My Longest Post: Health Care in America!

Posted by Joel Friedlander | 2 Comments

There is always some jingoist Republican objecting to health care reform by telling his hoople audience that we shouldn’t change the “Best Health Care System in the World.”  This is bunk, we do not have the very best health care system in the World. Those who are saying that are usually Republicans, and they are knowingly disingenuous. We pay more than any other industrialized nation for health care (13% vs about 6%), yet we have the highest infant mortality rate of any First World Nation and the lowest life expectancy, the percentage of our people who aren’t covered by health care is higher than almost any other significant country, and millions of our people walk around with curable conditions that they don’t know about because they can’t afford to go to the doctor. http://www.dghonline.org/content/health-care-reform-us, (2007 statistics, but still accurate).  In addition, a huge number of our people are in constant, justifiable, fear of going bankrupt because of medical care expenses:

“Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance.” Medical Bankruptcy in the United States…” from JAMA http://www.pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf

In his January 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a “Second Bill of Rights”:

“…Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”  My emphasis.

Few of FDR’s ideas for American Society were implemented, with the exception of Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and, for a time, appropriate farm subsidies.  We are currently trying to provide for the right to a good education.  We have not however provided useful and remunerative jobs, freedom from unfair competition (cf: China, India, etc.), or, up until now, Adequate Medical Care.

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” (Article 25)

Please note the similarities with FDR’s proposals, and remember that the leading proponent of these rights, our representative to the United Nations, and the chair of the committee that drafted and approved these rights was Eleanor Roosevelt.  She is my vote for the most important women of the 20th Century.

We live in a country where one major medical crisis can cause financial ruin.  Let me set our one anecdotal illustration.

One of my friends, who is covered by health insurance, has a very serious condition of Rheumatoid Arthritis that requires her to give herself injections at a cost of $1,500.00 per shot, plus a large number of expensive medications which she must regularly ingest. It is the beginning of March as I write this and my friend has already run out of her coverage for medicine for this year. If she continues her treatment she will have to tap into savings, and deny a proper life for two under ten year old children.

In any other civilized first rank country her necessary medicine would be covered by National Health Care or a form of National Medical Insurance. Not here! Here she will have to go without, because unlike the well to do that the Republicans represent so assiduously, she will have to go without, and in so doing, probably suffer extreme pain and the inability to work. Now, let me add, that this lady works to help take care of two young children. She is a very productive lady and if her efforts are lost America will lose a significant element of its work force. We cannot make people reliant upon uncontrolled insurance companies for their survival!  My friend’s situation illustrates what many Americans we will face if Congress doesn’t pass health care reform.  As the statistics above indicate, you can be middle class, make a good living, be covered by health insurance, and face bankruptcy.  Do we need to live in this present and face this future?

At the present time health care reform is being held up by a fear of S O C I A L I Z ED
M E D I C I N E, which is constantly held up by the political right wing as a harbinger of the end of American Freedom.  They are intent upon saying that health care reform is the beginning of America’s slide into socialism and rule by the ghosts of Mao-Tse Tung and Joseph Stalin.  They are full of crap.  The people shouting this don’t lie awake at night fearing financial ruin, or worse yet, an early painful death.  They all have health insurance coverage, usually provided by their employer, or in the case of the Congress, by you and me!  These are usually the same people who are constantly screaming about how high the deficit has grown.  They wouldn’t remotely consider reducing the expenditures on Medicare because it would affect them personally as well as their wealthy cohorts.  They refuse to acknowledge that if we don’t reduce our constantly growing expenditures on Medicare benefits we will soon be bankrupt as a nation.

Healthcare reform is the way to begin to control health costs and to stop crippling the American economy.  We will not compete with any country that pays 6% of their GNP on health care, while we spend 16% of ours. (Never mind what we spend on stupid extra national military expenditures trying to mold the world in our image.)  Our current system of employer provided health care insurance is going to bankrupt American business before we know it.  We have already shipped almost all of our manufacturing jobs out of the country because our ex patriot industries save so much money producing goods overseas.  They make a fortune, but share their profits with a small percentage of the American public. (This must stop, but that is an entirely different problem, and perhaps another essay).

Most Americans favor a reformation of our health care system.  They are kept in check by a distinct minority of 40 Senators, who, at most, represent about 35% of the population. (Statistic taken from http://mydd.com/2009/12/21/a-broken-united-states-senate.)

If the rural and low population states which hold the Senate hostage can’t agree with health care reform, we must eliminate their filibuster power and use any means available to pass some legislation.  If the current health care bill is not perfect, what bill that ever became law, was perfect in its first incarnation?  If we create a system for controlling health care costs and a means of providing health care for most of our people, we can modify it as necessary.  If the Republicans could pass the Bush tax cuts using reconciliation, the Democrats must do the same for Health Care Legislation. We can’t continue as we have been; we will face bankruptcy before we know it!

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