A Few Houstonians Rally for Universal Health Care…Sigh.

Yesterday I attended an underwhelming rally for universal, single payer health coverage at the City Hall Reflection Pond in downtown Houston. In a city of approximately 2 million, about 50 people gathered to hear from citizen activists and various organizations about House Resolution 676, a congressional bill introduced in 2005 that would establish a single payer, national health insurance program for all U. S. residents. I wholeheartedly support the cause, but I left the two-hour rally before it ended feeling dejected. I couldn’t help but think that despite the fact that many ordinary individuals admit that our current system is broken and unjust, if this tiny, ineffectual rally is all we can come up with to demand change, we’re doomed. I was reminded of Rage Against the Machine’s lyrics in “Sleep Now in the Fire”—“So raise your fists and march around, just don’t take what you need.” At this rate, we few are going to die in some fairly deserted public space, martyrs to our cause, the only dignity being our upraised fists stiffened by rigor mortis. What can we do better?

First, we must do a better job of getting the word out. I learned of this rally only by chance. I attended a lecture at the Rothko Chapel this past Tuesday and happened to overhear a woman asking an employee if she could pass out postcards about a healthcare rally. The employee told her this was not possible without the university’s permission. I stepped forward and asked for a postcard. I consider myself a fairly well-informed citizen who actively seeks local political and cultural events to attend, but I hadn’t seen this rally advertised anywhere. Basically, if you weren’t a member or supporter of one of the coalition organizations staging the event, you probably wouldn’t have known about it. I think this helps explains the low turnout. I understand that advertising takes critical funds from already cash-strapped nonprofits, but I believe this type of event is where extensive grass-roots mobilization efforts are most effective. You’ve got to send your people out on the street to interact with the public. To her credit, the woman at Rothko Chapel tried to do this, but was stopped short by the institution’s policies with which the coalition could have gained compliance by planning ahead.

Second, can we get a little organization, please? I realize some degree of disorganization is bound to occur whenever various groups come together for a commonly supported cause. The inevitable hazard is that everyone remains a little too wedded to his or her own cause and has a difficult time tying it into the bigger picture. In this rally’s case, there were representatives from Health Care For All Texas, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Healthy Women, Healthy Families, the Harris County Green Party, the Sierra Club’s local chapter, a small group of Houston nurses lobbying for collective bargaining agreements for Texas nurses and mandated staffing ratios, and an anti-death penalty group and various other organizations whose names I cannot recall. For the most part, speakers stuck to the healthcare reform script, but some wandered in their speeches and/or danced around sensitive topics. For instance, the moderator of the event mispronounced “NARAL” and introduced the speaker as having come “all the way from Naral, Texas” as if NARAL were some faraway town (like Austin), which led me to believe he didn’t have a clue about the organization. To make matters worse, the NARAL speaker did everything she could to avoid saying the word “abortion,” preferring instead to make repetitious, bland statements about the hardships endured by Texas women who lack access to reproductive healthcare. Granted, NARAL has recently and rightly (in my opinion) changed its strategy to encompass a more holistic view of women’s reproductive health with as much emphasis on supporting women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term as those who choose to exercise their right to abortion. Still, access to safe and legal abortion, as well as reproductive health screenings and birth control are huge women’s health issues, and I felt she could have done a much more passionate job of tying these access issues into the larger picture of universal, single payer health coverage. Meanwhile, anti-death penalty activists were passing out flyers that did not address inhumane healthcare conditions in prisons, nor access problems faced by parolees. I mean no disrespect to their cause, but where was the tie-in to the coalition’s goal—to highlight the need for universal, single payer health coverage? When the Sierra Club speaker ignored the point of the rally and began droning on dispassionately about the effects of global warming, I had to leave.

Lastly, I’m not convinced theatrical antics work in every circumstance. I was sort of embarrassed by a skit that involved Texas cowgirls decrying socialized medicine being enlightened by a white knight superhero named “Truth” who set the misinformed, cowboy boot-wearing cheerleaders straight on just what universal, single payer health coverage entails. I also winced when I was handed a flower to participate in a symbolic funeral to be held at the end of the rally. Don’t get me wrong, I realize symbolic gestures can be powerful in getting one’s point across. I know that thousands of people suffer and die needlessly because they are uninsured or underinsured, and we need to draw people’s attention to this tragedy. I just think Michael Moore does a much more effective job with theatrics in his films like Sicko than most amateurs in a public forum. The aforementioned skit delivered a questionably comical effect for a seriously important issue. I felt like the silliness detracted from the overall message that our current healthcare system needs urgent reform. On the other hand, I enjoyed listening to a poet express her personal frustration with her art, and I appreciated hearing from a bedside RN who articulated the problems of her own struggle to pay medical bills, as well as that of her patients to comply with unaffordable treatment regimens that often trap them in a never-ending cycle of hospital readmissions.

On the brighter side, I was heartened to see that at least a few others in this Red state support universal, single payer health coverage and that various social justice groups are attempting to rally together for this cause that affects everyone. Despite leaving the rally in a mildly depressive funk, I remain committed to the cause, and I need to get more involved, besides voting for candidates who will lead us in the right direction. I will definitely write more about my personal experiences as a clinician that will hopefully stir people to action or at least get them thinking about a solution they would never have previously considered. I will be more proactive in discussing universal, single payer health coverage with people who are intuitively hostile to the idea. Preaching to the choir provides personal validation, but it doesn’t shore up a movement. I guess that’s the main reason I was disappointed in yesterday’s rally. I didn’t hear anything I disagreed with, but I didn’t hear anything refreshing or challenging, either. I felt safe and comfortable but uninspired. Lack of inspiration is the death knell of any movement. Clearly, we’ve got a lot of work to do on this one.