In response to an article on universal health care at Op-Ed News, someone flippantly responded about the writer's call for free health care for Americans. In support of the original writer's call, I answer.
Of course nothing is free, so the question the responder asked is not worth much. The right question is: how do we pay to provide health care to all Americans? And for that question there is an unequivocal answer--through a single-payer, doctor/patient, publically financed and privately run health care system. There is a house resolution already in the House for it. It is sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, and its number is H.R. 676. It has 88 co-sponsors at last count.
Now, why is a single-payer system the most humane and cost effective way to run a health care system? That should be your next question. And the answer is that we do not need our present non-system run by the insurance companies that siphon off 31% of all health care costs due to a profit driven system that is inefficient, and where decision making is made on shareholder profit. In short, it is made by run amok greed.Insurance companies do nothing for health care. They operate at 15 to 30% overhead, the cost going to advertisement, bureaucracy, shareholder profit, exorbitant CEO pay and staff pay, not to mention the cost of doctors having to pay a team of people to find their way through the maze of payment, due to the over 1500 insurance plans, all different and all bent on offering the least amount of care to maximize profit.A single-payer system, such as our Medicare system, operates at about 3% overhead, and the savings alone could make it so the 47 million uninsured could have healthcare--healthcare with no deductible, no co-pays, no being denied due to pre-existing conditions, nobody out, everybody in. At present, the moneyed interests want to get their hands on Medicare, much like they are trying to do to with Social Security. In the process they are trying to destroy it, make it less efficient and under-funded so they can get their hooks into the pie, and in the end eat the whole pie. Sure, some will have to pay taxes for this system. But if anyone thinks that they are not paying now, and paying high prices for lousy plans with high copays and dedcutibles, they better wake up.I have great insurance, but being one concerned about the health and welfare of all people in this nation, I say enough is enough with corporate greed and its sucking the system dry for the profit for the few.This isn't socialized medicine. You can choose your own doctor, and you can get the care you need, and you can get preventative care, which will drive costs down. It will also drive costs down since the pool is large, and the system can be run with oversight and accountability, two things you do not now have. For example, the system can determine how many mamogram machines are needed for the polulace, and we won't have hospitals raising costs to have all the gizmos so that they can compete with the hospital down the street. Also, since all are insured, the presently uninsured will not have to go to the emergency room, a costly thing for hospitals, to get care. H.R. 676 represents the best hope for America's health care. The only thing we need to change first are the ignorant people who have been told that helping one another and deciding as a people how to best serve people is a bad thing. I tend to think that is what true democracy is all about. And what we need, always, is more democracy. Not less. And especially not less so that those with the power control the system to serve their ever-expanding, greedy interests.Ask the right questions with intelligence, and you get the right answers. Lobby your congress person today to co-sign H.R. 676 if they are not already on. Also, help educate people and quit buying into the talking points and misleading statements and ideas put out by the right-wing think tanks that get paid to keep the people no more than sheeple.In Solidarity,Mike Carano
Ohio PDA State Coordinator
www.pdamerica.org
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people: Support H.R. 676
Ohio Progressive Democrats of America State Co-coordinator, one of the founding instigators of two progressive groups in Northeast Ohio, presently helping lead Ohio Progressive Action Coalition (www.ohiopac.org), Region VI Coordinator for www.spanohio.org (pushing to get single payer in state, while working to get H.R. 676 passed, the national single payer plan out of Rep. John Conyers office.
How about freedom from insurance premiums & hoops?
Carano is absolutely right. The time has come for people to demand an end to the current sytem that gives all the power to a middleman that is not needed, whose only purpose is to profit by NOT paying for health care.
Our fire departments, libraries, parks, and even snow plowing are services we all share, paid by our collective tax dollars, to provide for all citizens-- things we could not possibly pay for by ourselves.
Is health care any less important?
How can we allow 30% of the healthcare dollar to be siphoned off for profit when that money could be used to prevent and cure illness, suffering, and dying of people?
We have to stand up as people and refuse to be only valued for what we can buy.
A single payer,(all bills go to one place), doctor/patient run (no middle man making decisions), guaranteed (ALL people are covered), comprehensive (medical, dental, vision), privately provided (doctor and other providers are not employed by the government), health system is by far the most sensible, money saving (approx. 3% overhead vs 30%)plan that there is. HR 676 is just such a plan.
The people must speak out. Politicians won't do this on their own. There must be a loud and clear rising up of the people to demand that profits over people will no longer be accepted, that health care is a right and not a privelege. As Mike Carano said, we need more democracy. This is a decision being made by the people. Please contact your U.S. Congressperson and have them co-sponsor and support HR676.
by
Mary (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 8:03:13 AM
Not all states are created equal, and that goes for laws..so the feds become an equalizer. There are several states with Medical marijuana laws the protect patients and doctors. These laws are always under attack. ALL WAYS under attack. Universal Healthcare would end it. The feds could say to all those medical marijuana patients: You smoke marijuana, you get no coverage. matter of fact..the feds could say..you eat this much sugar and if you eat more, you don't get coverage.
The U.S. is the only western industrialized nation that does not offer its citizen’s an affordable healthcare system.The Single Payer Plan currently in committee in the Ohio House and Senate does just that.By taking the profit motive out of healthcare and treatment of disease, the plan pays for itself. It integrates the cost of prevention; it encourages treatment while disease is more easily controlled; it enhances the doctor-patient relationship which would allow teaching and support where it is needed.
It is morally unacceptable that a country that touts itself as being built on a foundation of Judeo-Christian ethics would allow its citizens to suffer chronic disease and then die simply because they cannot afford medical treatment.In Ohio, there are 18,000 deaths of the uninsured every year just from three common diseases; diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.While these victims are suffering, they are still forced to use the present system via its ER’s.They are bankrupting themselves and their families and they are, through no fault of their own, increasing the cost of healthcare.
by
Jose (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 9:55:21 AM
I would think if we could get HR676 passed then we could also get the federal government to legalize marijuana.
Ron Paul is good on some things but he's a religious fanatic and a free market capitalist fanatic. Ron Paul is against destroying corporate power. Ron Paul is a neoliberal.
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Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 821 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 12:56:54 PM
ERs are only for after it gets bad enough to be an emergency. And how does a layperson know when chronic illness becomes an emergency? If you guess wrong, you can die. I've been through the whole thing repeatedly. My huband began to fail and lost his work and lost his insurance and couldn't get SSDI for over 6 years. Oh, how he had to deteriorate before we could get SSDI. Even then there was no Medicare for him for almost 2 more years. And no Medicaid either. We got too much money for that. He could have qualified with a spend down. But first we had to have spend down receipts to show. Instead we bought food and shelter for us and our children. I went for over 20 years without medical insurance with diabetes, hypertension and asthma. The whole thing is ridiculous. The death rate, especially for non-white babies under a year, is horrendous. Millions of Americans' medical conditions worsen without care. Universal health insurance stabilizes the work force, makes the disabled and older Americans more likely to be gainfully employed, businesses become more competitive, everyone covered for no more than what is being paid now. And no more Americans forced to declare bankruptcies because of serious accidents and illnesses. No more hospitals cutting services because they are losing money.
by
Pat Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 1:51:13 PM
Unless the people march, speak out and almost riot for this one, it will not make it trough because unfortunately most of our politicians are in the back pockets of insurance companies.
by
Sharon Roach (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 61 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 2:36:33 PM
I guess you wrote this article in response to my question:
"How do I get all this free stuff?" This was a "tongue in cheek" comment intended to be a bit on the sarcastic side. This was in reply to a comment made
about everything being free. My experience lately is that I've been paying through the nose for everything lately.
Regarding Universal health care:
I believe no one should lose everything they worked for because they get
sick or injured. I've always supported universal health care because of the
current outrageous health costs. I firmly believe some things should not be
run as a business for moral reasons. Healthcare being one.
by
Bob Gormley (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 932 comments)
on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 4:11:24 PM
In my haste I misread your response. I am with you on this.
Just got back from a great conference in Dearborn, MI, the Labor Notes Conference. According to some attendees, this is the first Labor Notes Conference that held specific workshops on single-payer. Encouraging news is that labor in general is getting on board more and more, and in truth without Labor we have a tough row to hoe.
In response to the person in the thread who said, more or less, it ain't going to happen. The question is, what are you doing to make it happen. Think of the old adage, ...all it takes is good people to do nothing .
Mike
by
MichaelOhio (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 15 comments)
on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 6:54:15 AM
8 comments
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