"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane." These words, spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, echo a sentiment among many physicians, med students, and undergraduates across our country. With over 44 million Americans uninsured to date (one out of six!), and over 700,000 in Massachusetts alone, action is warranted and should be demanded. The status quo may be fine for many students at Tufts, but further reflection reveals tragedy striking our communities. As students here on the Hill, we should seek to expand coverage to healthcare for our neighbors in the same manner that we have secured benefits for other groups with small voices.
Tufts' medical students, supporters, and volunteers celebrated the fifth anniversary of Sharewood this year. Sharewood provides free medical clinic care to those unable to afford health insurance and gives students a chance to practice patient examinations - skills which are often not learned until the third and fourth years of medical school. The Malden-based clinic shows our school's dedication to the community, but the underlying problem of access to quality medical care remains a large problem that the clinic does not specifically address. A national or state health care system must be introduced to save our communities.
Who are the uninsured? They are people that surround you everyday. Of the 44 million Americans, 44.6 percent are fulltime working employees, unable to afford healthcare due to rising premiums or low job benefits. Children account for 26 percent at 11 million! Even college and professional students fall into the list of those uninsured. Fortunately, our healthcare system is able to pay for those recently unemployed or disabled through the Medicaid program, but this does not extend to the "working uninsured" - the large group who are making just enough to pay for housing, food, and other necessities, a category into which healthcare does not have the luxury of falling.
Not being able to afford care often means delaying preventive care, ultimately adding to the price of health services delivered. These costs are passed ultimately onto the states or the hospitals themselves. Our health care system shuts out a large proportion of our population, much on the basis of cost. In fact, about 26 percent of all health care costs fall into the administrative category. Being able to streamline much of the red tape into a more efficient system could save money. Ironically, a ballot initiative was defeated last fall, which would have provided Universal Health Care (UHC) in Massachusetts because of a commercial claiming red tape caused by UHC would bury everyone and strain physicians. In fact, according to most numbers, insuring every American would not be as expensive as once thought, and access to preventative care would realistically lower the cost of healthcare for most hospitals that incur a loss.
According to the Canadian General Accounting Office, "If the US were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a single payer, as in Canada, the savings in administrative costs [10 percent of health spending] would be more than enough to offset the expense of universal coverage."
With current cost-saving measures enacted in the private insurance sector and contractions in spending for Medicare and Medicaid, many community hospitals and health centers have been forced to close their doors, leaving the safety net decreased each time. In fact, it is unfortunate that our people must rely on the safety net, as it is constructed in a way that takes money from the private insured and one that leaves many hospitals taking a loss for many people who walk through its emergency department doors.
It is time that our country addresses the matter of healthcare as a universal human right. Currently, our system views access to healthcare as a privilege for those who can afford it or who qualify for government benefits such as Medicaid. Those who do work, but for whom the cost of paying a premium in addition to living expenses are turned away from decent medical care. Other countries, such as Great Britain, Canada, and Germany recognize the decency of healthcare access and have enacted legislation ensuring fair access.
Student organizations across the country, including the Tufts Chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), are becoming involved in this cause, many rallying behind the newly introduced bill H.C.R. 99. Students are taking action across the country, holding candlelight vigils for the uninsured, writing and calling their representatives in government, and educating the people about the legislation. I encourage everyone to look at the legislation and form judgments based on that, and the problem which has been described above. The national AMSA website is an easy way to let your representative or senator know how you feel about insuring our country. Many students in our campus organization and across the country are writing their representatives to start to effecting change, as letters, and handwritten ones especially, are counted closely on most issues.
While we, as students at Tufts, should be applauded for our contributions to the community through LCS, Sharewood, and T-AMSA, we must continue to look deeper at the issue and try to address the underlying cause. We must not accept this status quo of our friends seeking primary care in emergency facilities or relying on the sparse net of free clinics. While we cannot solve the problems of poverty or homelessness in a day, we can drastically improve lives by allowing access to healthcare. Our campus has seen a good share of activist energy and spirit of late - let's once again focus it on a noble cause.
Brad Crotty is a junior majoring in biochemistry. He is the president of the Tufts Chapter of the American Medical Student Association.
