Right up there with the economy as an issue for the election is the problem of health care for Americans. We know that some forty million Americans have no health insurance and those who do are faced with ever-rising deductibles, co-payments, and premium increases. The presidential candidates all believe they have the answers that the voters will approve but most really are aware that their proposals simply will not work. In the meantime, people are dying from neglect.
The President says that everyone has health care and, if they need it, "All they have to do is to go to the ER!" That is true in some instances. In the smaller cities, you may be treated at the emergency room but your costs will be added to the "bottom line" of the hospital and they will raise their rates so that the bill will be paid by those who are paying their own bills or by the insurance companies of those who have insurance. In the latter case, the increase will be covered by higher premiums for the fortunate insured. On the other hand, a person appearing in a big city ER may be faced with a wait that could stretch into a whole day and then be treated by a harried and overworked young doctor who hasn't been to bed for a couple of days.
But that is not the end of your treatment. Once you gain the attention of an actual physician and your urgent complaint attended, you are told to see your private physician in his office within a certain time frame. It is called "follow-up care," and is essential to your recovery and, in some instances, failure to do so could again put your life in danger. Once more, the same financial arrangements will take place as to the payment of the expense. It goes round and round with the charges being increased, the higher insurance premiums, until some others find that they cannot afford to pay for the care of their families.
When one dares to broach the idea that "universal health care" is the only practical answer, all the politicians grab their own wallets and scream about "rationed care" and "socialism." True, it would require the demise of the current health-care insurance industry so that the three hundred billion dollars in annual profit for those companies could be used instead for the care of ill and injured people. It's also true that there may have to be a wait for some elective surgeries while the system makes the adjustment but, in every country that now has universal health care, emergencies are cared for at once and the less urgent cases deferred until they can be scheduled.
We are given horror stories about other nations and their "rationing" of health care. Our politicos don't really care much for emulating the European countries for reasons having nothing to do with health care. However, there is one nation that has universal health care and the citizens not only love it but take it for granted that their care will be excellent when they need it. This is a country that apparently can do no wrong in the opinion of our national legislators and their system appears to be a good example of the way it should be done.
This nation is Israel, and you can access a good overview of how it works here. The only reason the remaining candidates of either party will not espouse a similar program is that "it would put a whole industry out of business." Of course, we must bear in mind that the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are among the major contributors to political campaigns for both parties, the politicians owe them favors for it and are determined to repay them.
This is the reason Americans cannot have the quality and availability of health care that our own money has fostered in a nation in whose establishment and maintenance we have invested for more than fifty years. While Governor Huckabee tells us that we must be instructed in how to live so healthily that we won't need so much health care, Governor Romney would require us to buy expensive insurance, the rest of the Republicans ignore the problem and the Democrats argue as to whether and how much subsidy the government should give us to feed back into the coffers of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
And they do it because they care? Because they really have our best interests at heart? If you believe that, go ahead and vote for more of the same, for that is what we will have until someone appears who can make the American people understand that we have been, are being, and will be used as conduits for the redistribution of wealth...upward!
The author is a very "with-it" old lady who aspires to bring a bit of truth, justice, and commom sense to a nation that has lost touch with its humanity in the search for societal "perfection".
"In international comparisons of health care systems, Israel ranks among the top 20 in the world. But, even with its favorable standing, Israel faces many challenges, such as the financial limitations of introducing new technologies and prescription drugs to the health basket and the high taxes Israelis pay. Also of concern are high out-of-pocket expenses for cost sharing and for health care services that are covered only by complementary insurance."
Professor Mordechai Shani is the director general of ShebaMedicalCenter at Tel Hashomer, Israel's largest hospital.
Also worth mention is the fact the total population of Israel is 6 million and the U.S. provides annual aid in the amount of $2.63 Billion.
There is no free lunch no matter how bad we want it. We need to change our medical system for the betterment of our citizenry, of that I have no doubt.
But suggesting that we can do what Israel has done comes with a cost.
We would have to agree to lower living standards overall, raise taxes overall, and get some other country to gift us $131 Billion per year (equivalent of our aid to Israel).
Israelis pay a $3.00 co/pay for prescriptions with a $50 per year cap, and many of them cannot afford even that level of expense.
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Mike Folkerth (99 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, February 4, 2008 at 12:54:07 PM
The government caused the entire problem with health care in America by over socializing (with mandates) medicine to the extent it is not completive. The government allows a monopolistic pharmaceutical environment, and the FDA a federal agency failing American citizens and needs be eliminated or completely re-organized; it’s corrupt, and is causing a major impact on the cost of healthcare in America, and we want to exacerbate the problem? http://www.InteliOrg.com/
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DrColes (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 23 comments)
on Monday, February 4, 2008 at 2:29:48 PM
to this extent: The whole damned government is broken and We, the People have lost control. With the buying and selling of politicians and government agencies, the failure to properly address the problems of the working poor as well as the elderly and disabled, it is only by tearing it down and rebuilding from the ground up that it can be restored according to the principles espoused in the Constitution. Perhaps when they can smell the rotting bodies in the streets will the "comfortable" citizens realize that something is wrong. Then it will be too late.
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Mary Pitt (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 159 comments)
on Monday, February 4, 2008 at 2:56:52 PM
