<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16359" style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16360" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;'>PROGRESSIVE MEDIA
PROJECT </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16361" style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16362"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16363" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(154, 61, 61); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 19pt;'>The real health care
story is in the states </span></b><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16364" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(154, 61, 61); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 19pt;'></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16365" style="background: white; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16366" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>By BEN PALMQUIST</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16367" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16368" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Tribune News Service</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16369" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16370" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Although House Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan to
strip health care from 24 million people came up short, Congress and the Trump
administration are planning a series of actions and legislation that would do
much of the same. The question is not whether they will cut and privatize health
care, but how deeply they will drive the knife.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16371" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16372" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>But a bigger and more inspiring story is
developing in the states. From Maine to Hawaii, people are not only resisting
Republican attacks on health care, but are laying the foundation for a profound
transformation of the American health care system.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16373" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16374" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>By redefining health care as a human right,
grassroots campaigns are challenging the core logic of the private insurance
industry: that health care is a commodity that should be available only to
those who can afford it.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16375" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16376" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Though calls to replace private insurance with
universal, publicly financed coverage are not new, this political moment offers
a unique opportunity. As health care access is attacked, people are turning out
to town halls in droves, demanding more public involvement in health care, not
less.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16377" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16378" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Polls show that a large majority of people
recognize that government has an obligation to make sure everyone can get care.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16379" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16380" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Bernie Sanders’ call for Medicare for all
helped make him one of the most popular politicians in the country. And the
insurance and drug industries have approval ratings even lower than Donald
Trump. The public is way ahead of both parties.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16381" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16382" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>But the insurance industry and its allies hold
powerful control over the Republicans and Democrats and have so far
successfully blocked every attempt at universal health care since the days of
Harry Truman. To win, we need a mass people’s movement. But with Washington
under the control of free-market ideologues, our path to power runs through the
states.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16383" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16384" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>In just about every state in the country,
there is an active and organized grassroots campaign for universal health care,
and state campaigns have already achieved significant success. The Campaign for
New York Health has twice passed a bill for universal health care through the
state assembly. And the Healthy California campaign has just introduced a bill
in Sacramento that has powerful backing from the coalition’s 150 member
organizations and their 4 million members.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16385" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16386" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Some of the most remarkable organizing is
being led by the members of the Vermont Workers’ Center, Put People First
Pennsylvania, and Southern Maine Workers’ Center, whose Healthcare Is a Human
Right campaigns focus on the leadership of poor and working class people who
are directly impacted by the injustices of the health care system.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16387" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16388" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>We now have the chance of a lifetime, but if
we’re going to win universal health care and refocus our economy on meeting
human needs, we can’t afford to be passive, and we certainly can’t follow the
lead of the Democratic Party. It’s time to turn down the Washington rhetoric,
tune into our friends and neighbors, and get to work.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16389" style="background: white; margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; line-height: normal;" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1491749468386_16390" style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;'>Ben Palmquist is a campaign manager with the
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and helps coordinate the
Healthcare Is a Human Right Collaborative. He wrote this for Progressive Media
Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues;
it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.</span></div>
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