Healthcare Reform

I’m sure that very few people have any interest in whether or not I think this country needs health care reform. It will surprise me if many agree with me here. I think it is terrible that places like Canada, Cuba and nearly all of Europe have medical care for their citizens and we do not. I think it is horrible that people who cannot afford to have expensive tests done opt to die instead of bankrupting their families. I also believe it is unethical for an insurance company to charge money to insure folks that they will have access to medical care, and then use that money to hire employees to figure out how to not pay for that care. Even our senior citizens who have paid taxes their whole lives have to buy supplemental insurance to help out Medicare and still fall into that doughnut hole and have huge prescription bills to pay. I believe that basic medical care should be a right and I’m not alone. Mary Campbell sent me a link to a website for people who support HR676. This is a bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). It is an expansion of Medicare for all. But if you would like to support health care much like they have in Canada and Europe, click here http://www.hr676.org

I’ve heard several people say that our citizens are never turned away. I am assured that by our health care director, here at the blog, that this is correct. She even gave me a link to prove it. www.emtala.com/faq.htm . Well, far be it from me to doubt, but I guess it depends on what each provider considers appropriate and needed. My experience has been, if your doctor wants you to have a CAT scan or MRI and you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. If you can’t afford to buy the antibiotics your doctor prescribes you, you don’t get them. If you can’t afford to pay for services when they are rendered, you don’t get them. Our hospitals give emergency care to people is so they don’t get sued and so they can continue to get government money. I think it is atrocious that so many people are so concerned about how we will pay for our citizens to get medical care. Our government can come up with this money, and not just because Obama says so. We subsidize farming, manufacturing, banks, auto makers, countless other countries… I could go on and on. So, why can’t we provide health care? Tax relief to help people pay for insurance is ridiculous. If someone can’t afford insurance premiums, getting a check at the end of the year isn’t going to help. Obama has said much of the cost will be taken care by cleaning up the system itself. Someone who helps with our blog, an EMT, says that she sees wasted funds often. Sometimes because people misunderstand what their insurance requires, some by people who have no ability or intention of paying their ambulance bills. Much money is spent on people who want emergency care to help a future law suit.

Over 45 million people in this country have no health insurance. Many more are underinsured. This means many of those people will die from preventable or treatable conditions. The rest will go to the ER and the government will foot their medical bills. Even after going to the ER, many will not be able to afford follow-up care or prescriptions. So what can we do about this? The question should be; do we want to do anything about it? If you watch the news, the answer is no. It seems to me that politicians would much rather sling blame and toss criticism than to come up with a solution. Shocking, I know.

There are many opinions of the citizens of our country. I, for one, am getting really tired of the media telling me that most Americans do not want health reform. Many people believe like Kathy Wall Kefalas from Southern Georgia, GA. She writes, “healthcare is exasperating because it IS such a continuous cycle of the poor getting poorer (or dying) and the rich own the hospital...I am all for anything that ensures that ALL people can get healthcare...there has got to be a way - I just have this horrible, sinking feeling… that there is a feasible way to do this but the "powers that be" will never let this happen. It only takes one person to step up and do the right thing to start a chain of goodwill (and I believe the President wants to do this)...but even he has to answer to other unscrupulous, powerfully rich men, who I feel really don't care if us "little people" live or die. It's going to take a lot more than the power of the president to change healthcare in America.” Isn’t it ironic that the President can declare war, but can’t save the citizens of his own country?

I think many, if not most people are in the same situation as Robyn Ruff. She says, “I really feel the need for more opinions before I can know what I feel. Not that I cannot think for myself but I cannot prove the truth is being told by Obama.” She assumes he is being truthful and wants his healthcare plan to pass, but there are so many lies out there, it hard to know who to trust. In July, Time Magazine tells us their polls show that 46% of Americans said it was “Very Important” that we pass health reform. The graph at http://healthcarepolls.blogspot.com shows the slow but steady rise in support for health reform. At the same time, we are constantly reminded by right wing media that it will break us. Fox News reported just yesterday in a story entitled “Obama Needs to Put the Brakes On” that the deficit is skyrocketing and is “predicted to reach $10 trillion if any one of the present health care bills is passed.” Now, how many times has Obama said he will not sign a bill that will raise the deficit? I guess Joe Wilson isn’t the only one shouting “You Lie” to the president. Fox News seems to yell it every day.

My fear for healthcare reform is that we will end up with reform much like Medicare reform. Politicians will take a good idea and dissect it, then put it back together with the addition of loopholes and idiocies. We will get just enough different options to make it impossible to understand. Then, of course the ones who can explain it to us are the people trying to sell us insurance. And after all that, we will find ourselves falling into doughnut holes we were never told about. But it will be okay, people who can pay will get a tax break at the end of the year that they don’t need, right?