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A Collection of Internet JokesBy Category |
Political and Social Commentary by Dave Satre
| America Needs a National Health Care System “You can
always rely on Americans to do the right thing Just about everyone on this planet would agree that health care is an essential service for all people. And that America is the richest country in the world. Well, OK. That's not true anymore. We've slipped to seventh place. Yet, 47 million Americans cannot afford insurance and 20 thousand citizens are dying every year because they don't have health care. That's more than 2.5 times the number of Americans than have died in Iraq, Afghanistan and 9/11 combined. High premiums for health insurance are little bother to the rich and well employed, but the costs can mean life and death to the poor. Americans pay more for health care than any other industrialized country, yet its health care system currently ranks 37th in the world, according to The World Health Organization, and the other countries provide much better and expansive services. Our health care system is at the bottom of the list in terms of the prevention of death through effective medical care. As President Obama seeks improvement in the nation's health care system the proponents of a Single-Payer System are making their voices heard. Their opponents, supporters of our current Insurance-Based System, are attacking the concept, calling it Socialized Medicine and a communist plot. Americans need to understand the fundamental differences in these programs. A Single-Payer Health Care System is a non-profit government organization that funds the payment for all doctors, drugs and hospital costs related to the health care of its citizens. The system is supported through taxes and the payment system is streamlined to a single organization that could save American taxpayers $400 billion a year! Hospitals and health care providers can be locally owned and operated and doctors could maintain private practices. The management decisions for their services will be made by career professionals, not the bean counters and profit-mad executives that are currently making them. Our current national health insurance program, by comparison, is run by profit-driven insurance companies that superimpose an incredibly huge financial layer on top of the heath care organizations that actually provide the services. This practice sucks 30 percent of the funding out of an industry that could so much more effectively invest it in better services. That $400 billion per year could actually cover the costs of a single payer system. A single-payer system is also good for businesses and their employees. The company-provided insurance programs that most Americans rely upon are disappearing as the current system's escalating health care expenses are forcing businesses to cut insurance costs and lay off workers. Several countries, including the industrialized countries, are already providing similar health care services and reporting successful results. Taiwan passed a single-payer plan and within a few years was able to provide health care for 90 to 95 percent of its people. Canada got rid of their health insurance industry in the 1970's. They were spending the same percentage of their gross national product as the US on health and had the same insurance companies. They now provide what they call First Dollar Coverage for all of their citizens. This means No Co-payment. No Deductible. You go to any doctor, any time, any hospital in the country. There is no cost for the patients. They also offer a wider range of services, including dentistry, and patients can choose their personal doctor. Tommy Douglas, the man credited with creating the Canadian national health program, was recently voted the greatest leader in Canadian history. Norway, which has been named the best to live for six years in a row, not only provides free health care for its citizens, it also offers free education at all levels and all ages for its people. Most European countries, including Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands offer universal coverage. Switzerland offers universal coverage, all citizens pay the same amount and the government covers those who can't afford to pay. France's health care system is rated the best in the world. It offers universal coverage, responsive health care providers, patient freedoms and contributes to the longevity of the country's population. A Harris poll conducted in the Fall of 2008 shows that only one out of 14 Americans believe that the health insurance industry is honest and trustworthy. That's about where all politicians should rank, too. The health insurance industry has invested so much money befriending members of Congress and heads of government agencies over the years that our politicians don't even recognize the possibility of health care without the insurance industry. The insurance industry thrives by paying as little out as it can, and pocketing as much as possible. The plan is to sign up only the healthiest and wealthiest patients, charge them more with large co-payments and huge deductibles, and deny care to everybody else. The insurance companies are focusing on profits to the point that they are denying health care services to people who need them. They are excluding the elderly and people with a prior illness or injury, problems that everybody will experience at some point in their lives. The people that suffer are the patients – the insurance execs and stock holders actually profit from this. In the past three decades the numbers of health administrators in our system has increased 30 times more than doctors and nursing positions. These people are not doctors. They're not nurses. They're not pharmacists. They're not providing care. Many of them are actually being paid to deny care. What are the biggest barriers to the passage of a health care system that provides needed care to all of our nations citizens? Sidney Wolfe, MD, the president of Public Citizen and director of it's Health Research Group, says it's “The power of the health insurance industry.” Dr. David Himmelstein, the Founder of the Physicians for a National Health Program supports the single payer concept. In a recent interview on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal he made the claim, “You can't actually have a health care program that works, if you keep the insurance industry alive.” The American Medical Association, which proclaimed in 1968 that "Health care is not a right. -- it's a privilege" is also an obstacle. The AMA supports this concept to this day, despite a survey by the Physicians for a National Health Program that shows a majority of doctors support the single payer health care concept. The excessive paperwork and the bureaucracy involved in dealing with the insurance companies takes up far to much of their time. But the largest barrier is our current political system, which has grown dependent on financial contributions from special interests. Money buys Washington. It owns Capitol Hill. The private health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, which is also garnering huge profits from the lack of price controls in our current system, are spending billions of dollars on politicians. The biggest recipients are politicians at the highest levels of political power, including the chairs of Congressional committees who control which witnesses testify in public hearings. President Obama believes a single-payer system makes sense, but now says the problem in America is that we have an established tradition of employer based health care and the president believes switching to single-payer would be too disruptive. One sixth of our economy would have to be overhauled. Dr. Himmelstein says a single-payer system is not disruptive for doctors, patients, nurses. It actually frees them these people to do their work. It's only disruptive for executives in the insurance industry who are used to making $225 thousand a day. What is truly disruptive is when a tax paying citizen loses his or her job and their health care and driven into bankruptcy. What are the possibilities of our political leaders passing single-payer bills in a Congress where our politicians are actually afraid of the health insurance industry? They bow to them and answer to them in the same way they treat Wall Street and the banks. They're all receiving bailout money! There are a few courageous Congressmen who are supporting single-payer health care. Representative John Conyers, Jr., a Detroit Democrat who is currently serving his twenty-second term in the House of Representatives, has introduced HR676, a single-payer bill, in Congress. Seventy-two members of the House are supporting the bill. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the American Health Security Act of 2009, a single-payer bill, in the Senate. This is the first single-payer bill introduced in the Senate since the mid-1990s The health care battle is a war being waged against the American public by the health insurance industry. The American people need to speak up and show our leaders that we mean business. Participate in Demonstrations and support just causes. Contact your Congressmen. Politicians are afraid of losing elections and the financial fortunes typically garnered through their political careers. Let them know you will vote against them if they fail to support this issue. Demand that our President, who reportedly received large amounts of insurance money in his campaigns, and all members of Congress serve the interests of the American people -- not the special interests. We need a whole new attitude in our representatives in Washington, people with courage as opposed to cowardice. And support for the people – and not against them. We need to Throw The Bums Out of power. Dave Satre Links for More Info on this topic: Physicians for a National Health Program Public Citizen's Health Research Group John Conyers The Nation Bill Moyers Journal
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