Have Americans been sold a bill of goods? During the last 50 years, Americans have been educated (re-educated?) to abhor socialism, marxism, liberalism--pretty much all "isms". We learned to crouch under our school desks in case of a nuclear attack, to "just say no", to learn the color-coded alert system for terrorism. In the meantime, we lost sight of the real issues surrounding our lives: the environment, energy, good-paying jobs, election finance reform, corporate monopolies, healthcare, education. We allowed companies & municipalities to pollute, did very little to change our use of fossil fuels, and did nothing about the last 5 in the above list. Americans have been "dumbed down." (For an interesting study on declining schooling, go to YourDictionary.com.)
According to Online Journal, "...people who read to begin with, newspapers in particular, are already higher on the intelligence chart, because they’re looking for information, i.e., the truth in print, a proactive not passive medium. As newspapers dumb down the truth, they may gain a transitory readership. In the long run, though, it’s the kiss of death. Many of those kinds of readers will abandon them at some point for something even dumber."
But I digress. I just read The Communist Manifesto and I didn't find any mention of national healthcare. This document talks about the abolition of private property and about free education for all children in public schools. But nothing about healthcare.
Is healthcare a Right or a Privilege? If you read the Constitution, you won't find anything about health care in it. Until you get to the 8th Amendment, where, as part of the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause, the Supreme Court affirmed that POWs were guaranteed a right to health care. Currently, prisoners are the only group specifically granted a right to health care. So, should it be a privilege to only those who can buy it? An interesting point on this was made by Laura Knoy of NHPR:
"Here at home, medical statistics have shown that degraded diet, water, and air quality are responsible for billions of dollars in AVOIDABLE health care costs. That degradation has happened largely without citizen involvement in the decisions that brought it about."
200 years ago, most Americans lived shorter lives, rarely saw a doctor, and, when they did, could often barter for the treatment. Fast-forward to today and you see that, were the Founding Fathers around, they'd be aghast. We have a government run highway system, a government run education system, but we can't keep our family healthy in order to get
to school? Now, universal healthcare doesn't have to be government run. It could be run by a non-profit organization, for example. Why should we pay insurance companies
over 30% admin costs while Medicare does the same on 3%? I believe it's France where
doctors are paid a bonus to keep their patients well. What an idea!
So, instead of thinking of this as a Right vs. a Privilege, how about looking at it from a cost analysis position?
1. The U.S. spends far more per capita on health care than any other nation (and health care costs continue to soar): $2.4 trillion dollars (18 percent of our GDP).
2. More than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses
because they do not get to the doctor when they should. This impacts where they
work & their capacity for spending.
3. The average American spends about $7,900 per year on health care.
4. General Motors spends more on health care per automobile than on steel
5. Despite the fact that we spend almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country, our health care outcomes lag behind many other nations.
6. Over the last three decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the numbers of physicians.
7. From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation's major health insurance companies increased by 170 percent.
8. CEO compensation for the top seven health insurance companies now averages $14.2 million.
9. Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world.
10. In 2008, employer health insurance premiums increased by 5.0 percent – two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,700.
11. Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
I've heard all sorts of ideas, of which these are the latest:
1. The Single-payer option. According to Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP),"Single-payer national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains
largely private."
2. The Public Option. A government run health care program. This could mean extending Medicare to the under-65 crowd. A new study by the Commonwealth Fund reports that Medicare recipients are more satisfied with their coverage, have better access, and fewer problems paying their bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.
3. Member-run Health Cooperatives. According to Bloomberg news, "It would allow non-profits to negotiate directly with health-care providers for low-cost rates. The plans they offer would be sold, like private plans, through Internet-based exchanges where consumers could buy insurance at lower-cost, group rates....the cooperatives could be chartered by either the federal government or the states, and that they could receive federal seed money."
Sources:
1. YDC, YourDictionary.com on grade level declines since 1858.
2. PNHP on Single-Payer Options.
3. Clark & Amiot, The impact of the Reagan Administration on Federal Education
Policy.
4. Online Journal, http://onlinejournal.com
5. Bernie Sanders at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/health-care-is-a-right-no_b_212770.html.
6. http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
7. http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/US_healthcare/Executive_Summary.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment