The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the U.S. as 27th in the industrialized world for infant mortality. The average life expectancy, according to the WHO, in the U.S. is age 78, ranking 25th among industrialized nations. The average number of good health years is 69, also ranking 25th, and below Slovenia. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 deaths in the U.S. are caused by lack of health insurance.
The good news is that we already have a system in place and we can fix health care now!
We all know the "health care" system is broken and it seems everyone has a "plan". It is shameful that America's health care system is ranked near the bottom among industrialized nations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the U.S. as 27th in the industrialized world for infant mortality. The average life expectancy, according to the WHO, in the U.S. is age 78, ranking 25th among industrialized nations. The average number of good health years is 69, also ranking 25th, and below Slovenia. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 deaths in the U.S. are caused by lack of health insurance.
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The good news is that we already have a system in place and we can fix health care now!
Americans annually spend $5,267 per capita on health care, while the industrialized world’s median is $2,193. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the world. Presidential candidate John Edwards remarked, "We're spending more on health care costs than any other country in the industrial world and getting one of the worst products out the other end."
In other words, we have the most expensive and least effective health care system in the world. The term "health care" itself is a misnomer when applied to our system . Our system does not promote health it treats sickness. It is a sickness system and the overall system is sick.
"Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care to its citizens," Rep. Jim McDermott (D) of Washington. The fact that this country does not provide universal health care to its citizens is a crime and our government is responsible. That crime is negligent homicide and millions have already died.
There is no perfect system but obviously ours is seriously flawed and must be changed. Rather than creating a new system from whole cloth, Medicare can be turned into a national health care system that will provide coverage to all Americans. We simply need to change the eligibility rules and eliminate that 20% that the insurance lobby insisted that Medicare not cover
Let us move right now to solve this critical problem. The solution is simple but not easy however, it is doable right now. It can be funded by removing the income caps on Social Security and Medicare. This will have the advantage of putting both programs on solid fiscal ground.
1 comment:
Medicaid Dental System Should Be Abolished! Before we can elect good Democrats to change the Health Care system for all, we can and should accept the fact that the Medicaid Dental program is irrepairably broken...but there is a convenient and available fix (at least for children). Our State has a sliding scale program for low income families to insure their children - called KidCare as Medical and Florida Healthy Kids as Dental. Tooth decay is the number one disease in America and too many children suffer in pain without dental care because of the inadequate and unacceptable Medicaid program. There are few private practice Dentists who will basically donate their care to the tens of thousands of untreated children; the Healthy Kids program simply needs to be restructured to accomodate the $0 income families so that "Medicaid" kids can enjoy the same level of participant care as "Healthy Kids" with slightly better family incomes. The program is available and more popular with Dentists. The fees are not structured to preclude freedom of particular procedures the children might need, and includes a federal matching dollar amount. It is an altogether more sane and competently administered and AVAILABLE program, if our State legislature could be moved to simply lower the required income. Please, if you are interested in encouraging healthcare, start with what we have, until we can make something better...only let's see to it that it is available to our most vulnerable population...poor children.
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