Washington, D.C.
 
The much-advertised health care summit ran its course today at the White House. It was very clear during the televised proceedings that Democrats want to do a variety of things to deal with some parts of the health care crisis, while the Republicans are merely stalling for time and defending the insurance companies. Unfortunately, neither side wants to oust the insurance companies from the scene and fix the health care crisis once and for all. For working people, this same “summit” could have been held last year, or two years ago, or ten or twenty years ago and the outcome would have been the same. More talking will not solve this problem. Confronting the corporate interests who profit from our broken health care system is the only way to tackle this problem. 

Commenting on the day-long health reform talk-a-thon today in Washington, UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend said, “President Obama and the Democrat Congressional majority spent another day today talking about health care reform. Large parts of the day were wasted in the fruitless pursuit of Republican support for any of their limited reforms. Democrats – especially Senate Democrats – squandered most of the past year begging Republicans to support health care reform. In the end, they crafted a plan that falls far short of fixing the problem and may even worsen the situation for many working people. Then today, they couldn’t even get a Republican nibble in support of their watered-down scheme. Working people with health insurance are being robbed by the illegal practices of the insurance companies. Working people without health insurance are going to bankruptcy court. This crisis cannot be solved unless the insurance companies are driven from the scene and replaced with a single payer system. That’s the only way to save money, and cover everyone. No amount of talking can change this fact, and the frustration level and discontent among working people will continue to rise until the logjam is broken.”   

For more background information see the Health Care Reform [1] resolution and Policy Action [2] resolution adopted by the UE 71st National Convention.