CLEARLAKE— Terry Winter, RN, MPH and member of the Healthcare For All Working Group discussed the controversial topic of universal healthcare at this week’s Judge’s Breakfast on Thursday. Presenting a potential outline of what this sort of healthcare system would look like, Winter addressed the major differences between that and our current system while navigating several different perspectives and fielding a variety of questions.
The Healthcare For All Working Group is based out of Sonoma County and according to their website healthcareforall.org “HCA is a statewide non-partisan, non-profit organization of volunteers. The HCA board of directors is made up of elected representatives from regional chapters. We are supported by donations and fundraising activities.” Their mission is to achieve universal health care through single-payer public financing with their goal being that all California residents to have guaranteed, high quality, comprehensive health care. The organization works in partnership with North Bay Jobs For Justice as well as Health Professionals for Equity and Community.
Winter has years of experience working in the medical field and holds a master’s degree in Public Health and Planning, and a passion for quality healthcare sharing “We all know that there’s an increasingly absurd set of priorities and direction in terms of our health care system. Our health care system is neither healthy, nor is it good care.”
His presentation began explaining the costs of our current healthcare system and compared it to other countries including Japan, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany. Data from a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation illustrated per capita health expenditures in 2021 where the United States averaged $12,914, over $5,000 more than the next highest country, Germany, at $7,383, while the lowest cost country was Japan at $4,666. Of these nations, the United States also had the highest amount of uninsured individuals with 15.7 percent while most other nations were closer to zero. Despite the higher healthcare costs faced in America, according to the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey in 2011 quality care ranks 34th worldwide, with the highest rates for medical, medication and lab errors as well as the highest maternal / infant mortality rates. Winter stated “We pay twice as much as every other country in the world for healthcare, and yet we leave many of our people are underinsured or uninsured, and dangerously so.”
The Healthcare for All Working Group believes a single payer system and the Medicare for All Act is the solution, which would offer free coverage to every U.S. resident at cost to the government, no co-pays, premiums or deductibles. Individuals would have free choice of providers and healthcare coverage would no longer be tied to an employer or controlled by corporate entities maximizing their own profits. In order to shoulder the burden, the government would need an additional $1.08 trillion dollars, which would come from increased taxation targeted at those with an annual income above $300,000, with the top one percent of earners being taxed the highest. Under the Healthcare for All plan Winter expressed that there would be a potential to save 68,531 lives each year, people who have been priced out of appropriate care under the current healthcare system.
Several attendees of the breakfast expressed their concerns, mainly over the increased taxation and a worry that services would decrease once everyone had open access. District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier responded “I want to reverse the question, what if everyone in the community wanted to get healthcare? Now everybody is in line. Well everybody should be in line, because everyone should have access to healthcare that should be a standardized approved thing across the board no matter who you are.” He also spoke about the disparity of costs between here and European countries where he has experienced better care at a fraction of the cost.
The Judge’s Breakfast is held every Thursday at 7 a.m. at the Clearlake Senior Center. Next week’s speaker will be Rev, Clovice Lewis presenting a peek at his musical trilogy “Harlem Voices”.
