Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Racial arguments should not be a part of the healthcare reform debate, according to Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the Hispanic advocacy group called National Council of La Raza.

“I don’t think we have to resort to race issues to get a common sense and sound of health care reform,” she said. “I think that there are people who want to take it in that direction...but the reality is if we just look at the merits and the facts we could make a strong case for inclusion and comprehensive health care reform.”

Murguia spoke during a panel discussion today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The panel, which included her and ranking officials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Campaign for Community Change discussed the benefits of a public option in the health care reform plan. The United States Student Assn. and PowerPAC.org, while part of the alliance to support a public option and a voice for people of color in the health care reform debate, were not represented by the panel.

According to the panel, a public option would enable the U.S government to provide health insurance options to U.S. citizens, which would theoretically provide a competitive alternative to the options offered by private insurers. However, a poll conducted by the Washington Post showed that without a public option, opposition to the overall health care reform plan fell by six points.

The organizations also advocate coverage to all U.S residents regardless of pre-existing conditions or employment status, making comprehensive health care affordable and emphasizing high quality care for everyone.

More than 880,000 African American deaths would have been averted from 1991 to 2000 had health care reform been implemented, according to an analysis of mortality data in 2004 by the American Journal of Public Health.

“Thus far, the economic interests of the insurance [companies] , and those who have particular constituency interests that are not the interests of the American people, have largely dominated the [health insurance] debate,” said LCCR President and CEO Wade Henderson. “Once the American people become informed by the nature of health care reform, they support the public option. Most Americans regardless of age, for example, support Medicare.”

The organizations in the panel pooled together to create television advertisements in English and Spanish that support their public option cause. The ads, scheduled to be aired in select states in the coming weeks, are intended to attract senators who could push for their cause and push citizens of color to mobilize and actively pursue health care reform.

“There are many other constituencies that are part of a broad coalition in support of comprehensive healthcare reform,” Henderson said. “It’s in the economic and the political self interests of the American people to ensure that this kind of comprehensive reform is taken seriously and moves effectively. We’re really only the tip of a more progressive, larger coalition of interests that will be working in a concerted effort to achieve the kind of reform we’ve talked about. ”