Americans, like many others, tend to live in a world filled with misperceptions and delusions, but especially when it comes to healthcare. I mean, what are we thinking? I just can’t believe it when people go out parading around protesting healthcare reform, or when legislators, talk show hosts, or others run their mouths off declaring America to be the healthiest nation with the greatest healthcare system. We are far from. In fact, in the WHO’s last attempt to rank nation’s health care in 2000, the U.S. was a pathetic 37th. VERY FAR from the best.
A fundamental question is, do we want to make health care more affordable by following in the footsteps of other nations, such as France (who was the true leader on the WHO’s list), or not? Why are American debates so introverted? Is it so wrong to just look over at Europe and say, “That seems to be working.” A comparative approach, like that of Sen, would seem to be quite beneficial for this issue.
Now, Congress is debating a health care overhaul. For some reason, health care reform is a partisan issue, but to me it seems more like a special interest problem. Why do republicans feel like health care reform needs to be killed? Oh I know! The insurance companies just won’t be making as much money anymore, and, heaven forbid, they wouldn’t be able to turn away patients with pre-existing conditions. In short, money talks. And it is saying kill healthcare reform.
But I’m not saying that republicans and whoever else is against health care reform is a bad person. I’m sure they are nice people (most of them at least). What I’m saying is they are ignoring the needs of millions of Americans who can not afford the current system, which is one of the most expensive but also least efficient on the planet. In short, if a public option, or whatever the new politically correct term is going to be, works, then let’s have it already. In my opinion, it will work. It’s probably going to be a tough transition, but that’s what happens when you try to change an almost immovable titan that is the American health insurance industry. We have become entrenched in a system no longer based on helping people in need, but, instead, a profit based industry like any other. If the government can offer a more affordable option, and someone who can’t afford the high priced private policy now has the ability to go see a doctor, then who is being hurt?
Concisely speaking, we have a substandard health care system, but we also have the opportunity to change it for the better. Let’s make the most of it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33479225/ns/politics-health_care_reform/
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2007/May/Mirror--Mirror-on-the-Wall--An-International-Update-on-the-Comparative-Performance-of-American-Healt.aspx
2 comments:
While playing on a youth soccer team consisting mostly of inner-city Hispanic girls when i was ten years old, I watched a teammate break her leg during a game. What happened next always used to confuse me, and it was not until I was several years older and slightly less naive that I fully comprehended the resulting situation in retrospect. It was obvious that my teammate was in excruciating pain, however when the ambulance arrived to rush her to the emergency room, she denied the ride and opted instead to to cramp herself uncomfortably in her family's beat-up sedan. The ambulance ride would most likely have cost her upwards of several hundred dollars, money that her family simply did not have. I agree that our healthcare system is in dire need of some version of reform, as young girls have to refuse aide, and the average citizen has to fight tooth and nail with their healthcare provider in order to ensure coverage of specific health expenses. An ideal American healthcare system would perhaps lower medical costs by nationalizing healthcare, while maintaining alternatives for those citizens willing to pay for expensive, cutting-edge specialist care.
The late Senator Ted Kennedy devoted his political career to the cause of healthcare reform. It was his intention to achieve a system of healthcare accessible and affordable to all Americans. In August 2008, at the Democratic National Convention, Senator Kennedy endorsed then candidate Barack Obama in this way: “This is the cause of my life…new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.” This final statement of his, I think encapsulates best, the justice of equal access to healthcare on the basis of need that we have discussed here.
Post a Comment