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Health Care Reform Is Critical For African Americans |
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--Melody Barnes is White House Domestic Policy Advisor and Director of the Domestic Policy Counci
By Melody Barnes
Right now, tens of millions of Americans are living without health care coverage. Tens of thousands more join their ranks each week. Most of these people are hardworking, middle class Americans. Maybe they lost a job. Maybe they couldn't keep up with premiums that are rising three times as fast as wages, or maybe their employer had to choose between dropping coverage and closing down shop. Whatever the reason, they live with the knowledge that one illness or injury could wipe out everything they have. They go without checkups and care that could save their livelihoods or even their lives. And at the going rates, any one of us could be one bad break away from joining them.
Even Americans with insurance are paying more than ever before, and getting less; less coverage, less security, less peace of mind for themselves and their families. Too many of us know someone who has stayed in the wrong job because they're afraid they'll lose coverage if they leave, or who abandoned the dream of starting their own business because they can't afford insurance. And we have all heard the heart-wrenching stories of men and women who diligently paid their premiums only to have their coverage dropped when they needed it most, leaving them broke – or worse.
As with so many issues, if the state of our health care system is a crisis for America, it's a catastrophe for black America. On average, African Americans spend a higher percentage of their income on health care costs than their white counterparts. Yet despite that spending, we also suffer from higher percentages of chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes. That's due, at least in part, to a lack of access to quality affordable care.
For too long, Washington has talked about fixing our broken health care system, only to allow the same old partisan politics and special interest lobbying to block change. But this isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican one – it's a moral imperative. That's why President Obama has put forth a health insurance reform plan that borrows good ideas from both sides of the aisle, even from his opponents in both the primary and general elections.
This plan does three basic things:
*If you have insurance it will provide you more stability and security.
*If you don't have insurance, it will provide you affordable options.
*And it will slow the unsustainable cost of health care for American families, businesses, and taxpayers.
If you already have insurance you like, nothing in President Obama's plan will require you or your employer to change your coverage or your doctor. And let's be clear: if you get your health coverage from Medicare, the President will protect this program that America's seniors depend on. Through this reform, we will begin to close the prescription drug doughnut hole saving thousands of dollars for America's seniors. Despite some of the scary myths being spread, not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.
At the same time, the President's plan will end some of the insurance companies' worst practices. They will no longer be able to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition or to drop or water down your coverage because you or someone in your family gets sick. They will also be prohibited from capping the total amount of coverage you can receive in a year or a lifetime. And they will have to abide by yearly caps on out of pocket expenses and fully cover routine checkups and preventive care – things like colonoscopies and mammograms.
If you don't have insurance – and one in five African Americans don't – the President's plan will provide you affordable options the same way Members of Congress get them: by creating an exchange where you can leverage the purchasing power of a large group to get reasonable prices and choose the option that's best for you and your family. If you still can't afford coverage, we will provide you a tax credit to help.
The President also believes that one of the choices in this exchange should be a public option. This option would be exactly what it sounds like – one more choice for Americans without insurance. Nobody would be forced to choose it and it would not affect those who already have insurance. But by operating on a not-for-profit basis and eliminating some of the costs faced by insurance companies for things like administrative costs and salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers while keeping pressure on private insurers to do the same.
Finally, while insuring more Americans will not be without cost, President Obama has promised that he absolutely will not sign a bill that adds even a dime to our deficits. To prove how serious he is about this issue, the bill will contain a provision that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize.
Putting an end to the problems riddling our health care system won't be easy. If it was, Washington would have already done it by now. But it's also never been more important. Our families, businesses, and nation as a whole have reached a breaking point, and the status quo is unsustainable. So, as President Obama said last week, he might not be the first President to take up the mantle of health insurance reform, but he's determined to be the last. We should all be determined to join him.
Glenn Beck Fears Change As Much As Obama's Reforms |
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By Robert James Taylor
The anti-Obama, attack-on-Big-Government movement has several faces. First of all, it is almost exclusively a movement of conservative whites. It is being organized primarily by FreedomWorks - an anti-tax, pro-business group headed by former House Republican leader Dick Armey of Texas . FreedomWorks is backed by lesser right-wing groups such as Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet and the National Taxpayers Union.
However, on the media level the conservative insurgency against President Obama is being actively promoted by right-wing talk radio icons such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox Cable News, especially commentator (he is not a journalist) Glenn Beck. The role of Beck in the movement is unique because from his position he is able to unite the interests of the major corporate powers which secretly back the anti-Obama movement with the fears and anger of the conservative middle class whites who populate the movement.
In order to understand Beck, you must first understand for whom he works. Fox Cable News is owned by Rupert Murdock - the billionaire media mogul who uses his worldwide media empire to promote two things: low-intelligence, mind numbing television programs and a right-wing, conservative political agenda. In America , the Murdock empire is headed by former Republican Party operative Roger Ailes - a man deeply in love with the conservative agenda.
In other words, by constantly attacking the Obama administration and liberal politicians in general, Beck is doing exactly what his bosses want him to do. That is why Ailes hired him away from cable news competitor CNN. But what further unites the anti-Obama movement - from Murdock and Armey to Beck and the middle class white guy in Iowa - is three beliefs.
On the corporate side, conservative big business believes that liberal big government will bring more “socialism” to America by instituting programs which benefit the general population at the expense of corporate profits. On the conservative middle class white guy side of the equation, there is the belief that liberal big government will increase spending on social programs which benefit minorities at the expense of whites.
Both groups believe that all of the above will take place faster if that liberal big government is headed by a Black man. It is this third belief that gives the movement its racial (or racist) cutting edge. The movement does not so much hate Obama as it fears him.
The Obama election shocked white conservatives. A Black man was elected president of the United States without getting a majority of the white vote. Exit polls from CNN and other media organizations show that Obama won the presidency with only 43 percent of the white vote while garnering 95 percent of the Black vote along with 66 percent of the vote from Hispanics and 63 percent from Asian Americans.
Finally, white conservatives and analysts like Glenn Beck recognize that America is changing and they simply do not like the change. Obama was able to win the presidency without a majority of the white vote because demographically this nation is rapidly becoming less and less white. Already, America is less than two-thirds white. The Census Bureau is projecting that by 2050 (if not earlier) minorities will constitute the majority. These developments scare conservative whites. Beck simply plays to their fears with often idiotic rants like calling Obama (a man whose mother is white) a “racist” with “a deeply seated hatred of white people.”
Robert James Taylor is editor of the National Black News Journal - an online digital newspaper providing news and analysis to the African American community:
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It's time to ask, 'What Can I Do?
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Probably unlike any community in the nation, the African American community holds its breath any time a heinous crime has been perpetrated against innocents.
Collectively, the black community wonders, but does not state aloud, "are the alleged assailants black?"
The white, Asian or Hispanic communities do not do this as often as our own. That's a sad, but important fact.
This awful feeling was again realized this week when a black man and an a 16-year-old accomplice allegedly robbed and terrorized a family on the city's near south side and ultimately murdered a woman, critically wounded an off-duty police woman and shot another man.
This mayhem dominated the news for three days before a photo of the accused man hit the airwaves.
He is black.
Just as with the school bus beating in Belleville and the shoot-out outside a convenience store on the city's north side, young black people have been involved.
During the summer, it seemed as if there was a shooting a night in the city of St. Louis, and most of the victims and alleged triggermen were African American.
So it is time to stop silently asking "are they African American?' and start openly asking "what can I do to end this violence?"
Certainly, there are no easy answers. If there were a magic strategy to end violence on city streets, it would have been enacted by now.
But a community must start somewhere if it is going to save its young people from violence and death. And this community must begin quickly before more lives are lost or thrown away.
In today's issue of the St. Louis Argus is a story involving a city-wide effort to help families and individuals avoid homelessness. Playing a major role in the initiative is the St. Louis Public Schools district.
By keeping families together and away from shelters, the children of these families can continue their education. This is first and foremost in ending the circle of violence that plagues St. Louis - especially its north side.
Without pointing fingers, assessing blame or using any excuses, it is time for the public to stand up for its public schools in the city and do whatever it can, whenever it can, to help students understand they indeed can have a future that does not involve drugs, guns, violence and death.
What seems to be commonplace, should and cannot be accepted by city residents. Every life lost, be it that of an 16-year old black boy who quit school in 9th grade, or an innocent victim leaving their home, is one that could have been spared.
Within this issue of the Argus is also a call for more families to consider offering permanent homes to foster children.
A large percentage of the children needing homes are African American. They can be saved from the perils of the streets if someone steps up to help them. This is something the black community could address itself, as occurred in past generations.
The black community did not give up on those that found themselves in foster homes or in shelters. The black community did not surrender its youths to the sad outcomes that life on the streets offers.
The black community refused to allow gangs and criminals to be the role models for young black men. And, most importantly, the black community valued education an saw it as a way to escape the demons that are dragging out young people into death and prison almost daily.
It has been said many times before that it is time to do something about the violence that is ripping the African American community to shreds. Yes, the overwhelming majority of black people are law-abiding citizens that have nothing to do with the escalating violence and lack of a respect for life that leads to murder and mayhem.
But it is now time for that overwhelming majority to again focus on saving black children, not watching the news and shaking its head in disgust at the latest murder or carjacking.
Until the black community really begins asking "What can I do to help," it will continue having to ask itself the difficult question, "I wonder if they were black?"
And that answer will be yes more and more often if something is not done and done quickly. |
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