Health care and the ‘I’ve got mine’ crowd

BY MARV RUSSOW

Despite the noise on both sides of the raging health care debate, I hear one thing very clearly. Across the spectrum of those who oppose reform is a common theme: I’ve got mine and that’s really all I care about.

As a labor leader, I have been watching this attitude in our society evolve for many years. Over and over we hear talk of personal responsibility. I’m all for that. So is every union member I know.

But what about our responsibility to each other? What is becoming of our obligation to our community, our nation, our fellow humans?

The mind-set seems to be that if someone — even someone less fortunate — “gets” something, then I “lose” something. For example, proposals to cover the uninsured are routinely characterized as help for “freeloaders.” Freeloaders? At some point that would be just about all of us. Our current system makes health insurance hard to get and easy to lose.

I see the same “me, me, me” outlook in the propaganda and money poured into preventing workers from forming unions. Sure I “get” the employer argument that unions raise labor costs, so it’s natural for employers to resist. I don’t accept the argument, but I understand where it is coming from. But I suspect that there is something much deeper and more worrisome at work.

Unions, after all, stand for looking out for one another. The very idea of a union is a version of yes, I am my brother and my sister’s keeper. An injury to one is an injury to all, is one of our core principles.

Conversely, at the root of every anti-union employer campaign I have seen is this message: Just take care of yourself. Do not be concerned about your fellow-worker. Unions are just for “slackers.” Problems and issues that all workers have in common are no concern of yours.

Unfortunately that attitude has come to infect our whole society. This is not just a moral issue. It’s practical, too. These are challenging times. Globalism is extremely disruptive economically, politically and socially. The spread of transnational terrorism to our own country is frightening. Modern medical technology does create ethical dilemmas unlike those we have faced before. Climate change and nuclear proliferation are genuine causes for concern.

But am I missing something? Haven’t the best times in our history come when we pulled together to face big changes and scary threats? Did we win World War II or put a man on the moon by being at each other throats? I don’t think so.

I’m not bothered that the argument over health care is noisy and passionate. This issue profoundly affects us as individuals and as a society. It should be thoroughly debated. And there’s nothing wrong with passion, or noise — within limits. That’s what democracy is all about.

But shouldn’t the broad and lasting impact of our decisions about health care make us more thoughtful, not less, about devising a system that secures affordable health insurance for those who already have it and extends it to our fellow citizens who do not?

The outcome of this dispute will affect us well beyond the kind of health insurance we wind up with. It will be an especially great loss if it turns into another victory for the “You’re On Your Own (YOYO)” crowd over those of us who believe we truly are “all in this together.”

Marv Russow is president of Local 951, United Food and Commercial Workers.