Health care should be available to every child, woman, and man in America.
Yes
No
0voters
I think the state of health care in this country is a shame. Health care should be universally available to all. Many industrialized nations have universal health care. The USA is the most powerful nation in the world. Should we accept that this country lacks the necessary resources to provide medical care for its people?
"The 45.8 million uninsured are more likely to be poor and low income than higher income. …over half of the uninsured are below 200% of poverty, with 25% below the poverty line and 28% between 100% and 199% of poverty. That the uninsured are concentrated among lower-income individuals is not surprising, given that low-income individuals are less likely to:
be working, and if they do work they are less likely to be working full time,
receive an offer of insurance, and
be able to afford an offer of coverage.
Not all low-income individuals are eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid eligibility is based on a combination of income and population “category.†The population groups that qualify for Medicaid are generally children, parents of dependent children, pregnant women, the disabled, and the elderly. The income levels at which these groups qualify differs from state to state, and group to group, with coverage of children and pregnant women being available at higher income levels, followed by the disabled and elderly, then parents of dependent children last (though this varies by state). Childless adults who are not disabled or elderly rarely qualify for Medicaid, even at the very lowest income levels. "
I think it is sad when you look at America and compare it to other first world countries and, yeah, we are lagging behind in so many areas.
Sure, people can talk about quality of life indices, but long at the range on that and not just the mean and a disturbing pattern emerges. I mean, I am all for the ‘mean’, don’t get me wrong, but I think the mean entails more than just the halfway point between extremes.
"An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.
American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.
Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.
“The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn rate is higher than any of those countries,” said the annual State of the World’s Mothers report."
Myth #1
People without health insurance get the medical care they need.
Reality
Over and over, studies show that those without health insurance are less than half as likely to receive needed medical care. They are much less likely to have a physician visit within a year, have fewer visits annually, and they are more than three times as likely to lack a regular source of care. They also are less likely to receive preventive services and appropriate routine care for chronic conditions than those with insurance.
Myth #2
The number of Americans without health insurance is not large and has not been growing.
Reality
The Census Bureau estimates 38 million to 42 million people in the United States lacked health insurance coverage in 1999 (See Figure 2). That is about 15 percent of the total population of 274 million persons and 17 percent of the population under 65. Unfortunately, this intractable problem has persisted for many years.
Myth #3
Most people without health insurance decline coverage offered in the workplace because they are young and healthy and don’t think they need it.
Reality
Young adults are more likely to be uninsured mostly because they are ineligible for workplace coverage. Only 3 million workers between 18 and 44 are uninsured because they decline workplace health insurance. Eleven million workers between 18 and 44 are uninsured because their employer does not offer them coverage.
Myth #4
Most of the uninsured do not work, or they live in families where no one works.
Reality
More than 80 percent of uninsured children and adults under the age of 65 live in working families (See Figure 3). Even members of families with two full-time wage earners have almost a one-in-ten chance of being uninsured.
Myth #5
Recent immigrants account for the increase in the number of uninsured persons.
Reality
Immigrants who have come to the United States within four years comprise a relatively small proportion of the general population (See Figure 4). Non-citizens represent less than one in five uninsured persons.
we will take you, force you to take medical classes for years and years and then force you to practice for free. doctor? no, you are a slave to the state for the good of the collective.
Very few medical students are purely driven by the financial angle. After all, Doctors get plenty of respect as well get to actually do something.
—Albert Schweitzer
Not a single medical school outside of Mexico doesn’t have that on its walls, and many Doctors have it on their desk. Frankly, I would rather be treated by a Doctor who cared about humanity than a Doctor who cared about money.
I didn’t suggest that either. It already is a combination public-private process. Before we discuss means, we should agree on ends.
Is universal health care a value we should strive for in this country? Is it a human right? if we agree we ought to have it, is it a priority? If enough people agree that we need it, and take political action to get it, I believe we can achieve it.
In this country you would have a hard time selling a government run system to the people. But the people are being bilked by the existing system in many ways. The prices of care are going up disporportionately. We pay more for prescription drugs than any other country in the world. HMO CEOs receive multi-million dollar salaries. Unnecessary tests, and surgery are performed. Insurance premiums are beyond the reach of 50 million Americans. In sum, the health care system is a disaster. But Americans have yet to organize themselves to change it and the “leadership” is not taking the lead. Those of us with health care coverage are too complacent to advocate for those who don’t.
The government in the US already pays for some 43% of health care costs in the US through its myriad programs. The other 57% is paid by private health insurers.
30-40% of private health insurance payments go to these private insurers to cover overhead. The government uses about 3% of its health care spending on overhead.
Health care costs in the US are rising on average about 12% per year. A large portion of this increase is caused by expenses for uneccesarry and redundant machinery.
How many CAT scans and MRIs does one city need?
Most are idle 60-80% of the time but still must be paid for.
There are huge inefficiencies caused for the most part by an opaque market. It is difficult to compare health insurance plans and impossible to figure costs for care.
How can anyone make any choice in a market that would shame the Byzantines?
Just a few things I thought you people should know.
I’d argue part of that is due to privatized health care.
After all, sending you to a non-affliated hospital means they would be losing money, so better to pony up and have an MRI.
It is all about what you want your health care system to do.
If you are poor, the European system is the clear winner.
If you are middle class, ehhh, that is a toss-up. Compared to some European countries, America is better, compared to others it is worse. We’ll call it a tie. But ask yourself: is America’s economy more like Spain’s, or more like Germany’s? That is helpful is figuring out where a universal system would place America (comparing like to like, after all). And Germany does a better job by its middle class than America does.
If you are rich, America is clearly the winner. But it isn’t like the wealthy aren’t well taken care of in Europe. Can America say the same about its poor?
Good points. You have identified problems of top heavy administration and redundancy that are is very costly to us as tax-payers and insurance carriers. The opacity and complexity of the market are two more problems for health care consumers that work against competitve market that could bring down prices and ability to make informed choices. If these problems were solved, could we afford universal health care?
At this point, universal health care is about the only way out of this quagmire.
It is impossible to envision a health care system that could possibly cost more than the one we already have except perhaps the privatization of the governments part.
Not to mention the waste of bureaucracy in the U.S. healthcare system, with bureaucracy itself costing at least 33% of healthcare costs. Canada’s bureaucracy costs closer to 16%.
That reminds me – it is actually really interesting. I think it was a Ford plant, but it was a car company looking for a new location. Southern states were offering all sorts of crazy tax incentives in order to encourage the plant to be built there.
Where did the plant decide to go?
Canada.
Canada. A country not known for having cheap taxes. But . . . even after the taxes, Canada was more profitable since they didn’t have to pay health insurance.
Crazy, isn’t it?
The health care system is bad for citizens, and bad for a lot of companies.
Ha, I’m always astonished when I hear how much Ford pays in healthcare for it’s employees.
The problem is, Americans still view healthcare as a market based commodity, it is not directed toward medical need but toward ability to pay. It’s about time american start viewing Health care as a social service for fucks sake.
I agree with you. However, as the Clinton’s proved when they tried to change the system, universal health care will not be easy to achieve in this country. There are powerful special interests invested in maintaining the status quo. The social service approach is unpopular. Social services are usually unappreciated until an individual or someone she loves needs them. Application for services is often a daunting process. People who use such services are stigmatized for it. Social Security avoids the stigma by making entitlement an earned right. I don’t know how that could be avoided by a two tier health care system.
The Scandinavian countries have the best public health care. They also have tax rates well over fifty percent, all told. You might think it’s a good tradeoff; you pay higher taxes to ensure that other people get quality medical care. But here’s the thing; you’re talking about using MY (and all other taxpayers’) money. If you don’t think the quality of healthcare in this country is good enough, donate your own money to charity. Try to convince other people to do the same, that’s fine too. But what makes you think you have the right to force me to finance your social goals?
Well, tax rates in the USA hover between 30% to 50%, all told, and all that goes to social engineering and other projects I’m “forced” to accept. Oh, in theory I have representation, but I think we all know that’s a joke. Besides, just because all those countries have socialistic economic systems doesn’t mean they aren’t democratic. Most of 'em are at least as democratic as the US.