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TechnoratiIn Texas, the Health Care Crisis Is Only Getting Worse
Census statistics show state’s children at risk
Texans had little to cheer about in the recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau that the number of Americans without health insurance dipped slightly in 2007.
Instead of the 47 million uninsured in 2006, last year our nation had "only" 45.7 million who lacked health insurance, a drop of a half percentage point from 2006 (from 15.8 percent of the population to 15.3 percent). Most of the dip was due to an expansion of government programs like Medicaid, especially among children.
So instead of running a fever of 107 degrees, the patient's temperature dropped to 106.8 - better, yes, but only marginally.
In Texas, however, the temperature actually rose. The number of uninsured- went up by 258,000, yielding a total of nearly 6 million residents with no health coverage at all during 2007. That translates into an uninsured rate of 25 percent, the highest in the nation. It also translates into mounting financial stress, deferred medical care, untreated illness and in some cases premature death for millions of Texans from one end of the state to the other.
Keep in mind that these figures don't reflect this year's economic downturn, in which employers are shedding workers and benefits, and state governments are cutting health programs. And they don't reflect the additional tens of millions in our country who are "underinsured," meaning they would be hard pressed financially if they were to get sick, oven though they have some kind of insurance.
It is clear that last year's gain in the number of insured people was entirely due to an expansion of government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). While the number of uninsured in the country decreased by 1.3 million, the number of people covered by government health programs increased by 2.7 million. Had these public programs not been there to catch those falling off the rolls of employer-sponsored health insurance, the number of uninsured would have increased.
But in states like Texas, where the average annual growth in Medicaid has been low, the number of uninsured went up, not down. Furthermore, eligibility criteria in Texas for adults make it nearly impossible for working adults, even at minimum wage, to qualify for Medicaid. In Texas, a working parent of two making more than $6,000 per year makes too much to qualify for Medicaid! As fewer and fewer employers offer health insurance, individuals in Texas, where enrollment in public programs is not keeping up, are faced with only one alternative: joining the swelling ranks of the uninsured.
This is happening with children in Texas, whose working parents are losing health insurance. According to the census, the number of uninsured children in Texas soared to 1.5 million. These children will be at higher risk of getting sick from preventable illnesses, will visit the doctor less and will die prematurely. Certainly not good news for the children of Texas.
But enlarging Medicaid is not the answer. Texas ranks 49th in terms of its Medicaid reimbursement rates. In fact, many health providers routinely shun Medicaid patients because they know the government will shortchange them on payment for services rendered. And further cuts in these rates are on the way. This is a prescription for disaster.
As a physician, I am committed to practicing evidence-based medicine. I know you can't close your eyes to a problem and pretend it doesn't exist. If someone has a fever, yes, I can prescribe medication to bring the temperature down. But I'm obliged to look for the deeper cause. Otherwise I'm merely prescribing a placebo, not a cure.
The problems of our state and nation's health care are systemic. They are a result of a defective model of financing health care, a model based on the investor-owned private health insurance industry, which adds no value to health care.
The private health insurers make profits by enrolling the healthy, screening out the sick and denying claims. I see the destructive results of this "non-system" every day. It is simply not sustainable economically nor justifiable morally.
The cure is a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved and expanded Medicare for all. Cut the administrative waste and profits of the insurance companies out of the picture. Let people go to the doctors and hospitals of their choice. Give everyone, without exception, access to the medically necessary care they need. We don't need to spend a penny more than we spend right now if we take insurance companies out of the equation.
An old Chinese proverb goes: If we keep going in the same direction, we will end up exactly where we are going. What are we waiting for?
36 Comments so far
Show AllA fair universal healthcare system.
1- Insurance companies are not part of the system.
2- Congress has one month to design a single payer system. Congress is included in the system with the same benefits as all other citizens. Members of congress cannot get additional health insurance.
i support SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE
JCLIENTELE: I usually agree with all of your CD postings. The medical field, like the military, demands that bright students "follow orders" or protocols. Only a small percentage deviates and takes advantage of alternative or complimentary cures. I totally agree about having community health stations, probably worked by a professional nursing staff, the way paralegals perform duties that lawyers need not attend to.
ZACH: It's great to find a young mind in our forum. It would seem that persons like yourself from your generation will indeed be needed, spiritually tasked perhaps, with the mission of bringing together all the disaffected parties who are clearly NOT served by the US brand of politics for and about the elites and their immediate advantages. "Many are called, few are chosen." Strengthen your core, practice integrity, be tolerant of yourself so you can extend that Grace to others. You may be a future leader in our midst.
Intill Americans are willing to get off their butts and stop whining on a web site you won't have a healthcare system. Voting does NOT WORK, ZINN said it best on the Sept 9th story. America needs a rebellion.
Obama or McCain will be the next USan president - there's no question there. If you're a progressive and live in a district that's teetering between the Dems and the Repubs, please please please support Obama.
Yes, Obama's heath care plan sucks compared to what us Canucks take for granted (we don't actually take it for granted, but whatever), and he's far more establishment and conservative than i'd like, but if the evil republican machine gets total control (and they are scarily close) over the Supreme Court, our abiity to talk about these issues will rendered a quaint relic in the electoral narrative.
Just as the fact that there is no money (to be made) in peace. There's heaps to be made in not delivering health care. The more subscribers pay, and the less insurers pay out is a very simple equation for a healthy bottom line. Healthy bottom lines and healthy patients are mutually exclusive.
K DELPHI: Thanks for the good laugh! Chinese proverb, indeed!
Corporations don't want Single Payer. They make the rules and crown their own politicians.
Obama's health care "plan" is like a Chinese proverb too "Much noise on the stairs, no one appears!"
BILDAD: Great NADER posting! I didn't know all that about him, and still... of all the candidates, I cloned him... in fiction, that is. He's the star of my (intended as Hollywood movie script) novel, The Caretakers. I did this wonderful man justice. He's one of my heroes, too.
Keep dreaming America this issue comes up every 4 years and dies just as quick. If it goes state by state then if it is going to cost a company money to have workers covered guess what that company will be off shore of in a state that doesn't give healthcare. It has to be right across the country and no one can opt out
So the sneaky Mexicans are coming here to get health care and jobs. Anybody noticed the resources stolen from Mexico---excuse me free traded from Mexico?
"The cure is a single-payer national health insurance program"
But you can't vote for the cure unless you vote third party.
Wrong. It doesn't work that way.
What has Nader done the last 8 years he wasn't in office? The same thing he'll do the next four when he's still not in office --NOTHING. And he'll do the same nothing the four years after that.
Nader WILL NOT be president. He will have NO POWER to do anything.
If Nader was serious about getting anything done, he'd get himself on a primary ballot somewhere as a Democrat, try to actually win an election, hold an office, and move up from there. City level, then state, then national.
Of course, then he couldn't just stand outside and point fingers saying he'd do it so much better, huh? He might actually have to create a record of accomplishments to be judged by rather than safely playing the also-ran every election.
The only reason you can make such a stupid comment is because you haven't been paying attention to what Nader has been doing, and the corporate media won't tell you. Do some research and you will find that he has been quite active--workaholic that he is. Read the many articles he has written about important issues--many of which appeared on Common Dreams and CounterPunch, for example. Aside from writing articles and books, he has been doing exactly what he has done for his entire career, working on consumer, social justice and environmental issues--as well as raising tons of money for the Green Party, which betrayed him, as did the Democrats long ago. If you knew the dirty tricks and illegal and unethical things the Democrats have done to keep him off the ballot and to try to destroy him personally, you'd understand why he would never run as a Democrat.(Go to http://www.newjerseyuntouchables.blogspot.com/ for the text of the law suit he has filed against the Democratic Party)
Besides, he has correctly identified and attacked the root of almost all the problems we face as a nation (including the health-care crisis), which is the hegemony of the the corporate-imperialist duopoly. For starters, you might want to watch "An Unreasonable Man," then get online and find out for yourself why the Democrats are so afraid to debate him. And by the way, here is a list of his "record of accomplishments" (it's amazing that you didn't know this stuff already--what rock have you been hiding under?):
Instrumental in the passing of the following legislation:
National Automobile and Highway Traffic Safety Act (1965)
Clean Water Act (1968)
Clean Air Act (1970)
Co-Op Bank Bill (1978)
Law establishing Environmental Protection Agency (1970)
Consumer Product Safety Act
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Mine Health and Safety Act
Whistleblower Protection Act
Medical Devices safety
Nuclear power safety
Mobile home safety
Consumer credit disclosure law
Pension protection law
Funeral home cost disclosure law
Tire safety & grading disclosure law
Wholesome Meat Act
Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
Wholesome Poultry Product Act
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1970
Safe Water Drinking Act
Freedom of Information Act
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act
Founded or sponsored the following organizations:
American Antitrust Institute
Appleseed Foundation
Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
Aviation Consumer Action Project
Buyers Up
Capitol Hill News Service Center for Concerned Engineering
Center for Auto Safety
Center for Insurance Research
Center for Justice and Democracy
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Center for the study of Responsive Law - 1969
Center for Women Policy Studies
Citizen Action Group
Citizen Advocacy Center
Citizen Utility Boards
Citizen Works
Clean Water Action Project
Clearinghouse for Professional Responsibility
Congress Project
Congress Watch
Congressional Accountability Project
Connecticut Citizen Action Group
Consumer Project on Technology
Corporate Accountability Research Group
Critical Mass Energy Project
Democracy Rising
Disability Rights Center
Equal Justice Foundation
Essential Information
FANS (Fight to Advance the Nation's Sports)
Fisherman's Clear Water Action Group
Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
Freedom of Information Clearinghouse
Global Trade Watch
Government Purchasing Project
Health Research Group
Litigation Group
Multinational Monitor
National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
National Insurance Consumer Organization
Ohio Public Interest Action Group
Organization for Competitive Markets
Professional Drivers (PROD)
Professionals for Auto Safety
Public Citizen
Pension Rights Center
Princeton Project 55
PROD - truck safety
Public Citizen's Visitor's Center
Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGS)
Resource Consumption Alliance (conserve trees) 1004
Retired Professionals Action Group
Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
Tax Reform Research Group
Telecommunications Research and Action Center
Nader has worked tirelessly to make YOUR life and OUR NATION better. What have Obama or McCain done?
I agree, Nader is the man, and I came very close to deciding to vote for him in this election but decided to stick with Obama. Perhaps though, he could run for Congress in some progressive district as a start. A lot of the legislation he worked on was 30-40 years ago, and people really don't know what he has done then except run for the Presidency. I am now much more politically aware than I was even a year ago, thanks to my involvement in progressive student organizations on campus and my efforts in local and state elections this year. I am sorely tempted to dedicate my career after I graduate this December to helping establish a serious alternative/independent political party.
REVENGE GIRL: When I had a home birth I became liberated from modern medicine, of course having recently crossed "the 50 yard line" more medical issues could crop up, but I try to pre-empt them with a decent diet, no bad habits, lots of exercise, and apart from CD and a very karmic relationship with my daughter (LOL) less stress...
There are parallels with veterinary care. My beloved Chow, Billingsley, born on January 15, 1991 (same day Bush the first declared war in Iraq) jumped out of my friend's pick up and had a BAD back leg break. I took her to the main vet in Key West who told me he wasn't sure he could set the leg with a peg, it was a bad break. But I didn't have the $ to go to Miami for MAJOR surgery. The leg didn't heal so I went to vet # 2. This was the REAL charlatan. He put a fancy cast on the dog's leg and took it off a few weeks later to change it, charging me $650 (I was a single Mom on a low-income freelance writer salary)... and said all was well. Then we moved to Gainesville, Florida and vet # 3 got the honors of "cast off" only to tell me NOTHING had healed! He took my dog's X-rays to the University of Florida, to the "gurus of radiology" as he put it. He was told my dog had a cancerous tumor and recommended chemotherapy! I asked how much time that would add to the dog's life, and when the answer was "months," I figured I'd let her go naturally. Well, she lived another 6 years and although she dragged the leg, she had a wonderful life with me.
I think modern medicine is cracked up to be a lot better than it actually is. Many ailments CAN be changed through diet and exercise, visualization and alternative (acupuncture/massage) therapies. It's tragic that so many count on doctors who in turn need to pass snuff with insurance companies that could care LESS about the state of human health. It's a very dangerous capitalistic merry go round... my advice, TRY to stay healthy: Prevention is worth POUNDS ($) of cure. I must also add that we ARE being exposed to exceedingly toxic chemicals in our food, water, air and soil... therefore the effort to stay healthy is compromised by this WAR against nature, of which we, at least biologically, are a part.
Sioux: Your skepticism about veterinary and human medicine matches mine. Whether because they blindly apply protocols even when they don't make sense, or because they want the money, they often ignore simple things and take the painful and high tech route. I could describe several ghastly instances of this.
I doubt we will ever have single payer animal insurance, but it would work for humans. For instance when I was a child there was a little brick building in my project called a "Child Health Station". You could go there for your shots, your colds, your cuts and sprains. There may have been a nominal charge, or no charge. It was a simple and low cost way to deal with things before they became serious. That should be a model for both child and adult care, with salaried medical personnel. It would go along with making medical training more affordable - agree to work in a community setting and get tuition forgiveness.
Nutritional education and encouragement of physical activity (not only through talking but by providing the products and environments) would go a long way.
Two very simple changes - educating people about how much sugar is in soft drinks (17 teaspoons in a 12 ounce bottle)- and making sure public drinking fountains work in schools and workplaces would make a big dent in the 40% diabetes rate we are seeing in New York City. Compare that with dispensing insulin and sugar meters and performing amputations.
Joe
Single Payer is the ONLY answer. Kick the insurance companies out. Vote NADER - he supports Single Payer.
Only problem is, he won't be president or hold any elected office, so what he does and does not support is irrelevant. He will have no power to implement anything.
REVENGE GIRL: Good post!
Hi Siouxrose!
Unfortunately, I learned all I know about the corrupt for profit "Health" "Care" system from personal experience. What should have taken a year or two to recover from - has taken a decade. A complete waste of time and money and all in the pockets of crooks. At this point I'd advise anyone who is seriously injured to forget trying to get help from the system, and buy organic food and a hottub instead...It's a nightmare!
To those of you that posted some intelligent remarks about this, what Dr. Ana didn't tell you was that most of the CHIPS increase was due to illegal aliens and also the citizen children of illegal aliens whose oparents cannot get medicaid. Although some of the ChIPS money ois being used for pregnant illegal alien adults which results in.....goodness! What a surprise, some children thast don't get insurance because thir money was used for an adult.
Nor did she mention the hundreds of thousands from Louisana that are still here. Noe did she mention the illegals moving here from Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma because of their cracking down on illegal aliens.
The other problem is that under the Republicans the State tried to privitize our Social Services using call centers and getting rid of state workers and state offices. It was a predictable disaster.
She is absolutely correct however, there is no other solution than single payer national healthcare. That is the answer.
To anyone else that wants to use stereotypes about my state, please accept the same level of contempt I hold for anyone that infantile.
How many times do I have to argue with the socialism-haters about this? There is no other way than a nation-wide, single-payer system. The pool of 50 employees where I work is so small that it's putting an increasing strain on the workers and the company. We need a pool of, like, 300 million.
It's amazing how so many of the loudest opponents I know are police officers, retired people, etc. People whose entire existence depends on everybody-pays-and-everybody's-covered "socialism." I wonder how many people who opposed Medicare when President Johnson signed it into law in July of 1965 are now enjoying the benefits? I wonder how many of those people think that Medicare coverage is a gift from God or something, rather than the results of the efforts of those no-good, bleeding-heart liberals. And what would we think about people who started to whine about paying taxes for police and fire protection, like "Why should I pay for somebody else's house that's on fire or somebody else who's been robbed? They should hire their own security service!"
And we must not be swayed by the scary stories we hear about deteriorating national health-care systems in other countries. First of all, nationalized health-care is totally different than a single-payer system. I have never been in favor of any system where my family physician might be replaced by a government bureaucrat. Second, just like the Not-Sees are trying to de-fund domestic programs in the U.S., there are similar Not-Sees in other countries doing the same thing.
There is no need for the quality of health-care to decline. When you change jobs and your new employer uses a different insurance company, does your doctor suddenly start doing a poor job? It's no different than a single-payer system--you toss out your old insurance card and start using the new one. In fact, one big improvement would be not having to find out your doctor, dentist, etc. is not included in the new insurance plan.
I support the Conyers Bill, HR676.
Mccain and Obama are owned lock stock and barrel by Big Insurance so don't expect anything better. Also, Obama had this to say when asked about stepping up to Big Insurance (this one shows that once again Obama, like Mccain, REFUSES to stand up to the corrupt elites):
http://davidsirota.com/index.php/mr-obama-goes-to-washington/
This theme had been reiterated all day: Obama is all about the art of the possible within the system. “This is a classic conflict within the left: Are you a revolutionary or are you a reformist?” Obama said. “I am less concerned with the labels that are placed on me in terms of what kind of leader I am, and I am more interested in results…. I think within the institutional structures we have, we can significantly improve the life chances of ordinary Americans.” I asked him to give me some specific examples of what he meant. Is a proposal to convert America’s healthcare system to one in which the government is the single payer for all services revolutionary or reformist? “Anything that Canada does can’t be entirely revolutionary–it’s Canada,” Obama joked. “When I drive through Toronto, it doesn’t look like a bunch of Maoists.” Even so, Obama said that although he “would not shy away from a debate about single-payer,” right now he is “not convinced that it is the best way to achieve universal healthcare.”
Obama has a remarkable ability to convince you that his positions are motivated purely by principles, not tactical considerations. This skill is so subtle and impressive, it resembles Luke Skywalker’s mastery of the Force. It’s a powerful tool for a Democratic Party that often emanates calculation rather than conviction. “I don’t think in ideological terms. I never have,” Obama said, continuing on the healthcare theme. “Everybody who supports single-payer healthcare says, ‘Look at all this money we would be saving from insurance and paperwork.’ That represents 1 million, 2 million, 3 million jobs of people who are working at Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser or other places. What are we doing with them? Where are we employing them?”
Shifting back to how he sees himself in the Senate, Obama seemed to amend his previous statement about what kind of leadership progressives can expect from him. “I am agnostic in terms of the models that solve these problems,” he said. “If the only way to solve a problem is structural, institutional change, then I will be for structural, institutional change. If I think we can achieve those same goals within the existing institutions, then I am going to try to do that, because I think it’s going to be easier to do and less disruptive and less costly and less painful…. I think everybody in this country should have basic healthcare. And what I’m trying to figure out is how to get from here to there.” He went on to tell me about his support for other structural changes such as public financing of elections, forcing broadcasters to offer free airtime for candidates, adding strong labor protections to trade pacts and major efforts to create a more just tax system.
Obama is telling the truth–he’s not opposed to structural changes at all. However, he appears to be interested in fighting only for those changes that fit within the existing boundaries of what’s considered mainstream in Washington, instead of using his platform to redefine those boundaries. This posture comes even as polls consistently show that Washington’s definition of mainstream is divorced from the rest of the country’s (for example, politicians’ refusal to debate the war even as polls show that Americans want the troops home).
The New England Journal of Medicine has been running really great editorials and articles about the health care system (national, not just Texas)... Their stuff is worth reading:
http://content.nejm.org/misc/election2008.shtml
Interestingly, they ran a poll where about 35% of physicians supported Obama's plan, about 15% supported McCain's plan, and the vast majority thought that neither plan was radical enough.
Texas - western outpost of the Confederacy, public execution capitol of the United States, site of John F. Kennedy's assassination and one of the few logical adopted homes for a jackal like George Wanker Bush - Texas is the future of this nation. Texas is the United States WRIT LARGE. You're on your own. Can't make it and need a little help? Lie down in the gutter and die. Money talks and losers crawl. We'll bill your family for carting away your body and burying it in a landfill. My apologies to Austin.
Surely you have a few other ignorant things to say, surely?
Mordechai:
You describe Texas pretty well; however, the myth of a "progressive Austin" is just that. When you're an island in a sea of sewage, you are not immune to the odor and disease. When you're the capital of that sea, well...
Sail on Sailor
You are a little synchophant aren't you?
"The private health insurers make profits by enrolling the healthy, screening out the sick and denying claims. I see the destructive results of this "non-system" every day."
Yes!, and..
The state health insurance programs are run by for profit insurance companies too. Often the managing insurance company changes over and over again. Doctors and HMO's routinely deny diagnostic tests for the people who are underinsured. (Not enough profit for the HMO). The Supreme Court has exempted HMO's from lawsuits. So even those people who have cheap insurance are being denied healthcare. Then people are forced to seek another insurance to cover their illness or injury - hence the ubiquitous personal injury lawsuit. So the propaganda machine in Washington whines about "frivolous lawsuits". Then the insurance companies have more leverage to deny claims. Of course people will file suit if it's the only way to get healthcare! Anyone who gets rearended in a MVA and says "my neck hurts" gets paid off to go away (before they find out what's really wrong), while people who are disabled have to be impoverished while they fight the insurance companies for years. (And social security investigates the disabled person as if they are lying - just like any insurance company)
As long as the "Health" "Care" system and doctors are told what to do by insurance companies - the system will continue to rot.
Insurance should be for things not for people. Bringing the insurance companies into the discussion - as Hillary did in the 90's and as Obama has promised he will do, will only make Healthcare for US Citizens into a bureaucratic nightmare. Let's cut out the middle men (insurance cos.) and their $$$investors and make a single payer plan like Medicare, so that doctors can treat everyone with compassion. Perhaps we can find some of the money for this at the Pentagon, or under Cheney's desk!
Agreed. We can afford it.
Joe
Unfortunately, it appears things will have to get worse before they get better. People are so confused and afraid of change that they are unable or unwilling to take off the blinders. Sadly, those who vote, vote against their own best interests and the interests of the common good.
Well you don't need no heath care insurance her'in Texus caus we pull oursels up by our own boot straps.
I'm sure your Daddy will take care of you as usual sonny.
Eating organically wont help yoi if you get hit by a drunk driver. It may HELP (but not prevent) diseases that you are genetically predisposed to (I belive that there is more of this, because, as people are living a little longer--has that now reversed itself?-they have more kids and more time to pass on genetic deficienceis. But that is not the fault of the child that inhjerits it.)
I am a "miracle of modern medicine"! I got hurt in a rural county (Greene co.--everyone called it "Gangrene Memorial--and--I got gangrene!!), and, by the time I transferred to Clevelland Clnic--the poorly done surgery was all over. I advise anyone who has an altetrnative, to avoid the medical 'care" system, in the uS. Or anywhere, if you can. But many cannot.