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Big Insurance Shows Its Hand – Or at Least Its Finger
When the day began, I sipped coffee with Hilda and Krikor Sarkisyan of Northridge, California, in a hotel restaurant as we waited to go confront the Cigna executives who denied their 17-year-old daughter's liver transplant. Nataline died last December. As this day closed, I sat across from an RN who was crying with sadness and rage for the Sarkisyan's loss and the absolute horror of what we experienced together in the Cigna lobby today.
If ever we needed proof of why the for-profit health insurance industry cannot be trusted with our health and well-being, we saw it today. We saw today the cruelty; we saw today all the reasons why we cannot trust that which we know we cannot trust. The lack of human compassion and the outright obscenity of the broken system have somehow codified into reality for us all a pattern of delays and denials of care that never can be reversed. Allowing a child to die –someone else's child – has somehow become acceptable behavior, and we have allowed chronic abuse of our trust to flourish and to be explained away by insurance executives who cannot tell the truth.
At Cigna, we walked into the lobby and moved toward the elevators that led to the inner sanctum of one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. Though Cigna security held the line as Hilda and Krikor protested and demanded an audience with the CEO, Edward Hanway, the company sent down their PR guy, Chris Curran, to do their dirty work and to put off our protesters – the grieving parents and their nurses. They were ringed now by many of the same nurses of the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee who had held them together on the day last December when Cigna allowed their daughter to die as the company first denied and then safely – for their revenue side, anyway – approved the needed transplant too late to save Nataline.
During the protest today we all looked up to see a group of people looking over the mezzanine railings above us. They must have been looking down at us during the whole protest. Hilda called up, "Do you work for Cigna?" And suddenly what we saw was too horrific to be believed.
One of the young men "flipped off" Hilda and Krikor – with gestures on both hands. We all let out a collective scream of disbelief. The young man quickly retreated from his perch. It was a moment I do not think any of us will ever forget.
A Cigna employee obscenely gestures parents of a dead teenager and guess what? Cigna called the police to have the protesters removed from the lobby. The young man in the blue shirt who spoke for Cigna with his assault of Hilda and Krikor was not the target of the Cigna police call. The parents were deemed the threat. Parents and patients who need treatment and thereby spend company profits are threatening to Cigna and all other insurance companies. These are not the people who can be trusted with our healthcare or that of our children.
Either this was a young man thinking it somehow cute to defend his company by assaulting these parents or he was actually doing so on behalf of the company. No matter what explanation we could imagine, none makes it OK that Cigna allowed this to happen in their offices and did not protect these parents – instead they protected themselves.
And they would do so again and again and again – as grieving, begging families who pay for their insurance premiums find themselves burying children, other loved ones, friends and neighbors.
As I stood holding the shaking ribs of a father too strained with grief to stand alone, I wondered why anyone would ever want a company like Cigna in the mix. Family values don't have a chance on this company's agenda; life is devalued and only the almighty dollar holds the power.
Cigna, as one of the nation's largest and proudest insurers, stands as a representative of an industry gone mad on its own power and greed. And as such, they handled this very poorly. But they handled it as might have been expected. Take heed. The only insurance these companies provide is to protect their own wealth and status – not the nation's, not your child's and certainly not your own.
When our new Congress goes to work on healthcare reform next year, Cigna and the likes of them cannot be in play. And no matter who says private insurance is good for the nation, it is a lie – it is a rude and abusive and destructive lie as delivered clearly and concisely today. Even if we want to trust well-intentioned people (even a very beloved one from Massachussets) who believe insuring more people is the way to the promised land, we must all recall today and that the insurance company representative allowed an assault on Hilda and on Krikor – and all the rest of us who trusted them to provide what they said they were providing.
Our gesture in response must be to end this madness. For-profit, private insurance can never substitute for single-payer, publicly funded, privately delivered care – and doctors and nurses and patients must be deciding together what the best course of treatment may be – not an insurance company employee whose overwhelming urge to "flip-off" the patient will guide the decision.
Horrifying, illuminating... and only offset by wrapping these parents in the love and support of 80,000 nurses who would never, ever demean their loss.
- Posted in
76 Comments so far
Show AllYes! that's who America is, always has been, and always will be unless there is a radical restructuring of the corporations who control the nation and put profit first and people last. That needs to be reversed.
Is the same Donna Smith who just wrote that piece telling us to vote for Obama, whose health 'plan', such as it is, preserves and maintains the profits of the private insurance industry?
If these are two different people, that would be confusing. If these are the same person, I would find that inexplicable.
Yes, it's the same well-intentioned well-meaning WRONG about Obama Donna Smith. How sad is that??
Words fail.
If a corporation is a person then I propose that authorities arrest every employee of Cigna and try each and every one of them for murder. Every one: the CEO, the guy who flipped off the protesters, the janitor. Every last one of them. The Republicans can stick by their plan to slowly kill off the unmoneyed of America, but if so they should be willing to face the consequences of any other "person" who commits murder.
I propose the same thing for everyone who votes for either McCain or Obama, since they are accomplices to murder - the endless wars that BOTH parties promise us every four years.
If you want single payer health care, then why not vote for candidates who are actually FOR it?? I will!
Sioux Rose
It seems to me ideas can get volleyed around in fiction that are not yet permissable in the general political sphere. With that being said, the popular dramatic series, "Law and Order" did a story where McCoy goes after the insurance company for putting profits first. One such episode involved keeping a lid on dangerous known side effects of a drug, while another involved a prison utilizing a private for-profit mental health company that rolled back treatment on someone who after being let out, became homicidal. I think this TV show does a good job making the public aware of these issues, and how the chain of culpability can be established.
Health care is only a huge money maker for Insurance companies who are the master social parasites. Washington politics has played into their hands for almost a century and the attitude is deeply seated but could and should be changed as soon as possible.
Whatever the answer to quality health care for all people is---it is clearly not what has been in use thus far, and it is foolish to think that continuation of the mistakes of the past will make things better for the future. On the contrary, the present system simply makes a few companies and their investors money, at everyone else's expense. The McCain policy would be to give people a Tax rebate to pay for "part" of their insurance costs. This would essentially
represent "Tax payer" support for health care----since those dollars would not be included in the "coffers" of the Government, but the "coffers" of the insurers. Mr. Obama's plan seems to be a variation on the same, just somewhat more eloquently articulated.
This is social parasitism, to continue to put an important aspect of human life, their health care, into the control and hands of Corporations----it has not worked efficiently so far----it is foolish to think that it would in the future.
But then the USA if nothing is famous for repeating the same mistakes---over and over and over and-------------
Single payer is the answer. Not socialized medecine the God Forbid would put control of everything in governments hands. But government paid, free to choose your Dr. health care. No insurance companies needed.
Don't forget the billions of surplus profit being made in the medical industries. There's nothing wrong with a little profit, but not unfetterd, unending price gouging/price escalation charges.
Mr. More,
The "socialized medicine" of France and the UK works pretty well. France is generally regarded as having the best healthcare in the world.
Why would having the doctors employed, and hospitals owned, by the government take away "choice"?
Where I live, virtually every doctor and every hospital is employed by a huge local monopoly called "UPMC", and the rest by the second-string monopoly called "WestPenn/Allegheny Healthcare Systems", but there are still good doctors and medeocre doctors to choose from.
I believe I'd take the Canadian single payer system over the socialized medecine in the UK. France is worth studying.
"Why would having the doctors employed, and hospitals owned, by the government take away "choice"?"
Because the doctors are employed by the government directly. Think of it this way, would you like to have had your health care system under the control of GWB the last eight years? I would not. Nor do I want its control under Obama.
I'd suggest that the coverage is set and best that you select where and to whom you go. Government is the best answer sometimes, but not that often. It makes far too many mistakes.
HMO's stink.
Fortunately for me, my wife and I have excellent coverage thru the State. It doesn't make a personal difference to us. But I take it as a personal insult that we spend more than enough money to provide good health care to every citizen of our country and we don't. Thats shameful. Taking a smaller system like the French system and applying it on a much larger scale offers obvious problems.
But if we can't design and implement a better system or at least as good as the best we can find, shame on all of us. There is no reason that the best medical care in the world, which is right here, (IF you can afford it) shouldn't be available to everyone.
Single payer eliminates the insurance companies and they won't go quietly. But you'll never get a socialist health care system thru here in my opinion.
spinwing
What is it that y'all don't understand. Take Canada's "single payer" sytem: this is the system that just (May) provided my 16 y.o. son with a heart transplant. His cardiologist made the suggestion; child made the (no-brainer choice -- but it was his choice). Cost: zero,nada zip. Now what part don't you understand.
Annual cost: $1800. let me spell that for you s l o w l y : e i g h t e e n h u n d r e d d o l l a r s.
I choose my doctor, I choose the specialist. Now what part don't you understand.
Thank you very much. It does seem that simple to me. Though I believe there are some improvements they want to make to that. Why not indeed?
And please bring this up again.
I don't understand why the US continues down this path. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have some form of universal health care. Why don't we look at the best of these programs: France, Canada, Germany and distill what will work best here. I've heard Germany has the best health care in the world. My cousin recently decided to go there for health care when she was diagnosed with breast cancer because there is a doctor there that doesn't automatically just do chemo the way we do here. They appear to have more advanced treatment and will complement it with alternative medicine.
Everything in the US is geared towards profit. Pharmaceuticals preventing alternative medicine from being used because they can't patent natural cures, Insurance preventing people from either getting insurance or using it when they have paid for it. This is just sickening. When are people going to wake up and start voting people out of elected office that don't support the basic welfare of its citizens.
Go Nader/Gonzalez '08!
That our government can stop everything and pander to the Christian right to try to save the life of a poor, brain-dead woman, yet deny a life-saving transplant to a young woman with an entire life ahead of her?
Unbelievable!
Vote Obama, it's our only hope right now.
JaneM
How about caring about the people Obama has killed & will continue to kill?? Do you ever think of them, Jane?? It's so sad. You are well-intentioned but you are wrong. Please STOP being complicit in the murderous intentions of the Democratic party. The election isn't a contest about McCain or Obama; it's a contest inside each of us, esp. those of us who want peace - please don't vote for more endless wars.
You are absolutely correct. These damn Obama suckers are so damn thick that they can't see this.
Anyone who is supporting and voting for a Bush-accomplice faux Dem (which includes Obama) is ALSO a Bush-enabler as well. Why?
Because you are voting for/supporting/still hugging the scum of the Earth politicians who have enabled and been complicit with criminals Bush/Cheney/Rove et al. Therefore, YOU are a Bush-enabler as well because you are voting for and STILL supporting Bush's accomplices/enablers just because they still have that big D behind their name. Got it? I know I'm repeating myself here but repetition is necessary with some people because some people are pretty damn thick. Especially these pathetic Dem kool-aid drinking suckers who refuse to learn from one voting cycle to the other. Push that D on the corrupt electronic voting machines, that's all they know.
But because most of you have been programmed from an early age with that Big D inside you, you can't possibly conceive of voting for someone who does NOT have a Big D behind their name even when that Big D politician is really a Republican. You come up with excuses, apologies and the FEAR card for your addiction to the Big D. This time around you whine out this excuse: "Obama is our only hope" bull shit. It's bull shit because "hope and change" is just a slogan. The Obama campaign knew a lot of people would allow themselves to be bamboozled by such a simplistic PR slogan (which is all it is) and they were correct. The gullible and naive D sheep fell for it. Then you look at Obama's VOTING RECORD which shows no indications of "hope and change." His VOTING RECORD and his rhetoric outside of "feel good" emotional speeches indicates the STATUS QUO.
The only way most of you are going to deprogramme that D that is in you---it was programmed in you just like the supreme being shit was indoctrinated/programmed in you---is by a credible psychologist. Because most people can't deprogramme this shit on their own. It requires professional help...which most of you won't seek by the way.
Therefore the status quo will continue. This applies to the Repugs as well.
The right-wing fundamentalists use cases like Terry Schiavo (I assume that's the poor, brain-dead woman you referenced) to stir up frothy-mouthed hysteria among the brainwashed masses, and to distract from the real issues.
I doubt the Afghan and Pakistani people think Obama is their "only hope." The Iranians might not be thinking too highly of Obama either, since he said "everything was on the table" with respect to Iran. Oh, he'll do a little "talking" and a little "diplomacy" to appease the pro-peace crowds, but he knows he has to start wagging his peen around the world for his corporate masters sooner or later - those Nascar knuckledraggers are going to want to see some action overseas to make sure Obama "has what it takes."
I'm just sickened by these Obama voters. I guess it's okay to continue killing brown people around the world, as long as it's couched as some kind of kinder gentler killing. Jesus, wake up.
Obama is a pretty sad 'hope', Jane. And a might mention that as an RN, I see the insurance companies flipping the finger at sick and elderly people every single day. What in the world is wrong with the people that they just keep allowing all this to go on, all the while thinking that the US Medical System is hot stuff, too? America, get a clue!
between the wall street bailout, insurance horror stories like this one, a military that is the killing machine of corporations, and then diebold voting machines americans have been sold a load of bullshit wrapped in turd sprinkles
worse that that the public is so stupid they buy it all
the country is so fucked up that palin is acceptable as the sub in for the 72 year old cancer culture that is mccain's face
sick country that one
cheers, b
The sickness lies in the privileged position of corporations in this country. They have all the advantages of a 'person', but none of the responsibilities. Nothing is going to change until this changes. I'm not against corporations, just want to see them whittled down to size and have their claws pulled. When that is done this country might, just might, have a chance. As it stands corporations like Cigna rule. And it's going to take a bloody revolution to effect a change. People (and corporations) don't give up power without a fight. The flipping of the finger is just a visible sign of the arrogance of people involved in the corporate matrix. I might remind them of what happened to those who said 'let them eat cake' several hundred years ago in France.
Of course the police arested the protestors and let the captialist thugs go about their business. That's their job!
cigna's owners are perfect examples of the people who have been running this country into the ground, with the breakdown of the financial system as their latest accomplishment. the thing is, as we consider the possible consequences of the financial/economic breakdown, we must keep in mind the viciousness which these people are capable of, a viciousness which the author's piece so elequently depicts. they will stop at nothing -- not even at the cold-blooded murder of children -- to preserve their wealth and power. move now, americans, or move never.
The "health" insurance industry maximizes profits by limiting and denying care to their customers. How is this not illegal?
Right now, I'm fortunate to have decent health insurance through my employer. But how decent is it? Maybe I'd better read those lengthy fine-print brochures to find out which diseases I shouldn't get!
Boy, I can't wait for all the "Christians" who believe in the "sanctity of life" (especially the ones with big media megaphones) to step up and demand justice in this case!
I wonder if they got any video of the guy flipping them off.
It's pretty basic.
In a for-profit health care (sic) system, nobody makes money by paying for medical expenses. They make money by NOT paying for medical expenses.
Most likely Mr. Blue Shirt, after firing off the two-bird salute, marched back to his computer and proceeded to put those fingers to use denying claims.
You're all getting the finger on a daily basis. This instance was just a little more visible.
Donna Smith writes:
"During the protest today we all looked up to see a group of people looking over the mezzanine railings above us. They must have been looking down at us during the whole protest. Hilda called up, 'Do you work for Cigna?' And suddenly what we saw was too horrific to be believed.
"One of the young men 'flipped off' Hilda and Krikor – with gestures on both hands. We all let out a collective scream of disbelief. The young man quickly retreated from his perch. It was a moment I do not think any of us will ever forget."
What the hell makes the difference if the guy works for Cigna? He's got kids to feed too. Your beef's with capitalism -- or should be -- not him.
Yes, him flipping you off was weak. But, from his standpoint, you're probably making him feel like shit for working for Cigna. Again, though, he's got a family too. Cut him some slack. Attack your real enemy: the lack of a pareconish economy.
--
Eric Patton
http://www.myspace.com/412205319
Yea! Really good comment. One does not have to work for "those" people. It does damage the soul. I do have empathy however...it's not easy scrubbing floors and toilets or working in the fields, but it is work that one can be proud of, and you can sleep at night!
It was evident from Moore's movie "Sicko" that there are plenty of disgruntled workers in the health insurance industry. They came out of the woodwork when Michael Moore was soliciting information from unhappy patients! And Moore even interviews a couple of insurance industry employees in the film. (The claims adjuster/reviewer that he interviews is openly crying in the movie because she feels so despicable about what she does for a living.)
I too am not convinced that Obama is going to put through single payer. Many many of his supporters and volunteers have deluded themselves into believing that we are going to get single payer on January 21, or soon after he takes office. Boy, are they going to be surprised. (And hopefully pissed enough to hit the streets and take action.)
I'm convinced that an Obama win without any live action on the streets from the progressives/leftists will blow in a very reactionary and more authoritarian Republican wing in 2012. So all those hundreds of thousands who came out for the Obama rallies and worked his ground game better get off their asses and hit the streets when they realize he's not delivering, or they are in for a rude awakening in 4 years.
Nader/Gonzalez 08
Nietzsche
Vote OBAMA. You can't afford not to.
"Vote OBAMA. You can't afford not to." - Nietzsche
That rendering would make some sense to me.
You all seem to forget it's not just the insurance companies. How many hospitals offer advanced treatments to low income patients? How many? Do they even give low income people a break on their bill if they do not have insurance? NOOOOOOO! They actually charge them more! Additionally, how many private doctors are willing to take less or charge affordable rates, so that those without insurance can afford a visit? Very few! So you see, it's not only the insurance companies, but medical practitioners as well who are complicit in this gouging. I know because my physician is one of the rare few who tries to give his patients a break. He does not accept any insurance, but his rates are about half (or less) of what other doctors charge. I agree with many here, once medicine becomes more about profit than providing care, everyone loses. Many of those who have insurance now have a false sense of security. Once they get sick, though, they're in for a rude awakening.
Have any of you caught the commerical on "healthcare" that Obama is running.
It made my blood boil.
It shows an arrow pointing to both the left and right.
Here's the main text of the ad:
Announcer: "On health care reform -- two extremes. On one end, government run health care, higher taxes.
On the other, insurance companies without rules, denying coverage. Barack Obama says both extremes are wrong.
His plan: Keep your employer-paid coverage. Keep your own doctor. Take on insurance companies to bring down costs. Cover pre-existing conditions, and preventive care.
Common sense for the change we need."
This is nothing more than Obama trying to BURY single-payer healthcare in a Cigna approved grave.
If you are for single-payer you CANNOT be for Obama. Period.
Unless true progressives get access to major media we will always lose to the corporatists who censor and misrepresent single payer healthcare.
** The video of the ad is here if you wish to watch it:
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/10/ad_health.html
As much as I hate to say it, having been a strong union supporter all of my life, it is the AFL-CIO and their me-first politics that is driving Obama's position. We need to call organized labor to task over this travesty.
----------------------------------------
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
- Arundhati Roy
Revolutions are born of hope, not despair.
- Peter Kropotkin
Those Obama commercials also make me ill (pun intended). Imagine, covering everyone is an "EXTREME!" How could anyone possibly interpret that to mean that this guy plans to take on the insurers?! Insanity.
When I was running for office I had terrible run-ins with the local union idiots on healthcare. Long story short, these guys, including the AFL-CIO, didn't want to go after Pennsylvania Blue Cross too much (technically a non-profit) in a 2004 attempt to get them to spend some of their surplus on covering the uninsured, which the BC charter seemed to dictate.
Why? Their pension plan invested in PA Blue Cross!
It gets better... they also complained that their Blue Cross premiums were rising and that they were getting snubbed on negotiating them down! I suggested divesting and these selfish idiots sneered at me that I didn't have any sense.
Uninsured? These unions have no solidarity for you. For shame!
.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/06-0
Under the single-payer system, doctors' offices and hospitals remain private for-profit or non-profit institutions. But the federal government covers the bills for patient services, with funds coming from taxes. The patient gets the health care they need. Paperwork and billing are kept to a minimum. Employers no longer have the difficult task of choosing, administering, and paying for health insurance for employees. Everyone is covered.
VOTE NADER/GONZALEZ 2008… You’ll be glad you did and so will I…
http://www.votenader.org/index.html
.
It will take a revolution. The bailout has proved that we cannot trust any of
our elected officials, including the Presidential aspirants..
Bring back the Guillotine. If Obama turns out to be a double corsser, the
Blacks will do him in, there will be no safe place.
To many Bill Clinton look-a-likes, along with the Jesse Jacksons..
Will Bubba tell us why The Saudi Arabians gave him $10,000,000??
There are a few presidential candidates that have it right, but McCain and Obama are not two of them... Vote NADER/GONZALEZ if you want things to go the right direction.
Go Debbie...another Nader Gal....
I admit it, I'm an incrementalist. I am one because that is the face of the American majority, and I'm a realist about how this election will go.
There are those who say 'vote your conscience!' and I agree with the concept. The truth, however, shows us that if we vote third party, we will be complicit in the hiring of McCain. I cannot in good conscience do that. It's a far greater evil.
peace
How, precisely, does "the truth" show that. I want numbers. Show your work.
If you are a "Frontline" junkie, you already know that 1)single-payer works, and 2)the US health care rating is still plummeting. You will hear some old-timers, like me, say "If you think it costs too much now, wait'll it's free!" They're talking about Canada 20 years ago so you can safely ignore them.
Several times Obama has said that he wants the government to compete with for-profit insurance providers so that they will have to lower their prices and provide more services. He watched his Mother die while arguing with her insurance company. You never get over something that painful.
My guess is that Obama will slowly, one by one, destroy the for-profit insurance providers. Isn't that what you would do if you had the chance? I know I would.
Keep the good thought.
Hope you're right, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
There is an easy answer to these Canadian "wait" stories and "had to go to the US for treatment" stories.
Simply say that if the provinces or federal govt. would just fund the system better, the wait times would disappear. If the Canadian then says he doesn't want to pay more taxes, tell him that their tax contributions to healthcare could triple and they would still be paying less than what we pay in insurance premiums down here.
Also, these wait times are invariably for conditions that are not serious. For example my brother who has occasional lower back problems, is having to wait for an MRI of his back. But it isn't like anyone dies of a bad back. He is simply happy to have access to medical care at all for the first time in his life.
Triage is a fact of life. In Canada, triage is based on urgency of the medical condition, in the US it is based solely on how rich you are.
But your dentists remarks are another reminder of how the ghosts of Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand seem to be stalking the Canadian provinces. I've been reading a lot of news story comments to stories in the Toronto Star and it is a bit like taking a time machine back to 1980.
What our spiritually blind would-be corporate masters apparently don't understand is that the ethic of reciprocity, when it functions effectively, protects everyone, without favor. Conversely, when any powerful entity "flips off" the vulnerable people it is supposed to serve, as Big Health Care Insurance Corporations routinely do in a big way when they deny legitimate claims for coverage - especially so in potentially terminal cases - they act against their own best interests by inviting the ethic of retribution to come into play. The ruthless abuse of power, typically in the pursuit of profit, always invites a negative reaction. The Haymarket Riot didn't occur in a social, economic, and political vacuum. In fact, it occurred because Big Industry routinely abused and manipulated workers arbitrarily for profit. When workers exposed to health hazards in deadly workplaces became too ill to work, Big Industry simply threw them out on the street to die with nothing, no health care benefits and no death benefits for surviving family members, who were often left destitute. Today, there is a monument at the site of the May 4, 1886 bombing and riot that took the lives of seven police officers and an unknown number of civilians. When a people forget or willfully ignore the lessons of their own history, they are doomed to repeat them.
What I find most surprising about the massively corrupt and failing health care insurance industry is that, as yet, there has been little violence directed at Big Health Care Insurance Corporations and their employees. Sooner or later, probably sooner rather than later, violence will occur when either a terminally ill patient who has been denied care or a grief-stricken family member who has lost a loved one to the unmitigated greed of a soulless corporation goes off the deep end. It will lead either to more such violence, or to long overdue changes in the way health care is provided and paid for in this country. When some poor soul finally acts out his or her grief in a destructive manner, and a Big Health Care Insurance Corporation and some of its employees pay a terrible price in blood for unconscionable policies that kill the most vulnerable among us, the gravely ill who cannot easily defend themselves against the abuses of corporate power, well, is there anyone who will be greatly surprised? And will sympathy for the Big Health Care Insurance Corporation be in abundant supply. I think not.
Both obama and McCain keep trying to convince the public that they "do not want government in health care interfering with the choice of their DRs."
Since a lot of us cannot afford healthcare we do not have the luxury of a DR. making a choice for us.
The Drs. do not make the choices for the patients the health care insurance industry does.
I would much rather have a basic system with basic coverage supplied by the government then to have no option at all.
I have also heard private insurance charges women more than men because they require more health care. That is another crock fabricated by the insurance industry because women may live on average a year or 2 more.
The government just does not want socialized medicine because for some reason the usa politicans do not know how to say no to the illegals who utilize the system or have children to get on the welfare roles.
This is not the taxpayers problem. Our elected officals need accountibility.
The issue of government paid coverage could be resolved, even for illegals, if we move from an income-tax based system to a fair tax (which is sales based). Even illegals would be paying into that, as well as foreign visitors to the country.
Please stop with the word "illegals" to describe human beings. It's degrading and dehumanizing.
Everybody in the country should be covered AT ALL TIMES, no matter what their status with respect to citizens: students or workers here on visas, undocumented workers, tourists, U.S. citizens - anybody who is in the country at any given time should have access to health care.
Access to HEALTH CARE should be a right, not a privilege. Frankly, it needs to be worked and tooled into our Constitution explicitly, as far as I'm concerned.
Sorry for the wording, I was responding to the previous poster... I agree that everyone should have coverage. I was just pointing out that everyone would be paying into the system with a fair tax as opposed to income tax which fails to net $ from people who don't pay into payroll taxes as well as tourists...
>>A few days ago during fillings I asked my dentist what he thinks of single payer. Turns out he's originally from Canada, his mother still lives there, and I got the evil socialist version of the story: his mother was supposedly going to have to wait a long time for a medical treatment, so he brought her down to the US, and he's disparaging of Canadian health care.
Basically this Doctor is saying "My Mother(or I) have lots of money and could not get to the front of the line In Canada with all that money. So I took her down to the United States and paid all that money out of my pocket because I have lots of money."
He is also saying "By bringing her down to the United States so she could get to the front of the line because I have lots of money, the prices Americans pay for that same care goes UP and some American with less money then my mother and or who did not have an insurance plan, got no care at all".
In essence he is saying he dislikes the Canadian system because it will not allow him to the front of the line due to his having greater wealth.
The FACT of the matter is there are MORE Americans flying out of the country to get affordable health care in Places like Mexico , India and dare I say it Canada, then there are people coming to America for health care.
The simple fact is there are more people who can not afford to pay cash for their health care, then there are people able to pay out of pocket for the same.
Do not let the latter sell you on what system is better.
PK