Healthcare

I stopped blogging about political issues once the election was over and my guy won. I thought "we're in good hands now and the president doesn't need my help." But since everyone of us has a stake in the healthcare debates now raging across the country I'm feeling the urge to step in with my undervalued opinion. I recently started worrying about it more than I have in the past because of some deep layoffs in my company and the realization that could lose my job and my health benefits. I also have an adult daughter now who will come off my policy as soon as she stops attending college. The thought of myself being uninsured worries me, the thought of my kid being uninsured sends me into a panic!

I'm in awe - a sickening sort of awe - as I watch protestors across the nation screaming against socialized health care. Does anybody see the irony of senior citizens on medicaid yelling at congressmen that they are against socialized medicine? Did you see the sign held up by the woman that said "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare"? Does anybody shake their head in disbelief as Republican Senators with their gold plated government healthcare condemn any plans to give that same care to the rest of us?

That's right. Our politicians enjoy taxpayer-funded healthcare. All of the senators and representatives in Washington enjoy health benefits that are fully paid by you and me. I don’t see any of America’s politicians opting out of their taxpayer-funded plans in favor of the supposedly superior private health plans, do you? They have the luxury of coverage at taxpayer expense, while we taxpayers have to worry about where or whether we will even get coverage, much less coverage that we can afford.

A main argument from the right is that they don't want government bureaucrats making healthcare decisons for them. But our current private system has insurance company bureaucrats deciding which medical procedures they will cover and which they will not. They also decide whether or not they will cover you at all and how much you must pay them for your coverage. Insurance companies dictate to doctors what care you are allowed, compromising what would otherwise be the best medical practices in the world. The biggest difference between the government and the insurance bureaucrats is that insurance companies actually have an incentive to give you less care because they will make more money by denying claims and treatments.

Many claim that America has the best healthcare system in the world. Sadly, that is just not true. We only have the most expensive system in the world. Are we getting our money’s worth?

Choose any type of health measurement and compare America against any other industrialized nation. The comparison is not good. Life expectancy in the U.S. ranks 24th in the world. Life expectancy in the U.S. ties with Slovenia. We rank 29th in the world for infant mortality. Even Cuba ranks ahead of us. We fare poorly in several other rankings as well, including overall cost, access, and health outcomes. It turns out that America has, at best, the 24th best healthcare system in the world. Want to know what the top 23 countries are doing? They all have universal healthcare.

A generation ago, working for only one company over the course of your career was the norm. Today, the average worker will work for six different companies. Additionally, more workers than ever before are self-employed or run small businesses. Employer-sponsored healthcare no longer makes any sense. Many of my conservative friends and relatives have the traditional family where mom stays home with the kids and dad goes to work and gets the employer based health policy. Well if dad leaves or dies, mom cannot continue to stay at home and care for the children as before. She must, in a time of crisis, look for a (full-time) job with healthcare benefits. Countless Americans remain in their jobs when they would rather stay home to care for their children, simply because they have to in order to continue their medical insurance coverage. That is not exactly “family values.”

Forty-seven million Americans are now uninsured and that number is growing as job losses continue. Uninsured people still get sick. They still visit the doctor or, worse, the emergency room, which is 10 times the cost. Who pays? Those of us with insurance. I went to the podiatrist last month for some foot pain. The total bill for an xray, 20 minutes of the doctors time and some shoe inserts cost $850. It doesn't take a genius to see that there is a lot more rolled into that bill than the care I received. You and I are ALREADY paying for the uninsured every time we pay a premium; we pay again every time our premiums go up. And our premiums will continue to go up. The price of insurance premiums is rising much faster than wages, and there is no end in sight.

In America, we believe that we all deserve equal protection from crime and fire. The police and the firemen should respond to you just as fast as they respond to Donald Trump, right? We believe that the poor have the same right to clean water and safe roads as the rich. We even pass laws guaranteeing that everyone have affordable access to cable TV! But in this the greatest nation on earth, a country as well off, as caring, as Christian, as the United States of America, it is unacceptable that our politicians would say that we can have equal rights in so many things but if I want the same coverage as them, then I'm a socialist.

There! I got that off my chest. Let me know if anything I said changed your opinion on the subject!