As delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), we want to explain why we and over 700 other delegates from around the country are drawing a line and insisting that the Democratic Party must commit to achieving a single-payer Medicare for All health insurance program.
First, we understand that the DNC platform represents the values and goals of the Democratic party. It is the agreed upon long vision of what we hope to achieve — it is not a campaign plan, but should be our moral compass as we work to eke out electoral victories. If we want Americans to join with us, to take action and to soldier through the rough patches, we have to give them hope that the end goal will be worth it.
That is why many of us were dismayed that 125 members of the DNC platform committee voted down an amendment to endorse Medicare for All, the most rational plan for achieving universal healthcare for the tens of millions who currently have no coverage or cannot afford to access it.
Democrats have been waiting for such a solution to health care, ever since Harry Truman (building on FDR’s Four Freedoms) proposed a universal national health insurance program. Article 25 of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, which was drafted under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and ratified in 1948, and to which the United States is a signatory, states that healthcare is a human right of all people. Congress has ignored this basic right, and we, as delegates to the 2020 Democratic Convention are calling for Joe Biden to take the lead, as did FDR, in speaking up and bettering our country, through the introduction of Single-Payer, Universal, Medicare For All.
Even before the pandemic, over 600,000 of our Michigan neighbors, from Hougton to Detroit, Grand Rapids to Sault Ste. Marie, had no health insurance. Now, in just the last few months, 5.4 million more Americans have lost their employer-based health insurance as a result of the recession. In our summer of discontent against systemic racism we also need to reckon with the huge disparities in health coverage: 21% of Native Americans, 19% of Latinos, and 11% of African Americans lack insurance. Rural regions of our state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016 are also at great risk. Amid the COVID pandemic hospitals and clinics are being pressured to consolidate and close rural locations, because of the funding incentives currently in place. What was already a crisis is quickly spiraling out of control.
We need to treat healthcare as a human right and place people before profits. And you know what? That is also the economically sound thing to do. Even before the pandemic, private insurers were looting Americans on a massive scale. We spend an average of $11,072 per person on health expenditures in the USA (2019 figures from the OECD). For some perspective, Canada spends less than half that amount per person ($5,418) — and similarly France ($5,376), Japan ($4,823), and the UK ($4,653). These excessive insurance costs hamstring the small businesses that make up our Main St. economy and discourage our young people from taking entrepreneurial risks. Nor does this high level of spending result in better health outcomes for Americans; in fact, we trail our peer countries around the world.
A public option for healthcare is not going to get us to our goal. It will leave private insurers in place, which will either continue to plague our budgets with sky-high medical costs, or will lead to a chaotic collapse of the private insurance market. An orderly transition to an expanded and improved Medicare program, such as H.R. 1384 introduced by Pramila Jayapal, is the most cost-effective solution and will lead to the least disruption in healthcare for Americans.
We all have a stake in defeating Donald Trump by a landslide this November. Anything less will invite Trump’s attempt to muddy the waters with talk of voter fraud or other such nonsense. As mentioned above, the platform is about the party’s vision, not about campaign tactics. But if you want to make a political argument, Medicare for All is extremely popular: 88% of Democratic voters, 69% of all voters, and even 52% of Republicans support the idea. DNC Chairman Tom Perez has rightly stated that Americans “want a president with a bold vision for the future.” Medicare for All is that bold vision and will strengthen Biden’s campaign; his endorsement of this policy would consolidate the support of many who voted for his primary opponents, not to mention the majority of Americans. There is no need to triangulate this — unless one is concerned about the fate of our health insurance corporations.
Fundamentally, though, we feel a responsibility to look out for the vast majority of Americans who are struggling to get by during this pandemic, no matter their party affiliation. We cannot go back to normal, because “normal” was not working. Americans are hungry for freedom, even if we don’t always express that desire in the most logical of forms. Guaranteed healthcare, like public education, is a basic condition for achieving one’s fullest human potential. It is to leave behind the struggle for basic survival and enter the realm of freedom. The Democratic Party, with Joe Biden as its presidential nominee, should accept its historical role and lead the way to this promised realm.
Respectfully,
Owen Goslin, Delegate to the DNC (Bernie Sanders), Michigan CD-1
Odessa Weidner, Delegate to the DNC (Bernie Sanders), Michigan CD-1
Catherine Manigold, Delegate to the DNC (Bernie Sanders), Michigan CD-2
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