Multiple Time Winner of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award
Cross-posted from John Edwards blog
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/10/6/155150/999
Steve Skvara - featured speaker at forum for health care reform in South Bend, IN
user icon DonVila in News Feed of
10/07/2007 at 6:55 AM EST
Steve Skvara in South Bend
United Auto Workers Local 5 hosted a health care reform forum Saturday, October 6th in South Bend, Indiana. The program featured views from the union and Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan- an organization which agitates for a state run single payer system in Indiana. But the star of the show was Steve Skvara, who gained instant fame with his question at the AFL-CIO Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum in Chicago, IL concerning health care: "What's wrong with America, and what are you going to do to change it?"
I had the privilege of a conversation with Steve who lives just down the road from us near Valparaiso, IN. He is a retiree from the now defunct LTV Steel Corporation (the company whose engineered bankruptcy cost him his family health care coverage and one third of his pension). He's currently an Executive Board Member of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) and agitates for health care reform. In his view, what's needed is a national, universal coverage system.
South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke (left)
I was curious about how it came to be that in that vast crowd in Soldiers Field he was able to ask a question of the candidates. He explained to me that in an earlier event, he had posed a similar question which had come to the attention of the organizers of the Chicago forum. That put him into a pool (I think he said of 37 people) who were potential questioners. I think I've forgotten a step in the process, but the point is that there was a group of people who went to the event given cards with abbreviated versions of their question on their side and a number on the opposite side. Only shortly before the forum started, did the potential questioners find out if they would be called. And the "questionee" was basically by lot.
So in a bit of serendipity, former Senator John Edwards was asked a question he was eager to answer, posed by someone who supports him.
So what did Mr. Skvara have to say? Pretty much what most of us try to get people to understand: That nearly 50 million Americans have no health care insurance coverage, that most personal bankruptcies are driven by medical bills. That although we spend nearly twice as much per person as any other developed nation on health care our outcomes (life expectancy, infant mortality, etc.) lag behind most of these nations. His own cardiac specialist said we need a single payer system, because his billing service costs that doctor a quarter million dollars a year. There's no medical care benefit to that expense. The other thing he had to say is something people who put up with my posts may have grown tired of hearing. The problem will not be corrected without us. Period.
Mr. Skvara's experience is very instructional. He suffered a permanent disability due to an auto accident his family experienced. At the time, he had fabulous heath coverage - thanks to the efforts of organized labor. His family had coverage through the same program and though as a retiree he was required to pay for it - the cost was quite affordable. Then came the liquidation of LTV and it was all gone.
When Mr. Skvara stood up in Chicago he qualifed for Medicare due to his disability, but his wife did not qualify (not old enough, not disabled). I still find it very hard to keep it together watching the video (as I have many times) as he, struggling with his emotions, says he sits across the breakfast table across from the woman who took care of their family for thirty-six years and knows he can't afford to pay for health care for her - and seems ashamed of it.
It is we who should be ashamed. I know I am.
Happily, she now has care (in terms of check-ups and tests) by a medical group in Illinois thanks to someone who heard of their plight. But it's because of someone who did a nice thing, instead of us doing the right thing. And it isn't the same thing as coverage.
Mr. Skvara is an eloquent spokesman on this issue and he needs our help. I was a bit disappointed in the size of the group of attendees, but pleased to hear the written support of Senators Lugar and Bayh and Representative Donnelly. South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke was also in attendance and I enjoyed a brief conversation with him.
Here are a couple of my own thoughts on the topic. Opponents of universal health care coverage like to trot out the specter of "socialized medicine". Their idea is that private insurance is the model. But insurance - by definition, is socialism. Gather the biggest pool possible in order to spread the risk. We each pay in our appropriate fraction of the total anticipated cost and receive a benefit only if we need it. Universal coverage is merely the logical extension of the insurance model.
Another thing I think about is that a long time ago we agreed that it was our responsibility as a society to provide a certain level of education to every citizen. Though some have tried to backslide on this one, I still think it is a good idea. People use the phrase "right to life" quite frequently. I'd suggest the right to life (or certainly, the right to a life of quality) often requires competent medical care - without the distraction of "how am I going to pay for this?'. How is this any less important?
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Don Wheeler
South Bend, IN
Note: I'll attempt to post some video as a diary later, but there was no amplification so the sound's not so great.
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