Letters to the Editor
Nidhi Shastri
Published 2/3/2021 by the Daily Herald
After immigrating to America, my parents were told the tenants of this country are “liberty and justice for all.” Growing up, I took that as truth. Now, I’m seeing millions of Americans lose their jobs and insurance after contracting COVID. It’s nothing new. People have gone without proper healthcare for decades, even under the ACA. Many are immigrants and people of color. Where is the “liberty and justice” for us?
By 2021, most industrialized countries have figured out a universal healthcare system. Yet, in America, we choose to separate private and public insurances and hospitals. Our politicians have the audacity to imply that our current system is equal.
What is equal about hospitals in low-income, minority areas competing for funding? What is equal about insurance companies choosing what procedures are “necessary?” What’s equal about physicians determining your quality of care based on your insurance type, the color of your skin and your proficiency in English? President Biden's recent executive orders on healthcare are too little, too late. We know separate systems are inherently unequal. We need liberty, justice, and Medicare for All.
Raghuram Kalakuntla
Submitted 1/28/2021 to the Daily Herald
In early 2007, my wife and I were employed with stable jobs in IT. We were building our family; like many Americans, we had a mortgage, young children, and a trust in our country’s systems. Then, the market crashed.
We both lost our jobs, and along with them, our healthcare. We were pointed in the direction of COBRA for insurance, but found that the payments were 4 times higher than our employer-sponsored insurance, and it didn’t cover dental or vision. It took us 6 months before one of us got back into a stable job. By that time, we had used up all of our savings. Although we were fortunate enough to be healthy during those 6 months, it was such a stressful time for us. We lived in constant anxiety; what if we lost our jobs again? Where would we turn to for help?
With millions of people out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number that is increasingly growing, I can only empathize with the pain of those who have lost their jobs. We shouldn’t have to live in fear of how we would finance the health of ourselves and our families during a global pandemic.
Even now, while employed in full time work, my employer insurance falls short. I still remember having to go to the emergency room for my 8-year-old son. Instead of being able to focus on his health, we worried about the extremely high copay and the 2-hour hospital wait we faced upon arrival. If this is the burden on us, I cannot imagine the burden on low-income families. The private health insurance system is convoluted. It has been proven that the ACA is not enough. COBRA is not enough. We need a better system. We need legislators to enact Medicare for All.
William Bianchi
Fixes shouldn’t hurt Americans; published 1/10/2021 by the Chicago Tribune
The editorial urging Joe Biden to “save Medicare and Social Security” is well-timed. We need him to put both of these vital programs on solid financial footing. But let’s insist that the fixes don’t hurt the millions of Americans who depend on them.
The editorial hints at raising the age of eligibility or reducing future benefits. Not needed. Despite demographic changes, the U.S. is richer than ever and can easily afford to fund the social safety net.
Both parties spend like crazy for the things they want: the bloated $750 billion military budget, largesse to farmers and the trillion-dollar tax cut.
Solutions? Remove the cap on the Social Security payroll taxes, implement a 1% wealth tax and pass “Medicare for All.” Universal health care in dozens of countries operates with financial efficiency (compared to the U.S.) and produces better health outcomes. It will here too. We don’t need to cut benefits.
Anne Scheetz
Submitted 1/8/2021 to the Chicago Tribune
Aetna's decision to drop Walgreens from its Medicaid plan provides one more proof that we need to get insurance companies out of health care. We need national improved Medicare for all, also called single-payer health care, which will guarantee every person in this country first dollar coverage for all necessary medical care, and also allow everyone free choice of providers (including pharmacies), since all will be in the same, universal, network. This is a necessary, although not sufficient, step toward eliminating the shocking racial health inequities that plague our city, state, and country.
The Illinois Single-Payer Coalition is urging Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to stop taking campaign contributions from health sector companies that work to prevent the passage and implementation of Medicare for all. Please join me in urging them to sign the Patients Over Profits Pledge--to put their constituents first in this time of crisis.
Patricia Simpson
Published 12/8/2020 by the Decatur Herald Review and 2/10/2021 by The Champaign News-Gazette
As COVID cases rise and employment losses mount, millions of Americans face a grim holiday period without access to health care. The Illinois Single-Payer Coalition (ISPC) maintains that the only remedy for this access crisis is Medicare for All. Therefore, we are extremely disappointed in Senator Durbin’s recent inactions regarding our months-long efforts to secure a Zoom meeting with him. We wanted to discuss the possibility of him signing a pledge to take no further contributions from the health care industry. We could not get a meeting despite supplying survey data his staff requested demonstrating support for Medicare for All even among individuals with employer-sponsored insurance. Only after the election when taking such an action did not risk losing votes did his staff notify us that he would not sign the pledge. Similarly, the Central Illinois Chapter, ISPC has received no response to a package of petitions signed by over 1600 residents from the C-U area and sent by registered mail over two months ago to the Senator’s office. The petitions requested he co-sponsor the Medicare for All bill before the U.S. Congress. In sum, repeated efforts to even get a hearing from the Senator on matters of intense interest to many Illinoisans have all come to naught. Such disrespectful treatment of his constituents is behavior that sustains anger and apathy among our citizenry, helping to explain rising doubts about the health of American democracy going forward.
Nidhi Shastri
Submitted 12/4/2020 to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times
“What about those of us who are disabled? We’re living breathing people… and yet, we’re denied the healthcare that we need.” Dr. Ayo Maat is a disability rights and racial justice activist who has seen how the American healthcare system has hurt the most vulnerable communities in Illinois. Her story, along with hundreds of Illinois residents’ petition signatures, a letter of support by 41 grassroots organizations and legislators across the state, and a virtual town hall have all been passed on to Senator Dick Durbin’s office for review. Along with it? A simple ask: that Senator Durbin meet virtually with the Illinois Single Payer Coalition (ISPC), a non-profit organization behind the movement advocating for him to stop taking campaign contributions from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. And yet, from our elected official Senator Durbin, it’s been nothing but crickets.
Chicago has the largest life-expectancy gap of anywhere in the country; 30 years in the span of just a few miles. Hospitals in central and southern Illinois are shutting down during a pandemic, leaving IL residents to die. The Tribune reported today that Illinois’ COVID-19 death toll in the last week is the highest in the nation at 957. Senator Dick Durbin has been in office for nearly as long as I have been alive -- 24 years. He has represented Illinois through a banking crisis, and advocated for those exploiting the American people to be held accountable. And now, during a healthcare crisis, he’s turning a blind eye?
America is changing. Many young people like me are no longer okay with the Kafkaesque and exploitative nature of our healthcare system, and we are speaking out. Senator Durbin needs to catch up. We shouldn’t have to jump hurdles to meet with our elected officials. We shouldn’t have to spoon-feed politicians information on a healthcare crisis that is unfolding right in front of all of us. And yet, for almost a year, that’s what I’ve been doing, with a hope for change. And even then, Senator Durbin won’t even entertain a 15-minute virtual conversation with his constituents. ISPC’s healthcare work is not isolated, rather, it’s part of a sweeping movement in IL. We need Medicare for All now. And if legislators like Senator Durbin won't hear us, then it's only a matter of time before someone who unseats him will.
Paula Enstrom
Published 12/27/2020 in the News Gazette and 1/2/2021 in the Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
The U.S. is in a health crisis the likes of which we have not experienced in a century. The loss of lives is quickly approaching the number of U.S. military deaths in WWII. Illinois Single Payer Coalition (ISPC) believes that Improved Medicare for All is the best way to make certain that everyone has access to the health care they need, a lifesaving necessity at this time.
ISPC has contacted Senator Dick Durbin multiple times seeking his support. We have called, emailed, sent petitions, and requested meetings with him. We did not hear back from him until after the election. Our request to him was simple. Sign a pledge to stop taking money from the for-profit healthcare industry. Why? Because historically politicians make decisions that put the concerns of their corporate donors over the needs of their constituents.
Considering that he was just reelected for six more years, it would seem he could easily afford to stop taking money from them. This would help his constituents begin to believe that he actually puts their health first when making policy decisions pertaining to health care. The fact that he has told us he will not sign the pledge, leads us to believe that he truly doesn't care about what is best for his constituents.
Please contact Senator Durbin and demand that he put the health care of his constituents first by refusing money form the for-profit healthcare industry and supporting Improved Medicare for All.
Pam Gronemeyer
Published 12/11/2020 by the State Journal-Register
As a physician and a longtime advocate of Improved Medicare for All, living through the COVID 19 crisis with the ongoing surge that could explode as the holiday season progresses, I am more than forced to demand real action by our elected officials. COVID 19 has resulted in a large number of Americans who have lost their insurance as well as the numerous people who contracted COVID 19 who will now have to record this as a pre-existing condition. We need to push our legislators to stop the practice that makes the power brokers of Big Pharma, the greedy health insurance companies, and the hospital industrial complex/ private equity firms, such successful lobbyists who influence our healthcare choices , namely by donating large campaign contributions. In 2010, SCOTUS sold the American people out with the Citizen’s United Decision stating that corporations are people and money is speech. This was a travesty against democracy. We, in the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, have been attempting to reach our senators, Durbin and Duckworth, to sign our pledge not to take donations over$200 from these groups and put “patients over profits”. We as voters went to the polls to get representatives elected who we believed would work for the people. We have received no answer to date. Money should not be speech. One person, one vote!
Emily Hall
Published 12/14/2020 by Logansquarist
2020 has been the year of compounding crises – a global pandemic, police brutality & racial injustice, millions losing their jobs & health insurance and a looming eviction crisis on a scale we’ve never seen before - and where is the action from our elected officials? Extra unemployment benefits of $600 per week ran out 4 months ago, there has been no rent or mortgage freeze, no expansion of access to healthcare and the federal government has failed to pass another economic stimulus package to provide relief for the millions of Americans struggling to survive. Again, I ask, what are our elected officials doing to help us? As a community organizer with the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, I am an advocate and champion of improved and expanded Medicare for All. I believe healthcare is a human right, and it is inhumane that we, the wealthiest nation in the world, do not guarantee healthcare to all especially in the midst of a pandemic. Black, Brown and assisted living communities have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 while pharmaceutical and private health insurance companies have continued to profit off the sick and dying. The private healthcare industry wields massive political power and donates millions to elected officials to stifle the growing movement and public support for universal healthcare. It is long past due that we get big money out of politics! The majority of our elected officials are more indebted to their big donors and their special interests than to the basic human needs and dignity of their constituents. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, we at the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, launched a campaign to urge our U.S. Senators Dick Durbin & Tammy Duckworth to sign the Patients Over Profits Pledge. By signing this pledge, elected officials can commit to not taking any campaign contributions from the private healthcare industry including pharmaceutical and private health insurance companies. Since the campaign launched this summer, we have collected hundreds of signatures from Illinoisans asking our U.S. Senators to put patients over profits. We even met with Senator Durbin’s staff, and in the most recent email communication with his staff they stated the Senator would not sign the pledge. As a constituent and organizer for Medicare for All, I am incredibly disappointed in my Senator. As one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, I urge him to reconsider and to set an example and sign the Patients Over Profits Pledge. We need elected officials who truly represent their constituents and put our basic needs such as healthcare before big corporate donors. We need elected officials who believe, just like we do at the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, that healthcare is a human right. Visit ilsinglepayer.org to join the fight for improved and expanded Medicare for All so that we can build a more just and equitable future for all Americans.