Health care activists, doctors, nurses, professionals and a rock star raged against the Massachusetts health care machine yesterday in South Boston, demanding a more efficient system than the current individual mandate system enacted under former Gov. Mitt Romney.
The day of discussion included a forum headed by health care experts, a screening of Michael Moore's health care documentary, Sicko, and a rain-drenched rally in Boston Common featuring a performance by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
Morello performed songs in support of universal health care, covering Woodie Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" and playing songs from his 2003 solo album in front of about 50 onlookers in the cold rain on the Common.
"Most people have to stay inside on a day like today because they don't have enough health care coverage," Morello said. "Never give up and never give in. Nobody wins unless we all win."
Health care experts on the panel discussed the advantages of the "single payer" system, which they said can turn into a bureaucratic nightmare with paperwork between doctors, hospitals, prescriptions, premium payments and co-payments for a person seeking treatment.
Universal health care is a way to channel medical coverage through a unified policy for everybody, they said.
Elisa McKernan, who spoke at the forum, said her mom has hypertension, her sister has asthma, her two siblings need eye care and her dad has diabetes, but their disorders are not receiving medical attention because they cannot afford state health care.
"My dad is going to die because of the system," she said.
McKernan said because her family could not afford health insurance, it was fined by the state.
Panelist Ann Malone, Alliance to Defend Healthcare executive director, said enrollment in the individual mandate system -- which requires Massachusetts residents to purchase health insurance and threatens punishment for those without coverage -- is unsustainable.
"It treats healthcare as a commodity that people are forced to purchase, instead of a human right," she said.
Medical insurance companies oppose the single-payer model, Malone said, because the state could revoke companies' nonprofit status.
"They're nonprofit in legal status only," she said. "Last year, insurance carriers had a $600 million surplus. It's outrageous, obscene and immoral."
Panelist Sandy Eaton, Alliance to Defend Healthcare treasurer, said initial steps toward a single-payer platform dissolved after individual mandate took effect.
"The ideological warfare is between thinking the market will solve problems and that health care is a social good that everyone should have access to," he said.
The penalties for not purchasing insurance are too high, said Donna Smith, spokeswoman for the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee, who was featured in Moore's documentary.
"There's a $1,000 penalty in Massachusetts for not purchasing health insurance," she said. "It's only $50 for carrying a concealed weapon. That's just crazy."
The maximum penalty for not purchasing health care in Massachusetts is in fact $900.
Smith, who has toured 27 states over the past seven months speaking at universities and other venues, said a college friend urged her to send her story to Moore to use for his documentary. Hers was among the nearly 25,000 messages Moore received in one week.
"My story had a wonderful turnaround, but not all of them do," she said.
Katherine Hunt, a rally attendee, referred to herself as a "medical refugee" because of problems she has had with employers, doctors and insurance payments. Hunt said civil disobedience as a necessary means to change the health care situation.
"We're going to have to suffer, be brave and pay personal prices," she said. "We have to get radical."
Hunt evoked the spirit of the civil rights movement and a participant echoed those sentiments in the rally's question-and-answer session.
"This is grassroots - it's work," he said. "It's hard work, but we've got the truth on our side and that will last."
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