May, 2006

Ohio fights for ‘Universal Health Care for Everyone’

By Sandy Reid

The People’s Tribune interviewed Robert Kurtycz of UNITE-HERE Union about the Ohio Single Payer Health Care Campaign. The backdrop to the campaign is the growing poverty in the state resulting from the flight of factories, and scarcity of new jobs that provide workers with health care benefits. The United States is the only industrialized country without universal health care.

PT: What is the health care campaign?

Robert Kurtycz: It’s for a health care bill that gives every resident or person who works in Ohio 100 percent health care coverage, including prescriptions, dental and vision. No co-pays and no deductibles. The goal is to get 130,000 signatures. Then it’s submitted to the state legislature for a compromise. But, to us, it is non-negotiable. Our position is that anything besides universal health care for everyone is unacceptable.

PT: How will it be funded?

RK: Right now, every U.S. taxpayer pays a tax on their income up to $90,000 a year. But if someone makes $2 million, they only pay on $90,000. The cap will be removed. What will change is that the wealthy will pay their share. The businesses that do not provide health insurance would be taxed. The insurance industry would be eliminated.

PT: What kind of support are you getting?

RK: Our approach is to build a grassroots movement. There is a lot of support from the medical community. We have chapters spreading throughout the state that are meeting on a regular basis, doing local media and collecting signatures. We’re up to about 21 different chapters in the state. The focus for us is on changing the topic of discussion. This is happening even in the small rural towns of Ohio. There are a lot of labels in Ohio -- people calling themselves Democrats, Republicans or Independents. This issue is a working class issue. We’re a working class state. It resonates with just about everybody.

PT: Why has the issue resonated so well in Ohio?

RK: When I got out of high school there were factories all over the town I grew up in. You could quit a job and you got healthcare at the next job. The majority of Ohioans get their healthcare through their employer. Now that we are losing the jobs, families lose their health insurance. People are driving two or three counties to get to the new job that doesn’t even provide what their old job provided. If you add to that the oil crisis, it’s awful. People are just not going to the doctors or waiting until they have to go to the emergency room where you are waiting for hours to get in. A common claim made by the hospitals for this is that they have to make up for all of the claims they are not reimbursed for. Under our system, they have no excuses. They would be reimbursed.

PT: What is your vision for change?

RK: My vision is that there is going to be a change to the working class being pro-active, they will see their destiny and take control of it. I see this health care bill in Ohio as a huge step toward that. Not just workers in Ohio are concerned. Every state touching us is supporting it — Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky. But, the campaign is more about changing the topic of discussion in this country than the health care bill. I truly believe that once we have a victory on this bill it could start a movement that will not easily be squashed.

For more information, visit http://www.spanohio.org or contact Robert Kurtycz at bkurtycz@yahoo.com.