When it comes to winning health care for the people, HEAL California believes victory will begin with a state-based system and end with federal legislation. There are countless examples of victories for human rights and personal freedoms that first occurred at the state level before being embraced by the nation as a whole.
For example, women in the Wyoming Territory were the first to be granted the right to vote in 1870, but it wasn’t until 1919 – 49 years later – that federal law extended that right to all American women.
We see an even longer timeline when it came to the legalization of interracial marriage. Pennsylvania repealed its laws against miscegenation in 1780, but it wasn’t for 187 years, in 1967, that the US Supreme Court ruled all such laws were unconstitutional.
By contrast, federal same-sex marriage equality was won in the blink of an eye, only 12 years after the first state – Massachusetts – permitted it in 2003. And winning state by state was the strategy. Freedom to Marry developed a “Roadmap to Victory” that explicitly called for wins in individual states as the first step to growing public support and bringing an end to federal marriage discrimination.
So why not win health care equality state-by-state? After all, that’s how Canada won their healthcare system.
It all began with Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather, Tommy Douglas. (Yes! That Kiefer Sutherland.) A politician and Baptist minister in Saskatchewan, Douglas believed that “every Canadian deserved the right to have quality health care, regardless of their economic or social situation.”
This simple belief became the foundation of a provincial campaign that led to Canada’s first universal public health insurance system. Canadian Medicare began in Saskatchewan on July 1, 1962, and spread to all the other provinces over the next 10 years.
Of course, it was tough. Whenever Big Money Stakeholders are involved, they throw their weight around. Even AFTER the vote approving the new system, the private health insurance industry fed the fears of the Canadian Medical Association about possible government interference in health care, and many doctors actually went on strike. The situation was very tense. The Saskatchewan provincial government “stared down the North America medical-industrial complex for 23 anxious days.”
During the strike, hundreds of supportive local doctors and especially nurses stepped up and opened makeshift clinics to fill in for the doctors who chose to turn their backs on their patients for political reasons. In addition, the province of Saskatchewan flew in planeloads of volunteer doctors from Great Britain. It was an amazing moment as people pulled together behind a vision of “health care as a public good, not a business.”
In the end, the Canadian doctors went back to work and the right of the Canadian people to choose a universal, comprehensive, government-funded health care system was upheld.
An unexpected participant in this fight was the American Medical Association, who launched a PR campaign against the Saskatchewan public health insurance plan. They called it “socialist” and complained about government interference in health care.
It is tragic and ironic that this identical argument about government takeover of healthcare surfaced during our 2008-10 Congressional debate over Obamacare. Armies of highly paid lobbyists convinced the government to take the most popular option – single payer – off the table. Yes, in 2009 a CBS News/NY Times poll indicated 59% support among Americans for government provided national health insurance. Yet single payer was labeled “unrealistic” and eliminated from consideration very early on. “Unrealistic” must mean “Hands off our cash cow!”
Currently, opportunities for systemic change at the federal level – the preferred solution – are virtually nonexistent. Some legislators were even ready to shut down the entire US government to prevent implementation of Obamacare – not because of its giant payola to the health insurance industry, Big Pharma and corporate health care – but rather over fictional “death panels” and the vague threat of “socialized medicine.”
So that leaves us “stuck” with working for healthcare equality in the absolute best, most far-sighted, creative and amazing place on Earth – California!
We know we can win in California because we already have. In 2006 and again in 2008, the California Legislature passed The California Universal Healthcare Act (introduced by Senator Sheila Kuehl) only to have Governor Schwarzenegger decline to sign it – twice.
With the right combination of legislature and governor, we believe a win in California is definitely possible. And with the 8th largest economy in the world, winning single payer here will definitely enhance the chances of wins in other states and eventually a national single payer system.
The challenge is overcoming people’s fears of change, and inoculating them against the deception of the existing stakeholders, especially the health insurance industry. And spreading truthful information is how we plan to HEAL California!
Courage, my friends; ’tis not too late to build a better world.
Tommy Douglas, The Greatest Canadian
Learn more:
Women’s Right to Vote Timeline
Anti-Miscegenation Laws in the US
Marriage Equality State by State Strategy
Canada’s Hero of Healthcare – Tommy Douglas
American Medical Assoc Interference in Saskatchewan Healthcare Reform
Data on Americans’ Support for Medicare for All
2009 NY Times Poll on Americans’ Preferences for Healthcare Reform
