Lateefah Simon: “Frankly, we cannot have it both ways. The American people are, more and more, demanding some kind of health care…”

“Frankly, we cannot have it both ways. The American people are, more and more, demanding some kind of health care protection. I had three town meetings a week ago Saturday in Illinois. One man got up at one town meeting and said, ``I am 59 years old, I have had a heart attack, I cannot get health insurance that I can afford. What is going to happen to me?'' When he said it, it started triggering others getting up, standing up, telling their stories. Every other Western industrialized nation protects all their people. We are the only one that does not. If that is a conscious decision we want to make, not to protect all of our citizens--and incidentally the number now is about 41 million that are unprotected and the projections that were made in the hearing yesterday are that will go to 50 million 5 years from now. We have gone from 67 percent of employers covering their people in 1980, down close to 50 percent now. The problem is getting worse.”