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Labor Beat

Labor Beat: Healthcare Crisis In Illinois - Episode 2 "The Public Only Option"

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About this episode
The second report in this series briefly recapitulates Episode 1 and then covers a series of speakers and interviews from the recent Labor Day event...
The second report in this series briefly recapitulates Episode 1 and then covers a series of speakers and interviews from the recent Labor Day event at Pullman on Sept. 7, 2009, where we hone in on the public option and single payer. To those gathered at that commemoration, Dr. Claudia Fegan (Physicians for National Healthcare) spoke: "As we stand here today, there are 46 million people who are uninsured. And 75 percent of those people are working folks and their families." Dr. Ann Scheetz, working with the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, explained in an interview, "the only healthcare reform that counts is the single payer program that is embodied at the national level as HR676, and at the state level in HB311. This is the only reform that will actually cover everybody because it makes coverage automatic. It is also the only reform that can contain costs. This can only come about through a massive movement of all the people, including of course the labor movement." State Representative Mary Flowers, who is chair of the Healthcare Committee, said: "I see so many of my friends out here for single payer. We must send our leaders in Washington, DC a message. We must tell them that we don't want access to insurance, we want access to healthcare. Therein lies the difference." Jorge Mujica, immigrant rights activist, addressed the issue of undocumented workers and the national healthcare debate. "Today on Labor Day immigrants came out to march as American workers, born elsewhere, but as American workers...Mr. Barack Obama said a month ago that the priority in his government is healthcare reform and we will talk about immigration reform in about a year. And our response is, we are willing to work of course for healthcare reform, but we want a healthcare reform that is inclusive, because you should know that this healthcare reform we are talking about excludes immigrants...Let's include every American worker in the healthcare reform." Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. noted that "115 years after Pullman [the Pullman strike], there is still a debate about citizenship...there is no such thing as an illegal human being." Congressman Jackson then compared the issue of private vs public option to the systems for mail delivery: "We do not have in our mighty constitution the right to healthcare which every human being deserves. We are here to demand a more perfect union for every American...The private option is 'FedEx' and 'UPS'. The public option, for under 50 cents, is ...the 'US Postal Service'. The public option covers the barrios and the ghettos. The American people deserve coverage from one end of this nation to the other." Other speakers in the video include: State Rep. Constance A. Howard; State Senator Donne E. Trotter; State Rep. Al Riley; John McHale, SK Hand Tools striker; Richard Berg, President, Teamsters 743. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat". Less
27:59 News & Politics
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