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In My Opinion |
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| 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! |