Last Week

I cannot believe that we just finished our final friday program! This summer- spent in the wonderful city of New York- has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have learned more not only about Universal Health Care, but also about how the largest city in the US functions through exposure to the politics, culture, and simple day to day runnings of the city! My summer here has strengthened my desire to one day work in the field of medicine as a primary care provider; this I expected. However, I definately did not expect that my summer experience working on Universal health care would cause me to have an epiphany about were I want to do my work. Before this esperience, I had also desired to work in developing nations, because I thought I could have a much larger impact in countries that did not have a soldified way of doing things. After spending the summer doing policy work in the American health system, I discovered that there are exponential ways to help improve our slightly broken system, and that individuals must not give up the fight for bringing health care to every person. I have learned, from my exposure to the dedicated individuals I have spent my summer working for and with, that it is not only possible for single people to create change, but that it is necessary for oneto fight as hard and as long as possible to bring about positive change. I have learned that, even here in this nation filled with citizens who distrust government and this city known for its hardness and skeptism, that hope and determination are the two most powerful agents for doing good.

A Community Coming Together

On Monday evening, I left my office building on W 72nd street and trekked to the subway where I took the train up to 125th street. From there, I walked the 8 blocks up to the Renaissance Housing Projects. Out in front of this housing community's heart, the community center, a line of people of all ages, colors, backgrounds and sizes was forming. The mass of people were all waiting to be let into a community hearing on the 197-A plan developed by Manhattanville Community Board 9. This plan is meant to serve as a framework to guide decisions about the way in which the community will grow and change in the coming future years. The 197-A plan has taken many years to develop and includes initiatives to promote business growth which is environmentally friendly, increase the amount of low-income housing available to residents, create conditions to generate more long term jobs, preserving historic buildings which are important to the culture of Harlem, and outlaw the use of eminent domain for private use of land (among other things). The 197-A plan is extremely important because it is being released just as Columbia (which developed a very different 197-C plan)is planning to utilize the power of eminent domain to seize ten blocks of residential area of Manhattanville to use to expand Columbia's campus and build the largest biotechnology facility in the world. The residents of Manhattanville came together and united in opposition to such a plan by strongly voicing their support of 197-A and requesting that Columbia change its plan to match up with the initiatives created by the people who live and work in Manhattanville. The residents act of uniting together signals that Harlem is sick of being infringed upon by powerful corporations and institutions. The people who live here (and desperately want to stay here) love their neighborhood and realize that if Columbia wins out and is able to seize the land for its personal use and expansion that even those living outside the immediate area will eventually be forced to leave as a result of soaring rent prices and overall exponential increases in cost of living. The community forum was one of the most moving experiences I have had to date in NYC because it illustrated the strength that can come from such a diverse community organizing together to present a united front.

Why Universal HealthCare?

Prior to starting my internship with Rekindling Reform, I was like most of my peers: uninvolved in the fight to gain universal healthcare. I personally had never even thought deeply about the importance of guaranteed medical services regardless of one's insurance status simply because I myself have been covered my whole life by my father's employer plan. I have never not been able to go to the doctor (or any specialty doctor) because of a lack of insurance, and I have never directly had to pay for any of my medical treatment except for the $8 co-pay I shell out when I pick up prescriptions. I was even able to undergo an advanced ankle surgery, which was not "medically necessary for daily life" but which was necessary for me to continue participating in high school and college track. In my town, all of my friends were in a similar situation to me, so it simply never came up to discuss the problems which insurance (or lack thereof) can cause with access to medicine, because all of us had great access to health coverage.
My naiveté on the subject continued into my college years because Cornell requires that all students have some sort of health insurance, allowing students to use their own plans if approved by the university, or forcing them to buy into Cornell's insurance plan. This requirement again created an environment where I was surrounded by students who all had access to treatment. I was first exposed to the stress of health insurance indirectly when older friends of mine from Cornell, who had since graduated and entered into the real world, began complaining about the huge bills they were paying to stay covered.
My innocence was completely shattered when I arrived in New York and began meeting with people who had no insurance. Many of these people worked minimum wage jobs for employers who did not offer health coverage, but some worked higher income jobs, but simply could not afford the high premiums which have continued to rise exponentially even as the actual services provided have declined. These people told me stories of illnesses left untreated which simple antibiotics could have eradicated (because without insurance, doctors won't see sick people) until the condition became so serious that the patient ended up in the emergency room and left with bills for thousands of dollars. The cost of treating the illness at the first sign would have been one tenth of what the individual ended up being forced to pay. Many times these bills go unpaid which increases the cost of treatment for everyone else. Our current system actually encourages this kind of fiscal waste by offering no primary care medical services to those who need them most, the uninsured.
Americans are unique from people of other nations as they view healthcare as a privilege instead of a basic human right. To citizens from France, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, Japan Italy, and many many more countries, access to health care is guaranteed, just as service from a fireman or a postal worker or a police force is guaranteed. Even more surprising is that in these nations, citizens pay half of what Americans do (7% of the GNP compared to 15% of ours) and are able to cover everyone. The costs of these services, which we all take for granted, are shared by everyone and paid for by the government through taxes. Health care is just as essential, if not more so, than all of these basic services, yet it is not provided! Health care must be managed by a group that does not seek to make profit so that it becomes as efficient as these basic services. Although America is based upon a free market system, health care is not a commodity to be traded and profited from! Americans must change reevaluate their loyalty to capitalism, solely in the health care arena, as a way to make sure that all citizens in this country, which is no longer thought of as having the best health care system in the world, have access to necessary medical services.