SOUNDING OFF:’SiCKO’ commentary needs reality check

So this is our state senator — the kind of man who will accuse his opponent Michael Moore of “half-truths” and “factual inaccuracies” without being able to provide a single example.

Well I won’t be like that — space (and the editors) permitting, I will detail most of the falsehoods and distortions Sen. Harman squeezed into his diatribe against healthcare reform (“Moore’s ‘mockumentary’ is misleading,” 6/21/07)

If he had actually seen the film, I doubt he would use ironic quotes around “tragedies” to describe the deaths and bankruptcies due to insurance company behavior which Moore documents. And surely it’s inappropriate to refer to 18,000 American deaths a year due to denial of service, and 2 million bankruptcies a year due to medical bills, as “isolated tragedies.” Harman further accuses Moore of making his movie “at the expense of the victims” who had volunteered their stories to him — well, what about the victims who were finally, reluctantly offered treatment once they threatened their insurers that they were going to be in this film?

Harman twice refers to SB 840 and single-payer as “socialized” medicine. Harman knows better, because we have been over this with him repeatedly, but then this entire essay is just a lazy rehash of rightwing talking points.

Under SB 840, healthcare providers — doctors, hospitals, drug manufacturers — will remain free capitalist agents subject to market discipline. It is only the function of insurance that we are proposing to replace with an accountable, “socialized” agency, because corporations, whose main responsibility is to make a profit, have proven themselves spectacularly unsuited to the essential task of insuring Americans’ health.

Another focus-group-tested lie from the insurance industry which Harman parrots is that the healthcare reforms on the table will “strip away personal choice.” This is the exact opposite of the truth. Right now it is the insurance companies that tell us what doctors and hospitals we can and can’t go to, what procedures they will or won’t cover. SB 840 — more than all the other alternatives — will give us much more free choice than we have now. The only choice we’ll be missing is one that most of us don’t want: which one of thousands of insurance plans to be ripped off by.

But I do want to point out something that probably escaped most of you, if you don’t keep up with these folks’ propaganda, in which case it probably didn’t have the effect Harman desired. You’ll notice that he uses the term “universal healthcare” four times, in sentences and paragraphs that seem to be otherwise lacking punch. Well, the decision has been made in corporate circles to use “universal healthcare” as a sort of expletive. I’m not sure exactly how effective a tactic that will be, given that most Americans, and most Californians, tell pollsters they do want universal healthcare (the only question being how to achieve it).

Tom Harman now inhabits such an insular and selfish world among the Sacramento Republicans that he assumes all his readers will hear “universal” as a bad thing. So you’re forgiven, readers, if you didn’t realize that each time he used that phrase you were supposed to cringe with disgust and horror … especially when he follows it with “regardless of citizenship.”

OK, illegal immigration, his final trump card. I may as well grab that toro by the horns. None of us condones illegal immigration or the hiring of cheap undocumented labor, but public health policy should not be a tool for enforcing laws that are the duty of the INS and other federal agencies. There are very good reasons that everybody residing and working in this state would be covered by SB 840 or any of the other serious healthcare reforms — preventive care would control outbreaks and epidemics, and also relieve the pressure on emergency rooms, where the uninsured go when they become seriously ill. As long as corporations continue to use cheap immigrant labor to pick and process our food, it’s in our best interest to keep these people healthy.

So Harman’s solution to the crisis is the laughable SB 236, aka “Cal CARE,” which does not address a single real problem any more than it has a chance of passing; it exists solely for anti-reform politicians like Harman to pretend they tried to do something about the crisis. Its main plank is tax breaks for folks who can afford to stash away their extra cash in “Health Savings Accounts” while still paying extortion to an approved insurance company — that is, more tax breaks for the wealthy! No wonder this is also George Bush’s one and only idea on healthcare. Well, birds of a feather, eh Tom.

Finally it should be pointed out that Harman has received $249,955 in contributions from insurance, pharmaceutical and other health-related special interests, and they’re certainly getting their money’s worth between his votes and columns like this. Go and see “SiCKO,” however you feel about Moore’s previous statements and works; think about your own experience with health insurance; and ask yourself, who is telling the truth, Moore or Harman?

And next year when the senator is up for re-election, let’s look for a candidate who will vote in our interest, not the interests of his corporate backers.

is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to “Sounding Off,” e-mail us at [email protected] or fax us at (714) 966-4667.