In The Greenville News, my local newspaper in South Carolina, one of the stories on the front page last week was that 1.3 million people, most of them in the South, lost their health insurance, either from losing their job, or their employer has dropped coverage because of increasing health care costs.
So what are the alternatives when your employer tells you they can no longer afford the premiums on your healthcare? How expensive is it to cover yourself and your family if you lose your health insurance at work? The answer is for many, it is so expensive most people can't afford it. It seems that not only do people miss time from work and lose money for missed days but they can't even pay for the medical care they need. Some employers don't have "full-time" workers. They hire people at 30 hours a week, thereby escaping the cost of benefits that are paid to "full-timers".
Why hasn't the government done something about the spiraling cost of healthcare in the United States? There are a few answers to this question, all of them you won't really like. The first is that both the Republicans and Democrats are substantially bankrolled by the American Medical Association, The Pharmaceutical companies, and other medical special interest groups. National healthcare would be bad for their businesses.The astronomical cost of medical care, one price for insurance companies, and another for individuals, would stop. The fees would be standardized, and the cost would be lower. Besides the medical establishment, lawyers and others that make a living from medical malpractice suits would be hard pressed to support a National Healthcare System where lawsuits would be much harder to pursue, or eliminated entirely. There are so many groups that donate to your so-called "representatives" in Washington, that until this country has true campaign reform, you will NEVER see a program of National Healthcare.
The political parties (both of them) cover this topic with smoke and mirrors so that their true bosses can keep benefiting from our medical care system as it is. The politicians tell us that it will raise our taxes and put another cog in the wheel of "big government". Don't believe it for a minute. Actually, the taxes that we pay in our property taxes would actually decrease. Built into all property tax, is health care that the local governments must pay to hospitals that accept indigent people. This means in effect, the county or parish that you live in, pays money to healthcare providers from your property taxes, and that my friends, is coming from your pocket. Drug costs would also lower as the government started negotiating for a good price they would pay for buying in bulk as the main healthcare provider. This is how it is done in most other industrial nations. The premise behind it, is that premiums people pay, offset the actual cost of providing the medical care, much like how the insurance companies operate today. The government could do much better than the insurance companies, because healthcare costs would actually come down as the government becomes the main provider. The medical lobbies don't like this idea, and they make sure that your congressman is well paid for not providing medical insurance to Americans. The insurance lobbies, of course, absolutly hate this idea, even though they claim they lose money on health insurance. Do you want to know how much they pay your government representatives? Go to opensecrets.org and find out for yourselves. I can tell you this, it is a lot of money.
If you want to change the status quo, write or call your federal representatives and tell them that you want a system of National Healthcare such as other progressive nations have. Tell them you want your family members to be able to see a doctor when they are sick or they need a check-up. Health care should not be just for the wealthy. We all should remember that most people aren't rich. This doesn't mean they don't work hard for their money! Unless you demand they do something to provide health care to everyone, they won't do it. Did you know that Cuba of all places has one of the best healthcare systems in the world? How is it, the Cuban people have what our government can't provide for us? Is it because your government is run by corporate and special interest groups? If the medical profession could make more money by the government providing health care, you can bet we would have it! Don't be fooled by politicians. Tell them you know what's going on. Tell them that you realize the only time they bring healthcare up as an issue, is during elections, and then it is stuffed into a "lockbox" until the next election. Don't let these political and special interest groups con you any longer. Another thing I want to tell you is that I don't make this stuff up.
Tim was banned from the site for posting private email from the publisher to him on his blog, and then attacking the publisher and the site in emails and articles. OEN has no responsibility to publish articles from people who attack the site.
Tim's accusations that he was banned for his political positions are untrue. Check his articles. He repetitively wrote about and had published exactly the things he claimed he was banned for doing.
Former Chairman of the Liberal Party of America, Tim is a retired Army Sergeant. He currently lives in South Carolina. A regular contributor to OpEdNews, he is the author of Kimchee Kronicles and is currently at work on a new novel.
...But one place where you've got it wrong is regarding malpractice lawsuits under a single-payer system.
I lived in Canada for many years, and was covered by their wonderful universal health care system. Certainly, there were fewer malpractice suits, but that is because Canadians are much less litigious than Americans in general -- not because the system eliminated them.
And yes, taxes would go up -- but the taxes would include health care, so the total outlay would be less than someone insured pays now.
by
Lynn Hirshman (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 27 comments)
on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 1:08:35 PM
1 comments
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