Just Healthcare on the radio

Just Healthcare on the radio
Jenny Brown
May/June 1999

On Sunday, June 6, the Labor Party will kick off its national Just Healthcare campaign with a nationwide radio program. The program is the beginning of an intensive campaign that will include local hearings on what's wrong with our healthcare system and how Just Healthcare can fix it; local and state referenda on Just Healthcare, and the creation of a "Committee of a Million" for Just Healthcare. The Labor Party is a political party founded in 1996 by trade unionists who believe that the Democrats and Republicans now both represent the interest of corporations and that we need a political party that represents the interests of working people in America.

The radio show will be carried by the Pacifica broadcast network on satellite, so local Pacifica stations are very likely to carry the show (for example, WMNF in Tampa). National Public Radio stations can carry the show but only if they hear that there's enough interest in the community. Local Labor Party members and Health Care for All organizers are urging everyone who cares about fixing our healthcare system to call Classic 89 (WUFT-FM) at 392-5200 and talk to Station Manager Henry Pensis (extension 116) about why you think our local NPR station should carry this show in its entirety. It will be broadcast on Sunday, June 6 from noon to 2 p.m., and since it is a call-in, taping it and playing it later will present problems and deny people in Gainesville the ability to call in.

In the first hour of the radio program, panelists will discuss what ails our health care system and detail the Just Healthcare proposal. In the second hour, they will take calls from listeners around the country.

The radio panel is chaired by California Nurses Association President Kit Costello, and will include Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program; Sid Wolfe of Public Citizen; Kathleen Connors, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions; and Labor party Organizer Tony Mazzocchi.

The Just Healthcare plan from the Labor Party says, "Health care is the most profitable industry in the nation and it is the most shameless example of unbridled corporate greed in the U.S. In the guise of cost-containment, it redistributes resources from sick people and their caregivers to wealthy businessmen and their shareholders.

"Forty-two million Americans have no health insurance. Eighty percent of the uninsured are working people and their dependents. And tying health care coverage to the job encourages companies to use part-time and temporary workers to evade providing benefits.

"We spend more on health care than any other nation in the world. But a poorly-regulated, corporate dominated health care system eliminates choice, erodes care, and inflates administrative costs while boosting profits and CEO compensation.

"Health care is a critical social good that demands collective interests prevail over private gain. We call for:

"Universal entitlement for all residents to comprehensive health care benefits including preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and long-term care. There must be freedom to choose one's own doctors and health professionals, and full information provided to enable all to make informed choices on their medical treatment.

"Single-payer health insurance, publicly administered and funded, delivered by a non-profit system. ..."

For more information on the Labor Party's Just Healthcare campaign or to join the Labor party, call 202 234-5190 or send $20 to: Labor Party, P.O. Box 53177, Washington, DC 20009. More information can be found at the Labor Party's website: www.igc.apc.org/lpa

For more information on local efforst for Just Healthcare, call Gainesville Women's Liberation Health Care for All project, P.O. Box 2625, Gainesville, FL 32602. (352) 373-4841.