Health Care Reform

by Dee Newman

As I have said before – I believe that health care is a human right and that the same level of care, regardless of ones ability to pay for treatment, should be available to everyone.

I believe the only true solution to the health care crisis is a single-payer health insurance system. Representative Anthony Weiner’s bill (HR 676) stands alone in its ethical simplicity: It will cover 100 percent of the American people. It is the only way to truly reduce costs.

Short of a single-payer system, I continue to call on Congress to pass a bill with a "robust public option." If reforms are passed by congress without a public option the insurance industry will merely pass reform costs on to the American people in the form of higher premiums and co-pays. Only competition from a strong public option will control skyrocketing health costs.

To date Congress has centered the health reform debate on the question of whether a bill will add to the national debt, rather than whether it will provide affordable and high-quality health care to everyone.

It is time to recognize that health care is a right of all people and not a means to make money off the wellbeing of others.