Our healthcare dystopia or how I fell through the cracks.
Here I go... about to be pushed off a cliff, (or to fall through the cracks). I'm about to forgo the safety net of health care insurance due to a pre-existing medical condition that has made obtaining a affordable version impossible. More on that later.
First let's get some facts
on the table.
Our multi-payer privatized health care insurance 'system' wasn't designed to provide coverage for all of us. In fact, it wasn't 'designed' at all.
The US is the only major
wealthy developed country without a public health insurance program for all of its citizens.
The lack of a national health care system is the domestic economic factor with the largest negative impact on our national budget and one of the few portions of that budget that can be modified to produce significant budgetary savings. Designing a new health care system, passing the necessary legislation, and implementing such a system won't be straightforward, but the cost of delay will far outweigh the effort spent accomplishing these goals.
Our health care costs in 2005
accounted for 15.3 % of our GDP. In Canada it's 9.8 , Britain 8.3 , Japan 8.0 , Germany 10.7 . Switzerland comes closest to the US with health care costs comprising 11.6% of its GDP. Frontline, a PBS investigative journal compares the costs and services of the health care system of the US unfavorably with five other major capitalist democracies here.
The rate at which our
healthcare expenditures are increasing is greater than any other OECD country. At the current rate of growth, healthcare will eat up 20% of our GDP by 2016.
We must enjoy some benefits for
all that extra money, yes? Actually, no, we don't. We do however have higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy to name two things. You can go here if you think that the extra 5+% we pay for health care isn't significant. If you still aren't impressed, you probably work in the insurance or pharmaceutical industries and can go here*.
*Note: Italicized links in this post are to
humorous and/or musical sites, therefore ignore, or open in separate
window as you may be so inclined.
Authorizing a universal single payer health care system would be good for stimulating job growth and the economy in general. The cost of employee health benefits is as out of control as the nations. By reducing the costs of the system and direct costs to employers, there is less of a downside for businesses expanding or maintaining their work force.
One of the most important steps we can take as a nation is to initiate a single payer health care system. Part of the difference between our healthcare costs and those other countries is what the private insurance companies would call profit. A single payer national healthcare system is not run with the object of making a profit. Such a system is managed in order to control the overall costs of medical care for the national population.
