We are the most industrialized country in the world.
We suck up a majority of the resources. We have great wealth.
But our health-care system is a mess. We spend more than any other industrialized country to keep ourselves healthy. Our drugs cost more. Our doctors’ visits cost more. Yet we are far from the healthiest people in the world.
We are the only industrialized country where you can work hard all of your life, get a serious injury or illness and have your life’s savings vanish.
According to the Kaiser Health Foundation, health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.2 trillion in 2007, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and more than eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980.
In 2007, U.S. health care spending was about $7,421 per resident and accounted for 16.2 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product; this is among the highest of all industrialized countries.
As employers are squeezed to save money, they either drop insurance altogether, or provide insurance that costs the employee more each month while requiring heftier co-pays.
Other industrialized countries, including our neighbors to the north in Canada, as well as England and France, have guaranteed medical insurance for all residents and they pay far less for far better coverage.
In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in the U.S. was $6,714; in Canada, $3,678. (American dollars.) The U.S. spent 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care in that year; Canada spent 10 percent.
What might be more important, in Canada and England, insurance companies can't reject your request to pay a bill because the procedure is experimental or is a pre-existing condition or your didn't inform your insurance company that you sneezed twice in a row in 2006, negating coverage, or any of the crazy reasons they give for denying coverage.
I remember the woman who called me to tell about how when her doctor informed her that her husband had a fatal disease, not only were they told they must cope with that horrible news, but the doctor said be prepared to lose your home and belongings, because of insurance policy. She kept her house only by living frugally, not turning lights on, keeping the heat low.
Or the woman in Albion who was told she had cancer in both breasts, but her insurance would pay to treat only one.
In Canada, they don't need fundraisers to help sick people with ineffective insurance.
So a major overhauling of our system is necessary. The easiest move, pattern ourselves after what they are doing in places like Canada and England and France. We can pick and choose the best parts. We can avoid the pitfalls.
That seems the logical choice.
But instead a vocal minority screams against reforms. They disrupt meetings. They distribute outright lies like elderly patients would meet with a group to decide if it was time for them to die. When this rumor was rebuked by even Republicans, that genius from up north, Sarah Palin, continued to pass that statement off as fact.
Too many Americans are being lead by extreme right talk show hosts who earn far more than their listeners and never have to worry themselves about health care. Remember when Rush Limbaugh was caught at the Palm Beach International Airport with someone else's Viagra?
Polls show 80 percent of Canadians are comfortable with their health-care system.
An AFL-CIO poll shows 71 percent of Americans find it “critical” to address health problems in the U.S.
A CBS / New York Times poll found 90 percent of Americans believe a fundamental change is needed in our health-care system.
A colleague of mine vacationed recently in Canada and asked people what they thought of their health-care system, after listening to all of the radio hosts talk about how bad and dangerous it is. He found people generally liked their plans, had no horror stories to tell, but felt too many people take advantage of it. They go to the hospital or doctor too often. That is something that could be corrected in a U.S. plan.
So we have a health plan that is very much broken and will get worse. We have a president who wants change. He has a Congress made up of majorities of his party. Yet chances of meaningful reform are slipping away as the saber-rattlers chant scare terms like “socialism.”
The “socialism phobics” are worried a government plan wouldn't allow you to see your own doctor or go to your hospital of choice. Based on systems elsewhere, my guess is you have a better chance than with America's Health Maintenance Organizations, which give you a list of doctors and hospitals you can use.
It would mean you have a better chance of having the treatment and drugs your doctor subscribes, rather than having an insurance representative with limited health knowledge determine whether your insurance will pay the bill.
It seems a health system based on profit is doomed to failure. You need a $200,000 operation. Your insurance company's profits are down. Too bad for you.
Now it appears the government role in health reform may be eliminated from the plan to make it more palatable to some Democrats and all Republicans.
From disrupting meetings to spreading crazy rumors, opponents to reform are certainly having an effect. Consider even if you have insurance you like now, as it gets more expensive, there is a good chance it will be downgraded. Remember too, we pay a lot more for less.
Effective, efficient, well research reform will benefit the vast majority of Americans.
Unless you are a rich talk-show host who doesn't need it.
