Baltimore Becomes Latest US City to Officially Endorse Medicare for All

By Brett Wilkins

"Every Baltimore resident deserves healthcare whenever they need it," said one local pastor who backed the resolution. "It's time to join every other developed nation in making healthcare a guaranteed human right."

Baltimore on Monday became the latest of over 100 U.S. municipalities to officially endorse a national healthcare program, commonly called Medicare for All.  The passage of a Medicare for All resolution—introduced by Democratic Baltimore City Councilmembers Kristerfer Burnett and Odette Ramos—puts Maryland's largest city in a growing group of municipalities including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Austin, and Washington, D.C. that have endorsed federally funded universal healthcare programs.

"I want to thank the advocates who have been pushing these resolutions across the country to try and show that there are municipalities that understand that our constituents, in order to fully thrive, need access to healthcare," Burnett said Monday.

"No one should be forced to make the desperate choice between paying for insulin or groceries."

Local Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr., pastor of the Union Baptist Church, told the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen that "every Baltimore resident deserves healthcare whenever they need it."

"No one should be forced to make the desperate choice between paying for insulin or groceries," Hathaway added. "It's time to join every other developed nation in making healthcare a guaranteed human right."

According to U.S. Census Bureau figures cited by Public Citizen, more than 1 in 5 Baltimore residents live in poverty, with 6.7% of residents under age 65 uninsured. 

The Baltimore City Health Department published a report in 2020 that said, in part:

It is impossible to discuss the health and well-being of Baltimore City's residents without applying the lens of health equity and systemic disparities. While the overall mortality rate in Baltimore City has declined over the past decade, the city still has a mortality rate nearly 30% higher than the rest of the state, and ranks last on key health outcomes compared to other jurisdictions in Maryland.

This reality is compounded by a series of complicated systemic social, political, economic, and environmental obstacles. With more than 1 in 3 of Baltimore's children below the federal poverty line and more than 30% of Baltimore households earning less than $25,000 per year, income, poverty, and race have an enormous impact on health outcomes.

Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, said that "every day, we nurses see the human cost of our patients delaying care or going without care, simply because they can't afford it, and that's why we need Medicare for All."

"We're grateful to the city of Baltimore for joining more than 100 other cities around the country in passing a resolution in support of Medicare for All," Ross added. "The grassroots movement to guarantee healthcare to all in the United States is growing every day."

Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) in reintroducing Medicare for All legislation.

"The American people understand, as I do, that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege," Sanders said at the time. "As we speak, there are millions of people who would like to go to a doctor but cannot afford to do so. That is an outrage."

This article originally appeared in CommonDreams.org on November 21st, 2023.  

Please support and visit The Brooks Blackboard's website for more news stories, and this link for my brief bio.

Connect on social media: 

Facebook: The Brooks Blackboard 

Twitter: @_CharlesBrooks   

Are mandatory minimums the answer?

By Charles Brooks

The triumvirate of political leadership in Baltimore City has proposed controversial legislation in their tough approach to address the rising crime and murder rate.  On July 14^th, Mayor Catherine Pugh, City Council President Bernard Young and Police Commissioner Kenneth Davis were joined by a group of supporters in announcing the proposed measure. “We are proposing that we will make it a misdemeanor crime punishable by a mandatory sentence of one year and a fine of $1000 for possessing an illegal handgun within 100 yards of a school, church, a public building or a place of public assembly, said Mayor Pugh. She cited the need for the proposal by offering the following crime data: a gun was used in 90% of murders; nearly half of the 184 victims of crime have been arrested for a crime involving a handgun; and in 2016 60% of years imposed through sentencing was suspended. Current state law calls for a 30-day minimum sentence eligible for suspension.    

There are plans for additional proposals to the state General Assembly to impose even stiffer penalties for illegal gun possession in Baltimore City such as an upgrade to a felony.  “…we’re going to ask them to push this forward and we will not stop until we get the law that says 5 years minimal penalty…” asserted Council President Young. The police commissioner dismissed concerns about criminal justice: “This isn’t about mass incarceration or locking up more people.  It is about holding the right people accountable and putting the right people in jail.” 

Although the mayor contends that this measure is just “one step” – there were several steps taken before this one.  For one, the commissioner was unsuccessful last year to get similar legislation passed by the General Assembly. Just last month in apparent frustration, Commissioner Davis announced that every patrol officer, detective, and administrative officers will put on uniforms and begin patrolling the streets in 12 hour shifts. There was also the mobile forensic unit borrowed from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for immediate identification of repeat offenders and to build cases for sentencing.

Less than a year ago, the Gun Violence Enforcement Unit was created with the mission to get more convictions. At the time, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said: "to ensure the aggregation of intelligence that's extracted from my criminal strategies unit and the Baltimore Police Department is used to not only apprehend and charge, but to convict those who are administering gun violence in the city."  In addition, there are the remnants from the former Mayor Sheila Dixon's term in office ten years ago such as GunStat, a gun task force and the gun offender registry.  There is also the myriad of issues surrounding the defunct jail system.

Meanwhile in light of the current climate around policing, this controversial proposal has certainly ignited debate and criticism. There are op-eds expressing outrage, activists and community leaders are alarmed while media reports indicate that several members of the Baltimore City Council are not in support of the measure. Adam Jackson, the CEO of the Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) had this to say about the proposal: “We think this bill is a tremendously short-sighted approach to stemming violence in Baltimore. This “one-size-fits-all” approach leads to severe unintended consequences e.g. targeting those trying to protect themselves as opposed to violent criminals, constructive possession traps innocent people who had nothing to do with the weapon, etc. Jackson continues, “Cases will be pled out to lower sentences not because of weak prosecutors/judges but because of bad policing.” Jackson also pointed out that Baltimore City has not invested in black people around the anti-violence movement in Baltimore, citing examples such as the Baltimore Cease Fire movement, or Safe Streets Baltimore or the Kujichagulia Center.

Discussion Question

There is an 18 year old, who was recently arrested for illegal firearm possession.  He was in a car with two other people, in the back seat when the car was stopped and pulled over.  The arresting police officer stopped the car because he smelled marijuana from the car.  When the officer searched the car, he found a loaded .22 hand gun under the drivers seat. He was searched and no drugs or weapons were found - nothing illegal at all was found.  He was arrested on two counts of illegal firearm possession and denied $10,000 bail despite no criminal history.  If the proposed legislation was in place - he would spend a year in jail.

What are your thoughts about this case - should he have to spend a year in jail considering the circumstances, i.e., no criminal history, nothing found from search, etc. 

Update:
The initial proposal has been amended to apply mandatory sentences on the second offense with a gun or in connection with violent crime.


Further Reading

Locking up our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, jr