Workers' Liberty

'the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class'  

Workers' Liberty Australia  

Insuring for discrimination

by Janet Burstall

Genetic testing is being watched by the insurance industry as a potential tool for increasing profits, by charging more for people whose genetic tests reveal that they may be more likely to claim on insurance policies.

The issue comes up for life insurance and health insurance especially. Insurance is big money. About 6 million Australians are covered by life insurance. It is a privatised form of security against the impoverishment which can follow from personal disaster. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled that insurance companies can have a discounted rate for people who voluntarily give genetic information.

The Howard Government announced an inquiry to examine human rights and privacy issues arising from gene technology, including genetic testing. The Democrats are putting the case for confidentiality of genetic information and outlawing discrimination on the basis of genetics. These are both worthwhile in themselves - but at least one major area of potential for genetic discrimination could be dealt with by removing the need for the insurance industry altogether. We need an overhaul of the ‘welfare’ system, so that it does not keep people impoverished, but allows everyone to live well, so that life insurance would not be needed. We need an end to the subsidies for private health insurance and a revitalisation of Medicare as a universal health care system.

Is this pie in the sky? Not at all. Read about the Just Health Care Campaign of the Labor Party in the USA, for some ideas that could be applied in Australia.

Unabashed class formation in the USA

Tony Mazzocchi is the leader of the Labor Party in the USA. He spoke at the Green Party convention that nominated the Nader/LaDuke ticket in the forthcoming presidential election. The full text of his speech can be found on the Labor Standard web site <http://www.laborstandard.org/>

This is how Mazzochi began.

"The Labor Party really appreciates the invitation to be at this convention. And appreciates the graciousness of the Greens' inviting us --- in view of the fact that the Labor Party does not endorse candidates other than its own. That was a policy that was developed by 1,600 voting delegates at our convention in November 1998.

We are unabashedly a class formation! We have no bashfulness about our position. Our concerns are strictly the concerns of working people. And when we say working people we use that term generically: those who work, the average Joe or Jane that works, and those who would like to work but are denied that right."

Later Tony Mazzocchi outlined the basis for the Labor Party’s Just Health Care Campaign.

Just Health Care Campaign

"Let's talk about something that the Green Party can help make a reality soon. Let's talk about health care. (Applause.) Everyone's for it. I've never found anyone against universal health care, some in this century, some possibly in forthcoming centuries, and those who wish to get there by taking a few feeble steps one at a time. The Labor Party, after much deliberation, says and is able to document word for word that we can enact a single-payer national health insurance plan covering every single resident of this nation from birth to death --- covering medical care, hospitals, nursing homes, prescription drugs, eye care --- whatever medical care is needed can be provided. So when people ask "What are we for?" That's what we're for. Medical care for every resident of the nation. (Applause.)

The next question that comes up is, "That's great, but how are you going to pay for it?" Well, friends, we have a briefing paper here and we itemize how it can be paid for. We want to discuss that with you candidly, and we hope you're on the barricades over the next months with the facts that address this specific problem. The answer is here. Let me just briefly talk about it. You know, the enemies of national health care say, "Well, you know, it's going to cost all sorts of money, and the government is going to interfere with choice." But we're very plain. Private delivery of care funded through a single-payer insurer, the federal government, just like Social Security. (Applause.)

Now you've heard time and time again of the 43 million uninsured and growing every day, while the insured are paying more and more. And you just saw the recent Norton Report that over 1/3 of all bankruptcies are due to medical reasons. Many Americans are only one medical step away from bankruptcy. Those are the hard facts. I just read a study from Berkeley of all places, that 7% of the homeless are homeless because of uncompensated worker compensation injuries. So you have a vast population out there who are destitute and dying early. You saw the World Health Organization report on the quality of medical care in the U.S. The U.S. is now 35th in the quality of health care.

How do we pay for it? Well, the employers in this country --- we're going to relieve them. I'm as anti-corporate as anyone, but we're going to provide them with a great benefit. We propose that the employers be charged a tax of 3.3% of payroll to go into a fund. Only 3.3%. Most employers are paying substantially more than that. In many instances over 10%. And we're saying the tax will be 3.3% for every employer, so any small business person cannot hang their hat on the excuse that this is unaffordable. The 3.3% is also tax deductible like existing premiums paid by employers today. So we've addressed that problem. (Applause.)

Then we're asking that we recapture the difference between 3.3% and whatever employers are paying now, and for the next three to four years that difference goes into a fund that compensates and educates those who'll be replaced as a result of the administrative savings we will realize as a result of single payer. That's 1,250,000 people, and we cannot ignore the fact that our single-payer proposal will replace that many people, because that's the huge savings that we need in order to institute this plan. And there's a transition. We intend that they should be paid a full salary and paid college tuition: we call that a "just transition." (Applause.)"