For all the tragedy wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, Stephanie Nakajima wishes COVID-19 would claim one specific victim: the bogeyman crafted by the political right to represent “socialized medicine.”
It has been haunting American politics as far back as 1915 when the American Association of Labor Legislation drafted a model bill providing health insurance for working-class Americans.
Nakajima, the director of communications for the Boston-based advocacy organization Healthcare-NOW, told Street Roots the “socialized medicine” label seems to be losing its power to stifle the suggestion of universal health care coverage.
The current crisis presents an opportunity for a meaningful change in the health care debate, she said.
“Socialized medicine is becoming less and less of a bogeyman as we now have a majority of Democrats in the House in favor of Medicare for All,” Nakajima said.
“We’re trying to build the movement for Medicare for All,” she said. “The Republican-controlled Senate is often brought up. I do think that’s a challenge, but I also think change can happen very quickly when the need arises. I’m surprised by how much money has already come out of Congress for the coronavirus.”
Stephanie Nakajima is the director of communications for Healthcare-NOW.
Medicare, created in 1966, provides health insurance for people who are 65 and older or who are disabled. Proponents of universal health care argue it is a proven program that should be extended to all Americans.
The pandemic graphically illustrates the need for that expansion, Nakajima said.
“Because of the massive surge of unemployment and people losing their employer-sponsored health insurance, we’re seeing the fundamental inadequacy of employer-based insurance,” she said.
“The other big issue is when the coronavirus really started picking up, we realized that as a country, ‘Holy shit, this is happening, and we have to deal with it,’“ she said. “In other countries, their legislatures and parliaments knew they had to ramp up testing. However, they already had national health care systems in place.”
Americans, meanwhile, had to spend too much time on economics and not enough on medicine, Nakajima said.
“We wasted precious time in our actual coronavirus response just to address the inadequacy of the health care system,” she said.
According to a survey conducted by Morning Consult and Politico from March 27 to 29, 55% of Americans support Medicare for All — a jump of approximately 9% from the previous two months.
“Support for Medicare for all has always been high, and it’s getting higher,” Nakajima said. “The majority of the American public supports Medicare for All. Other polls are even higher.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) proposed an emergency version of their Medicare for All legislation April 10. The Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act would provide Medicare coverage for all out-of-pocket medical expenses for both insured and uninsured Americans throughout the pandemic.
“While we have not agreed on a broad range of issues in the past, this is not the time for politics,” wrote Jayapal and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) in an April 3 letter to President Donald Trump. “In this crisis, we must put our differences aside and come together in a bipartisan fashion to take bold, unprecedented action to fix our broken system and prevent more Americans from getting sick or dying. Immediately expanding Medicare and Medicaid is the fastest, most efficient and effective way to do that.”
Nakajima said the proposal would go a long way to finally remove people’s fear of universal health care.
“It will actually give people a taste of what is disparagingly called publicly run health care,” she said.
However, she fears it might be sabotaged by an unlikely source, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill. They favor extending benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA. The 1985 law enables some employees to continue their employer-sponsored health insurance coverage after leaving their jobs.
Nakajima estimated extending COBRA benefits would help approximately 4 million people, while leaving 35 million to 40 million other people uninsured. She’s not sure why some moderate Democrats shy away from Medicare for All, she said.
“We sometimes have an enthusiasm gap on the left,” Nakajima said.
Or it could be the bogeyman casting its long political shadow, she said.
“The insurance and pharmaceutical industries give to both Republicans and Democrats alike, and the centrist ideology that we don’t want to be the party of socialized medicine is easy to buy into,” she said.
However, Nakajima said the poll numbers show that this is a political moment worth seizing.
“When there’s this level of need, we shouldn’t look at the challenge as Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “We need to think a little bigger than that.”
Nakajima said for all the opportunity this moment in history provides, it is hard for the activists of Healthcare-NOW to capitalize on it.
“We build grassroots movements,” she said. “We’re trying to train activists in their own communities. It’s been really difficult to figure out how to organize without going outside. We’re all restricted to online and calling, which is difficult because Congress isn’t really in session.”
Allies like nurses and physicians often support the organization, she said, but they’re busy.
“They’re completely consumed with fighting the virus,” she said. It’s been difficut to coordinate with everyone fighting their own battles.”
However, she said, if a pandemic of this magnitude only arises once every 100 years, so does this kind of political opportunity.
“The coronavirus shows us we need fundamental reform of the health care system and not just tinkering around the edges.”
Email Staff Writer Tom Henderson at thenderson@streetroots.org.
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