Guaranteed Healthcare

August 29, 2008 is the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

A CNA/NNOC Presentation
By: Colette Washington, Producer/Director

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, hope remains adrift for many families living in New Orleans, not to mention those 200,000 evacuees still scattered about the country unable to return home—or without a home to return to.  Empty foundations are all that remain where thousands of homes with severe structural damage have been demolished. 

Especially in the Lower 9th Ward, thousands more homes stand open and gutted as Gulf breezes pass though, keeping toxic mold at bay.  Humidity causes vegetation to grow over many abandoned homes with broken-out windows, wide-open doors, and nothing left inside but water-stained skeletal frames and haunting echoes of…“God please help us get out alive!”

The Healing Power of Helping Others... 

“Everybody’s just trying to survive here,” said Kim Lange, a Lower 9th Ward native and nurse practitioner featured in the third-year anniversary video.  For Kim and others who grew tired of waiting for the U.S. government to respond when the storm first hit (August 29, 2005), fear and sadness turned to anger, frustration, and motivation to take matters into their own hands.

She recalls joining the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) and volunteering at the Lower 9th Ward Free Health Clinic—now in desperate need of funding to keep its doors open.  “I felt good about myself and helping others in a time of crisis,” she said.  “Nurses everywhere should join so we can all be ready to respond when the next disaster strikes.”

America’s Weaknesses Revealed…

There are hundreds more stories about people like Kim stepping up to help out after the storm but unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina gave the world a much darker view into America’s weaknesses—like the obvious relationship between poverty and race, how Big Media reinforced negative stereotypes about people of color (as was illustrated by their focus on looting), and how the wealthiest nation in the world was MIA as desperate survivors waited for days to be rescued.

Yet three years after the storm, as the video makes clear, America continues to turn her back on her own sick by not yet adopting a national healthcare system like those operating in every other industrialized nation in the world today. A universal system where no individual is ever left out because they don’t have enough money, or because insurance companies are allowed to say “DENIED”—sacrificing our health, and in many cases our lives, for larger profits.

“What’s been shocking is to see the number of people who had access to healthcare before the storm who now have joined the ranks of the uninsured,” said Bay Love, financial officer of the Common Ground Free Health Clinic featured in the video.  “People, for example, who left because of the storm, as a result lost their jobs, and as a result of that, lost their health insurance.” He further explained that many of these people were managing illnesses before the storm but are now unable to reestablish health insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

Will America be ready for the next disaster?

“We’re still not prepared,” says Lange in the video.  “We need a national healthcare system that has the capability of stepping in at the time of impact and providing the healthcare services needed.”

The people of New Orleans are still waiting…

Even though flooding only occurred in the basement, which was cleaned up and ready to reopen in October of 2005, the famous Charity Hospital in New Orleans remains closed in 2008 as the Louisiana State University (LSU) systems office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) squabble over plans to build a newer, prettier hospital—a project which would take years and millions of dollars to complete while Charity stands empty. 

Meanwhile, the people of NOLA rely heavily on free health clinics, or wait in long lines to be seen at smaller remaining hospitals while their health deteriorates.  Many Americans are unaware that Charity is the second-largest hospital in the nation, and had been serving as the primary trauma center for all of southern Louisiana.  They also may be unaware, as Dr. James Moises highlights in the video, that there is a national trend to close public hospitals like Charity, marking the end of our public health safety net as we know it.  

What’s the Solution?

Regardless of age, socioeconomic status, religion, cultural background, or race, we all must face the fears of illness, aging, and death. Guaranteed universal healthcare for everyone in America is the only compassionate solution!

Take Action at: www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org

Tell the presidential candidates to support HR676: Proposed legislation by Rep John Conyers that would bring about REAL universal single-payer healthcare for everyone in America, for life!  Below are several other ways to GET INVOLVED. Please make comments and share this with friends!

Four things you can do right now:

• Sign the online petition for HR 676
• Donate to NOLA's free health clinics
• Join the RNRN Disaster Relief Network
• Tell your own healthcare story
• Start blogging for Guaranteed Healthcare

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Related News:

Fixing Charity is the faster, cheaper option, study says
But state supporting brand-new hospital
The Times-Picayune 08/21/2008

New Orleans braces for hurricane (Gustav) on Katrina anniversary
Times Online 08/28/08

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