DB: I think he said that that will be the lead on the 6... he was probably right too. And that's, of course, your point. And we want to speak a lot more with you about your experience, your background, and your response to Trumpcare. Take us... you're somebody who's paid a lot of attention to all these plans, and been in the struggle for quite a bit. So, take us through what you see now in terms of where we are right now, this so-called transformation we're hearing about. What do you see the dangers? Will we go from bad to worse? We saw the report coming out of the Congressional Budget Office investigation. Give us a sense of what you think will happen here if Trump has his way?
CP: I think that if Paul Ryan and Tom Price have their way, because frankly, Donald Trump, I don't think, based on what he said ... when I reviewed it, he really didn't elaborate much on what the American Health Care Act would actually entail. He just talked about stage one, stage two, and stage three. So, I think he is just sort of telling thing, what he's able to understand. This is really Ryan and Price's...
DB: Right. So what do you think the implications are here, the break down?
CP: I think that they have, from the day that Obamacare was passed, they have had both Obamacare, and Medicaid and Medicare on the chopping block, and to privatize Medicare as much as possible. So, they now have the opportunity to do that. And that's what they're doing. But they're not changing" to call Trumpcare anything other than just Obamacare made leaner and meaner, is to elevate it beyond what it deserves. It really is just Obamacare, only made even more skimpy and lean. And giving even more money, our tax dollars, to the wealthy. It's another gift to the rich, and... at the expense of poor, working class people, and especially the 50 - 64 year old age group. They're really going to suffer financially from this piece of legislation.
DB: And, could you talk a little bit about what the possibilities are here. People say this is impossible. We hear about socialized medicine, but we have sort of one of the worst systems in the modern world. How possible is it for us... how affordable is it, for us to move into a system where everybody really is cared for in a way that's respectful and guarantees the fact that it is a human right?
CP: I won't argue that point with you. But I don't have to argue that point with you, if I can argue the point from a strictly cost effective, fiscal responsibility framework. We already spend in this country more per capita for health care than any other country in the world. And we're not getting the health care we're paying for.
We still have 28 million people uninsured, in spite of the fact that even just in our public dollars, we're spending more than any other country in the world, not to mention the private money on top of that. So, we're spending the money we're just not getting our money's worth. And, if we were to eliminate the profit and the bureaucratic waste, in the for-profit insurance industry... the most recent study that came out estimates somewhere around $506 billion a year would be saved and could be used to actually provide health care.
So, it is feasible to do this. This is not an outrageous idea. However, I think expecting that either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party are going to champion this and take it forward is unlikely. I mean, we had a Democratic president with a majority in both houses of Congress in 2009, and he wouldn't even let single-payer have a seat at the table. It wasn't even allowed to be discussed.
So, I don't have big hopes that the Democratic Party is going to champion this, in the future, unless we make it toxic for them not to. And we can do the same thing with the Republicans. Make it toxic for them not to support the national health program.
DB: Dr. Carol Paris ... is the current president of the national organization, Physicians for a National Health Program. She's on the steering committee of Health over Profit for Everyone. Interesting name for a group, Health over Profit for Everyone. That really is at the heart of the matter, whether the profit motive or humanity is going to motivate us as we go forward and try and express a real care for our people, for our children, for the future that way, right? This is the big one.
CP: This is the big one. And what the Health over Profit campaign is, is it's a grassroots based, building movement to... because we know that it's going... to build a movement takes time. And we're looking at as much as 3 - 5 years, but that's what it's going to take to make this issue such common place knowledge for everyday Americans, and to make it toxic for their legislators not to support it. That's what it's going to take. So, that's what the Health over Profit campaign is all about. It's a grassroots movement. And right now it is base building and educating.
We know that any active, and the active, sustained support of only 3.5% of the population is always successful, in a campaign. There's research that shows" we don't need 51% of the American people to support this. Even though polls show that the vast majority of Americans do support it. What we do need is 3.5% of the population to make an active, sustained effort to influence their members of Congress, and make it toxic for them not to do the right thing. If we don't do that then our members of Congress will continue to do what their donors tell them to do. And their lobbyists and donors are the very wealthy insurance industry, and pharmaceutical industry.
DB: How would you characterize the situation now? It's sort of deeply confusing for anybody trying to follow it. People are still signing up on the registries but everything is going towards a closing. Are people signing up in vain? This is serious confusion that's being created by this process that's going on in Washington.
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and senior staff celebrating the passage of the Affordable Care Act on March 21, 2010.
(Image by (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)) Details DMCA
CP: It's serious confusion, and it started when Barack Obama refused to allow a national health program to be considered in 2009. Because it just created more opportunity for the for-profit insurance industry to profit from the suffering of the American people. So I don't think this is just the fault of the Republicans, they're just who happen to be in charge right now.
DB: You've been protesting on this one for quite a while, haven't you?
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