The first public hearing on HB 311, the Health Care for All Illinois Act, was held Saturday in Simeon Career Academy's muggy auditorium.
HB 311, Illinois' single payer bill, passed with approval from the Health Committee of the Illinois House of Representatives, and is headed for a full floor vote later this year.
Chief sponsor Rep. Mary Flowers (D-31) along with co-sponsor Rep. Greg Harris (D-13), officiated.
An audience of about 50 concerned, questioning and hurting citizens gathered to discuss and debate the value of a Single Payer plan that would cover everyone...
Lemme say again...
EVERYONE in Illinois regardless of age, income status or illness.
People were encouraged to attend and testify.
For 3 hours people testified in conjunction with Rep. Flowers’ ripped from today’s headlines readings concerning the 1.8 million uninsured in Illinois and the 18 deaths per weekdue to a lack of access to health insurance.
Rep. Flowers said it all...
It shouldn't be about having access to health insurance, it should be about access to health care.
The distinguished Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator of PNHP, spoke of the increasing support from physicians. 59% of doctors support single payer.
The amount of money spent on health care in this country, 2.5 trillion in expenditures this year, and what we get in return is an absolute swindle.
The ‘under-insured’ were represented well by Bill Bianchi, of the Progressive Democrats of America, PDA Chicago, who talked of the hidden exclusions in his and in individual insurance policies.
Exclusions are written in so that they don’t have to cover parts of your body or some ailment from your recent past.
Exclusions run counter to the whole idea of insurance. Imagine if your home insurer said, ‘Ok, we will cover your home for fire, but NOT if it starts in the kitchen because that’s where most home fires start. If it starts in the bedroom you’re covered, kitchen you’re not.'
Bill calculated that with single payer he would have saved thousands of dollars in premiums and had the peace of mind that every part of him was covered.
With single payer, I could move out of the Bermuda Triangle of Insurance.
Rachel Shattuck, Democratic Candidate running for State Representative in the 49th District of Illinois, also offered testimony.
Single Payer is more wanted and supported than we realize, even in the suburbs in my district. In fact nationally 65% of Americans say that they favor a universal health care system, and 54% actually use the term Single Payer. I can tell you that that represents the 49th district very well, because I have had people bring up Single Payer when I talk to them at the door.
Rep. Flowers commended Candidate Shattuck for traveling all the way from her home in Dundee to the South Side of Chicago to testify on behalf of her constituents.
There was a time when I remember that I could go to any doctor office I could go to any insurance. You have never had that experience in your lifetime. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you. I need you on my committee.
There were many touching but enraging stories including Jody Polka, whose father Cyril Strezo, was a Frankfort, Illinois patient with esophageal and liver cancers.
He thought he had ‘the best insurance money could buy’. He did all the right things, and played by all the rules, but was still ‘delayed and denied’ treatment to the point of being admitted to hospice care and given a deathwatch.
"If your father is not dead by Wednesday, we have to put him out" Jody was told.
There was Vanessa Beck who has Crohns Disease and additional chronic auto-immune illnesses.
Everything in Vanessa’s life has been shaped by her fight for medical care and life-sustaining medication.
She courageously listed how her life has been a constant fight to stay alive in this current ‘publicly traded, stock optioned, profit mongering, UNhealth care system.'
Her career (or lack thereof), her relationships, where she can live, her credit, stress and depression level all linked to access to health insurance
Her list included thoughts of suicide.
I often wonder what my life would be like if I wasn’t controlled by the fight to obtain health care. What contributions I could have made to society, what personal accomplishments I might be proud of, how financially stable I might be, how I might be able to have a family...I absolutely resent having to live like this. Having the course of my life determined by fighting for something that should be available to all of us as one of our most basic human rights.
Amen.
We are all in a crisis and Illinois families are hurting.
The next public hearing for HB 311 is Saturday, June 28, 11a.m.-2p.m., McHenry County College Extension, Crystal Lake.
You can hear recent radio interviews with both Rep. Flowers and Rep. Harris on single payer in Illinois:
Rep. Mary Flowers
Rep. Greg Harris