Health Care Industry and Congress -- We're on to You, and We're not Going to Take It Anymore

This piece originally appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Why would an otherwise sane Atlanta soccer mom brave hail, snow and tornadoes to drive across the nation inspiring others to petition lawmakers? What possessed throngs of Montanans to surround their U.S. senator's offices in protest? Why would thousands of Seattleites march through the streets, with one lady brandishing an "Inadequate Coverage" sign, clad in a hospital gown, buns exposed?

The answer is that people are desperate for real solutions to the soaring cost of healthcare. They grow increasingly frustrated as members of Congress emerge from their marble corridors for obligatory listening tours, only to offer timid, half-hearted measures. To borrow a word coined by our last president, politicians misunderestimate the will of the American people.

This troubling disconnect is the biggest lesson of my 20,000-mile journey across 30 states to the District of Columbia. I am THAT otherwise sane Atlanta mother. Never before politically active, I got off the sidelines when insurers refused to sell reasonably priced policies to my children because of their "pre-existing conditions." My son Chris, 27, suffers from Type 1 diabetes, and my daughter Caitlin, 25, has epilepsy. So my husband fixed up a little school bus we bought on eBay and painted it purple to represent a mixture of the red and blue factions that too often divide our country. Then I launched a real listening tour.

Folks in Austin, Los Angeles, South Bend and Des Moines greeted me like a hero. Omaha commuters jumped out of their cars to join our roadside rally. Some started calling me the "Purple Bus Lady" as they shared their despair over insurers charging premiums that exceed mortgage payments and using fine print to escape paying medical bills.

My reception inside the Beltway set quite a different tone. For starters, a law-abiding citizen cannot park her little bus anywhere near the great halls of democracy. Once in the Capitol, the frustration intensifies. Upon conveying our health care ordeals to the staff of Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, our delegation received caring looks and bags of peanuts, but no solutions.

Senate Democrats seem just as tone deaf as they reel from sticker shock at the price of their private insurance-based reform proposals. We the people don't need the Congressional Budget Office to tell us that a system geared towards maximizing insurance and pharmaceutical profits is unaffordable.

What politicians fail to grasp is that voters are wise to these insatiable Cookie Monsters who, according to the Washington Post, are paying lobbyists $1.4 million each day to defeat meaningful reform. Like the throngs surrounding the Montana offices of Sen. Max Baucus, people everywhere are outraged that their representatives accept millions of dollars from insurance and pharmaceutical interests but refuse to consider a quality, affordable public health insurance option.

The overwhelming majority of us want a robust public plan option because we know it's the only way to keep private insurers honest and make them compete for our business. Every single person I met along my journey is willing to pay his or her fair share. But when our elected representatives show no fortitude to rein in these voracious corporate interests, our anger grows. My journey outside the Beltway shows that lawmakers should no longer assume
people will quietly take their lumps and resign themselves to spaghetti suppers to pay off back-breaking medical debts. The ground is shifting.

This week as Congress reconvenes to hammer out the details of health reform, I invite Republicans and Democrats alike to ride in my Purple Bus. Come talk to people whose health insurance premiums exceed their mortgage payments. Then try telling us our nation can't afford to fix health care.

Follow Kathie McClure on Twitter: www.twitter.com/purplebuslady

Comments

[2396]

I'm hoping that Huffington or somebody has tasked a reporter with compiling a list of how much money each elected official is receiving from which Health Care entity so we, all across the country will know how loudly we have to shout to be heard...

[Kathie McClure - Huffpost Blogger]

OpenSecrets.org is the best resource for this information, although the revelation that the health industry is currently spending $1.4 million daily was reported by the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/05/AR2009070502770.html?sub=AR

[toggan]

Correction: Keep up the good fight.

[Kathie McClure - Huffpost Blogger]

You bet I will. We've got a long way to go before the job gets done right!

[toggan]

"Purple Bus Lady": Thank you for your service and keep us the good fight.

[Lorianne]

Going Public, Quietly
Why Obama wants to be as vague as possible about health care reform.

http://www.slate.com/id/2222406/

[Gdebs]

For a man as smart and articulate as The President , if he is vague it is because he wants to be vague.
He was right about quite a few things during the campaign and I was wrong so I hope he knows something I don't know.

[greatscot]

I honestly can't believe how a DEMOCRAT can be on the fence on single-payer health care! Must be some problem with the nomenclature. After all, Lieberman got elected & re-elected as a Democrat when he was actually a zionist, neo-con Republican, so anything's possible!

Call your Senators and let them know we will replace them if they thwart the wishes of the majority. We are not their servants to be dictated to and told to eat cake! WE pay for THEIR health coverage, and WE are equally as deserving as they, if not MORE so because WE PAY THE BILLS!

Of course, the REAL ISSUE here is that CONGRESS is, and has been for years, for sale to the special interests. We need to change that through new campaign financing laws. A prison cell should await the Congressional parasites who are on the take! Right now, the people don't have a voice in Congress.

[classicalgeek]

Thank you for taking the time to fight for those who cannot or don't know how to fight for themselves, and for writing to let us know of your efforts on our behalf.

[Kathie McClure - Huffpost Blogger]

You're welcome...­. but we all need to be in this fight. With the healthcare industry spending $1.4 million a day on lobbyists, we little people have to get in the game by speaking truth to power.

[WinterParkMom]

Kathie, arm yourself with the following numbers:

Hard numbers:
47 million uninsured, 20 million underinsured. Subtract 10 million uninsured who are poor, leaves 37 million who can pay, divide that in half: 18.5millio­n can only afford $50, 18.5 mill can afford $100, the under insured can afford $100 and get rid of their private carrier.

18.5 mill @ $50 = $925,000,000.
18.5 mill @ $100 = $1,850,000,000
20 mill @100 = $2,000,000,000.
Grand total = $4,775,000,000

That is FOUR BILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH in just affordable premium payments. That is OVER FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY, just from uninsured and under insured. That does not count the countless millions who will drop their rapists to come to a public option. Then factor in that the majority of folks will be getting preventive care, not sickness treatments (less payout to a doctor for a checkup than say dialysis)

We should also introduce a 1 penney sin tax on fast food, food/drinks with high fructose corn syrup and every bottle/glass of alohol. These are just as bad for the health as cigarettes and paying a dollar for a burger instead of 99cents isn't going to put anyone into the poorhouse.

Pass these numbers on to everyone, people need to see hard numbers and stop being scared off by rationing and long lines and it'll hurt insurance companies. Heck yeah why not? We've been the ones hurting for far too long!

[Kathie McClure - Huffpost Blogger]

I believe that we should look to those profiting from healthcare to pay their fair share. We the American people are paying for their riches, while working people are going broke. We need to fix that.

[socalgal38]

Would a petition drive for single payer plan help get it done? I have a week of vacation time and want to do something that is constructive for this cause.

[PrinceHal]

"Timid, half-hearted measures" would be an improvement over what I'm hearing.