June 22 (LPAC)--Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), sponsor of H.R. 676 "The United States National Health Insurance Act," held a standing-room only June 20 event in Washington, D.C., with Michael Moore, and clips from his new movie, "Sicko," on the U.S. health care disaster, to launch a national mobilization for universal health care. A panel presented personal stories of health care horrors. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was present, who is not a signer of H.R. 676, but wanted to show his concern that Congress must do something. Both Conyers and Moore made the point that 47 million Americans are uninsured, including 8 million children; and another 50 million are underinsured. An estimated 18,000 Americans die each year as a direct consequence of this.
"Sicko" will open in cinemas in 29 cities beginning June 23; Conyers intends to announce new signators to the current 74 co-sponsors of his bill; and other activities are planned. On July 17, a hearing on how personal medical debt is a contributor to bankruptcy, will be held by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law of the House of Representatives.
The Conyers bill has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO Executive Committee, eight international unions, 19 state AFL-CIO affiliates, 14,000 physicians, two state houses, and dozens of county and municipal governments.
Lyndon LaRouche has endorsed H.R. 676. He has particularly stressed that there must be a return to the Hill Burton principle of providing care to all, and building the infrastructure to deliver on that principle. The 1946 "Hill Burton Act"--actually titled the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, launched a Federal-state drive that resulted in a nationwide grid over over 7,000 public hospitals, equitably covering rural and urban populations in 3000 counties. But since the 1970s--the peak of the hospital coverage period--this grid has been continuously reduced, as the "managed care"/HMO era took over, cutting infrastructure and care.
Film-maker Michael Moore's most interesting comment at the event, concerned the 1971 initiation of the HMO era, under Richard Nixon. Moore recounted that he recently came upon an audio file of a discussion between Nixon and Paul Erlichman of Watergate fame. Their topic was not any Watergate matter, but Ehrlichman was selling Nixon on a "new form of health care"--HMOs, where you could make lots of money, and at the same time cuts costs by denying care.
Moore repeatedly ribbed Conyers, that the meeting room of the event--the Hearing Chamber of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Conyers, is where the impeachment of Nixon took place.
The three clips from "Sicko" were shocking instances of denial of care. One showed California hospitals dumping indigent patients on Skid Row in Los Angeles. The LA City Attorney and state legislators are seeking criminal action against this, and the HMOs are lobbying to defend the dumping. Moore said, "What have we become that we dump our own citizens on the side of a curb like garbage."
