History of the North Carolina Committee to Defend Health Care

In 1994 physicians residing in North Carolina and members of the national Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) had a couple of initial meetings in Durham to discuss state-level work towards universal health care. These first meetings were in the home of Dr. Carol Kirschenbaum, who would later be the first President of the organization. There was interest in regular monthly meetings and in organizing some larger public events and so a core group began to function as the NC chapter of PNHP.

Also in 1994 the findings of a special "Health Planning Commission", a joint NC House and Senate commission, were completed. The study found that 920,000 North Carolinians were without health insurance and that these uninsured residents were mostly low-income workers. It was estimated that one fifth of the state's residents were sicker and dying sooner due to lack of access to timely care. Importantly the study also showed that the state (government and individuals) could insure everyone in the state and save $1.13 billion dollars over the next four years, if a single-payer health care system were adopted. Also it was shown that for a small increase in the total state health care bill everyone could be insured for all their health care needs with fundamental reforms, other than single-payer. These other two systems allowed some continuing role for private insurance, yet still controlled some of the excessive administrative waste. But the Republicans had just gained control of the NC House and they would not follow these recommendations of the public-financed commission, nor would they make the findings public.

It was in this circumstance that the NC chapter of PNHP developed during the next few year, with the understanding that for either no, or very little, additional expense, everyone could have their health needs met. The chapter began to gather support across the state. However, the support was much broader than that of physicians alone. By 1997 the North Carolina Committee to Defend Health Care emerged, patterned after a similar state organization that had just formed in Massachussetts.

As in MA the officers and activists within the NC-CDHC still believed that the most stable and efficient system was a single-payer system, similar to that which had been established in Canada and as endorsed nationally by PNHP. However, it was thought to be an unnecessary burden to argue in favor of a single-payer system when promoting fundamental reform of our system at the state level. We already had the report from the study commission, demonstrating the costs of various systems and we knew that we were spending nearly a quarter of our health care bill on administrative redundancies. So the NC-CDHC preferred to demand health care be established as a right and that it be written into our state constitution. We would then simply let the legislature and its appointed committees work out how they wanted to spend the public health care dollars -given that now they would be forced to provide access to timely, quality care for everyone in the state.

Another aspect of working as NC-CDHC rather than as NC-PNHP was, obviously, to allow full participation of all interested parties within the state, without any built-in bias in favor of physicians. Not only did the NC-CDHC want other health care providers, like nurses, physician assistants and therapists to get involved, but the committee wanted all interested residents of the state to participate in the organization as activists, become officers and board members. The NC-CDHC had decided that if we were going to pursue an amendment to the state Constitution for "Health Care a Fundamental Right", we would have to begin getting the whole state educated and involved on this issue. In the end, all voters would be responsible to pressure their legislators to allow the vote and then to turn out at the polls themselves to approve the amendment.

The opportunity to work actively on an amendment to the state constitution came in 1997 when Verla Insko was elected to the NC House representing Orange and Chatham Counties. Dr. James Bryan, then the president of the NC Medical Society was approached by Dr. Kirschenbaum and then contacted Representative Insko asking her to sponsor the amendment bill which would make health care a fundamental right for all North Carolinians. IRep. Insko filed the bill in 1999 and began meeting with the NC-CDHC to develop support within the state legislature for the amendment.

For the next four years NC-CDHC met monthly, put on dozens of public events, organized over the internet and attended countless community fairs and other events where materials could be distributed. In 2000, NC-CDHC testified before the NC House Committee on Health in favor of the Health Care for All Bill, held a press conference and visited legislators to lobby for the bill. Other committee meetings, press conferences and legislative days were held in 2003 -5 with each event attracting more sponsors and supporters.

During these same years several attempts were made to reach out specifically to nurses in the state, to people of color and to like-minded social justice organizations. In the process, an informal coalition emerged that resulted in more than seventy state and local organizations endorsing state action to make health care a fundamental right. The Committee also matured as an organization - adopting bylaws, electing officers and, in November 2001, gaining preliminary status as a 501c3 non-profit educational organization.

In June of 2005 our leader and chief-activist for many years, Carol Kirschenbaum passed away at age 55, having struggled against a terrible cancer for more than seven years. Her passing caused us to rededicate ourselves to the cause and to the organization she had begun to build, but mostly to the dream that everyone in our state would soon be able to rely on getting high-quality timely care to meet their needs. Founding members of NC-CDHC, Jonathan Kotch and Dennis Lazof continued to guide the organization as officers and board members, accompanied now with energetic and fresh insights of several new board members and activists.

In the fall of 2005, NC-CDHC committed itself to opening an office headquarters and to creating and an Executive Directorship -the first staff position in our history. We opened our office in the Empowerment Inc building on Graham Street in Chapel Hill in September of 2005. We hired Charlie Kafoure as the NC-CDHC Executive Director in January of 2006. In part, the memorial fund of several thousand dollars that came in following Carol's death allowed us to leap forward and build the organization.

A finding by the IRS that NC-CDHC would be classified under as an organization exempt from Federal income tax under the section 501c3 was made in February of 2006.