Thomson Village Board endorses Medicare-for-all
Submitted by AnneScheetz on Tue, 2017-09-12 11:08
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emailSep 12 2017
At their Sepember 17, 2017, meeting, the Thomson, Illinois, Village Board trustees voted four to one to adopt a resolution in support of HR 676, the “Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act,” whose chief sponsor is Congressman John Coyners Jr. of Michigan.
Trustee Arthur Donart introduced the resolution at the Board’s August meeting and then moved to table it to allow time for researching the issue. He suggested that trustees go on line to watch the videos “Fix it: Health Care at the Tipping Point” and “Big Pharma: Market Failure.”
He also recommended they go to congress.gov and click on “legislation” and then type in HR676 in the search block and read the bill.
What motivated Donart was the $44,000 dollar budget item to pay the health insurance cost for three full time Village employees.
“This is tax money out of your pockets to enrich health care CEO’s and big Pharma," Donart told the trustees. "They raise their prices and we have to raise our taxes to keep up. This has got to stop. Congress can fix this.”
He explained that Congress makes the rules. The health care lobby spends big to elect the rule makers to make rules favorable to their profit goals. What they spend on lobbyist and contributions to politicians comes out of our pockets in the form of higher health care costs.
Donart had contacted Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner about the issue. The governor’s assistant told him the state has some 60,000 employees with paid health insurance. Donart reasoned that if the state is paying at the same rate as the Village, the cost to Illinois is $880 million dollars a year. Add to that the cost of retirees' Medi-gap policies and the state’s share for Medicare and the cost is enormous. Rauner’s assistant said he would discuss the issue with the governor that afternoon.
Donart, a former superintendent of schools, also mentioned the cost to school districts. He noted that savings achieved from passage and implementation of HR 676 could mean more money for education.
HR 676 has 117 co-sponsors. Illinois co-sponsors are Congresswoman Janice Schakowski, IL 9th; Congresswoman Robin L. Kelly, IL 2nd; Congressman Luis Gutierrez, IL 4th; Congressman Dannt Davis, IL 7th; and Congressman Bobby Rush, IL 1st. In Iowa, Congressman David Loebsack is a co-sponsor.
The text of the resolution adopted by the Thomson Village Board is as follows:
Resolution Supporting Medicare for All
WHEREAS health care cost have risen faster than inflation over the last twenty years; and
WHEREAS Medicare has been the most efficient and cost effective delivery system for elderly health care; and
WHEREAS health care cost have been an increasingly difficult burden for the taxpayers of all unites of government, small businesses, and the self- employed; and
WHEREAS the current for profit health care system consumes 35 cents of every health care dollar on advertising, claims processing, administrative cost and stockholder dividends; and
WHEREAS the present system is costly, inefficient and fails to provide care to millions of citizens; and
WHEREAS the Village of Thomson must budget $44,000 to cover three full time employees health care insurance that could be put to better use; and
WHEREAS other municipalities, counties, school districts, and the State of Illinois would save a substantial amount of money if H. R. 676, a Single Payer, Medicare for All legislative bill co-sponsored by 114 members of congress were to become law;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Thomson Village Board urges Congresswoman Cheri Bustos and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to support Medicare for All.
Given this 11th day of September 20017 by a vote of: ___4______yeas; and ___1_____ Nays.
Arthur C. Donart PhD, has been a Thomson Village Board trustee since ____/ He is a member of the Thomson Chamger of Commerce, Disclosure, the author is the trustee who introduced this resolution.