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PNHP RESOURCES

Remarks delivered at 45th anniversary of Charleston Hospital Workers Strike observance

By David Ball
March 20, 2014

We live in a strange world. Corporations have the right to unlimited free speech but you don't have a right to health care. Health care is a privilege reserved for those who can afford it and increasingly, Americans can't.

The only way to get coordinated quality care, access for everyone, and real cost containment is Medicare for All. The insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies have made sure this won't happen any time soon. What we can do in our country, and must do in our state, is expand Medicaid for the most vulnerable of our neighbors.

Under the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, the federal government is prepared to return 100% of the cost to expand the program. These are our tax dollars that should be spent at Roper St Francis, Trident, MUSC, and other local providers for the poor. Instead, we paid our federal taxes and Governor Haley says she doesn't want it back.

300,000 South Carolinians need the help and between 1,000 and 1,300 will die in the coming year without it. This is about scoring political points and not economics. Our hospitals, through the South Carolina Hospital Association, have offered to cover the 10% the state will eventually need to pay to expand Medicaid.

Every one of you falls into one of two groups. Come see me after this event if you are poor and fighting to expand Medicaid means getting basic health services for you and your family. If you are like me you don't need Medicaid then join for a different reason.

I rise to object to our government's abandonment of the poor because I have already paid for this care as federal income tax and only need to ask for my money back. I rise to object because hospitals treat those without insurance either go out of business or pass the expense on to me. I rise to object because my God doesn't wish me to stand by while my neighbors suffer and die when there is something I can do about it.

Horace Mann, the great American educator, was President of my alma mater, Antioch College in Ohio. Standing before the first graduating class in 1852 he said, "Be ashamed to die before you have won a victory for humanity". I thank God for those who struggled to get Medicare for my parents and everyone for generations who won't go to the poor house because they got sick and at 65 were to old to work. There may be nothing more important you accomplish in your lifetime than reverse the Medicaid decision in this state or bring Medicare for All. Come join us.