Icon change - Public Health Plan
an empty gesture, perhaps, but the number one issue in my mind right now is the health care reform debate.
There's been a lot of straw man arguments floated about: how "socialized" health care is bad, how a government-run health plan would undermine private corporations, how "government bureaucracy" would shoot costs sky-high, that doctors wouldn't be able to make a living.
But consider that publicly-run healthcare works just fine, by and large, in other countries. Also think about the current proposals on the table which would put up a public plan alongside private insurance, giving consumers choice and threaten the private companies to do right by their customers. And that layer of bureaucracy? Approximately 31% of health care costs are due to the layers upon layers of paperwork private insurance companies require doctors to fill out, justifying their decisions - or to even have their decisions approved at all. And the current proposals all recommend that doctors receive more than they currently get through Medicare (to the tune of 110-140%).
I'm mad. Really mad. I have great insurance I can't use because the copayments are too high, and I'm one of the lucky ones. Think of the 40 million other folks who can't get insurance because of some mild or cured "preexisting condition." And as for that capitalist dogma some would use to defend the rights of the insurance companies? Well, take a look at this:
Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage.
What's "rescission?" Basically, it's the practice of where the insurers decide someone is too sick to keep covering, so they drop the agreement. In other words, if you've been suffering from cancer and thought you had insurance to cover the costs of your chemo visits, think again. The companies retain the right to pull your coverage at any time.
Murder by spreadsheet? Indeed.
So why should we continue to defend companies who have time and time again proved themselves incapable of our trust, whose bottom lines depend upon their ability to rig the game in such a way as to compromise their agreements and refuse treatments?
Personally, I feel that human health should never be tied to a profit model for exactly that reason. I would almost go as far as to suggest that the "life" part of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" passage in the Declaration of Independance should be codified within the Constitution as public healthcare. The health of Americans should be a guaranteed fundamental right.
So what about the cost? Is it expensive? Of course it is. Can we afford it? Truth is, no one is really sure, but some studies have shown that it will cost us far more in the long run than spending the money now. Medical bills now play a part in 62% of bankruptcy filings, causing all of our costs to go even higher.
Additionally, given the costs and profit-model of private health insurance, more and more insurance companies are raising rates and premiums, causing businesses to stop providing health insurance, or reducing coverage. This increases the number of uninsured, which - in addition to all of the other costs associated with poor or nonexistent care - increases ER visits, which increases local and state costs.
We can't continue on this way. We can't continue to allow private for-profit corporations to dictate to doctors who should be healthy and who should be sick or die. We can't continue to let a bunch of assholes on Capital Hill say, "I've got mine, so screw you." We can't continue to be the richest country in the world, yet rank 50th in life-expectancy. We can't continue to remain the only industrialized nation in the world without universal access to healthcare. We can't continue to keep our fellow citizens sick and/or bankrupt. We can't continue to be inhumane.
Kaiser Family Foundation Report on Medicaid and the Uninsured - chilling statistics
So what to do? Contact your congresscritters and Senators and make sure that they know you're in favor of a public option (preferably Chuck Schumer's approach, which does not have a "trigger" to kill the public option altogether). They are getting a LOT more noise against the public option than they are in favor of it, mostly because the talking heads on Faux News and conservative radio are soooo scared of this, they are riling up their base. We need to be just as loud.
Thank you.
There's been a lot of straw man arguments floated about: how "socialized" health care is bad, how a government-run health plan would undermine private corporations, how "government bureaucracy" would shoot costs sky-high, that doctors wouldn't be able to make a living.
But consider that publicly-run healthcare works just fine, by and large, in other countries. Also think about the current proposals on the table which would put up a public plan alongside private insurance, giving consumers choice and threaten the private companies to do right by their customers. And that layer of bureaucracy? Approximately 31% of health care costs are due to the layers upon layers of paperwork private insurance companies require doctors to fill out, justifying their decisions - or to even have their decisions approved at all. And the current proposals all recommend that doctors receive more than they currently get through Medicare (to the tune of 110-140%).
I'm mad. Really mad. I have great insurance I can't use because the copayments are too high, and I'm one of the lucky ones. Think of the 40 million other folks who can't get insurance because of some mild or cured "preexisting condition." And as for that capitalist dogma some would use to defend the rights of the insurance companies? Well, take a look at this:
Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage.
What's "rescission?" Basically, it's the practice of where the insurers decide someone is too sick to keep covering, so they drop the agreement. In other words, if you've been suffering from cancer and thought you had insurance to cover the costs of your chemo visits, think again. The companies retain the right to pull your coverage at any time.
Murder by spreadsheet? Indeed.
So why should we continue to defend companies who have time and time again proved themselves incapable of our trust, whose bottom lines depend upon their ability to rig the game in such a way as to compromise their agreements and refuse treatments?
Personally, I feel that human health should never be tied to a profit model for exactly that reason. I would almost go as far as to suggest that the "life" part of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" passage in the Declaration of Independance should be codified within the Constitution as public healthcare. The health of Americans should be a guaranteed fundamental right.
So what about the cost? Is it expensive? Of course it is. Can we afford it? Truth is, no one is really sure, but some studies have shown that it will cost us far more in the long run than spending the money now. Medical bills now play a part in 62% of bankruptcy filings, causing all of our costs to go even higher.
Additionally, given the costs and profit-model of private health insurance, more and more insurance companies are raising rates and premiums, causing businesses to stop providing health insurance, or reducing coverage. This increases the number of uninsured, which - in addition to all of the other costs associated with poor or nonexistent care - increases ER visits, which increases local and state costs.
We can't continue on this way. We can't continue to allow private for-profit corporations to dictate to doctors who should be healthy and who should be sick or die. We can't continue to let a bunch of assholes on Capital Hill say, "I've got mine, so screw you." We can't continue to be the richest country in the world, yet rank 50th in life-expectancy. We can't continue to remain the only industrialized nation in the world without universal access to healthcare. We can't continue to keep our fellow citizens sick and/or bankrupt. We can't continue to be inhumane.
Kaiser Family Foundation Report on Medicaid and the Uninsured - chilling statistics
So what to do? Contact your congresscritters and Senators and make sure that they know you're in favor of a public option (preferably Chuck Schumer's approach, which does not have a "trigger" to kill the public option altogether). They are getting a LOT more noise against the public option than they are in favor of it, mostly because the talking heads on Faux News and conservative radio are soooo scared of this, they are riling up their base. We need to be just as loud.
Thank you.