Will An Oct. 27 Hill Hearing Make History For Your Health Rights?

To energize public support for robust health care reform, a civil rights icon and two House leaders are planning a hearing and rally Oct. 27 on Capitol Hill.

Their ambitious plan is to duplicate for health care the same kind of breakthrough legal reform achieved in civil rights by 1960s marches. Planners include the Rev. Walter Fauntroy of Washington, DC, who was the principal organizer of the 1963 civil rights march in Washington and of three 1965 marches in Alabama.

"From every poll," Fauntroy told me over the weekend in an exclusive interview for Huffington Post, "it's clear that the people want an end to the tyranny of insurance companies. Insurers tyrannize doctors, they tyrannize patients. The news media have not focused on this. But the media won't be able to ignore common people crawling over the halls of Congress ─ and the nation's conscience will be pricked."

Another key planner is House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. of Detroit, who predicts a "disaster" for President Obama and other Democrats seeking re-election if they kow-tow to insurers by killing a strong public option. The result, he says, would be to force consumers to buy overpriced insurance that doesn't deliver enough benefits -- with blame for Democrats for years to come.

The third leader of the planning group is U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who will host the four-hour town hall hearing in the committee's Rayburn Building hearing room and develop its witness list in cooperation with colleagues.

I was among the two dozen or so House staff members, patients and their advocates, and journalists attending an informal, two-hour health care strategy meeting last Thursday convened by Conyers and Jackson Lee. For months, Conyers has presided over similar in-depth discussions at the Rayburn Building open to anyone in the public.

His purpose? To foster support among House staff and their bosses for a robust public option, and for the alternative single-payer plan that he's sponsored in the bill HR 676.

But his plans face powerful opposition from the insurance industry, plus virtually all congressional Republicans and many centrist Blue Dog Democrats. Also, such mainstream news outlets as the Washington Post for months have undercut his solutions, as in the Oct. 19 front-page story, "White House Aides Reaffirm Public Option Is Not Mandatory." Yet the paper's own poll -- and main front-pager the next day -- revealed: "Public Option Gains Support: Clear Majority Now Backs Plan."

Lessons from History
Fauntroy, 76, is a retired pastor whose five decades in civil rights provide rare first-hand experience on how to change national perceptions. That experience is especially relevant for those who believe that affordable health care is the key civil rights issue of our time in the U.S., which has a delivery system unique among industrialized nations in terms of high overal cost and restrictive access requirements.

In 1963, Fauntroy coordinated the Washington march on behalf of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose "I Have A Dream" speech paved the way for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Similarly, Fauntroy helped his friend King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and five other major civil rights groups plan the three 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. The route (completed only on the third attempt) traversed Lowndes County, whose officials for years blocked its entire black population from voting via intimidation and arbitrary registration rules.

The Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, left, was a member of Congress from 1971 to 1990. U.S. Reps. John Conyers, Jr., and Sheila Jackson Lee were first elected in 1964 and 1994, respectively

The Alabama murders of three protesters and the photos of police beating peaceful marchers on what became known as "Bloody Sunday" prompted national outrage that encouraged President Lyndon Johnson to lead passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Passage was especially remarkable because Johnson had quietly persuaded Democratic Party segregationist leaders earlier in his career that he was their best hope nationally for maintaining their power.

"We had a very 'cooperative' adversary," Fauntroy recalls of the willingness of Alabama police in those days to show so vividly how they enforced segregation.

The Oct. 27 Plan
For Oct. 27, planners envision a public hearing at the House Rayburn Building. Conyers wants everyone who attends also to visit nearby congressional offices to counter insurance lobbyists. "This is not a fair fight we're in," he warns his allies.

Conyers was elected to his first term in 1964 and is himself one of the surviving elder statesmen of the civil rights era. Among other initiatives, he's a co-founder with Fauntroy of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Conyers presided over his strategy meeting Thursday with few comments. For the most part, he listened to others describe their ordeals in obtaining vital medical care even if insured. He noted that certain reforms being proposed to expand coverage won't be available to the public for three or more years. "Some of you," he joked, "will be in heaven by then."

Although similarly low-key most of the time, he's already on record with one of the most caustic appraisals by any senior congressional Democrat of the Obama administration's handling of health care planning so far.

This summer, Conyers spoke of his fears at a meeting of Progressive Democrats of America, which he co-founded.

"There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama," Conyers told the group. "I've told him that to his face." The reason? "Buddy, you are wrong on health care, and it's going to cost you big time," Conyers continued. "We've got to tell Obama now, or he'll be a one-term president."

Conyers backs the HR 676 "Medicare for All" bill scheduled for vote this week. He and other backers say the proposal will create huge administrative savings via a single-payer system that is used by most industrialized nations. Some nations use private insurers but with far more regulation than in the U.S. All provide equivalent or better health care to the U.S. in many or most respects at half or less of overall costs, according to studies by the international research group OECD and Economist.

More than 80 House Democrats support a robust public option with a commitment not to support inadequate measures, Conyers said last week, and if these House members stand firm with their constituent interests no harmful bill can become law. "I'm optimistic," he concluded.

Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee says, "We've got to win" by insisting on a public option. One of 93 co-sponsors also of single-payer, she wants doctors to begin the Oct. 27 hearing by describing why those not eligible for Medicare need an alternative to for-profit insurance. As an urgent reason for action, she's cited 47 million uninsured Americans plus 50 million "under-insured," including millions of children.

Younger than Conyers and Fauntroy, she's still a barrier-breaker herself. She was one of the nation's first women ever to win admission to venerable Yale College. In Houston, she served first as a city judge and then as a city council member before defeating an incumbent in a 1994 primary.

As for Fauntroy, he recognizes the difficulties of creating a mass demonstration on short notice, especially in seeking attendance by those who are sick and ill-funded -- and when a president's advisors are reluctant to use their political clout. President Obama theoretically supports a public option, but he has not insisted on it. Over the weekend, yet another report surfaced that an anonymous Obama health advisor rebuked a prominent Democrat who advocates a public option.

Winning a President's Help
"Been there, done that," however, is part of Fauntroy's contribution to this rally. He recalls Attorney Gen. Robert Kennedy's reluctance in 1963 to provide government loudspeakers for the King speech after $66,000 worth of sound equipment was sabotaged the night before the march.

Kennedy feared criticism for his brother's presidency if the government financially supported the march, Fauntroy says. In those days of powerful Southern congressional chairmen, the nation's capital was in some ways an extension of white Southern culture. The National Press Club refused to admit black applicants until 1955, for example, and the Washington Redskins refused to hire black players until forced to do so in 1962.

But Fauntroy's cajoling obtained the loudspeakers from the federal government with Kennedy's help, thereby enabling the world to hear King's historic speech.

"I've had to take it," Fauntroy recalls, "from the suites to the street."

On Oct. 27, will history repeat?

 

 

Follow Andrew Kreig on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AndrewKreig

Comments

[furioustruthtopower]

I am the Media Outreach coordinator for the Hearing. The list of Congress Members co-sponsoring and attending the event is quickly growing. Congress Members Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Keith Ellison to name a few.
If you are in the DC area please come out and support the fight for the public option. Contact me at [e-mail] for more information, press inquiries, or to confirm attendance.
Thank You

[Len Bracken]

I'm heartened to read about heath care activism that I wouldn't know about otherwise. Good reporting Andrew Kreig. Unfortunately even these activist proposals fall short of prevention and wellness programs that could save much more money and many more lives.

[LAjames227]

Andrew Kreig's article is enlightening and a good summary of the current much needed street level activism regarding health care reform in the U.S. It is important that the movement for health care reform be further stimulated. Washington needs to know that the people are behind reform and that Americans need improved health care. Sometimes our current systems seem like a bad joke. Recently due to an accident and I incurred over $100k in medical bills. A prominent health insurer reimbursed the equally prominent provider organization less than one-third of the original billed amounts. I have no complaints about the accessibility to or quality of care that I received from the provider or the services of the insurance organization; everyone was professional and courteous. However, the discrepancy in the billed and reimbursed amounts does not lend credibility to the system in general. There needs to be credibility in the system and we need reform to provide coverage to one and all especially our children. The vast amounts of money spent lobbying against any significant health care reform would surely go a long way toward providing the much needed health care for those Americans who for whatever reason do not have medical coverage. It is sad to see good money squandered with no gain for America, except for the special interest groups.

[jackelnyc]

It is constructive to society to see that the Hon. Rev. Walter Fauntroy coming forth to participate and be directly involved in the October 27 activities and sessions on The Hill.

I recall meeting him in the 1960s while covering civil right and human rights while a very young reporter for United Press Movietone Television News and later for NBC News. He spoke out then and created, designed and accomplished constructiveness in human rights and dignity for his fellow man.

He created the scene and setting for the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Now, 49 years after Mississipi Burning and 44 years after The Selma March from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama he continues to help others.

Perhaps it is time to have an expression used in that era and voiced by then President Lyndon Johnson heard this month at Congressional hearings, in the corridors of the Capitol and in demonstrations on The Hill and around Washington...."We Shall Overcome".



John Kelly

[Andrew Kreig - Huffpost Blogger]

This afternoon Congresswoman Jackson Lee sent a letter to her colleagues inviting them to participate. The letter represents the first public description of details, and so I'll quote it.
“We invite you to join us for a special informal hearing designed to provide a platform to average Americans who have been harmed by our nation’s health care system,” according to the letter. This event is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 2009, from 9 am – 12 pm, in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building."
"Following the hearing, we plan to take the stories of those testifying at the hearing to floor of the House with a Special Order. During the Special Hearing, we aim to put a face on the public option by displaying photos of some of the millions of Americans who demand that Congress pass health reform legislation now, with a strong and robust public option. Surveys show that nearly three out of four voters want a public health insurance plan. Further, 73% of doctors as well as 1,000 state legislators – representing all 50 states – favor health reform legislation with a public option....Despite this vast support for the public option, special interests are working diligently to ensure that the public option is dropped from the final versions of health reform legislation making their way through both houses of Congress."

[recorsini]

Andrew Kreig's invocation here of the struggle for Civil Rights in the sixties and connecting it to our current national struggle for Health Care is brilliant and vitally important. Health Care must be looked at as a Civil Right. Period. My recent filmmaking work in New Orleans focusing on the mental health crisis in the region is proof positive that the public option approach to health care is the only way stabilize America's struggling populaitons. In New Orleans today 70% of the African American population have no health care coverage. What's worse, is that the capacity to deliver health care to poor people there (a rapidly exanding demographic) is virtually non-existent. I would say that all qualifiies as a new Civil Rights issue! With the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee leading the charge here, I'm confident progress and victory will be had.