Mark Gantley

My career is devoted to ending the endemic racial, income and gender inequities that plaguee the American health care system: ObamaCare iss only the first step. The chances of an American living a long and healthy life dramatically differ for the rich and poor-- as well as one's race or gender. How might such inequality be reduced? The long-standing debates on health care reform in the U.S. address such possibilities.

Among the issues close to my heart:

The usual suspects have been attacking Obama for “demonizing” insurance companies; but saying that people do terrible things isn’t demonization if they do, in fact, insurance companies do horrible things.

That's because health insurers have financial incentives to act in an inhumane way — among other things, by revoking coverage when people get sick.

Read this report by Murray Waas on Assurant Health (previously called Fortis), which used a computer algorithm to identify every client with HIV, then systematically revoked their health insurance on the flimsiest of grounds. No corporation can claim a more vital role in passing the health care reform law than WellPoint., which also canceled customers--- in this instance, those with breast cancer.