As
Ajamu Sankofa, Chair of the New York Chapter of Healthcare-Now,
explained, at the hearing, ordinary people from all walks of
life – students, the elderly, the disabled, people with chronic
conditions, the undocumented – will explain just what their
normal issues are when it comes to accessing adequate health
coverage and health care for their particular situations. The
speakers will include those with jobs and those who are between
jobs, and will cover the entire range of people - those who are
uninsured, under-insured, intermittently insured as well as
those who are insured. "It's going to be a reflection of the
reality of what's going on in New York City vis a vis the health
crisis," Sankofa said.
In the audience, there will be experts listening to and later
commenting on what is revealed. Among them will be Judy Wessler,
Director of the Commission on the Public’s Health System; Dr. Don
Sloan, physician and the author of Practicing Medicine without a
License: The Corporate Takeover of Healthcare in America; and
Dr. Jaime Torres, President of Latinos for National Health
Insurance; along with Father Earl Kooperkamp from St. Mary's
Episcopal Church in West Harlem and Council Members Charles Barron
and Oliver Koppell.
What’s more, there will be performances by spoken word artists
and other progressive artists, with a special performance by
Broadway stage artist Vinie Burrows.
Ajamu Sankofa, who will act as the event’s moderator, also
explained that this hearing is part of Healthcare-Now’s effort to
build a movement to bring about a national single payer system that
covers everyone in the United States. "This is the unfinished
business of the civil rights movement," he declared. "Martin Luther
King said that of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care
is the most shocking and inhumane. 18,000 people die every year
because they don't have insurance.
"The United States is 37th in the world in health care
and is the only industrialized country on earth that doesn’t have
universal access to health care for all its people," continued
Sankofa. "The health insurance industry must no longer be permitted
to profit from the illnesses of people. We have the capacity to
provide health insurance for every living soul in the United States
more cheaply and better than is currently being done. Health care
is a human right."
The hearing will be held in room 8B at the Harlem State Office
Building, 125th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (take
the #2, #3, A, or B train to 125th). For further
information, call (718) 703-4041. To learn more about
Healthcare-Now, visit
www.healthcare-now.org .
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