HEALTH CARE – UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE, AND NOW!
The United States is the only developed nation without universal health care. Forty six million Americans have no health care coverage; many others have poor coverage that might leave them bankrupt if serious illness struck. Only in the USA can medical bills destroy the life savings of families. Health care is a human right; everyone deserves access to affordable care.
Medical costs in the USA are skyrocketing, and our employer-based health insurance system is falling apart. In less than 50 years, medical costs have gone from 7% to over 16% of our gross domestic output. We spend twice as much as Japan, which has the best health outcomes and longest living people in the world.
Our high costs do not necessarily produce great health outcomes. The USA ranks 37th in the world in “Health System Overall Performance”, according to the World Health Organization”. Our infant mortality is higher than any advanced nation.
To control costs, there must be enough oversight of the system so that it can focus on health maintenance, public health, and preventative medicine. The profit motive alone is unlikely to encourage better health care, and is unlikely to motivate cost control. The new Medicare drug benefit is a shining example of the confusion and waste that result when we commission private enterprise to provide major national health care programs.
Our system is out of control because we have no entity governing it. Health care corporations expect high profits. They hire lots of lobbyists and make large campaign contributions. Who would pay lobbyists for public health or prevention? We have a huge layer of bureaucracy that exists nowhere else in the world; a fourth of all health care workers do only paperwork. Money spent on insurance companies, billing, advertising and excess profit does not improve health care. We spend plenty of money, but lack the political will to reform the system.
Our compassion in the face of human suffering should motivate universal health care, but now we have to get a grip on the cost of health care if we are to keep our companies and cities, large and small, from going bankrupt. Our large Michigan companies have retirees to support. They can’t keep paying health care costs of $1500 per vehicle, pay for pensions, and invest enough in new products to stay competitive in the world market.
We could adopt the best practices of health plans from other nations, or expand the Medicare system to cover all Americans. Medicare provides good service and is supported by Americans. It is an efficient program, spending less than 2% of its budget on administration.
Our citizens demand fast relief from outrageous health care costs. All Americans must be able to count on high quality affordable healthcare, and soon.
E-mail me at chuckreamforcongress@yahoo.com
