Groups advocate for health care reform

While Washington weighs and considers President Barack Obama’s plan for health care reform, several state and University groups brought the debate to New Brunswick at a health care rally.
“Get Back to Work” rally Thursday at Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus sought support for H.R. 3200, also known as America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
Several organizations, including the Radigals, Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey and the University’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, chanted, gave speeches and sought signatures on petitions in favor of the plan to expand insurance coverage, sparking a debate among those in attendance.
“There are so many people who are suffering … because the insurance companies are standing in the way,” said Catherine Stanford, a staff representative of the Rutgers American Association of University Professors - American Federation of Teachers. “The combination of healthy competition in this health insurance exchange, with regulations, will make those insurance companies have to sit up and take notice that the American people want to hold them accountable for health care.”
Stanford said she would like to see a single-payer health care system similar to Canada’s and thinks the president’s proposed plan can be adapted to the U.S.
Vice President of the College Republicans Noah Glyn disagreed with Obama’s initiative.
“I think that everybody who actually cares about the status of health care in America should be opposed to it … Government can really do nothing efficiently, and we’ve seen that time after time … The free market does do things more efficiently,” said Glyn, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.
The president, in his Wednesday-night speech to a joint session of Congress, said he would not sign any plan that increases the nation’s deficit and that the proposed plan, which includes provisions for preventative care, would save money.
But Glyn is not convinced.
“With all due respect to the president of the United States, he’s just not correct about that,” he said. “The Congressional Budget Office has disagreed. Every single independent organization that has analyzed the bill has disagreed with the president and said that’s just not the case.”
Stanford said although the sticker price of the proposed insurance reform — $900 billion throughout the course of 10 years, according to the president — seems high, the price of covering those who end up in the emergency room without insurance is more expensive.
Radigals member Shadi Mousavi disagreed and said the president’s plan would be more fiscally responsible.
“We spend more per capita on health care than any other nation in the world, and we’re getting pretty much nothing out of it … If you want to be fiscally responsible, then I think the fiscally responsible thing to do is change the system we have now, because obviously it’s not working,” said Mousavi, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.
She stressed the importance of the issue to college students who, with the unstable economy, may have trouble finding an employer-based health insurance plan upon graduation.
“In a supposedly ‘civilized’ nation, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have universal access to health care,” Mousavi said.
Anna Zailik, a Radigals member, said she was for the president’s plan but also stressed the importance of a knowledgeable student body.
“Watch the news. Read. Do whatever you can to stay informed updated on this topic, because it’s our voices that need to be heard,” said Zailik, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore. “Everyone does make a difference … The only way to do anything about it is to act on it.”
Although their positions varied, Stanford, Glyn, Mousavi and Zailik all agreed that students should voice their opinions to their congressmen in an effort to ensure that their ideas are heard.

4 comments

Scott

Sun Sep 27 2009 15:44

AMEN! Keep the government out of our health care system. I am sure we all agree that some reform is necessary such as making insurance available to all and not be linked to our employment, allowing greater competition by letting insurance companies sell across state lines, and actually do something about tort reform and doing away with frivolous law suits. We do pay dearly for our health care but NO ONE is ever turned away from our emergency rooms whether they can pay or not. Where else in the world is that the case??

Russ Onderko RC80

Fri Sep 11 2009 16:50

People in this country have to ask themselves if they really want a former community agitator in charge of 1/6 of the American economy. Obama never had to manager a budget, meet a payroll or generate a return for shareholders in his life and now he wants to assume control of the US healthcare industry??? Come one people, wake up. Never trust a Liberal with your money.

pat

Fri Sep 11 2009 11:15

I can't understand why union members don't file a class action lawsuit against unions who are TRYING TO TAKE THEIR BENEFITS AWAY. A benefit of unions was supposed to be to provide better benefits. Union members, you LOSE if the government takes over healthcare. I guess unions will no longer be needed if they get what they want....government healthcare. We will ALL be taxed for this horrible plan. If the government can't fix the corruption in medicare, can you imagine the wasted dollars if they took over the healthcare system? This makes no common sense at all. They can't run medicare, but they want to run healthcare for all of us? No thanks. The truth is the unions paid big money into Obama's campaign, and what do they want in return for supporting single GOVERNMENT payer healthcare? Card Check. It is all about payback and corruption and that goes for both the government and union leadership.

Lea

Fri Sep 11 2009 09:25

If there is 900 billion dollars worth of fraud and waste in medicare and medicad, then why hasn't the president done anything to get rid of it? If it was possible to eliminate it and use the money for something else, than that should have been the first thing the president and congress went to work on in January. What is he waiting for?
The truth is that the new health care bill will ultimately be paid for by tax-paying citizens in the form of tax increases and we will still have to pay for the people who take no responsiblity for their health and well-being and for the millions of people from all over the world who are in this country illegally and will still be able to avail themselves of free health care on our dime. And in the end we will have another system full of fraud and waste.

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