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TechnoratiThe Brutal Truth About America’s Healthcare
They came in their thousands, queuing through the night to secure one of the coveted wristbands offering entry into a strange parallel universe where medical care is a free and basic right and not an expensive luxury. Some of these Americans had walked miles simply to have their blood pressure checked, some had slept in their cars in the hope of getting an eye-test or a mammogram, others had brought their children for immunizations that could end up saving their life.
![[The LA Forum in Inglewood, California, hosted dental and medical examinations, for thousands of people thanks to the charity Remote Area Medical. (AFP/Getty)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/laforum.jpg "laforum.jpg")
In the week that Britain's National Health Service was held aloft by
Republicans as an "evil and Orwellian" example of everything that
is wrong with free healthcare, these extraordinary scenes in Inglewood,
California yesterday provided a sobering reminder of exactly why President
Barack Obama is trying to reform the US system.
The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed - for eight days only - into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted.
In the first two days, more than 1,500 men, women and children received free treatments worth $503,000 (£304,000). Thirty dentists pulled 471 teeth; 320 people were given standard issue spectacles; 80 had mammograms; dozens more had acupuncture, or saw kidney specialists. By the time the makeshift medical centre leaves town on Tuesday, staff expect to have dispensed $2m worth of treatments to 10,000 patients.
The gritty district of Inglewood lies just a few miles from the palm-lined streets of Beverly Hills and the bright lights of Hollywood, but is a world away. And the residents who had flocked for the free medical care, courtesy of mobile charity Remote Area Medical, bore testament to the human cost of the healthcare mess that President Obama is attempting to fix.
Christine Smith arrived at 3am in the hope of seeing a dentist for the first time since she turned 18. That was almost eight years ago. Her need is obvious and pressing: 17 of her teeth are rotten; some have large visible holes in them. She is living in constant pain and has been unable to eat solid food for several years.
"I had a gastric bypass in 2002, but it went wrong, and stomach acid began rotting my teeth. I've had several jobs since, but none with medical insurance, so I've not been able to see a dentist to get it fixed," she told The Independent. "I've not been able to chew food for as long as I can remember. I've been living on soup, and noodles, and blending meals in a food mixer. I'm in constant pain. Normally, it would cost $5,000 to fix it. So if I have to wait a week to get treated for free, I'll do it. This will change my life."
Along the hall, Liz Cruise was one of scores of people waiting for a free eye exam. She works for a major supermarket chain but can't afford the $200 a month that would be deducted from her salary for insurance. "It's a simple choice: pay my rent, or pay my healthcare. What am I supposed to do?" she asked. "I'm one of the working poor: people who do work but can't afford healthcare and are ineligible for any free healthcare or assistance. I can't remember the last time I saw a doctor."
Although the Americans spend more on medicine than any nation on earth, there are an estimated 50 million with no health insurance at all. Many of those who have jobs can't afford coverage, and even those with standard policies often find it doesn't cover commonplace procedures. California's unemployed - who rely on Medicaid - had their dental care axed last month.
Julie Shay was one of the many, waiting to slide into a dentist's chair where teeth were being drilled in full view of passers-by. For years, she has been crossing over the Mexican border to get her teeth done on the cheap in Tijuana. But recently, the US started requiring citizens returning home from Mexico to produce a passport (previously all you needed was a driver's license), and so that route is now closed. Today she has two abscesses and is in so much pain she can barely sleep. "I don't have a passport, and I can't afford one. So my husband and I slept in the car to make sure we got seen by a dentist. It sounds pathetic, but I really am that desperate."
"You'd think, with the money in this country, that we'd be able to look after people's health properly," she said. "But the truth is that the rich, and the insurance firms, just don't realise what we are going through, or simply don't care. Look around this room and tell me that America's healthcare don't need fixing."
President Obama's healthcare plans had been a central plank of his first-term program, but his reform package has taken a battering at the hands of Republican opponents in recent weeks. As the Democrats have failed to coalesce around a single, straightforward proposal, their rivals have seized on public hesitancy over "socialized medicine" and now the chance of far-reaching reform is in doubt.
Most damaging of all has been the tide of vociferous right-wing opponents whipping up skepticism at town hall meetings that were supposed to soothe doubts. In Pennsylvania this week, Senator Arlen Specter was greeted by a crowd of 1,000 at a venue designed to accommodate only 250, and of the 30 selected speakers at the event, almost all were hostile.
The packed bleachers in the LA Forum tell a different story. The mobile clinic has been organized by the remarkable Remote Area Medical. The charity usually focuses on the rural poor, although they worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Now they are moving into more urban venues, this week's event in Los Angeles is believed to be the largest free healthcare operation in the country.
Doctors, dentists and therapists volunteer their time, and resources to the organization. To many US medical professionals, it offers a rare opportunity to plug into the public service ethos on which their trade was supposedly founded. "People come here who haven't seen a doctor for years. And we're able to say 'Hey, you have this, you have this, you have this'," said Dr Vincent Anthony, a kidney specialist volunteering five days of his team's time. "It's hard work, but incredibly rewarding. Healthcare needs reform, obviously. There are so many people falling through the cracks, who don't get care. That's why so many are here."
Ironically, given this week's transatlantic spat over the NHS, Remote Area Medical was founded by an Englishman: Stan Brock. The 72-year-old former public schoolboy, Taekwondo black belt, and one-time presenter of Wild Kingdom, one of America's most popular animal TV shows, left the celebrity gravy train in 1985 to, as he puts it, "make people better".
Today, Brock has no money, no income, and no bank account. He spends 365 days a year at the charity events, sleeping on a small rolled-up mat on the floor and living on a diet made up entirely of porridge and fresh fruit. In some quarters, he has been described, without too much exaggeration, as a living saint.
Though anxious not to interfere in the potent healthcare debate, Mr Brock said yesterday that he, and many other professionals, believes the NHS should provide a benchmark for the future of US healthcare.
"Back in 1944, the UK government knew there was a serious problem with lack of healthcare for 49.7 million British citizens, of which I was one, so they said 'Hey Mr Nye Bevan, you're the Minister for Health... go fix it'. And so came the NHS. Well, fast forward now 66 years, and we've got about the same number of people, about 49 million people, here in the US, who don't have access to healthcare."
"I've been very conservative in my outlook for the whole of my life. I've been described as being about 90,000 miles to the right of Attila the Hun. But I think one reaches the reality that something doesn't work... In this country something has to be done. And as a proud member of the US community but a loyal British subject to the core, I would say that if Britain could fix it in 1944, surely we could fix it here in America.
Healthcare compared
Health spending as a share of GDP
US 16%
UK 8.4%
Public spending on healthcare (% of total spending on healthcare)
US 45%
UK 82%
Health spending per head
US $7,290
UK $2,992
Practising physicians (per 1,000 people)
US 2.4
UK 2.5
Nurses (per 1,000 people)
US 10.6
UK 10.0
Acute care hospital beds (per 1,000 people)
US 2.7
UK 2.6
Life expectancy:
US 78
UK 80
Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births)
US 6.7
UK 4.8
Source: WHO/OECD Health Data 2009
104 Comments so far
Show AllWhen I first saw that photo I thought it was a prison dining room.
No Bill of Rights, no health care, one in every 32 Americans in the penal system (7.2 million).
2.3 million in prison at a cost of $30,000 per year per inmate.
Somebody is making a lot of money keeping people in cages, sending them to war, charging them for and then denying them health care, working them into an early grave for minimum wage, getting REALLY tough on crime, and blaming the whole mess on destitute immigrants and welfare queens.
Crime is skyrocketing because people are too poor to buy anything. And the solution is to go shopping?
This government has outlived it's usefulness. It is no longer a servant but a parasite.
I need government to protect me? Who is trying to do me more harm than they are now?
We have insurance but only for the healthy
We have hospitals but only for those who have insurance
So insurance takes our money so it can buy legislators who will vote to keep the system as is. Exactly how do we benefit when the insurance and hospitals make money?
That photo is the future of health care in the richest country on earth.
Bombs and bullets anyone? Time to watch the next rocket take some guys for a ride? Time to fire more teachers? You can catch it all on network news.
wow, this is a stark reminder of the reality of our health care system, or lack thereof
makes this country look like a banana republic. remember the good old days when we used to send these kind of mobile medical units to africa. now they are a staple at home
we have sunk way down folks
as far as the true employment picture goes - we see thousands and thousands of people applying for eight or ten jobs
the employment situation is as ruined as the healthcare situation
welcome to the united states
email from my brother, an icu nurse, this morning:
OK, riddle me this. I have something like the flu. One person in the ICU has died from swine flu. I call my MD on a Saturday. He says to get Tamiflu and he'll send a prescription order right away. I have to wait until Monday for a simple throat swab, even though the lab that runs them is open 24-7. Why wait an extra 2 days for a definitive diagnosis? For insurance billing reasons. Thanks corporate Healthcare.
I could write volumes on what I've personally been through with 'health care' issues this summer due to a fractured foot and no insurance.... tho having HAD insurance, I've observed that BOTH insured and uninsured avenues to healing have their unbelievably messed up aspects. Being immobilized for months brings alot of cultural realities to the fore....makes hyperindividualism pretty dang impossible, that's for sure. Maybe the poor have an evolutionary advantage after all.... it's about time we all embark -if nothing else, just out of curiosity- on the NON-monetized/corporatized sustainability learning curve, no?
I have never understood why Americans aren't covered by some sort of universal health care....don't you call yourselves the world's biggest and RICHEST democracy ?
Or do you all prefer to pay(or not) some insurance company so they can administer (or not) YOUR health benefits, while adding to the wealth of a select group of individuals ?
Rise up, people !!
hazel ostrander August 16th, 2009 11:15 am
"I have never understood why Americans aren't covered by some sort of universal health care....don't you call yourselves the world's biggest and RICHEST democracy?"
Hazel:
What we call ourselves and what most people want to belive is based on illusion and fraud.
"The American people’s ignorance, stupidity, and disinterest in the governance of this nation have allowed an oligopoly of politicians, bankers, and powerful corporations to seize control of the country and loot its riches for their personal gain."
This is why we score so low in health care in the U.S.. It's all about the welfare of the oligopoly, not the people.
Most in the US are so dumb they think it is a democracy. It is a republic, with some democratic characteristics. There are some small towns in New England that are run as democracies, where the legislature is all of the electorate that takes the time to show up when it is in session.
I have never understood why Americans aren't covered by some sort of universal health care....don't you call yourselves the world's biggest and RICHEST democracy ?
Or do you all prefer to pay(or not) some insurance company so they can administer (or not) YOUR health benefits, while adding to the wealth of a select group of individuals ?
Rise up, people !!
More brutal truth:
WASHINGTON - Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama's health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul.
I have repeatedly called President Obama a coward. Here is an other example. He lets a cabinet member make the statement on Sunday! I retch.
And look how easy it was to get to this point.
Pay/persuade/get a few hundred people to yell at congressional town hall meetings (at government run health care, but leave my Medicare alone).
Repeat the phony outrage on mass media broadcast and cable TV (that never gave proponents of single payer or even a government insurance any air time).
Have a handful of politicians state that a government plan is not politically doable.
And the American masses (millions and millions who want Medicare for all) fall in line. Truly a disgusting perversion of democracy and American political discourse.
My advise. Don't buy it. Don't accept that the few can control the many. Don't settle for anything less than government health insurance, universally available!
Keep advocating for single payer.
The brutal truth is that health care will go belly-up owing to the exponential increase of obesity. It is not bloated cost that will undermine the "system" but bloated people will.
Life expectancy: 77 years
Physicians per 1000 people: 6.5
Public spending on healthcare (% of total spending on healthcare): 100%
Mortality rate for every 1000 live births: 5.3
Number of new physicians graduating each year (1990s): 38,000, Today: 70,000 being educated.
Number of physicians serving in 75 countries helping the poor: 17,697
Cost to student doctor for education: free compared to $140,000 in the US
Number of foreign students getting a free education: 24,000
Just some info taken from an article titled "Cuba's Revolutionary Doctors" by Steve Brouwer, published in Monthly Review, January 2009 (Vol. 60 No. 8). Read it online:
http://monthlyreview.org/090112brouwer.php
Yes, all this from a Third World Country that has been constantly harassed and attacked by the U.S.A. since it broke with the global capitalist system and established socialism.
Here we go again...
Some think there is life after death, some think there virgins after death. And then there's some that think Cuba is this healthcare paradise.
Obviously you didn't read the article that I linked to. No one is suggesting anything to do with "paradise". This poor country, under continuous assault from the world's only super power, has managed to provide a healthcare system that works for its people and goes beyond that to work for other poor people around the globe, because of its socialist organization and principles. This is much more than can be said for the "paradise" that exists in the world's wealthiest nation that continues to allow tens of millions of its citizens no health coverage, let alone free coverage for all.
The point is not that Cuba is a healthcare paradise; it is not that. It is that, in country much poorer than the US, their system is about as good in some ways, and in other ways better. Also, Cuba was hit as hard or harder than the US by hurricane Katrina, and they didn't lose anybody.
The people in the US responsible for legislating this mess vilify Castro, who achieves better results with far fewer resources. Yes, he is a dictator with many in prison to preserve his power. The US system of government is actually worse, because nobody in government looks out for the people, and there are many in prison to preserve the system in power.
US elites are more corrupt, and their followers more ignorant, than one might think. Not only do they fail the ethics test, they can't even do capitalism right. The current doubling of healthcare expenditures in the US relative to other countries amounts to illegal collusion, "big time". We are now far beyond the era when US elites could claim that their enterprises were competitive. Today, they are massively anti-competitive. If they can't to their beloved capitalism right, they can't do anything right. US elites are floundering so badly today, I don't know how they are going to survive.
Here is a listing of the top 10 Healthcare Company CEO’s along with their yearly/weekly compensation. The total comes to A WHOPPING $85,429,879.00.
This means that before any of us sees a doctor and receives even one minute worth of healthcare, we pay out over eighty-five million dollars each year to these overpaid “gatekeepers” whose ONLY function is to enrich themselves on the backs of hard-working individuals like you and me. Not a SINGLE PENNY of this money paid in salaries goes to the necessary healing of the individuals who are “the insured.”
Can you imagine what a tremendous benefit it would be to have a PUBLIC NON-PROFIT OPTION for healthcare, the purpose of which would be to provide the maximum in healthcare for the minimum of expense. Think of how many individuals could receive healthcare for the $85 million dollars we are paying out now and for which we get nothing more than an “OK” to see a healthcare professional.
1. Ron Williams, Aetna Ins. Co.
Yearly: $24,300,112.00
Weekly: $467,309.85
2. H. Edward Hanway, CIGNA
Yearly: $12,236,740.00
Weekly: $235,321.93
3. Angela Braly, WellPoint Ins. Co.
Yearly: $9,844,121.00
Weekly: $189,310.02
4. Dale Wolf, Coventry Health Care
Yearly: $9,047,469.00
Weekly: $173,989.79
5. Michael Neidorff – Centene Insurance Co.
Yearly: $8,774,483.00
Weekly: $168,740.05
6. James Carlson, AMERIGROUP
Yearly: $5,292,546.00
Weekly: $101,779.73
7. Michael McAllister – Humana Healthcare
Yearly: $4,764,309.00
Weekly: $91,621.33
8. Jay Gellert – Health Net
Yearly: $4,425,355.00
Weekly $85,102.98
9: Richard Barasch – Universal American
Yearly: $3,503,702.00
Weekly: $67,378.88
10. Stephen Hemsley – United Health Group
Yearly: $3,241,042.00
Weekly: $62,327.73
This is what happens when capitalistic elitism runs rampant with the help of the Congress it BRIBES with its never ending stream of money called by the innocuous name of "lobbying."
Information for this posting can be found on the website: http://crooksandliars.com/
The courts sue parents for not taking their children in for treatment, when they're sure prayers will cure, yet they leave the working poor with only prayers. Where are the churches on this matter?
The churches are too busy trying to deny woman abortions and then refusing to support health care for them and their uninsured children. They are too busy encouraging their flocks to vote for warmongers and capital punishers rather than denouncing the culture of death those killers espouse. They are too busy trying to deny gay rights rather than supporting human rights. They are too busy covering up their own crimes to deal with those of our leaders. They are too busy demonizing others rather than confronting their own demons. They are too busy fleecing their flocks and protecting their own tax havens to care about the homeless and starving in their backyard. THAT is where the churches are. Organized religion is the root of all evil, and needs to be expunged from rational society.
The Independent/UK sez: "An extraordinary report from Guy Adams in Los Angeles at the music arena that has been turned into a makeshift medical center"
***
'Extraordinary' only to the non-U.S. readership it was intended for.
Excellent article.
The health care people and organizers who are doing these free clinics ought to be rewarded by any and all who understand the concept of honor.
Gifting economy -give each other what we need and kill capitalism.
BTW: I spend as much on Medicare as on private health insurance and am not getting anything for it. I would gladly double the Medicare premium to participate.
How's this: Opt-Out Single Payer. Don't want it? Don't pay into it (line item tax return neccesary), but don't come crawling when you get dropped like a sick potato from your private plan. (Opt-Out War taxation next, but that's another thread).
What a super idea--choose where your tax money goes!
How can we spread this around?
Choosing where your tax money goes exists already, it is known as democratic elections..that's what you decide when you vote for a certain candidate, after all.
What this is is 'doctors without borders' working in america, home of the privatized sociopathic investors who have been turned on to a piece of every pie that involves anything but a society that functions for everybody and it is getting worse with allowing those charlatans to keep making the rules and dictating procedure.
But, thanks 'doctors without borders' for giving what you give the rest of the world but the 'elite' in america wants so adamantly to deny the people of america, elite banana republic.
This is just what the Republicans and the Religious Reich ordered for us.
To suffer and die in poverty. What a country! Why do we stay?
We are the third world when it comes to health care. I have insurance, but am loathe to go to the doctor unless I am acutely ill, or fear I have a deadly disease. Why? The co-pays.
I saw this event reported and many of those attending were also like me -- insured, but not for, say, dental, or vision. Can't afford that kind of treatment because it isn't covered by insurance, period. People are scraping by in a state of anxiety that they might get sick, and if they do, they have to worry if insurance will deign to pay the bills. Get sick, miss work. Miss work, lose job. Lose job, lose insurance. It's a terrible cycle.
'state of anxiety'................
and that's what is killing us all.............anxiety and fear.
add that to the 'ego' of humans and what do you get?.............
"America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system."
Walter Cronkite
I never expected anything else. Kudos to the guy who organised it.
Where the Obama administration missed a golden opportunity, was at the outbreak of swine flu.
Since many Americans - due to a lack of health insurance - were likely to spread it before any physician got near them, Obama should have said: "When you detect any of the symptoms, see a doctor immediately. If you have no health insurance, WE will take care of it. Let him/her just send his/her invoice to us."
That would have been a pro-active step in the right direction - instead of waiting for the support of insurance companies and their lackeys around the country to get used to the idea of universal health coverage, also sponsered by the government.
Compared to the amounts donated to the banking sector, it would have been peanuts.
It is heartbreaking to know people (as I do) in the US who would be in need of medical attention and can't afford it. Or knowing people who can't wait to get old enough to be eligible for medicare. A disgrace for a nation as wealthy as the US of A.
But, the 200$ quoted for a monthly health insurance doesn't sound like a lot. If you earn enough to pay it, that is. Which is the next problem.
And dental care, as mentioned in the article, is a problem also here in Europe. It's often only covered insufficiently, so we also tend to end up in American-type situations on that front.
But returning to the 200$: One doesn't have collective bargaining in every industry for wages every year in America, because labour unions are considered evil and nobody joins them...and Reagan is still considered a hero by most people.
When I think of it all, I am beginning to wonder whether I should actually feel any pity. Americans get what they seem to want and what the majority is voting for all the time.
After all, we haven't seen any nationwide mega demos in favour of universal health insurance, right?? If millions took to the streets in mounting numbers every week in the US to demand it, that would make a huge difference!!
so
we spend far more government dollars right now with our "private" health system PER PERSON than england
yet we still have millions without coverage, denial of preexisting conditions, discontinuation of coverage when we attempt to use it and people losing their entire life savings, losing their homes and becoming destitute due to lack of health coverage
even though we already spend about 3300 per person from GOVERNMENT SPENDING..........RIGHT NOW! before paying out of pocket and before paying for our health insurance
and it costs the English 2900 per person RIGHT NOW to give universal coverage!!!!!!!!!!!
If temporary free clinics like the one in L.A, were opened in the 10 largest US metro areas in an upcoming given week, let's say, it's a cinch that millions of desperate people would turn out.
The national media couldn't ignore a spectacle like this, and the resulting publicity would take a huge amount of wind from the sails of Republican opponents and Go Slow phony reformers.
How hard could it be for pro Single Payer people or just Public Option advocates around the country to do something like this? Some of us independent Greens in Denver are already organizing to do an L.A. clinic here, and the response from medical professionals in our area has so far been very positive. I think we are going to make it happen.
I hear that there is some likewise organizing in Boston and Minneapolis.
But for it to really be effective, something like this needs to be nationally co-ordinated and timed to overwhelm the national news, smack in the middle of the debate that's going on.
We've got our hands full in Denver trying to organize this, but it makes me wonder why any number of nationally recognized progressive institutions like the Nation magazine or Ralph Nader's core organizations, or the Green's national officers don't pro actively take the reigns of organizing a coordinated nation wide spectacle.
A few national Green oficials I talked to said only "we're thinking about it."
Not to mention that even if they're only for a demonstration week, free public clinics like this would also help a lot of people in immediate need, whatever the bigger outcome.
One could also have demanded it via huge demonstrations around the nation instead of waiting for the spectacle of queues at venues like the one in LA, RIGHT???
My Mother, 92, my sister 55, and I 68 all need dental care. We all have health insurance but none of us have dental insurance. My mother is on Medicare and Blue Cross and I'm on Medicare. We all are used to taking pain pills when we have a bout of pain. These pills upset our digestive systems and constipate us.
I took my mother to a dentist three years ago and he wanted $8000 for root canals. My sister just gave $5000 to an 'oral surgeon'. She has a $10 an hour job.
I look at the circus the Health Insurance Industry is financing against Obama's second rate Health Reform with amazement. The battle SHOULD be between Obama's compromised proposals and single payer. I'm looking into moving to a country that can give us affordable health care. We are of an age when we can't afford to live in the United States.
A single payer health system should have been the main priority of Obama's administration Then he could have taken on the Wall Street crises, perhaps without throwing billions at it with no accountability. The 'Cash for Clunkers' program is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. How does trading in old clunkers for new ones improve anything? I could see it if the new cars were non-gas. Obama had a mandate for the kind of changes listed above, to name the most important. So far, he's failed in every one.
Had Obama taken the opportunity to dismantle the culture of Wall Street after it destroyed itself and the world economy, re-institute some regulation to prevent the robber barons from doing it all over again, and re-establish a banking system that protected the American citizen and not the corporate personage, THEN maybe he could have laid down the same kind of laws for the insurance, pharmaceutical, and "health" industries. Unfortunately all of his financial "fixers" are also products of the old Wall Street elite, and thus were "fixers" in more than one sense. Rahm Emanuel had it right when he said "You never want a serious crises to go to waste." Obama either didn't have Emanuel's fire and vision, or what Rahm meant was this is a chance for our administration to pocket a few more millions. But the opportunity presented by the crisis, for the American people at least, was wasted. Stuck within the same rigged financial system, all our rights, including healthcare, are compromised.
Single-payer was never going to be Obama's plan. I had hoped for something at least worthy of the name "reform", but tweaking the current big insurance/big pharma/big health plan is a lame joke not worth fighting for.
For what it's worth, apparently only a very small percentage of Americans can afford dental (and optical) care. For some reason, big insurance/big pharma/big health have decided that teeth and eyes are not part of the human body and thus don't cover their treatment. This is a way in which we are virtually all denied care because we have the pre-existing conditions of teeth and eyes.
'Cash for Clunkers' program is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. How does trading in old clunkers for new ones improve anything? I could see it if the new cars were non-gas.
Better fuel efficiency will decrease the amount of gasoline used. Non gas cars don't exist yet in any significant numbers. If we went back to horses, there probably aren't enough of them for everybody.
"Better fuel efficiency will decrease the amount of gasoline used."
This may be true of any individual exchange - unless the person trades in an old Honda Civic for a shiny new Chevy Suburban.
But the entire program will encourage the purchase of more cars. This will stimulate neighbors to buy cars as well in order to "keep up."
And the purchase of a new car will prolong the consumption of gasoline and car infrastructure for each buyer.
This program is pure pork for the auto and oil industries, in the same way that the current health "plan" in the United States exists primarily to enrich insurance corporations.
We live in the dark ages of medical care. The incompetence and greed are comparable to the middle ages. I for one am leaving this toilet to those that don't think.
I got a big family to look after, but I would like to join you.
I got a big family to look after, but I would like to join you.
i should have asked this question a long time ago when all this hoohah first started............
now as it's reaching 'fever' pitch levels with 'name calling' across the atlantic and articles such as this, i would be obliged if someone could enlighten me as to the meaning of the term 'single payer'............
as a british subject who has not lived in the kingdom for the past 26 years i really have no idea about the workings of the british nhs (or the american equivalent).........
health insurance? what's that? ..................
I prefer to keep 'single payer' separated from 'universal', in the healthcare debate. You can have universal private insurance, for example. Simply mandate that everyone purchase insurance from one of several private plans. Single payer, as I understand it, makes the insurer more like a public utility. It works by mandating that each insured commit to ONE insurer throughout their lives, with no future choice to move to another plan. While this decreases choice, it also reduces risk for both insurer and insured. The insured HAS to pay the insurer a premium, and the insurer HAS to pay the insured a claim should one be made. They have no way to weasel out of it, which drives up the cost of the insurance. And because the insurer enjoys a 'monopoly' position with the insured, his business is run like a public utility, with strict gov't oversight about how much profit he can make. This also lowers the cost of the premiums, since administrative costs are lower. Finally, the insurer isn't hiring a ton of lawyers, etc, to find clever ways to get out of paying claims. Due to his lower risk and mandated lower profit, he has a healthplan that hides nothing. If Obama would just allow many of us to choose a single payer plan, many would choose it and could quit worrying about whether they are covered or not. But it is not, necessarily 'universal' healthcare. It is often conflated with universal healthcare because countries that choose to insure all their citizens find that the cheapest way to do that is by single payer-type plans.
ubrew, single payer, as defined by the California Nurses Association and HR 676 is private choice (you choose your health care provider) and public pay (the government sets the fees doctors and hospitals can charge based on standard rates). The provider bills the government which is the single payer. HR 676 collects a 3.5% income tax from 95% of taxpayers with no premiums, deductibles, or copays and covers all medical expenses including dental and prescription. As with Medicare, the government does not interfere with treatment decisions, unlike the insurance industry. It removes the insurance industry and it's obscene profits from health care delivery, reducing health care costs by 1/3 and covering everyone in the US. It also ends denial of treatment, which the current bills under consideration are not addressing. Basically it is an improved, expanded and fully funded "Medicare for All" plan.
You might try reading HR 676. You also might watch SiCKO for a better understanding why the insurance industry needs to be removed from our health care delivery system. The CEOs of the four largest insurance companies all stated in committee hearings they refused to end rescinding (denying) claims. They also said the $80 billion savings over ten years would be "up to" $80 billion (Obama left that part out when he was trumpeting their "concessions"), based on assumed skyrocketing cost increases which we will get no matter what. If we don't stop them they will bankrupt the country.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
I believe the $80 billion in savings was promised by the drug companies, not the insurance companies (maybe insurance said it, too). It is their attempt to have us look the other way at their own pillage of the American economy, using tax breaks and tax money to do their research and then gouging the taxpayer to benefit from the fruits of their "humanitarian" efforts.
Relative to the British NHS, the key to understanding "single payer" is the fact that it does NOT "nationalise" the health care system itself. Doctors and others who actually deliver health care services continue to be free and independent agents. Only the system whereby the required revenues are collected and paid out is moved from multiple for-profit insurance corporations to some governmental "single payer" agency.
There are, of course, all kinds of related issues about equitable treatment and exclusions, "socialised" taxation versus the "capitalist markeplace", employer-employee tie-ins and impacts on the labour force, etc., etc. But that's the gist of it. Hope that helps.
thanks for your reply rv, but i'm still at a loss................
i'm either too thick, or too healthy....................
Well, don't feel too badly. You're cerainly not alone. In fact, there are plenty of Americans who also find the whole issue quite baffling, especially the "explanations" provided by various political sources and their media outlets.
Don't get too hung up on the terminology itself. Most of it used for discussion purposes, including "single payer", has no officially or legally defined meaning and may even vary from one usage to the next.
If you'll identify any particularly troubling aspect, I'll try my best to clarify with no guarantee that my own understanding is gap-free either. :0
i think i've got it now.................thank you.
To the American Public:
I owe my great fortune to the many people who work for me, to the public that buys the products they build and to the interest my money accrues. Like my father, I have felt that fortunes like mine are obscenities in the light of the global economic disaster caused by a culture of greed, fostered by a system of inequality where those with the most wealth acquire the most power by virtue of compounding interest alone.
The oligarchy to which I belong, perpetuates itself through a system of legalized political bribery. One that has set up a system of apologists, or "useful idiots", to rationalize our existence as job providers and give us an aura of benevolent philantropy that enables us to live with ourselves, convincing even us Masters of the Universe that we are society's benefactors and "angels".
As redress for my role in this economic disaster, I will pledge 20 billion dollars to start a Single Payer health care system to cover all Americans. Another 5 billion will go to organizations that foster world peace, green energy and ecological living. And another 5 billion to donate computers to all countries starting with the poorest, to get their people online where they can communicate globally and educate themselves and the rest of the world.
Technology will soon enable Americans to have true self-government. The ideal of direct democracy as expressed in our Bill of Rights.
Yours faithfully,
Bill Gates Jr.
My Gawd, the ghost of Andrew Carnegie!
by 'benevolent philanthropy' are you referring to the millions of your dollars invested in the 'svalbard global seed vault'????.............
(as part of your benevolence of course)..........(or that of your father's per se)
btw, can i go and get some seeds please?
Thank you, very much.
that's the best laugh i've had in ages pioagape................
thank you, very much.
And you, My Dear, are obviously one of the millions of functional idiots that have perpetuated the mess we are in today. I hope you get your seeds. May I ask if they are for high quality marijuana?
Cheers.
oooooooooooooh, i thought you were making a joke............
sorry...............
you My Dear. are obviously one of the millions of 'dis' functional idiots that have perpetuated the mess we are in today...............
Sorry I misunderstood your reply. I am the one to apologize. Have a good weekend.
no harm done..........apology accepted.
My GAWD!
I consider myself a conservative, but I am taken aback by the selfishness and cynicism of my fellow Americans which I regret to have seen on the news in the past several days regarding National health care. THIS is what is weakening America. Fact: 5O million Americans who are without health-care is a liability to the future of America's economic health and sustainability.
We have allowed our previous government to spend trillions on two wars which have reaped little to nothing in return and given billions of dollars in handouts to a handful of corporate hooligans- all under the pretext of national and economic security. Yet next to nothing is being invested in our workforce here at home. Other countries around the world are all too happy to see us redirect our monies in their own markets and industries. Billions not spent on National health care at home equals to billions to spend abroad.
Here is our chance to come together and realize a greater benefit for all which we could not achieve if we only thought about ourselves. This is not just about doing what is morally right, but about setting a course in strengthening America for all Americans!
I have left the Republican Party because I understand that they are not about making the US stronger. The devil may be in the details in this plan, but the kinks will be worked out in time. It remains clear to me that National health care is good for the country and will benefit all American directly and indirectly.
I hope that we will help President Obama do what we elected him to do.
(By the way I have very good health care, and am in no fear whatsoever of losing it.)
Americans would save a TRILLION DOLLARS every year if they just switched to Britain's healthcare solution. That's the statistic to shake at Republican sheep everytime they baah about creeping 'socialism' in healthcare. At some point, the worlds largest debtor nation simply can't keep ignoring the ton of money it is burning up every year to maintain its capitalistic faith. Capitalism is unrivalled in offering choice to consumers. Great for deciding what to have for lunch, but who 'chooses' to get sick? Who chooses to live in a bionic body, rather than the flesh-and-blood wimp-machine God put us in? You need health insurance like you need air, there is no choice here.
Since the World Health Organisation considers France's system to be one of the best in the world, I'd try to look beyond the system of the UK - forget it, just because they also speak English doesn't necessarily mean that they've got something great.
Actually the British National Health Service came into being in 1948. The NHS as it's called has performed well, but with the private health insurance industry now getting its foot in the door of British health care, the quality of British health care has dropped including that of doctor/patient relationships. The Blairite gang running UK Labor today started bringing the private health insurance industry in 2002 as I remember, but at first only for a small category of services, but these services then became off limits for the NHS. Then by 2008, the private health insurance industry including US health insurance companies were getting their foot much further in the door and displacing an NHS which had worked so well. The problems with British health care today can traced to letting the private health insurance industry getting its foot in the door.
Germany and France do better. Neither allows those in the private sector to sell basic health insurance unless they're non profits.
AD
Stop calling it US health care. It should be called US hell care!
I call it DEATHCARE. It killed my entire family, and probably will kill me too.
US wealth care.
Actually the British National Health Service came into being in 1948. The NHS as it's called has performed well, but with the private health insurance industry now getting its foot in the door of British health care, the quality of British health care has dropped including that of doctor/patient relationships. The Blairite gang running UK Labor today started bringing the private health insurance industry in 2002 as I remember, but at first only for a small category of services, but these services then became off limits for the NHS. Then by 2008, the private health insurance industry including US health insurance companies were getting their foot much further in the door and displacing an NHS which had worked so well. The problems with British health care today can traced to letting the private health insurance industry getting its foot in the door.
Germany and France do better neither allows those in the private sector to sell basic health insurance unless they're non profits
Also they can't refuse coverage to anyone due to health condition and are strictly regulated by the central government.
.
AD
What has to be done is absolutely crystal clear.
National health service must be established.
And everyone must receive education about the value of proper diet and pure food, regular exercise, a balanced mind, the value of rest, the nature of happiness–in short, a complete re-evaluation of the life most of us lead.
The US "lifestyle" is inimical to maintaining vibrant good health, which is far more than the absence of disease.
"Disease" means lack of ease. Make of it what you will. The assessment of one's health has many dimensions, many, many layers.
The very first time I saw one of those health fairs on public TV, I thought it was being held somewhere in Africa or in a third-world country. SHAME ON THE USA.
America's selfishness, its gullibility, laziness, nastiness and stupidity, its layer upon layer of hard bark covering up a heart of stone and a government made up almost entirely of people who spent their youth stealing other kids' lunch money has already made us a Third World nation.
Recent experiments on rats found that feeding rats a high fat diet wherein they put on weight, made the rats stupider and lazier.
When I was a child I saw a movie about Albert Schweitzer's clinic at Lambarene. I knew something was wrong with that picture. Although Schweitzer meant well, there was something not right about making desperate and sick people stand outdoors on long lines all day, or for many days, in order to receive care. It was the humiliation of receiving thin and fleeting charity. It was like the great white father and the natives. I found the praises heaped on Schweitzer fulsome.
Poor people in this country used to have quiet and effective public health stations and clinics. Those government run facilities have gradually disappeared, chiefly during various budget crunches. The philosophy of public health is that healthcare should be a profitable industry for those who can pay, with exceptions for veterans, the elderly and certain other select groups.
Now the US poor have finally achieved health care at the level of colonial Africa. Yay!
Joe
Here in the USA we call it single payer because the "single" is the US government which has a constitutional responsibility to provide for the "general welfare" of it's citizens.
As Obama and the rest of our elected officials will not carry out their sworn constitutional responsibility RV is quite right our democracy has now been demonstrated to be a failure.
Obama is a corporate sock puppet. The rest of the leaders are part of the 1%of the rich who only promote their own interests. This is called oligarchy. Taking care of their own and corporate business instead of doing the peoples biding is called Fascism.
Abe: you are the first writer who cites this fundamental constitutional responsibility of the government. It is sad to watch Obama supporters failing to nail the conservatives who demand that "we return to the constitution of the founding fathers" with "general welfare" which, in my opinion, clearly includes health. It also shames people who aver that "providing for the general welfare" is exclusively the responsibility of churches. Thanks Sir, you know more about the constitution than its so-called scholar who resides in the White House.
And that realization which does appear to be growing slowly but quite widely, even including, it should be noted, a few conservatives who remain true to their original political philosophy, is what the established "power elite" fear most. Or, more precisely, they fear the common ground that the realization might possibly provide for concerted popular corrective action that could spell their doom.
From their perspective, the health care issue and the 85% of Americans who favor "fundamental change" in that area is merely the thin end of the wedge and very threatening to the overall "social stability" (read submissive acquiescence) upon which their own wellbeing depends. Any such "snowball effect" must, of course, be avoided at all costs.
Right on with all of the comments and I would like to add that there is something very evil in the american systme where if u cant pay for something u have to be hounded and humiliated. Of course Im referring to that particularly putrid american phenomenon called the "debt collector", where you will be harassed to the point of insanity until you either file bankruptcy or die. Amazing that here this is accepted as normal when it is incredibly abnormal.
Jim Shea
"RV" is right. The US is a failed democracy where corporate interests override public interest in almost every instance.
Good luck to our descendants and to the rest of the world when they cross the US.
Unfortunately for the tourism industry, the rest of the world is finding the cost of special health insurance coverage for U.S. trips increasingly prohibitive, not to mention the barriers, hoops and loops of U.S. "security precautions." I suspect the number who cross the U.S., other than as briefly as possible for absolutely essential business purposes, will be diminishing quite rapidly.
Those descendants you mention may find themselves living in "splendid isolation" to use an old British term for their earlier situation at the imperial center of the world.
I pay $45 a month for supplemental insurance for my healthy, 24-year-old dual-citizen daughter, so she can flit between Canada and the US at will. It also covers some dental, prescription and other services in Canada that aren't covered by the provincial health plan. Like most Canadians, I also have supplemental private insurance, including travel insurance, through my employer. The real impediment to visiting the States for me, as for many other Canadians, is not the cost of travel insurance, but the understanding that I leave my habeas corpus rights at the border.
does habeas corpus apply to itself?
where i live in denver,colo. we have a '9 health fair' in the fall..... uninsured and under-employed, i went to check it out for the first time and even first thing in the morning the lines were super long and you saw a range from the obviously wealthy to homeless showing up for various kinds of exams... some free and some not, but it was evident after running into folks from my old job (who had insurance) that i'm not the only one without affordable health care who needs it. what a crazy world we're living in with such a gulf between the ethic of privatized and that of genuine health CARE!!!! how we human beings organize ourselves to feed, heal, shelter ourselves both individually and collectively is woefully stunted by the dictates of dominant convention. maybe there's a silver lining in this economic collapse--out of it maybe there will open up a space for the human HEART to see humanity's place within nature as something other than business-as-usual dominator and our potential intelligence can expand in ways we are blind to now since compassion has been so smothered by the profit motive and such a myopic and exclusionary view of 'self'.
nevergiveup
There's no reason for him to call it a 'single payer' system, that not what its called there. It The National Health Service (NHS), and that's what it provides, national health service to everybody - insurance is not part of it, so why would it be called 'single payer.'
"Pay for it" is the american way of life.
dr.kcusick August 15th, 2009 11:10 am...........The article is more about health care here than the UK, although it does use the UK as a basis of comparison. The same type of health care in this country would be called single payer. I'm sure the writer is familiar with the term. I see it as an obvious omission. Maybe you don't. The point is that single payer is the only system that is viable in this country....as it works in most other industrialized nations.
nevergiveup:
You're not getting it. "Single payer" is a fee-for-service term. You have Medicare, you go to a doctor, the doctor sends in a bill to the government for treating you, the government pays him for that service. In the UK that doesn't happen. You go to the doctor and that's an end to it; the doctor is paid a salary simply by being employed by the National Health Service, just as teachers are paid for being teachers, not paid for each class (or each student) they teach.
Rainborowe
"I'm sure the writer is familiar with the term."
Probably. But he's writing for a U.K. publication, many of whose readers may not be. It's unlikely that you'll ever see this article published by any of the U.S. MSM.
RV August 15th, 2009 11:35 am...............Precisely. and until we progressives get some say in the MSM, nothing...not a damn thing will change. This is the key to it all.
It now appears that I may have been at least partly wrong. According to nosurrender (below) the LA Times has actually published some version of it.
Perhaps there are a few small cracks developing in the wall after all. One can hope so anyway.
RV August 15th, 2009 12:01 pm........................How about a "National Free Press"? Know any billionaires with progressive tendencies?
What about Bill Gates Jr.?
Heh. Haven't met any recently. :)
Of particular note pay attention to the American going to mexico to get health Care.
This is widespread with close to a MILLION documented Americans going abroad for health care each year.
Use that as a talking point for the people who justify the US system by claiming other people come from the world over to use it.
Explain the difference between WEALTHY and not wealthy and then point out that the US system is designed for the wealthy.
The "brutal truth" is that the United States of America is NOT A DEMOCRACY.
The U.S. is a failed state in which the interests of "corporate persons" override the interests of human citizens every time. All other "brutal truths", whether about its health care system or any other aspect of any of its domestic or foreign policies, are merely products of that single simple fact. The insurance and pharmaceutical industry lobbies are not essentially different from any of the rest of the MICC. It's all part of the same underlying systemic problem that has become integral with the entire U.S. system of governance of, by and for the financial power of corporations.
Unless and until that underlying problem is addressed and corrected at its roots (if it can be) symptomatic treatments are the equivalent of palliative care for a doomed patient.
A life for a penny,a dime,a nickel,a dollar?How much?Tony
Not a word about single payer. And from the Independent UK in a country that has single payer. What the hell kind of article is this? Are the words, "single payer" being written out of history?
I have no problem with this program and the generosity of the doctors and all involved. I just believe writing an article like this without a mention of single payer can only be a form of censorship at some level.
Obama is not trying to reform a damn thing. All he's doing is catering to the health care industry with his usual placate everyone EXCEPT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN.
SINGLE PAYER IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO. Nothing else will work and each and every one in the lower 98% income bracket will regret and resent this "reform". Do not let this happen. Demand single payer!
Pass this around.....
A PEOPLE’S REFERENDUM FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE
Whereas the healthcare bill currently under consideration in Congress does not reflect the People's will, is inadequate, compromised and expensive, catering to the medical, pharmaceutical and insurance giants, we, the undersigned, call upon Congress and the President of the United States to create and initiate a single payer healthcare program. Such a program will cover all citizens of these United States with complete preventive, medical and hospital coverage, regardless of age, pre-existing conditions or terminal illness. We suggest the Congress follow the example of a system proved and already in use for many years such as that in Denmark. We also understand the current economic situation may warrant a degree of rationing, which shall be determined by a “citizen’s board” representing the factions that may have a stake in the final outcome. This body shall be open to public scrutiny at all times and on all levels.
Name Email address Physical address
Nevergiveup--This is from a UK newspaper. Nobody in the UK knows what the hell "single payer" means! It's a term used only in the USA. And the National Health Service isn't exactly single payer; it's a wholly state-run system in which the doctors, nurses and all the other personnel are employees of the government, like other civil servants, and the hospitals are government owned (like our V.A.). There is a small private sector where the above isn't true, of course, but they cater either to the richer than Croesus in the world like certain foreign potentates, or those Brits who can afford (or whose employers offer) supplementary insurance so they can get beds at clinics with cordon-bleu meals and other other trimmings. They pay for luxury, convenience of scheduling, and vanity stuff like most plastic surgery.
Rainborowe
The current "debate" about fixing health care delivery in the U.S. is just phony. A serious debate would be analyzing expansion of Medicare versus expanding the Veterans Health Administration.
Expanding Medicare would be like Canada, where the providers of health care services remain in the private sector and all bills are paid by a single-payer, the Canadian health coverage provided by the government.
Expanding the VHA would give us a system like that in Great Britain, where the health care providers such as doctors and nurses are salaried and are government employees.
Statistics show that expanding the VHA would likely give us the most healthy population of the two choices and also save the most money. The biggest advantage of the VHA expansion approach would be the elimination of the fee for service model our health care capitalists now follow. This often results in excessive tests and procedures that sometimes result in serious complications and even death. And even when things go well, who wants to be cut on because the doctor didn't want to "leave money on the table?"
Getting rid of fee for service is and essential part of any serious health care reform. The petty rule changes being discussed regarding for profit insurance are a poor substitute for serious debate about health care reform.
The current "debate" about fixing health care delivery in the U.S. is just phony. A serious debate would be analyzing expansion of Medicare versus expanding the Veterans Health Administration.
Expanding Medicare would be like Canada, where the providers of health care services remain in the private sector and all bills are paid by a single-payer, the Canadian health coverage provided by the government.
Expanding the VHA would give us a system like that in Great Britain, where the health care providers such as doctors and nurses are salaried and are government employees.
Statistics show that expanding the VHA would likely give us the most healthy population of the two choices and also save the most money. The biggest advantage of the VHA expansion approach would be the elimination of the fee for service model our health care capitalists now follow. This often results in excessive tests and procedures that sometimes result in serious complications and even death. And even when things go well, who wants to be cut on because the doctor didn't want to "leave money on the table?"
Getting rid of fee for service is and essential part of any serious health care reform. The petty rule changes being discussed regarding for profit insurance are a poor substitute for serious debate about health care reform.
I agree completely.
Rainborowe
Agreed, there seems to be a good bit of confusion among the British as to what Obama and HR3200 is proposing for healthcare. Many seem to think some kind of comprehensive fix is being proposed - at least a Canada style system.
pjd412 August 15th, 2009 12:56 pm.......Have you ever seen any bill introduced in the CONgress that was not confusing and loaded with double meanings and many possible interpretations? Brevity, clarity and conciseness are not in the vocabulary of the CONgress. Of course, neither is integrity, honesty and openness.
Note that this is taken from the British press.
Please, everyone, forward this to your local press and your congressperson.
These generous doctors are not only helping people, but spotlighting the problems of our non-system for all to see.
Bring America Back !!!!
****Now THIS needs to be Mega Mailed to every Person in
the good ol' USA !!!
****Remember the Beatles British Invasion of Music ????
****Let us bring on the New Brit Invasion===Free Medical Care
for All, and How to Do It !!!!
Get this immediately in the hands of all disbelievers, as well as the DVD "SICKO", by Michael Moore, which tells the true story of Healthcare in America and what needs to be
done for the welfare of all Americans.
Tku to CD for the inclusion, and to British Healthcare for the very real demonstration of what can be achieved in our field of Dreams for America ! If the Queen can do it, so can we. Please Invade US, Brits, Please Invade us.
And in the corporate media, has anyone seen this story? This should be required reading for all Americans.
MichaelC
Yes, this story, with the same or similar photo, was covered in the Los Angeles Times, but with a much more cursory, matter of fact tone, and without stating the obvious, namely, that the American health system is completely illogical and dysfunctional. It is good to get a foreigner's perspective on this debacle.
The LA Times also did not point out that this same situation happens every weekday morning in the few free community clinics that accept walk-ins. People line up in long lines for hours before the opening time, even when it is raining, and even though only the first few people can actually get care. In the clinic closest to me here in LA County, it takes 6 months to get an appointment for any kind of care.
This all will get worse, since California is kicking 60,000 poor children off of public health care in an attempt to fix its budget mess. Of course poor kids take the hit, while the corporate sector or the rich are not being taxed one penny more. I could go on....sigh.....
Well 'nosurrender',
You COULD go on, but sigh all you wish.
Until the American people decide to no longer be slaves to the Plutocratic Oligarchy they have allowed to exist from the beginning, they will be a needy and ill population, who willing supports the 'slave masters'.
It really is that simple.
Good Luck America, you really need it.
Under slavery, there was a direct correlation between prosperity and the health of your slaves. It was the poor southern white who was superfluous and who had no one to care whether he lived or died or was healthy. No wonder he became so embittered and bigoted and nasty. Yes, America does need good luck--to escape its Karma.