cannot afford further obstructions or delay.

- The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.