Is It Humane—Or Even Smart—to Freeze
12 Million People from Health Insurance?

For years, human rights organizations could scornfully point out that as many as 45 million people were without health insurance coverage in the United States, the richest country in the world. Although our nation’s medical costs outpaced those of other industrialized countries by far, the U.S. was never able to create a system of universal health care coverage the way they had.

Decade after decade, including efforts by President Harry Truman to President Bill Clinton, every attempt to ensure that adequate health care would be available to the American people at affordable prices was blocked by a coalition of lobbyists from the insurance industry, drug companies, medical equipment firms, HMOs, nursing homes and others who profit from disease and sickness.

But health- care reform took on a new life in 2009, President Obama’s first year in office. While the quarreling between Democrats and Republicans continued, both political parties have agreed that the families of undocumented workers would not be eligible for health-care coverage like the 30 million citizens who would be included in the reform bill. Nor did the leadership. of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win raise any objection to depriving families of low-paid undocumented workers the health protection they need.

This is part of the vendetta against the millions of workers who violated our laws by coming to our shores in search of a livelihood. We can punish them for their “criminal” behavior by denying them doctors, hospital treatment and medications for the same health problems that can afflict us: cancer surgery, heart disease, diabetes, glaucoma, hearing loss, bone fractures and other costly health problems that their low wages can ill-afford to pay for.

Question: Would you like to be treated the way they are, if you were in their predicament?

Should America Have Two Sets of Treatment for Its Workers?

The Obama administration has been in no hurry about bringing up the immigration issue. No date has been set for a policy debate in Congress. It is imperative that a clear, sensible path must be provided immigrants to become citizens like the rest of us.

It’s ridiculous to expect that we can force 10 or 12 million immigrants to return to their homeland. They’re here to stay. Millions of them are working in construction, agriculture, transportation, retail trade and other industries. They spend countless millions to keep our economy going. They raise their families, pay their taxes and participate in the life of their communities. They’ve become part of the American mix, and we better get used to that.

We must never become a nation that treats its workers with two different sets of rules. If we have a flu pandemic, does it make sense to treat the children of undocumented workers differently from our own?—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (32) will be posted here on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 and on our two web sites: www.laboreducator.org and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org