|
Disclaimer:
I wrote this last . . . starting at about 6:30 this morning .... under severe sleep deprivation ... and without safety glasses.
My goal was to make it vaguely resembling the same subject material as the white paper. . . . I may have succeeded:shrug:
Hell, I may have seceded . . . I was asleep at the time . . . I think
If you like it, please tell you liked it. . . . if you don't like it, please tell me you liked it. I can take it. :))
HEALTH CARE POLICY CHALLENGES:
Toward an Equitable and Ethical Health Care System
Executive Summary
The problems in our healthcare system are not of recent origin. They have been building for decades. They have developed along with a system which until now has shown amazing resiliency, but is today stretched to crisis proportions. It would be folly to depend upon that resiliency in the future.
Incremental health care reforms in the United States have been ineffective and have yielded a steady increase in the number of Americans without health insurance. In addition to the 45.8 million Americans without insurance, millions more are underinsured. Virtually all other industrialized nations insure their entire populations (National Health Care for the Homeless Council, 2007).
It has often been said that our nation has the best healthcare in the world. For the most well off in this country, that may be true. Our biomedical knowledge and technical expertise are unsurpassed. Yet, it is not accessible to many in this country. Failure to insure 48 million Americans is not only a strain on our social fabric; it puts our very economy at risk.
At the heart of the problem is the lack of a central structure to our healthcare system. Rather than a mighty Oak with a central trunk and radiating branches, our system more reflects a Banyan tree with its jumble of offshoots supporting themselves independent of the core. And yet, it only lacks the political will to coordinate and strengthen the core to serve all of the branches.
As noted in the white paper, our system has developed with the assistance of public support and funds. At critical times we have chosen as a people to invest the necessary capital to build hospitals, train physicians and other medical personnel, and create the infrastructure at the heart of our system. We have created the structure and funded a system of health insurance and support for our older citizens. Now it is time to go farther and bring that standard to every person living in this country by structuring universal healthcare coverage.
It is true that all of these things have been accomplished in the context of a market economy. That basis has served us well, and will continue to do so. However, the free market, driven by profit for the individual, must be balanced with the social market, driven by use and value of the community.
The traditional opponents of a National Health Insurance plan have called such a plan socialized medicine. However, it is far from it. This is not a plan of governmental control of the means of providing services. National Health Insurance is merely a single payer health insurance system which would ensure universal coverage.
The government would collect and allocate the money for the financing of healthcare. All medically necessary treatment would be available on the basis of need rather than ability to pay. Physicians and medical institutions would provide the healthcare, but would not turn away or dump patients because of their financial status.
Another false argument that opponents of universal healthcare make is that it would lead to long lines and rationing. The fact is that healthcare is rationed every day in this country. We ration healthcare on the basis of ability to pay. We ration healthcare on the basis of its ‘experimental’ status as well.
This rationing, however, is covert. That is, it goes on largely out of our sight. We can put an end to covert rationing, and make these decisions transparent, fair, and in an equitable manner.
House Resolution 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act, introduced in the 108th Congress by Rep. John Conyers, promises to make the necessary changes to affect universal care. Also termed the “Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Bill,” H.R. 676 would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans, guaranteed by law, will have access to the highest quality and cost effective health care services regardless of one’s employment, income, or health care status.
The traditional positions that some of the health care interests have espoused are no longer so settled. In October of 2003 a Washington Post-ABC News Poll asked the question “are you generally satisfied with the total cost of health care in this country. Seventy eight percent (78%) of those asked answered “no” – fifty four percent (54%) categorizing themselves as “very” dissatisfied. The same poll showed that eight percent (80%) would prefer providing health care for all Americans “even if it means raising taxes.”
The time to pass this legislation is now - the window of opportunity is open. We need only go through it.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
