Countries in Green have some
form of Universal Health Care

The newspaper headline on Monday read “New health insurance co-op takes grass roots approach” and Tuesday’s headlines reads 92, 000 to lose BadgerCare coverage”. What is wrong with this picture? First the new health insurance co-op is Common Ground which claims to be an affiliate of a group founded by Saul Alinsky, “a fame leftist community organizing best known for his book “Rules for Radicals.” The Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative is a non-profit insurance company starting with federal loans “totaling $36.4 million from the Affordable Care Act. Common Ground admits that its health care plan will have higher cost than other health care programs, basically not for poor and those who cannot afford health insurance now.

I was drawn to Saul Alinsky and his community organizing training program by a community organization on the West Side of Milwaukee. I attended and was trained as a community organizer in Chicago by the Industrial Areas Foundation, IAF, which claims to be true inheritors of Saul Alinsky. After I became a community organizer I found out there was a number of umbrella organizations that trace to roots back to Saul Alinsky. However, what all this various branches had in common was a form of confrontational organizing against the ‘powers that be’ that Saul Alinsky used successfully to give the poor and marginalized a say in their own neighborhoods.

If Saul Alinsky was alive in this age I am sure he would be in the forefront of some form of universal health care “The U.S. stands almost entirely alone among developed nations that lack universal health care.” See map on the side and below taken from The Atlantic. The which is based on a simple principle that no one should profit from illness. The Affordable Health Care act continues profiteering from illness while all Universal Health care systems “provides health care and financial protection to all its citizens. It is organized around providing a specified package of benefits to all members of a society with the end goal of providing financial risk protection, improved access to health services, and improved health outcomes.”

The next day’s headlines show how far community organizations like “Common Ground” have got away from the vision of Saul Alinsky. Under the Affordable Care Act individual states, like Wisconsin, can choose to reject federal funds. This in Wisconsin 92, 000 persons have been notified they will no longer be eligible for BadgerCare that was targeted to low income persons who do not qualify for Federal Medical Assistance. The rest of the person in BadgerCare will pay a significant amount more for health care insurance.
The Republicans and Democrats have moved the debate about some form of universal health care to a debate about the Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare. So in the meanwhile the poor and marginalized will have access to affordable, good health care and those who are profiteering from illness will become richer.

Countries in Green have some
form of Universal Health Care

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