It’s time.
Dozens descended on The Capitol today in an act of civil disobedience that is long overdue. The protesters were there to demand that Medicaid cuts be taken off the table as Congress attempts to balance its budget and that the nation’s most vulnerable continue to be protected under the health-care plan.
Actor Noah Wyle was among those arrested this morning. He told CNN that Medicaid is a civil rights issue because Congress has given states more and more authority over the program, which has led to unequal access to health care for the poor and disabled.
“People should have the right to live where they want,” he said, and not have their health care depend upon where they live.
Medicaid is just one part of the larger health-care imbroglio, tied to the debate before the Supreme Court over so-called Obamacare. The Obama reforms, incremental in nature and of dubious constitutional merit, expanded coverage by also expanding the power of the health insurance industry. Insurance firms can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, a loss as far as they are concerned; in exchange, they are being given millions in new customers through the legislation’s coverage mandate.
What the legislation does, unfortunately, is maintain a multi-tiered health system. The rich get what they want. Seniors and veterans get (mostly) quality care. The rest in the vast middle are at the mercy of their employers, while the poor find their coverage to be at the whims of the political process.
That’s why the Medicaid protests were long overdue — and need to be part of a larger strategy of civil disobedience that has as its goal the creation of a single-payer health system, often called Medicare-for-All, that covers every single American and is paid for through an income tax. As things stand, the health-care constituency is fractured in narrow interest groups that allow corporate health care to maintain its hold on the industry.
That needs to change and can only change through direct action.
Yes, it’s about time.
Hank Kalet 