25,000 protest health cutbacks in N.Y.C

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NEW YORK-A rally of 25,000 planned by the organizers of the march. healthcare workers and their supporters But this will only divert the struggle for took place at Columbus Circle in mid- adequate healthcare. town Manhattan on Feb. 7. It was called What is needed are more marches like to protest a proposal by Democratic Party this one, linked with the organizing of a Gov. Mario Cuomo to cut approximately community and labor coalition to fight Șl billion in Medicaid payments to hospi- for socialized medicine the fight for the The marchers, members of Hospital inalienable right of all working people Workers Local 1199 and the American and their allies. panies have combined assets estimated at $700 billion to $1 trillion. For one year in the mid-1980s the profits of health care institutions (including hospitals) totaled $2.8 billion. The biggest profit-reapers were the pharmaceuticals and medical equipment companies, making profits of $5.6 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively.

At the same time, healthcare costs for working people, already high, went through the roof. In 1988, for example, insurance premiums increased by 30-40 percent. This was happening at the same time that government budget cuts slashed funds for public health services and other entitlement programs. These are programs that are desperately needed by the poor, a disproportionate number of whom are Black, Hispanic, and single women with children.

Central role of trade unions The issue of healthcare and medical coverage has been a central question for unionized workers-especially the industrial sector. Over 78 percent of the strikes in 1989 involved a fight against attempted company takebacks of workers' medical benefits. In almost every contract dispute in the last decade, the cutting edge of company demands, besides lowering wages, was increasing the deductible that workers have to pay for medical insurance, thus saving money for the companies and increasing their profits.

During the 1940s and '50s it was the trade-union movement that led the charge for employer-financed healthcare coverage for its members. But unfortunately, the short-sighted leadership of the unions limited their medical coverage demands to the unions' membership alone, instead of demanding a comprehensive employerfinanced national healthcare program for all workers—union, non-union, and unemployed alike.

A recent national poll cited by the Oil, 10 SOCIALI: ACTION I congressinas National Health Care Why not me?

tals in New York State. Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council, chanted "No Cuts!" and "Tax the Rich!" as they marched to the rally site from their gathering point at 53rd St. and 7th Ave.

They were joined by a number of their patients, those who require wheelchairs and those who receive Medicaid-funded home healthcare. The proposed cuts will directly affect both groups through layoffs of workers and loss of services to patients, as hospitals struggle to make up for lost funding.

Speakers who addressed the crowd included Dennis Rivera of 1199, Cardinal John O'Connor, and a number of city hospital officials. They attacked any cuts in the healthcare system as being unfair because it hurts those who are most in need of assistance.

The cutbacks were attacked as potentially disastrous to a system already seriously underfunded; a system in which many people do not get adequate care; a system where hospital workers are overburdened with large numbers of patients; and a system that tolerates high incidences of diseases like measles and AIDS when what is needed is increased rather than decreased funding.

While the healthcare workers displayed enthusiasm during the march, they lack direction and a clear sense of how to apply their demands. A campaign of lobbying the legislators in Albany is being right to free quality healthcare as an rations managing hospitals in Canada, and the Ottawa government has already announced cutbacks due to rising costs. As long as healthcare entrepreneurs can charge their own prices for health service, healthcare, as a right, is on flimsy foundations in Canada.

A better example, is the system in Cuba, where doctors are the employees of the state, and private speculation in medical care is prohibited.[(See story on opposite page.] Such a system is not called a national health plan; such a system is known by the term socialized medicine. That is, healthcare is not to be a profit-making business; it is to be a guaranteed right for all working people—not a privilege for the rich.

And who should pay? It should be the rich—who benefit the most from a healthy work force; after all, they exploit the ability of workers to labor-that is, to produce profits.

Every proposal for U.S. healthcare advanced so far leaves open the question of who will pay for a national health plan. Any plan that is finally adopted will be both inadequate and inequitable. Furthermore, the cost for such a plan will undoubtedly be passed on to working people through an already regressive tax system.

Working people and their organizations should place no confidence in either the Democrats or the Republicans to formulate a healthcare plan that's beneficial to all.

The right to socialized healthcarecradle to grave, free, quality healthcare—will be won, as all rights throughout history have been won, through a struggle of working people and their allies around their healthcare proposals: "Healthcare is a right, not a privilege!'"'Tax the rich!"

If the capitalists balk, as they undoubtedly will, then working people should enforce their own healthcare policies-just as they did in Cuba in 1959.