Dr. Errington Thompson

Do you remember Morris Day, the lead singer of one of the ultimate party groups, The Time? From the darkness, Morris Day would shout, “What Time Is It?” The music would start blaring and the party was on. It is time for health care reform. It is time for us to have a universal program that covers everybody. We are currently spending 16 percent of our gross domestic product on health care. Personally, I think spending $2.3 trillion on health care is plenty of money. We should not have to spend any more to get everything that we want.

We want access to quality primary care providers. We want these primary care providers to give us better outcomes—a better quality of life and a longer life. We want to be able to go to the drugstore to pick up our prescriptions without having to leave our first born as collateral. If we have an emergency — if we are in a car crash or fall off a roof; if we have a heart attack — we want to be able to be taken to a quality medical center where we can be treated with compassion and dignity and with the latest medical techniques. Why can’t we make this happen?