the anderson files Time for the next step in health care by Dave Anderson
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e have been told over health care funds and by raising perand over that the sonal income taxes on the top 5 perUnited States has the cent of income earners, instituting a best health care system progressive excise tax on payroll and on the planet. This self-employment income, and taxing notion is contradicted by numerous unearned income and stock and bond empirical studies over the decades. For transactions. many years, the Commonwealth This bill is in the spirit of the Fund’s survey of health care systems in Medicare law passed in 1968. Max 11 wealthy nations has shown that the Fine, an architect of Medicare, told U.S. is an outlier among the advanced the Intercept that the program wasn’t industrial nations. The fund’s 2017 intended to cover only the elderly report notes that the U.S. health care population and that expanding it to all system ranks last in overall perforAmericans was the ultimate goal. mance, and is at or near the bottom on Fine says that three years after the access, administrative efficiency, equity enactment of Medicare, a Committee and health care outcomes. of 100 leading Americans was formed The Affordable Care Act to campaign for single-payer. The (Obamacare) has campaign leaders helped many but were United Auto it also has left 28 Workers president million Americans Walter Reuther, THAT USED TO BE THE completely uninDr. Michael sured and tens of DeBakey, National PROPONENT OF SINGLEmillions more Urban League PAYER HAS BEEN with unaffordable president Whitney gaps in their covYoung, and Mary LARGELY CAPTURED BY erage, like co-payLasker, a leader in THE INTERESTS WHO ments and deductthe formation and ibles and uncovfunding of the THINK SINGLE-PAYER ered services. National Institutes WILL DESTROY THEIR While the batof Health. The tle in Washington announcement of PROFITS.” over Obamacare the campaign was — VIJAY DAS rages on, more front page news in and more the New York Americans want a Times and other genuinely universal newspapers. plan and are now backing a Senator Ted Kennedy had a single“single-payer” health care system, payer bill with 36 co-sponsors. where one public health insurance proThe movement for single-payer has gram would cover everybody. The U.S. “risen and fallen over the years,” Fine has one federal program like that for says. Unfortunately, the Democratic people over 65 called Medicare. Party headed in a rightward direction In the House of Representatives, a and turned to private insurance to single-payer bill has gained the support cover more people. of a majority of Democrats. But now times are changing again. Congressman John Conyers A recent nationwide poll, conduct(D-Michigan) introduced the ed by the Associated Press in partnerExpanded and Improved Medicare for ship with the NORC Center for All Act (H.R. 676), which would proPublic Affairs Research, shows that vide every U.S. resident with free med- there has been a dramatic shift to the ically necessary care including primary left with 62 percent of the public care and prevention, dietary and nutriagreeing that it is “the federal government’s responsibility to make sure that tional therapies, prescription drugs, emergency care, long-term care, mental all Americans have health care coverage.” Eighty percent of Democrats health services, dental services and vision care. It would be paid for with existing see THE ANDERSON FILES Page 7
“THE PARTY
6 July 27 , 2017
guest column How the Trump administration targets immigrants by Lisa Rosenberg
T
he Trump administration has yet to break ground for its promised border wall to keep the undocumented out of the United States, but by embarking on a campaign of misinformation and secrecy, it is rapidly moving forward with efforts to target and deport immigrants already here. To advance the false narrative that the undocumented community includes an outsized and particularly dangerous set of criminals, the Administration ignores data that shows that high rates of immigration actually coincide with reduced crime rates, and that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the United States. As Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute noted, “It is absurd to highlight the crimes committed by a small group of people without reporting on the crimes committed by everybody.” The misleading use of crime data not only results in questionable policy decisions, but also could lead to unwarranted fear of immigrants and an uptick in hate-crimes against them. Such fear-mongering appears to be behind the new office for Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) recently launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). VOICE will share selective data about alleged criminals’ immigration and custody status, but will omit information on other crimes, including crimes in which immigrants are victims. VOICE stems from the President’s Executive Order on internal safety and immigration
enforcement, which also decreed that Privacy Act protections do not apply to the undocumented. The result is that when VOICE shares information about immigrants, their right to legally challenge potentially erroneous disclosures may be curtailed. The implications could be devastating for individuals who are wrongly targeted, especially given this administration’s track record with the facts. The launch of the VOICE office comes on the heels of other efforts by the administration to manipulate facts to support misleading conclusions about immigration enforcement. In an apparent effort to name and shame, the White House ordered ICE to release weekly reports highlighting jurisdictions it claimed did not comply with requests to keep undocumented individuals in custody for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release — so-called “detainer requests.” Law enforcement officials in counties nationwide described the data as “unfair and misleading” and openly disputed ICE’s claims. Because complying with detainer requests has been held to be unconstitutional, jurisdictions also objected to the reports’ mischaracterization that they were not complying with federal law. Responding to pressure, ICE has temporarily suspended publication of its misleading weekly reports, but is now concealing data about its own immigration investigations and enforcement with its illegitimate decision to withhold informasee GUEST COLUMN Page 7
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