Toothache

by Rap Lewis

For the story of Kyle Willis, we are indebted to Matthew Yglesias, who blogs for The American Prospect.

Like 15 million other Americans, Willis was unemployed. Like many more millions, he had no health insurance. Therefore, when Willis’ wisdom tooth started hurting, he toughed it out for two weeks. When dentists told him it should be pulled, he held off because he had no way of paying for the procedure.

When his face stated swelling and his head began to ache, he went to a hospital emergency room. There he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medication. He couldn’t afford both, so he chose the pain medication.

The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. On August 30, at the age of 24, Kyle Willis died.

The United States of America can pay for two wars, bail out the biggest banks, and dish out billions in tax “relief” to corporations and millionaires. All that wealth, swollen like an infected tooth -- yet it cannot provide, at modest cost, the most basic health services to Kyle Willis and millions like him.

Our country has a toothache and needs some radical dentistry.

129 sponsors for public option bill

By David Loud

What a year it’s been working on healthcare reform - a milestone year in an ongoing struggle for healthcare justice. It’s worth noting that President Theodore Roosevelt first called for national health care in 1912, and that successive Presidents tried and failed to move this agenda. When President Obama signed the Affordable Health Care Act into law in March, it was the biggest step forward in a century of trying. This law is flawed and incomplete, but it represents a historic victory. As Congressman Jim McDermott has said recently, “That was our D-Day, and now we’re on the beaches.” The opponents of reform would like to push us back into the water in November, and the advocates of reform know that to survive we must fight to defend and improve on what’s been achieved.

A bill to amend the Affordable Care Act to establish a public health insurance option was filed in the House in July. HR 5808 has 129 cosponsors, including Congressman McDermott. Single-payer (a publicly-funded national plan for all) remains the best policy idea, and many are working to promote it at both the state and national levels.

The ongoing rise in healthcare costs will force people to revisit the question of whether we will be able to afford healthcare for all as long as long as private insurance and profiteering have so much power in the system.

I hope all of us will find some way to help keep our country from moving further to the right in the November elections. It would be tragic if understandable disappointments in getting “change we can believe in” since 2008 lead people to allow Republicans to gain the power to push us backwards. Probably more important than anything else will be getting out the vote – persuading people that it does really matter this year, as much as it did in 2008.

(David Loud is a member of PSARA.)

Melanie’s marchers

A group of “health insurance company abuse survivors” has marched from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, to honor Melanie Shouse, a health care activist who died because she didn’t have the affordable health care she needed to detect and treat her breast cancer. Five hundred people greeted the arrival of “Melanie’s Marchers” and walked the last leg together to Capitol Hill.

Melanie’s Marchers walked for eight days and 135 miles. Will you call Senators Murray and Cantwell and your U.S. Representative and appeal to them to vote for health care reform – in honor of Melanie?

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