Muliaga Togotogo
Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM)
San Jose, CA
How many of you have been denied health care? Health care is the most sacred lives, and all human life is a sacred. All of us were created in the image of God, and that makes us sacred.
My name is Muliaga Togotogo and I was born and raised in American Samoa. I served in the Army in Europe for four and a half years.
When I came back to the U.S. I was shocked to see homeless people living in the subways in New York City, right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I was even more shocked when my family and I became homeless ourselves because of a conflict with the child protective services. We were homeless for a year and a half.
“(the clerk at the front desk) asked me if I had any insurance or MediCal. I said no. She started to get rude and said if I didn't have insurance, or MediCal, I could not get an appointment, and if I did not have an appointment, I would have to leave. If asking for health care in America is a crime, then you better call the police because I'm not going anywhere”
During that time we joined CHAM and I learned about our economic human rights. In 2002, Sister Yolanda at CHAM advised me to go see a doctor because she thought I had sleep apnea, a serious breathing problem. I went to see Dr. Kagawa, a pulmonary specialist at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. I told the clerk at the front desk that I was here to see Dr. Kagawa. She asked me if I had any insurance or MediCal. I said no. She started to get rude and said if I didn't have insurance, or MediCal, I could not get an appointment, and if I did not have an appointment, I would have to leave.
I told her, "That's O.K. If asking for health care in America is a crime, then you better call the police because I'm not going anywhere."
Finally, another woman in the office heard my protest and stood up and motioned me over to talk to her. She told me to wait right there while she went back to talk to Dr. Kagawa. She came back and said, "He will be out to see you in five minutes." She gave me an "ability to pay" card, and the doctor talked to me and gave me an appointment for a sleep test. I ended up getting a $3000 breathing machine for no cost.
But I never would have made it past the front desk if I had not known about my economic human right to health care, and if I had not stood my ground.
In California we have been fighting for our right to health care in hearings or truth commissions in L.A., San Jose, and Oakland. We organized testimony from the poor, the uninsured, doctors, nurses, clinic directors, union members, immigrants, seniors, and medical students. We not only testified about problems, we taught people about solutions. We educated people about the Conyers national single payer bill, HR 676, and the Kuehl California single payer bill, SB 840. We explained the Labor Party's Just Health Care model.
There are six basic components of a good, single payer plan that will guarantee our economic human right to health care. They are:
1) It must be universal, it must cover every resident from birth to death.
2) It must be comprehensive. It must include all necessary health care, including hospitalization, doctor visits, specialists, prescription drugs, dental and visual, rehabilitation services, mental health, long term care, equipment, and occupational health.
3) It must have a single standard of care, so that health care is truly a human right and not determined by income.
4) It must eliminate insurance companies and take the profit out of health care coverage.
5) It must have fair financing so that all except the wealthiest Americans will pay less than what we pay now.
6) Finally, it must have a just transition so that current insurance company employees can have an opportunity for retraining and placement in new jobs.
This is some of our experience around fighting for the right to health care in California.
God bless you.