Dr. Howard Dean on Health Reform
Posted on June 2nd, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Solutions that Work
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Last night, I got a chance to do a quick interview with Dr. Howard Dean on health care reform. This was recorded after his panel at America's Future Now on health reform, where he shared the stage with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Roger Hickey from Campaign for America's Future, William McNary of USAction, and Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, a physician at Mount Sinai and a leader in the National Physicians Alliance.
The discussion was rousing and heartening. Put simply, progressives are united behind the public option, and that if health reform does not include a public option, it won't be real health reform. In my mind, Dr. Dean had the most powerful point of the night, at it was about choice. Nobody should be allowed to choose for the American people what health plan and health care they have - not people in Congress and certainly not the insurance industry. If Americans want to choose a public health insurance option, they should be allowed that right of choice. That's what we aim to do, to give people that choice.
Check out the interview:
Dr. Dean,
It would be interesting to know if any members of the House or the Senate oppose a "public option" for Americans; but at the same time participate in the "public option" themselves. If this were so, I think many Americans would be livid.
I appreciate your work for decent health care… I hope a "public option" or "single payer" is soon available to all Americans.
Thanks,
Joy Simpson
I found this powerful statement by President Eisenhower, that I wanted to share with you.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
Doesn't it seem ironic that if we weren't spending 12 billion a month on a war that never should have been fought, we would have all the money we need for health care???
Sincerely,
Louis P. Tellez,
86 year old World War Two Veteran
and Commander of the Albuquerque Chapter of
THE AMERICAN GI FORUM
Dr. Dean,
I admire your guts when it comes to standing up for the American people. Nowadays most politicians only care whether they have something to gain or not. You stick to your guns and don't let ANYONE dictate to you what should or shouldn't be. Quite honestly, I think the Democrats need to get a back bone when standing up to the Republicans, or their own people, for that matter. There are too many people that are losing their lives over this issue and that should not be the case!! Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion.
Dr. Dean
The white house and senate have built their own gallows, set the noose, and have placed their own heads in the noose and left the insurance corporations at the lever of the trap door with this supposed health care reform bill. By forcing Americans to buy private insurance with no public option or Medicare buy in, providing no competition to drive down costs, the Democrats are funneling billions of new dollars to these insurance corporations and their campaign to attack Democrats in the next election and defeat any further "health care reform” in the future. This latest move by the always ineffective, wimpy Democrats will be the death nail to the future of the Democratic movement started during the last election, they are rapidly relegating themselves into the minority party they have grown so accustomed to being. By funneling billions of dollars to the insurance corporations that want to scuttle any real health care reform so they can continue with their record profits, the Democrats will be arming the insurance industry with the financial weapons they will need to wage false advertising campaigns against any one who might oppose their own perceived right to financially rape the American public. In effect this current health care bill is like the Democrats putting a gun to their own heads and pulling the trigger, it is political suicide for the Democratic Party plain and simple.