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An Open Letter to Sen. Kennedy
Dear Sen. Kennedy,
Numerous newspaper articles detail your hard work on a health plan for submission to President Obama in January. Health care was one of the two leading domestic issues (the other being the economy) for those voting for Sen. Obama, and it is especially important to the 47 million Americans with no health coverage, and to the additional huge number of citizens who are underinsured and thus one major family illness away from bankruptcy.
It is important to the rest of us, as well. A recent nonbinding question on the ballot in many Massachusetts districts stressing health care as a human right and calling for universal, single-payer health care was overwhelmingly approved (average 73 percent) by the voters. Many polls of physicians both in Massachusetts and nationally show that a majority of physicians now favor such a plan.
At present, the myriad companies (multiple payers) providing health insurance require mountains of paperwork from physician offices and hospitals, adding to medical costs. Then patients face exclusions for previous illnesses, the preapproval process, the varying menus of often stripped-down services paid for or not, allowed or not, the often high copays and premiums, all of which require them to navigate a labyrinthine maze before they get what they need, or they give up and forgo care.
Sick people shouldn't have to go through this! Insurance companies should not be practicing medicine. A previous illness should not be treated like a previous conviction. These corporations take almost one-third of the health care dollar off the top for administrative costs, marketing, dividends to stockholders and often huge CEO salaries and benefits.
In contrast, Medicare retains only 3 percent to 5 percent for overhead costs. That means providing a strengthened (the current administration has cut it back and diluted it) Medicare-type system for all would result in savings of billions of dollars now taken by insurance corporations. Government contracts with pharmaceutical corporations for bulk-purchase reduced drug pricing, currently forbidden by the Bush administration, would save still more billions of health dollars now pocketed by Big Pharma. Employers would no longer be responsible for providing insurance, saving them money and obviating the need for tax breaks they receive for doing so.
All other First World countries unquestioningly provide universal health care for their citizens, have better health outcomes than the U.S. (we're 37th in World Health Organization ranking) and pay far less than we do per capita. Decent societies ensure health care for all just as they provide education, clean water and police and fire protection.
Sen. Kennedy, you have fought the great fight, representing what is good and right for your constituents here in Massachusetts and for Americans across our great country, and you are the go-to senator on health care.
Our country is now at a crossroads, with the promise of change. Please don't be timid about changing the health care system. Don't listen to the bands of lobbyists who want to retain the present investor-owned private insurance industry and the profit-engorged pharmaceutical companies' dominance. Speak once again for all Americans, who deserve universal, single-payer, government-financed, privately provided health care. Can we do this for America?
Yes, we can.
- Posted in
31 Comments so far
Show AllI dont get it...
In Canada, with a max tax rate of 29%, we still have excellent universal health care coverage, I can go to any doctor I want, get any treatment or medication my doctor and I decide on, and the doctors all make a buttload of money and drive BMW's, and it cost everyone from $0-$75 a month for coverage.
Why cant the USA get it shit together? who is skimming the money from the till?
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Who is skimming the money from the till? That's easy, it's the health insurance companies. They are the only ones making profits from the present system, they are the lobbyists for keeping it. Greed is the motivator for corporations in this country, and greed is the last thing you should have in a health care system. But it is the American way.
Except for it being the American way, I completely agree with you.
Tongue was firmly in cheek.
Oops, I always mean exactly what I say.
So much of our disastrous US health policy boils down to these two excellent yet brief posts!
Thanks, mujeriego and George Markley!
One year ago our president refused to extend SCHIP health benefits to the children of the working poor as he proudly vetoed legislation with that objective.
"It's the American way," he said.
Do you know anything about that SCHIPS Bill?
I sure would like the opportunity to sign that open letter to Sen. Kennedy. And I wish him all the best in his own health.
General practitioners (i.e. doctors in the community, rather than employed by hospitals) here in the UK also are paid very well. This is quite a recent development, but already in the practice in my own village (yes a village of about 3,000 people, not a big town) it is translating into a truly excellent service, much better than we've been used to for many years.
Vested interests in the US have got away for years with demonising any system of universal health care as "socialised medicine". It's time to call their bluff. Go for it.
It is time MoveOn and every other alleged Progressive organization supported the movement for PROGRESSIVE single-payer health care. Health care is a RIGHT, not a privilege. See The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html), which the U.S. signed in December, 1948, but has yet to fully live up to.
ED:I'd only change or add this "every person"....should support the movement for single-payer...(The road block has been politicians. For over 50 years, or so.)
Responsibilities as shared by individuals vs their government are not currently well defined. Too many rights, too much freedom, too much aberration result in doubt, abuse, and confusion. That may apply with respect to health care. According to our Constitution, Bill of Rights; and, Our Declaration of Independence; the point is made that Government's obligation is to protect and insure people their Rights to Life, Liberty, and their PURSUIT of Happiness-Not the Product..
To me, those mandates place government in the role of a limited insurer- one responsible more for the Catastrophic hazards of life; leaving the ordinary pursuits and obligations (including choice as to charity), to the individual.
I believe that such division of cost would tend to a far more affordable tax (Private insurance premium) upon each - the citizen; and, upon his government.
Evidence also suggests that Relieving individuals of their rightful obligations tends to a weakening of character.
tedlray:your last line is a whopper. That's what the NY Police said when putting poor people out into the cold in the winter at the turn of the 19th into 20th century, after having let them sleep in the empty jail cells when it was in cold of winter. Please, please, on the eve of Thanksgiving, I ask you to go to DemocracyNow and look at the transcript of the short interview yesterday with the author of "A People's History of Poverty in America" by Stephen Pimpare. www.democracynow.org
Your suggestion regarding Stephen Pimpare's words has been followed. Thank you. It remains obvious
to me that we remain in need of better definition of our issues and terms if we are to dialogue rather than argue. My point remains that it is imperative that we balance both individual and collective "RIghts" with clear stipulation and assignment of matching "Responsibilities". UNESCO realized that; and, though unsuccessful, authored such a document in the 90's. That need remains unfulfilled to this day.
As to coping with states of poverty or any genuine life need, questions remain: Which are personal, which are collective, which involve the partnership of government?
The UN helped to assign the general responsibility of "charity" , i.e. needs of the poor, to the government, within
Article 25 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
"(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security....... in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
The "right to life" is the best argument I've ever read in support of Medicare for all, thank you.
There is a window open for some real change in our health care system and I hope that Kennedy rises to the top and becomes a true Statesman. And that he does what is right. Not politically right or economically right or religiously right. But right because the future depends on it. In order to progress as a society we need to be healthy. Right for America in all ways. A healthy middle-class will unfortunately do the necessary work to keep the empire running. He has to stop the obscene profits that the current medical care system is generating. There is no excuse for our medical care to be so poor. The American middle-class is the backbone of the country. It needs a Statesman, not a doctor.
Hoa binh
I would suggest to Sen. Kennedy that he should go to Spain to treat his Glioma with Cannabis instead of here where we have ridiculous views on Medicine
Who says he isn't already?
kabirji,
How do you know beyond any reasonable doubt that Ted Kennedy is using "traditional" medicine to eradicate his brain cancer? There are many non-traditional MDs and clinics in this country that are using "alternative" and less invasive treatments to cure many illnesses, including brain cancer.
Senator Kennedy is the principal author of the failed "Leave No Child Behind". Can we trust him to concoct another byzantine failure? Yes we can!
I recently had an expensive surgery. Medicare, my primary, paid swiftly and about 90% of the cost. I am still dickering with my secondary, private insurer for about $4000. When I called my secondary insurer I was told that my notion that they would pay the outstanding claims not covered by medicare are "old wives tales"!
This experience tells me that a universal one-payer system is the superior way to go even if that entails some longer waiting periods for non-emergency cases.
Got it in one. And we can only hope he will put Americans first in any case.
I posted this late yesterday, but I'd like to get a few more people thinking about it if I could.
This doesn't really belong on this string, but when I left the Food Bank yesterday we were out of almost everything and nothing was coming in.
PLEASE donate to your local Food Bank, I understand this is not just happening to us. Giving is down everywhere for obvious reasons, but even one can would help. Please give what you can.
To any that are offended by my posting off point, my apologies.
Thomas More, I second your urgent request to donate whatever one can to their food depots. Our second service day for the week was today and we also ran out of most of the staples we supply regularly (we buy ourselves). It was the most hectic day of this month so far, but we can envision only a worsening of the situation as the numbers of users rise every month. We are already running in the red for this year...since all of us but two are volunteers, donations are not spent on salaries, only on food stuffs that provide basic, but good nutrition (ie: rice, beans, tuna, powdered milk, etc.). It's cold weather foods we need now, and desperately so!
Thanks for reinforcing my post. And thank you for trying so hard. My hope is that as things get worse, and they will I believe, more people will see the need.
A P.S.: Single payer is great. Every health system has certain drawbacks, but I would storm our parliament if we ever changed to the American system. The most I ever paid out of pocket for medicare (it is usually part of my work benefits) was 59$ per month and that included my two children.
The American way: Screwing citizens - giving half our budget to
the Pentagon* --and bailing out capitalists---!!!
How long are we going to stand for this corruption -- ??
THE thing to do is to remove age restrictions from Medicare --
and send insurance companies packing --
*Pentagon still can't account for 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS --!!!
And billions more in Iraq --
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Gee, if we had a single-payer Canadian-style health care system, what would all those insurance company bureaucrats end up doing for a living?
As for tedlray's: "Evidence also suggests that Relieving individuals of their rightful obligations tends to a weakening of character," this is among the most debunked of Reagan-esque tediums. Except when it applies to inherited wealth! Take George Bush, please!
One small example: Recently, a Japanese auto firm announced that it was planning to open a new facility in Greensburg Indiana that would hire a few thousand. Tens of thousands applied for the jobs. If a thousand jobs are available and 10,000 people need work and apply for it, what does this have to do with "a weakening of character"? That is ideology without substance. In fact, it is Roveian propaganda.
The great majority of doctors today back some form of single-payer health care and they are on the front lines of this war. And if you asked them, honestly, one-on-one, what do you REALLY think about Big Pharma, they would likely as not vomit in your lap. A huge percentage of disease today is attributable to environmental pollution over which most individuals have little control. But be sure to blame the victim, for "weak character." The real problem here is that the great majority of people in this country are given no real instruments for control of their own lives because we no longer live in a Democracy (if we ever really did after World War I). My father grew up on a small midwestern farm. There was no local doctor. Ditto for many generations preceding. But that was before industrial pollution on a massive scale that pollutes the gene pool and causes cancers.
You can count me among the VERY angry people who are "sick unto death" of the Regressives and their Free Market bullshit (and I know, Sioux Rose, I need to find a way out of this anger to a Buddhist perspective, but some things just set me off, and the health care issue is one of them). Okay. Corporations poison the planet and then charge us to make us "healthy." This system is insane and the people who keep replicating it (e.g., "depleted uranium") need to be stopped.
-30-
the va model is the only way to go!!
if you don't know talk to a vet
that uses it
that is not
totally fucked up by war
where there is little
if
no
hope
at all
ken
For those who look for a complete government health plan; and, especially for those who reference the United Nations "Declaration of Human Rights" as evidence for the RIGHT to health care.. just a word of caution. The U N also qualifies WHEN "RIGHTS TO SERVICES AND CARE apply. It might be good to realize those Rights are far from free. Here is the quote:: "Article 25 " :
"(1) Everyone has the right to ......... medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security....... in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood........................... in circumstances beyond his control."
What so many overlook, is that phrase, "in circumstances beyond his control". Shouldn't the question then arise: as to personal welfare responsibilities, WHEN and TO THE EXTENT ONE IS ABLE , AND IN CONTROL? Doesn't that suggest that then there may be obligations one must meet on his own -as he is able, able to learn how and to deal with, to prevent, those "adverse circumstances"?
Pres-Elect Obama mentioned a need for individuals to buy their own insurance policies and to engage in personal measures of good nutrition, hygiene, exercise, TO THE EXTENT THEY CAN.
That sharing of responsibility might leave government better able to deal with things catastrophic & life threatening. Make sense ?
Everyone is entitled to health care:prevention by way of good nutrition would fit under the right to food, education, shelter, safety. Single payer health care is working well, but it's not in the US. Did you see "Sicko"?
"Everyone is entitled to health care": "prevention by way of good nutrition would fit under the "right to food, education, shelter, safety." (That is an incomplete and inadequate quote about human "rights", should anyone see fit to rely on it....)
This continuing insistence upon "RIGHTS TO.." perpetuates the persistent thinking that other people are to do the PROVIDING. Please note, that When poverty or valid inability prevail; or when life itself is threatend, or catastrophies occur; it stands to reason that THEN it's time for universal insurance, via government, to step in. When such is NOT the case, however, and when individuals HAVE the capacity to care for themselves, to insure themselves, to choose their own course to health, safety, and livelihood; under such circumstance; WHY should they, we, not see those as personal obligations? Odd. Even The United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights offers that qualification (Article 25).