Marilyn wrote a number of articles on healthcare for the site. You can read them all here.

Marilyn Clement, founder and National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW!, passed away on Monday, August 3 surrounded by her children, Scott and Pam, her daughter-in-law Liz, and the caring thoughts of all of us who knew her, worked with her, and had come to love her.

Marilyn’s life and work was dedicated to social justice. She worked tirelessly to build, speak, and spread the word about meaningful civil rights and healthcare reform. Her leadership, vision, and passion helped to strengthen the recognition of healthcare as a human right throughout the nation. 

Born in Tulia, Texas, and educated at McMurray College in Abilene, Marilyn’s spark for social justice ignited in West Texas. “My parents were sharecroppers and people of faith. They were also gospel singers in the tradition of West Texas. The United Methodist Church challenged me as a youth and trained me to work for the common good,” she reminisced in one of the many talks she gave, this one in 2003. She began her career in the 60s with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. She met one of her closest life-long friends in Atlanta, Margie Rece. “ We’d go to meetings together, both of us with our kids in tow. Our kids were all about the same age. What a time we had …”

She was also blessed to know and work directly with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders. The Rev. C. T. Vivian was one of them, attesting to Marilyn’s special gifts just after he learned of her death. “Marilyn was much more effective than many who came to the aid of the civil rights movement at that time. She understood racism, and she understood the suffering in the South at a deeper level than most people could. She knew how to organize people and follow through. She grasped the spiritual side of the civil rights movement, and she understood the politics of it. She never stopped being active.” Rev. Vivian credited the Methodist Church, and Methodist women in particular, for some of Marilyn’s readiness. The Methodist women in the South, he explained, were confronting racism sooner than many other faith-based organizations.

When Dr. King was under heavy criticism for speaking out against the war in Vietnam, his words made it clear to Marilyn that we cannot stand silent in the face of such injustice. “There is nothing to fear. We have drawn the line. And we have chosen to be on this side, on the side of justice. There is nothing to be afraid of. What can they do? They can kill us, yes. But still they cannot kill the justice that we stand for.”

In 1968, she and her family moved to Queens in New York City, where she connected with life-long friends and fellow activists Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. and Peggy Billings. The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) had just formed in 1967, and Marilyn served as its Associate Director from 1968-1975. IFCO was the first and only national ecumenical foundation committed exclusively to the support of community organizing, targeting oppressed communities and people of color. IFCO’s commitment to racial justice and community organizing was a perfect match for Marilyn. Rev. Walker describes Marilyn as “a friend and inspiration. She was prophetic, demanding justice without fear or inhibition.”

Much later, in 2003, Marilyn delivered a talk entitled “How I Came to Work for the Common Good.” She explained that working for the common good “is a wonderful way to live – a wonderful way to spend a lifetime. I entered that work through no virtue of my own, but through the mentoring and nurture, support and inspiration of a whole community of people all over the world… A community that taught me not to be afraid, but to live with a sense of fearlessness. It included the movement for justice in my town, my country and around the world … all taught me to be unafraid.”

From 1976-1989, Marilyn served as the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. As a featured speaker at CCR’s 35th anniversary event in 2002, Marilyn reflected on her time as Director. “The proudest achievement for me was the creation of the Ella Baker Student Program. I thought of it in the midst of Miss Baker’s funeral in Harlem. I was deeply moved by the dozens of leaders of the civil rights movement arrayed together all on one platform telling the story of this unsung hero, this tiny powerful woman.” Ella Baker encouraged students to lead the nation in the struggle for civil rights, sowing the seeds for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Marilyn envisioned how CCR’s intern program could teach legal skills and pass on the history Marilyn learned at Ella Baker’s funeral. Marilyn summed up its progress, “The Ella Baker Student Intern Program succeeded and still succeeds, magnificently. Hundreds of students have trained in the program … they are scattered throughout the progressive legal landscape.”

While at CCR, and working with her friends at IFCO, Marilyn helped found the national Anti Klan Network, combining legal cases and organizing work to counter Klan and Nazi terrorism. Her colleague from the SCLC days, Rev. C.T. Vivian became the first chair of the Anti-Klan Network, later known as the Center for Democratic Renewal. This work brought her to John Conyers’ Judiciary Committee, where CCR’s founder, Arthur Kinoy, testified about Klan violence.

During the 1992-94 round of health care reform, Marilyn formed “Health Care: We Gotta Have It,” an organization of women advocating for single payer health care. It was a forerunner to Healthcare-NOW!, a broader network, formed in 2003, involving thousands of single payer activists working in local coalitions all over the country.

Marilyn’s next challenge put her in charge of the US Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, headquartered in Philadelphia, where she lived from 1994 to 1997. Always concerned about human rights on an international scale, WILPF provided the opportunity for international organizing. She helped organize the WILPF Peace Train to the IVth International Women’s Congress in Beijing in 1995.

WILPF shared the Peace Train story On June 7, 2009 when many of us celebrated Marilyn’s work at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. “Marilyn’s enthusiasm and determination in promoting the 1995 Peace Train brought a delegation of 230 women (and 10 men) on a three week journey across Eastern Europe, Russia and the Great Steppes of China to the UN Conference on Women after stopping all along the way, meeting women of different cultures, listening to each others’ stories, then to carry the message to a gathering of women in Beijing who worked together to construct a Platform of Action which has resonated as a touchstone of activism for almost 15 years.”

She assisted the African National Congress in organizing its largest national congress just prior to the first universal suffrage election in South Africa in 1994. “We at WILPF are proud of the work Marilyn has done for the world from both inside and outside WILPF, and we celebrate her brilliance and all of her successes…..”

In 1999, Marilyn joined the Economic Justice Office – Women’s Division, of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. She continued her international work, connecting United Methodist women in the US with those in Burma. She worked with Methodist women to act on their commitment to social justice, especially health care. One of Marilyn’s colleagues at the United Methodist Women, Lois Dauway, extolled her organizing skills. “Marilyn was a well-organized, creative-thinking, determined fighter for justice. She was truly a trouble-maker in the name of the Lord. United Methodist Women were blessed to count Marilyn as one of us.” Marilyn retired from the United Methodist Church’s Women’s Division in 2003, but continued to work with the Women’s Division to build support for single payer health care.

Although not new for Marilyn, healthcare organizing moved front and center when Marilyn learned that Congressman John Conyers, Jr. would introduce far-reaching single payer legislation at the start of the 108th Congress in 2003. Congressman Conyers knew that universal healthcare legislation could not advance in Congress at that time. He knew a movement would have to grow behind it. Marilyn took that call to heart. As Mark Dudzic from the Labor Party, a close friend and ally, explains it, “Back in 2003 Marilyn took this on. She knew then that this would be her legacy, advancing the fight for guaranteed national health care as far as possible for as long as she was able. We can’t thank her enough for all she gave to this cause.”

When she started, she didn’t know what a huge boost Michael Moore’s feature-length documentary, SiCKO, would give to the movement. Marilyn encouraged volunteers all over the country to greet people as they left movie theaters, signing them up to fight for single payer health care. Michael Moore used his web site to steer people to Healthcare-NOW! because he knew they would get put to work. “Marilyn Clement was a generous, compassionate and thoughtful person whose work was invaluable in organizing the grassroots movement for a single payer health care system. Even in her illness, she continued to fight tirelessly for health care justice. Before she passed away, she implored us to ‘keep up the fight.’ Now, more than ever, it is our responsibility to do exactly that.”

Marilyn served as the National Coordinator for Healthcare-NOW until her death. Doctors diagnosed her with multiple myeloma in June of 2008, and Marilyn had to step back from her leadership role at Healthcare-NOW to undergo extensive and painful treatments. A tribute to her organizing skills, a group of nine committed activists responded to her call, and stepped up to form a Steering Committee to assume leadership during her illness.


At the June 7, 2009 event at Judson Memorial Church, Marilyn’s consistent optimism rang loud and clear as she remarked to the crowd, “We are on the verge of winning something that is so desperately needed for all of our people… Love to all of you. Keep up the fight… And we are going to win single-payer healthcare.” 

Michael Lighty, Public Policy Director with the California Nurses Association, came from California to attend the June 7 event, representing one of the largest national organizations supporting single payer health care. “Nurses and patient advocates mourn the passing of Marilyn Clement, who will continue to inspire us to organize for single-payer healthcare. Marilyn combined a passion for justice with the organizational skills that are necessary to turn our moral imperative into the reality of healthcare for all.  We promise to keep her spirit alive as we fight for HR 676/S 703 in Congress and wage our struggles in the states for single payer.”

Reflecting on her life, her life long friend and colleague, Peggy Billings put it this way, “ She was a great woman and the struggle will miss her. Her loss will encourage all of us to step up and work harder for single payer and to honor her memory. I love her dearly; she was a great friend and pal.” 
 


We remember Marilyn’s words as she commented on her lifetime of organizing for social justice: “Being an organizer is an honorable profession… Spending my life as an organizer for change in this world has been a fantastic way to spend a life, and doing it with all of you is a great way to live. As Doctor King said, the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”


Healthcare-NOW! recognizes the great loss to everyone in the single-payer healthcare and human rights communities that Marilyn’s passing represents. Our resolve to continue and strengthen the movement she started is stronger than ever. As we mourn her loss, we also celebrate the amazing gifts she has given to us all. 
 


Marilyn is survived by her brother, Les Boydstun; her children Pam and Scott; her daughter-in-law Liz Arwine, widow of her deceased son Mark; and three grandchildren – Kendall, Chelsea and Alex. Following Marilyn’s wishes, the family is planning a memorial service to be held at Judson Church on Washington Square later this fall. We will provide details when they are available.

The family suggests that those who wish to donate in Marilyn’s memory should do so to the Center for Constitutional Rights or to Healthcare-NOW!

Unfortunately for me, it was also the same day I received news from my cancer doctor that I was being removed from Revlimid, one of the cancer drugs considered by many to be most effective against my type of cancer, “multiple myeloma.”

I’ve not yet received an explanation about why I am being removed or what will be recommended to take its place, but, as one can imagine, seeing such an article pointing out that, in the search for cancer treatment, virtually nothing is working, put me in a bed of discouragement more painful than my usual period of several days

Healthcare-NOW continues to push forward for national healthcare – for healthcare that will provide healthcare for every single resident of the United States, and yes, – a goal that is well within our reach now.

Thankfully, President Obama has continued to pronounce his support for this goal without barriers to anybody as he makes his daily priority listings for the goals of his administration. He knows that this goal is well within our financial reach, and that achieving this goal would cut hundreds of billions of unnecessary expenditures (now going into the profits of commercial interests) from our costs as a nation – as he mentions often – the only way to get our economy in check. It is the perfect way to save the U.S. economy while providing healthcare for all of our people.

Unfortunately, from Congress, we only hear continued and increased support for the commercial interests – both insurance and drug industries — leading the pack with their plans for getting the U.S. government to provide more money for their profits. I wish it were true that the Republican opposition to national healthcare was really a support for a less costly, more effective, healthcare system. But, unfortunately, the Democrats and the Republicans are both supporting the plans that are most profitable to the commercial healthcare industry.

We have poured, and continue to pour, hundreds of billions of dollars into research and trials, new drugs and old, creative new ideas, and other ideas that have, as their only real purpose, the delivery of more dollars to creative private entrepreneurs.

In my view, there is only one conclusion: our efforts must continue to be, overwhelmingly, in support of all healthcare for everybody – not just an outpouring of billions to new research and ever- more- pervasive “disease-cure” trials for one or another major or exotic illness.

We must also be very careful not to pour more billions into the pockets of health maintenance organizations, AARP, and other money-making enterprises that have found ways to get Medicare dollars. Our vision needs to continue to be one that provides Medicare dollars for everyone for the illnesses that they are currently suffering and for preventive care, public health, and other real healthcare needs.

And today, as I sit in front of the computer and every other national media outlet, overcome by overriding fears of swine flu, it is quite evident that we must have healthcare that serves everyone, with no exceptions – single payer with no monetary bypasses to the profit-makers.

One kind continues to support corporate medicine urging everybody who can to continue paying premium prices and purchasing health insurance policies so that healthcare continues to be provided by insurance companies and drugs continue to be controlled by for-profit companies too. This is BAD Healthcare Reform.

The other is a public healthcare system where we would all jointly support a national healthcare system such as Medicare, the fantastic system that (admittedly with many faults and needs for improvement) covers millions of us because we have paid into it in advance. This system costs a lot less money than insurance company policies, and provides for everybody whose age or disability makes them eligible.

If we created a policy making everybody of all ages eligible for Medicare and required everyone to pay into it, we would have a national healthcare system that would work for all of us. Some economists in Europe point to the plethora of young workers, many from other countries, in the United States who would be paying into this system for many years even though they would not need any extensive and costly healthcare for a long time.

It is called SINGLE-PAYER. It is similar in some respects to the many national healthcare systems in advanced nations worldwide. One difference is that all healthcare procedures would be provided by PRIVATE DOCTORS, not public facilities. The government would not control our healthcare (as in socialized medicine). 43 States are now cutting back on their healthcare and education programs as a result of the recession. They wouldn’t have to do that if they would join together in creating a single-payer system.

I never expected to be real real sick this last year, but I guess none of us do. However, it gave me the opportunity to experience how Medicare really works.

All of my chemo treatments and medicines were covered by Medicare as well as many other ancillary procedures. My cancer has receded and I am on the road to full recovery thanks to seamless healthcare coverage. I wish everybody had it!

Every one of us needs to tell Tom Daschle, the new Health and Human Services Secretary, and President-Elect Obama that, yes, we know it would cause them some problems to reject the multi-billion dollar proposals to keep healthcare in the corporate column making beaucoup bucks for private corporations. But we are waiting for the promise of universal coverage. A single-payer system that works all over the world in every advanced nation is waiting for us to adopt it and even to improve it.

Read all about single-payer, a bill in Congress called H.R. 676 and then find out what you can do to make it a reality.

With many good wishes for the New Year and thanks for your work and your financial support for Healthcare-NOW!

Sincerely,
Marilyn Clement

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In addition, president-elect Barack Obama continues to commit to healthcare coverage for the whole nation as an early part of his economic recovery plan—a commitment that we know can only be fulfilled by the savings promised by single-payer system.

About one-third of public spending on healthcare goes to private health insurance companies. If we put that money towards a national healthcare system, we will save more than $300 billion while getting a wonderful, universal healthcare system that covers everyone.

It should be said that President-elect Obama has not yet committed to that kind of system, but it is only a matter of time, AND IT DEPENDS ON THE AMOUNT OF WORK WE DO in support of HR 676 in Congress.

Do you remember two years ago how we held Citizen Congressional Hearings in our towns and cities nationwide? Our activists invited members of Congress to come home to meet with their constituents in a hearing where they were able to speak and convince them to sign on as co-sponsors of H.R. 676, the single-payer bill in Congress.

Well, now is the time to do it again. We have a lot of new members of Congress who haven’t heard from us on this subject, and it is also time to get re-commitments on the part of the old ones. It is really important to let these new members of Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) hear from us right at the start of their term.

One of the most important byproducts of these Citizen Congressional Hearings is that they form new Healthcare-NOW activist groups—last time in about 300 cities. Now is the time to do that again too.

If you’re interested in holding a Truth Hearing in your town or city, please visit our Truth Hearings Page for more information, and contact Katie Robbins at info[at]heatlhcare-now.org or 800-453-1305.

Thanks so much for being a part of Healthcare-NOW. If you can do so, please make a donation too. Get your free gift, and join us in our work.

Yours truly,
Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here goes another one, a column to explain how easy it will be for us to get great healthcare for all of us.

Finally, after HEALTHCARE-NOW’S four years of hard work and building understanding among people nationwide, we are where we hoped to be. Imagine! Election day is almost here. We had hoped to have a large enough majority in Congress favoring a single-payer, national system that could override any veto–or at least encourage the next president to say yes to national healthcare for all and to say no to the continuation of insurance company domination. Now we are close to having that kind of majority. The insurance companies cannot continue to force us to purchase their product.

What does this say about the economy? One of the best ways for the economy to begin to heal itself is to refuse to put billions of dollars into insurance companies that refuse to cover everyone, that charge enormous fees, and that participate in enormous fraud on the economy of the people and the nation. Enough people understand that we can have a national healthcare system for everybody in this country while spending less money and providing quality to every person, man, woman, and child. Now it is our turn!

One more time–this time, play this tune to jazz, classical, red neck, symphonic, and blues music–we can afford this! In fact, national healthcare for everyone will cost less. Why? How? Remember! It is easy!

One small fact stands in our way right now today. It is the cost of insurance companies.

If we decide to eschew the cost of doing business with insurance companies, then we can have higher quality, better healthcare for everybody. It is easy as pie; as American as apple pie or cherry if you prefer.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if we believe that we can’t have excellent healthcare without having insurance companies in charge, then we will no longer be able to have excellent healthcare for all of us. We will continue to have as many as 50 million of us uninsured at a cost of an additional $386 billion dollars per year.

But we can do this. NOW is the TIME. Let’s heal the economy and the health of our people all at once with a single-payer, national healthcare system–now–with a new congress and a new president! Or together with whatever we come out with on November 4th. Now is the time!

Thank you,
Marilyn Clement
National Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW!

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Your health is everything.”  How often have you heard that said?  “Your body is your temple.” “You are nothing without your health.”  “You are so lucky to have your health.” SOUNDS LIKE MY MOTHER.

SOUND LIKE YOUR MOTHER. TOO?   BORING…until you get sick with something like multiple myeloma cancer, or caught in a train wreck, or swept up by a hurricane or tornado. The cancer is the one that surprised me in June of this year, and buried my activities as the National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW.  The train wreck happened on September 15th when 23 people died and untold others were crushed and hospitalized and injured for life. Hurricane Ike killed and ruined thousands of people. These calamities are on top of the 50,000,000 who had no health insurance at all that week. As the financial marketplace staggers, even more millions won’t be able to afford healthcare for themselves and their families.

THERE IS AN EASY ANSWER to the crisis of inadequate coverage and the overwhelming dilemma of no coverage at all for millions more.

The answer is Medicare for All. Enhanced and Improved Medicare will give us a national healthcare system that will cover everyone with the best possible health care for the least amount of money. As a nation, we can afford it. The answer is to end the privatization of health care. With the amount of money our nation now spends on healthcare, we can cover everybody – and with better care. Healthcare should belong to all of us … just see what a difference it made in the economies of the most progressive countries – Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden.

Try being sick in one of those countries and see how easy it is to get the healthcare you need – whether in a hospital or from a private doctor – with full choice of treatment and doctor at every level.

YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. This is what we want. This is what we can have. Just check the items on these pages to see what you can do to help us win single-payer national health insurance under a Congressional bill already in the House of Representatives – HR 676.

Thanks for clicking on www.healthcare-now.org. We need you!

Marilyn Clement
National Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.