« Building Bridges Radio: UN Global Economic Crisis Conference | Building Bridges Radio's Blog | Building Bridges Radio: Jobless Recovery? Poverty on the Rise! »
Building Bridges Radio: Kucinich on Real Health Care Reform
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition 27:23
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
**************************************
Real Health Care Reform
With
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland, Ohio
Representative Kucinich is a champion HR 676 the single payer bill which constitutes real reform which is not a placebo but the real curative for what ails our health care system. He dissects the current health care debate talking about the ever shrinking public option, the role of the insurance companies, the prospects for a debate on single payer in Congress, his amendment for choice of single payer by the States and the continuing struggle for real health care reform.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To Download or listen to this 27:13 minute program, go to www.buildingbridgesradio.org or
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35672
or http://www.archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesKucinichOnRealHealthCareReform
Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI,
99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from
7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at
www.wbai.org .
Our website is www.buildingbridgesradio.org
Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over:
WGOT - Gainesville, Florida.
WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.
WWUH, - West Hartford, CT
WVJW- Benwood, WV
KRFP, Moscow, ID
KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
WXOJ, Northampton, MA
KSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon
WKNH ,Keene, NH
CKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada
KRFC, Fort Collins, Colorado
WRPI, Troy, New York
WNRB, Wausau, WI
KRBS, Oroville, CA
WHLD, Buffalo, NY
Free Radio Olympia, Olympia,WA
KQRP Salida, California
East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WA
KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon
KWMD, Kasiloff-Anchorage, Alaska
WPRR, Grand Rapids, Michigan
WCRS, Columbus, Ohio
WSLU, St. Leo, Florida
as well as internet stations:
Radio Veronica, West Point, PA
The Journey Radio
WXXE
Seattle Radical Radio
Radio for Peace International
Radio Labourstart
AmericanFM.org
RadioDriftless.org
Grateful Dread Public Radio
=========================================
For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Building+Bridges
For archived of all Building Bridges programs go to our new website:
http://www.buildingbridgesradio.org
National Edition 27:23
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
**************************************
Real Health Care Reform
With
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland, Ohio
Representative Kucinich is a champion HR 676 the single payer bill which constitutes real reform which is not a placebo but the real curative for what ails our health care system. He dissects the current health care debate talking about the ever shrinking public option, the role of the insurance companies, the prospects for a debate on single payer in Congress, his amendment for choice of single payer by the States and the continuing struggle for real health care reform.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To Download or listen to this 27:13 minute program, go to www.buildingbridgesradio.org or
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35672
or http://www.archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesKucinichOnRealHealthCareReform
Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI,
99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from
7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at
www.wbai.org .
Our website is www.buildingbridgesradio.org
Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over:
WGOT - Gainesville, Florida.
WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.
WWUH, - West Hartford, CT
WVJW- Benwood, WV
KRFP, Moscow, ID
KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
WXOJ, Northampton, MA
KSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon
WKNH ,Keene, NH
CKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada
KRFC, Fort Collins, Colorado
WRPI, Troy, New York
WNRB, Wausau, WI
KRBS, Oroville, CA
WHLD, Buffalo, NY
Free Radio Olympia, Olympia,WA
KQRP Salida, California
East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WA
KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon
KWMD, Kasiloff-Anchorage, Alaska
WPRR, Grand Rapids, Michigan
WCRS, Columbus, Ohio
WSLU, St. Leo, Florida
as well as internet stations:
Radio Veronica, West Point, PA
The Journey Radio
WXXE
Seattle Radical Radio
Radio for Peace International
Radio Labourstart
AmericanFM.org
RadioDriftless.org
Grateful Dread Public Radio
=========================================
For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Building+Bridges
For archived of all Building Bridges programs go to our new website:
http://www.buildingbridgesradio.org
Advertisement
Some of my favorite quotes, (paraphrased by me), from the interview:
This is either government of the people, for the people, and by the people, or it’s government of the corporations. This is one of those moments when we’re going to have to make that decision. We may not make the appropriate decision this time. I believe there will come a day when healthcare will be viewed as a civil right. When it is there will be a mass movement that will force Washington to respond to the will of the people in much the way that it did in the civil rights, and women’s rights movements.
If the plan at best is just a subsidy for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. I think all of us have to take a long and careful look at that to decide if that is appropriate and whether we’re just further locking in those entrenched interests. This goes beyond who the president is. This really relates to what kind of life people are having , what kind of quality of life what kind of economic existence do people have if they’re paying more money for healthcare or if they can’t afford healthcare, or they can’t afford their doctor bills. There are some deeper questions here than just the politics. And frankly even though I’m in politics I refuse to look at this in strictly political terms. This about a life and death matter for tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, or can’t afford to take care of their families, and we’re finding out Insurance companies have them over a barrel every step of the way.
We have to decide whether healthcare is a right or a privilege. If it’s a right, then everybody should be covered, and the government should push for it. If it’s a privilege, then hold your hats because if you don’t have enough money you’re going to be out of luck.
We’ve seen the debate in America run by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. Our choices have to be larger than the one’s we’re getting. Our options have to be bigger than the one’s we’re getting. This is not a time for minimalism and saying this is the best the system can do. This just really tells us what America is about. Whether we really have a democracy or whether we have a corporate oligarchy that dictates decisions under the guise that it’s doing the best it can.
We’re at a moment of a litmus test for our nation and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. We need to move to a broader reform of a single payer system and whether healthcare is a right or a privilege. When democrats were given this broad mandate by the people in 2008, if the best we can do is some warmed over version of a public option, or no public option, or a public option with a trigger, or cooperatives then if that’s the best we can do the American people have ever right to ask whether their confidence was misplaced.
September 16, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink