- Millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured because of rising medical costs: 47 million Americans — including nearly 9 million children — lack health insurance with no signs of this trend slowing down.
- Health care costs are skyrocketing: Health insurance premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages over the past 6 years.
- Too little is spent on prevention and public health: The nation faces epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases as well as new threats of pandemic flu and bioterrorism. Yet despite all of this less than 4 cents of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Health Care
According to Barack Obama the following points summarize the problem with America's health care system. Do you agree? What are the solutions?
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9 comments:
Prevention is the largest issue in our health care crisis.
One of the major lacking components of our prevention safeguards is that in diet and exercise.
National government sponsored nutrition systems and programs should be in place.
In addition, the development of new health care policies should include exemptions from litigation for health costs, (Not to apply to punitive damages on negligence)
That would help limit the rising cost of insurance in the economic and small business sectors, as well as unburden many of the factors of our current courty system.
I am a firm believer that the only change that will serve a purpose is radical change. Universal health care should be our goal. We need to create study committees and legislative action committees to get the wheels moving towards this goal. Look at France, the UK, and Canada as examples. The government should become the sole client of the pharmaceutical industry and the medical community. We will then be able to "adjust" prices/costs to a reasonable level, and provide outstanding health care for all. The stockholders will hold on, because they will be assured a fair return, as the doctors will be assured a fair income. This should also work for medical apparatus, home health care, etc. How much longer must we have people who die prematurely, and live lives of diminished quality because of poor health. Healthy people work well, study well, and make a nation strong. We would all benefit. We must start now, and be content with nothing less than the best health care for all.
I neglected to add in my previous comment how all this might be paid for. First, prices would be controlled, fairly, by the governemnt, to the point that people wouldn't buy from out of country. Ending our war in Iraq, and limiting the scale of the conflict in Afghanistan would keep money home. Medical fraud, as is experienced with Medicare currently, would be halted, with greater, efficient oversight. Cheaters in any medical profession would lose their right to practice/sell if found guilty of fraud/overcharge. Our taxes would help a great deal, helping our country instead of financing foreign incursions. It is time for us to clean up our act at home. Now! The only real change is radical change.
The Democratic Party should address retroactive immunity for Americans who are currently overwhelmed by medical bills.
I believe that a national health care catastrophe fund & administration should be set up to handle outstanding medical bills for Americans with health insurance.
Price gouging, outstanding medical bills, gaps in coverage, and denied claims must be revisited, negotiated, and resolved in a fair manner. No American should have to choose between a roof over their head and quality, affordable, medical treatment.
Regarding Health Care:
No American should be without access to quality health care to prevent illness and when illness strikes.
Over 40 million Americans have no insurance and limited, if any access to health care services. This is a shameful situation for the most robust economies on the planet. Insurance companies are not running efficiently but manage and meddle in our access to health care. Massachusetts has a universal health care plan in place. It has some problems, but should be used as a model. No one should fall through the cracks.
A single payer approach that eliminates micromanaging and marketing expenditures should be seriously considered. The insurance companies are making profit on the backs of the sick.
Make healthcare affordable and make the information easily accessible to everyone. My grandparents, both of whom have had cancer, have no health insurance after they were scammed into a fake policy. This is one of the things that scares me the most. I want them, and everyone else who needs it, to be able to get medical attention and afford it.
People need to be better educated about prevention and work to stay healthy.
Kucinich-Conyers Bill that would expand Medicare for everyone. The only plan I've heard so far I would be in favor of. Forget this crap about forcing people to buy insurance that they already cannot afford.
I feel universal health care is the best way to go! Medical corporations and lobbyists have too much control over our health needs and health care. I would like Barack Obama's plan to include more people, if possible.
At a time when many companies, in order to maintain their profit margin, are establishing their businesses overseas, there are other companies that are laying off their employees, then hiring them, and others, as contract employees. These contract employees do the same work, yet get no benefits, specifically insurance. A universal healthcare plan would make this unnecessary.
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