America’s Racial Generation Gap & Healthcare Reform
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Welcome to Code WACK!, your podcast on America’s broken healthcare system and how Medicare for All could help. I’m your host, Brenda Gazzar.
What struggles do residents of the state of Washington face when it comes to accessing health care? What’s being done to make the single-payer movement there more racially and generationally diverse? We spoke to Sean Cavanaugh, campaign director for Whole Washington, to find out.
Welcome to Code WACK!, Sean.
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Q: I’m curious. Do you have any stories of somebody that you know that was impacted by either being uninsured or underinsured either during the COVID pandemic or before that has really affected you?
Cavanaugh: So there was this one woman and her husband, and he caught a disease. His company, let him go. He didn’t have health insurance, and now his job that he now has doesn’t provide health insurance, and they fall into that income, where, like, they make too much for, like, aid, but too little to afford an Obamacare plan and so they’re constantly kind of like living in fear that he could get sick, and it’s a lung issue so also in fear of getting COVID. Just hearing their story makes me, makes me sad that they have to live in that fear and so many others also do, too.
There was this one woman who she — now this was a long time ago — but they didn’t have health insurance, and she was pregnant. She had some pain. The doctors wouldn’t see her because she didn’t have health insurance, and she ended up losing her first child. A couple years later, she’s in Canada. She has pain, and she’s like no, she tells a friend no I’m not going to…I have pain but I can’t go see the doctor. (The friend said) what are you talking about, we’ve got universal health care — go see the doctor. It was the same issue that came up the first time but because they saw the doctor, they were able to treat it and now they have a sweet child.
Q: Wow, so you’re an apprentice electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46. How does your experience in the labor movement affect or inform your vision for leading Whole Washington to victory in the fight for health care reform?
Cavanaugh: Yeah, I’m an apprentice electrician. I’m in my fifth year. It’s a five-year program so I have one year left before I journey out and just being part of the union has taught me how that if we all band together we can win benefits that the contractors, the employers say you can’t have. But if we all put our hands in our pockets, we totally can. So, being part of a union for people it just means that, again, we take care of each other, we say, hey, employer, you can’t pay us any less than this person and we create that solidarity where we know that when we look over to our brother or sister to our left and right, we know that they’re getting paid a great wage that’s going to take care of them, their families, and with universal health care that’s just an extension of that promise.
For unions, universal health care would immensely help them. It would take health care off the bargaining table so we can just focus more on putting that money that would have gone to health care to our wages, to our retirement, to any new benefits that we want to have like daycare because so many of our brothers and sisters have kids, both parents work in daycare. It’s expensive around here. We can put that towards making sure the education for our apprentices are fully paid for, so they don’t have to pay any out of pocket costs.
And also, for me, for instance in my union, we pay $1,500 a month in premium dues. Now that’s a benefit that we don’t see on our check, but it’s there. And by switching to our universal health care plan provided by Whole Washington, for me personally, I would save about $15,000 that could go to anywhere in our benefits, but for me, I think it’s possible that we could use that money and say hey, put it on our wage, let us work, a 32 (or) 35-hour workweek. We would be able to take home the same amount of money, as we did when we had a 40-hour workweek, and now we have more time to spend with our families, rest, and allow us to, you know, work and not destroy our bodies at the same time.
Q: So yeah, $15,000, a year, you would end up saving?
Cavanaugh: Yes.
Shawn later noted that savings like this probably won’t be typical says most people don’t have such high premiums, but 95% of Washingtonians could save thousands upon enrolling in the Whole Washington Health Trust.
Q: Let’s talk racial diversity and the single-payer movement. Do you believe in Medicare for all movement is sufficiently diverse, and what can single payer supporters do to build bridges with Black, Indigenous and People of Color, and other disenfranchised communities?
Cavanaugh: I don’t think that the universal health care movement is a super diverse community just in my experience, I haven’t of course talked to all parts of the corner, but from my interactions with folks, it seems to be a mass majority of white community — also an older community. That’s two issues I think that need the same solution, and it’s just about making yourself available. The universal healthcare movement needs to reach out and actually talk to these communities, especially Black, brown. …If they were, we would be more diverse, and because we’re not diverse, I think that’s the reason why right there.
We’re not talking, and actually listening and bringing in and building that solidarity between these groups because these groups, they are the ones most affected by the system, they have the strongest stories, they have the most reasons to be fighting for this, and all due respect, older people, they’re retired. They have Medicare, I don’t really think they have the same urgency. Now, that’s my opinion. I know I’ve talked to a lot of them and they do have that urgency, but my point is that we could be doing a lot more together with other communities.
Q: Right and just curious how does Whole Washington reach out to these communities?
Cavanaugh: I have talked to several Black organizations, and one of their major concerns is that our board is … not as diverse as they would like it. And so, we’ve gotten that comment from at least two organizations, and so I relayed that to our board, and they’ve been taking steps to bring in more people of color and they brought in about two more. And so, you know, you would never know that this is an issue for people until like you ask them and talk to them. And now, it’s not that these organizations that we’ve talked to don’t care. They just want to see change.
Q: That’s great. When were these new board members brought in?
They were brought in in the last two or three months, And yeah, I just want to remind your viewers don’t be afraid to talk and don’t be afraid of rejection. We win when we fight and we win when we talk and communicate with each other so build those connections.
Q: Right. What about generational diversity. What are you doing to attract more young people like yourself into the single-payer movement?
Right, so we get younger people coming to our meetings. We try to get them involved with activities and groups, and really empower them. And the thing that we try not to do is dismiss their ideas. I think a lot of times older activists have been through this fight for so long, that they’re like No, that won’t work. We’ve tried it. And my suggestion is and what we try to do is like, Okay, you want to do this, this is what we didn’t do, what we did. It didn’t really work, and just kind of guide them from there and let them put in that experience, because maybe we didn’t try hard enough and or did it the wrong way, and that they can do it.
Q: Thank you, Sean Cavanaugh.
Find more Code WACK! episodes on ProgressiveVoices.com and on the PV App. You can also subscribe to Code WACK! wherever you find your podcasts. This podcast is powered by HEAL California, uplifting the voices of those fighting for health care reform around the country. I’m Brenda Gazzar.
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