To care for all — or just some …
by Cheryl L Dickason, M.D.Link to article
Here we are AGAIN! Over 46.6 million Americans were without any form of health insurance in 2005. Even the ones who qualify for such programs such as Medicaid don’t have the access to medical care they really need. This problem just seems to get bigger and bigger and NO ONE is doing what is needed to solve this dilemma.
Where to begin? How can we design and enact a healthcare system that will assure that all Americans are covered, and all Americans can get the care they need whenever they need it? As a physician—someone who works in the “system”– over the years I have come to realize that before we ever make any changes in healthcare we have to agree that our health care system is broken and in need of drastic change. All too often the opinions we hold about our health care system depends on where we sit economically. Too many of us cannot “see” the problem unless we are affected directly.
Case in point is the current plan offered by the current administration to solve the problems of people who don’t have health insurance. A “tax break” has been proposed so that in certain circumstances the cost of a health insurance policy can be deducted from one’s income taxes. This “solution” misses the whole problem of people who simply cannot afford to pay for a health insurance policy. Getting a “tax cut” for something you do not have and cannot buy in the first place is meaningless!
If our healthcare problems are ever going to be tackled, Americans will have to face the very ugly and persistent problems involving poverty in this country. We may all believe fundamentally that healthcare is a right, but we will never really obtain this dream unless we are all willing to pay for it!
The truth of the matter is that the system as it stands now simply cannot afford to provide “healthcare for all.” Even though most of us are covered by health insurance it is becoming more and more apparent that “we” can no longer turn a blind eye to “others” situations. One of the reasons this topic has even surfaced again is because of the increase in number of people who are falling out of the middle class and into “the working poor.” Health insurance is now a luxury for many who used to be covered.
What we expected from our employers—health care insurance— in many cases is no longer being offered. If our employers cannot afford to pay for this insurance, then who can? It may sound silly but I don’t believe that our healthcare system problems will be fully addressed until people are rioting in the streets, or marching on Washington to get the universal healthcare coverage we all expect.
Before that happens, I want to start the open dialog, the “brainstorming” if you will that we have to do in order to make meaningful change. I will continue to ask the hard questions: Is healthcare a “right.” Are we all “entitled” to “top of the line” healthcare? Are Americans willing to pay for a system that delivers this promise?
I want to hear your answers, your ideas!
Who knows, maybe we can get down to making real efforts to end this problem before we are parading on the Monument’s Mall, shaking our fists at a system that has let so many fall though the cracks.
Tags: health-care, healthcare, uninsured, universal-healthcare-coverage
April 7th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
I don’t think that healthcare is a right like our claimed right to “liberty and happiness”. What I would like to see is that we as a country declare that it will be a basic service that will be provided. I’m not an expert on this but I think the US is the only developed nation that doesn’t have a form of national healthcare.
The big fight to get to a national healthcare system will be to get control of the medical industry. They have been inflating their costs at double digit rates for so long that they think they own healthcare. I have heard that the costs of healthcare in the US for a particular service is in the order of 200% to 300% of what it is in other industrial countries. The level of service here may be higher so it may be difficult to do a true comparison but I believe it is true that healthcare here is more expensive.
Another question that will need to be addressed is levels of healthcare. Should a poor person “deserve” the same care as a millionaire? I have heard that countries with a national healthcare system are beginning to make allowances for people that are willing to pay extra for extra service - for example, to get the heart bypass surgery sooner.
I heard of the GINI coefficient for the spread between rich and poor (google gini) and the US is getting close to 3rd world countries like Mexico. While I don’t want to impede people getting rich, a person can’t get rich without getting it from the backs of other people and I believe society has the right to limit this exploitation. We need entrepreneurs who dream up new ways of doing things and come up with industries that create jobs, and so on but we also need to evolve as a society to do a better job at sharing the wealth.
I think these will be difficult issues but it shouldn’t stop us to push for this. I think it’s unacceptable for a nation with such wealth to tolerate 47M people who can’t afford even basic healthcare.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
If you got to http://www.healthcare-now.org you will discover that right now there is a bill before congress to cover everyone comprehensively with Single-Payer National Universal Health Care, that is, H.R. 676 please contact them and support this effort!