DYING FOR HEALTH CARE
REFORM
By Robert Mauro
Each year nearly 45,000 Americans die because they don’t
have health insurance to cover the medical treatments they
desperately need to stay alive. That’s 122 deaths a day! By
the time you’re finished reading this article, someone will have
died because they, too, lost or could not afford health
insurance. And that is not right! Frankly, in my opinion, it’s
un-American!
Sadly, in our world, the United States ranks 37th in health
care. We’re the only industrialized nation on this planet with
no universal health care system. France , with the world’s best
universal health care system, even provides doctors who make
free house calls. Practically no doctors are making house calls
in our country, not at least since the 1950s -- and never for
free! I remember my family doctor back in 1955 charged $5 for a
house call. If you went to his office, it was just $4. Those
days are long gone! Today health care is very expensive and so
is private health insurance.
What is health care in the U.S. like in the 21st century?
Well, the health care is excellent – if you can afford it. The
problem is the skyrocketing cost of doctors, drugs, hospitals
and health insurance. Private health insurance for a married
couple can average nearly $600 to a $1000 a month -- and there
is no guarantee that that couple will be covered if they
actually become ill. One out of every five Americans is denied
by their health care insurance provider coverage for care,
medications and medical procedures prescribed by their doctors.
Other Americans are dropped after years of paying the costly
premiums on their private health insurance when they become
seriously ill or lose their job. Then, if they have a
pre-existing condition, they cannot obtain any other private
health insurance. They are left to go to emergency rooms and
beg for care. And there are 45 million uninsured Americans like
that today! And over 14,000 more every single day!
Today some political conservatives are saying there should
be no government public option. Those who are saying that talk
about a “government takeover of health care.” Yet these same
people love Medicare, Medicaid and the VA health care system.
All of those, by the way, are government-run health care
systems. Moreover 75% or doctors and 68% of Americans
desperately want a public option. They know such a public
option would provide competition for the private, monopolistic
health insurance companies. Moreover, such a public option
would drive health insurance costs down and give all Americans a
truly affordable health insurance option. Of course, the
conservatives and the health insurance industry lobbyists are
terrifying the public by shouting things like “socialism” and
“communism,” not to mention the “death panels” and “government
bureaucrats deciding on what care you receive.” Um…you prefer
insurance company bureaucrats deciding on your care?
These are the very same scare tactics lobbyists and
conservatives used about Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid. But where would our poor, our elderly, our disabled,
our tempest tossed be today without those government programs?
America is the greatest country in the world. But when it
comes to health care, infant mortality and lifespan, Canada,
France, England and even Cuba are leagues ahead of us. Congress
should be ashamed! America should be ashamed! America and
Congress must act today to reform our health care system and
provide a public option. For we Americans are literally dying
for health care reform!
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