In the latest issue of Dartmouth Life, College President Jim Yong Kim spoke with Student Body President Frances Vernon '10 about the nature of student protest on Dartmouth's campus. Midway through the interview, Kim threw a curveball to Vernon, remarking, "So student organizations in the past, in the '60s and '70s, used to take over Parkhurst. Do you have any plans to take over this building?"
Vernon lightheartedly replied that she would never tell him if she did and then continued, commenting on the different nature of protest today. Kim then took the opportunity to wish for Dartmouth students something that I hope he continues to encourage throughout his time here: he did not ask that we literally occupy the administration building, but instead that we, as students, symbolically storm Parkhurst by finding, and fighting for, issues that we are passionate about. Kim believes that part of Vernon's, the Assembly's and all students' duty is to "find the real problems that make students passionate and then launch a movement to try to fix them."
I can think of few issues as pressing and relevant to Dartmouth students and young people everywhere as the current healthcare reform debate. The World Health Organization's web site ranks the United States 37th on a list of worldwide health care systems one above Slovenia. There are currently 47 million uninsured people living in the United States, and an additional 25 million are underinsured to the point that, were they to have a severe medical issue, they would not be able to afford care. Some states are dominated by only two or three major insurers, which allows these insurers to continue denying coverage based on flimsy claims of preexisting conditions, refusing to cover costly claims and charging inflated prices for basic care. I won't write pages on the injustices, inefficiency and corruption of the health care industry and Congress, but if you want political ranting, check out Matt Taibbi's recent article in Rolling Stone Magazine ("Sick and Wrong," Sept. 3, 2009).
Many health care experts and professional groups such as Physicians for a National Health Program believe that a single-payer system is the only system that makes sense. However, given that a pure single-payer system would essentially wipe out a trillion-dollar industry that provides millions of dollars in campaign donations to the fine men and women who represent us in Congress, I think we must for now set our sights slightly lower. We need to fight for a strong public option that can compete with private industry and provide health care to those who cannot otherwise afford it.
Without a strong public option, not much will change. Although some reforms will inevitably be made, they will most likely fail to adequately address the soaring costs of the current health care system. People will still go uninsured, and there will still be those forced into bankruptcy by just getting sick.
Speaking of the uninsured and hard-luck cases we hear about, who are they? Undereducated urban and rural populations, probably, or those immigrants Joe Wilson was so concerned about, right? The truth is that, while a public option would go great lengths in providing the same quality care for all Americans, the importance of universal health care hits closer to home for all of us bright, young Ivy League students than many may realize. Take members of the Class of 2010, for example. Although I am sure they don't want to hear it, they will soon leave the protective bubble of Dartmouth and its insurance coverage. One, two or three years out, if they are between jobs or have yet to find one, one accident or diagnosis could put them in bankruptcy court. Or take me, with a congenital heart condition and a defibrillator that requires regular check-ups and eventual replacement one ill-timed period of unemployment could mean my end. Any of us with preexisting conditions, in the absence of proposed reform, will end up uncovered or with astronomical premiums.
People like the members of the Class of 2010 and me matter the least, however. In all probability, we will end up OK. Thus it is our responsibility to take up this cause, to make it our passion to do the common sense thing and work to provide affordable, reliable and fair health coverage for all Americans. So get out there, Democrat, Republican or Independent, and symbolically storm Parkhurst. Organize and protest. Make calls, have conversations. We won't be able to afford not to.
