Kucinich Talks Single-Payer Health Care With Students

Over 80 members of the Georgetown community gathered in White-Gravenor Hall on Wednesday evening to listen to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) speak about single-payer health care plans.

The Georgetown Solidarity Committee arranged for Kucinich to discuss the single-payer system and hold a dialogue about health care reform.

The GSC chose Kucinich to address the solutions to health insurance problems that members of the workforce face. The committee’s mission is to support workers’ rights campaigns.

“We chose to bring in Dennis Kucinich because he is the most vocal advocate for creating a single-payer system,” said Robert Byrne (COL ’11), a member of GSC, in an e-mail. “We also chose him because whether you agree with him or not, I think Rep. Kucinich was fantastic at working the room without ‘being a politician.’”

Kucinich delivered a 10-minute speech about the current state of health care and the United States National Health Care Act, a single-payer plan he co-wrote with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Kucinich spent the rest of the hour answering questions from the audience, sometimes with in-depth answers and others with a brief “yes” or “no.”

Throughout the dialogue, Kucinich identified the influence of private insurance companies as a source of trouble.

“Every other country in the world has a health care system that takes care of its people,” Kucinich said. “Ours protects the insurance companies.”

Kucinich said that enough profit exists in private health care that, if reallocated, could support a public option that covers everyone with a minimal tax increase.

“This really is a moral issue,” Kucinich said. “… The public option is absolutely going to happen."

“[Quality control] boards will check statistics and rates of how the system is working and provide a strong oversight component,” Kucinich said.

In addition to public policy, Kucinich spoke about the need for personal responsibility and explained that he has modified his own lifestyle to be healthier by becoming a vegan and making healthy decisions on a daily basis.

“We need a movement behind the single-payer option,” Kucinich said. “It’s time to put a real value on the lives of our citizens.”

As he outlined his plan, Kucinich answered questions from the audience relating to the constitutionality of mandated health care, to the feasibility of covering health care costs for illegal immigrants and Congress’ incremental approach to health care reform

John Lodato (COL ’13) said that he was impressed by the mix of supporters and opponents of public health-care. Despite the mixed views, Lodato said the audience was attentive.

“[The audience] wasn’t like the town halls you see on TV where everyone is yelling,” Lodato said.

Correction: This article incorrectly stated that Kucinich's National Health Care Act would mandate health insurance for all Americans and fiscally penalize those who did not comply.