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Virginians join rally for health care reform
Hundreds of Virginians will travel to Washington, D.C., June 25 for the 'Health Care – We Can't Wait' Rally at the U.S. Capitol with one message: The health care system in the United States is broken. Fix it.
The Virginia Organizing Project, which is organizing the state's participation in the nationwide rally, released a report two days earlier on health care in the commonwealth. The picture it paints is bleak: More than a million Virginians are unemployed, wages are down, health care costs are up, and “health care and health insurance are becoming increasingly unaffordable” for most Americans, including Virginians.
Health care costs in the country are double those in comparable developed nations, said Jill Hanken, staff attorney for health care law at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, at the June 23 press unveiling of the report. “Yet we rank last among 19 similar countries on rate of preventable deaths.”
His frustration at trying to deliver the health care he was trained for brings him to the rally, said Chris Lillis, a primary care physician in Fredericksburg. He said the current system has made it more and more difficult to practice medicine.
His Medicare and Tricare (government retirement plan) patients have relatively unfettered access to tests and medications, Lillis said. “They are covered under a robust public plan. The private insurers construct obstacles just to get the tests ordered.”
Dealing with the requirements of “a myriad of private plans,” Lillis said, means keeping three staffers for every doctor. It means spending hours a day on the phone to get a test approved.
“The private insurers protect their profits. They make it as difficult as possible to get care.”
Eric Newsom, of Reston, is well insured, thanks to his government-sponsored retirement plan. He will be at the rally to speak for those not so fortunate.
'I think that health care for everybody is such an urgent issue, I have to do every bit that I can. I contacted VOP to offer my services and they invited me to this day on the Hill. Congress needs to hear from the American people in a big way to offset the massive lobbying that is going on there now.”
He would prefer, Newsom said, a single-payer system, but recognizes that is not likely in today's political climate. He will advocate for “serious reform, including a strong public option.”
The plan he would like to see will be run by the government – as are Medicare and Tricare and other federal retirement programs – and will be open to any American who wants it. Those who can pay, will pay. The government will assist those who can't pay.
Newsom will join what organizers predict will be a crowd of 10,000. With small business owners, rural residents, faith leaders, health care providers, and Virginians who are insured, uninsured and underinsured, he will meet with Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb and with U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf.
“If we don't come out of this with a public plan,” Newsom said, “whatever emerges won't be worth much.”
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