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| 7/1/2009 8:59:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Interfaith attendees gather on the grass at Freedom Plaza is the District last week to push for comprehensive health care reform. |
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Curing health care
Rally decries today's costly system
by Adam Kredo, Staff Writer
Yearly trips to the doctor may be wise, but are simply out of the question for Sarah Tasman, a 27-year-old rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Boston, who hasn't received a basic check-up for more than a year due to the soaring costs of health care.
Life with a bare-bones, "affordable" health care plan, Tasman says, is tough "because if I want to get a physical, I have to pay extra for that ... or make up a reason for a sick visit, and I feel uncomfortable about that."
In lieu of shelling out the bucks to see a physician, Tasman took to Freedom Plaza in D.C. on Wednesday of last week, where she strapped herself into a blood pressure cuff for a free health screening during an interfaith rally in support of comprehensive health care reform.
"I feel a little bit relieved," Tasman said after being informed by an aide from the Carl Vogel Center in the District that her vital signs were normal. "But I think I should still get a check-up" from a physician, she added.
With more than 40 national religious organizations on hand -- among them the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women and B'nai B'rith International -- the Interfaith Service of Witness and Prayer emphasized the "desperate" need for health care reform in America, with the 400 or attendees urging Congress to pass comprehensive legislation by the end of 2009.
"We have the most expensive and the least popular health care system amongst the developed nations," Rabbi David Saperstein, the RAC's director, told the crowd. "Can we do better as a nation?"
The answer to that question, according to those being examined at the screening booth, is an emphatic "Yes."
"I would think that my insurance would want to keep me healthy and cover my yearly check-ups, but that's the stuff that costs extra," Tasman said, laying out the catch-22 of America's health care system.
Kevin Minder, the founder of the St. Louis-based Center for Immigrant Healthcare Justice, said he was thrilled to take advantage of the free health screening.
Faced with a $5,000 deductible through his private insurer, Minder admitted that "I do no preventative care because it's all out of pocket. So, if I can find a health screening, I go to it!"
The irony, the 48-year-old said with a laugh, is that "at the end of it, they recommend you go see a doctor."
Yevgen Gulenko, a Ukrainian-born 24-year-old who is interning in the District, also chuckled after inspecting a preventive care brochure, which was handed to him post-check-up.
"The info sheet said to keep [meal] portions within normal limits when you eat," he said. "The portion size [in America] is so huge, though, like four people can eat it."
Emphasizing "affordability" and "accessibility," the interfaith coalition is asking that any health care legislation guarantee coverage for each American, and that it do so in a timely fashion.
Supporters of the coalition's goal, though, were slightly more specific about the changes they'd like to see take place.
"I would like to see discounts if you're a member of a gym, [if you're] or doing something to stay healthy, you should get some benefits," Tasman, a chaplain intern at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District, said.
As for charges that the government-sponsored "public option" plan amounts to socialism, Minder was incredulous.
"This country can deliver electricity [on a national level], nobody calls that socialism," he said.
In addition to the RAC's Saperstein, several other religious leaders, prominent health care proponents, members of Congress, Obama administration officials and even a bluegrass band were on hand during the three-hour rally.
"Health care is not a luxury, it's a necessity," declared Joshua DuBois, a special assistant to the president and the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
"The status quo," DuBois added, "is no longer acceptable."
As the late-afternoon sun beat down, organizers rolled in several large, blue barrels overflowing with ice and bottles of water.
Parked nearby was an ambulance with an electronic scoreboard displaying the number 3,406,385 ----the tally of Americans who have their lost health coverage since Jan. 1 of last year.
Cindi Nowlen, a Michigan resident, used to be one of the millions without coverage.
After separating from her husband, Nowlen "lost the job, the benefits and raised two kids without health insurance."
When she finally found a job with a small business in the 1990s, Nowlen says her health care situation didn't much improve.
"There were no options for people like me with a job where I wasn't making enough [to] get [comprehensive] insurance ... and was making too much to qualify for Medicaid. We lived in fear of a broken leg or arm."
Currently a teacher in Kalamazoo, Nowlen, 55, now lives with more security, but says the nation's ailing health care system needs drastic change.
"We're the wealthiest county in the world ... and supposedly have some of the smartest people on the planet," Nowlen said. "It just seems like there's a huge gap in basic health care -- it should not be a for-profit business."
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