Tuesday, October 5, 2010

HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE FUTURE OF IT: Single Payer System also known as Medicare

Health Care Reform: A straw that break the camel back!
For all the Progressives that was the cold shower that came out of nowhere after a very stormy love affair they have for over a year with The President, then Candidate Hopeful!
Democrats fall in Love, Republican fall in line!
Never really understand that until this Midterm Election of 2010!
To all of You Progressives before I continue with my line of thought about the issue at hand, let me ask You a very simple question:
   - Are You Progressive who is so disappointed in The President or You are Progressive who is so disappointed in the current political state of the afaires?
Cause  The President is just one Man, in a Democracy You can vote him out; but if You really scratch the surface, do You honestly want to replace him with the alternative under the same economic system???
The failure of the Health care Reform?
What a joke that was!- A thriller of it own kind!
The house pass the Public Option...kind of...but so watter down in the different Commissions and chambers, but they passed at least!
And just when We start breading again... it just stuck in the Senate!
There it was: like a good Diner and a movie but no trill in the guts!
Love We could not squeeze from a single Republican, or so they say...
The reality was The blue dogs Democrat get their cold feet and they pull and push to somehow get warm and ready for the final stroke...and they fall...smoke, but no cigar...no Public Option!
We fell betrayed of course, after all We have a champagne cooling next to our beds...and a strawberries glass... not to mention how much did We invest to make the night perfect!
Oh, come on!
Progressives...grow up!
Get the morning after pill and get off your high horse, OK!
The Health Care Bill no matter how imperfect is, no matter how grotesquely deform it is, we must understand that is just a reflection of the people we have in Washington DC, that's all...
The Health Care bill that pass the Congress and land on the President desk to be sign in Law was a product of bipartisan deals and negotiation, with the sticky fingers of the lobbyists, ridden with goodies to the Health Care Monopolies, sort of like the culture of our Elected Officials, period!
The question You should be asking Yourself in order to get sober is:
   - Imperfect the way it is, yet, when set in place, do we have today better Health Care system then the one we have before before?
My opinion is: Yes, we do! Here is why: If that disaster of a Reform save only one life then  it was worth it, and it Was the President who save that single life!
The change moment happen when The President face the House GOP if you remember, and reap them apart with in debt knowledge on every issues they attack him with, calm and fearless...
And I remember The Health Care "summit" when he said to one of the GOP:
   - "We talking about people who are  making $ 40 000 or less a year if they still have the jobs..."
So making that part of the Health Care Reform crystal clear, let me ask you my dear Progressives:
Did you like the idea of a public option? Did you rather be having a single payer system?
I know, I do!
So when I stop and focus on the Health Care issues I'm actually grateful to GOP and those screaming Tea Party people who scared the bejesus out of the "blue dogs"!
They did all of us a favour indeed!
While we are at the Single Payer system let clear the air and start with the following few questions:
How many people understand what Single Payer system really is?
How many people believe it is a Government takeover of the Health Care?
How many believe it will be a tax burden to all of us?
How many Progressives believe in the myth that it is a Human Right oppose to the not so glorious reality as a Human Privilege?
Well guess what:
The answer is one for all of those question one and the same: it is none of the above!
Single payer system is not a human right, nor a privilege...
SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM IS A HUMAN ACCOMPLISHMENT!
First and foremost, single payer system is a different set of mind, higher conscience based on the knowledge that we human discover and conquer the old natural enemies: germs and viruses, generations upon generation of humans pass that trial and mistake knowledge to all of us today and it is a duty of the society to provide the care cause it is a Civilization Heritage of Us all!

How many people among progressives have that set of mind?
Not many, I will add...

Let move to the next step: if we focus at the problem of Health Care we need to dismiss every illusions we have about:
   - Why we, like a society, need a Single Payer System?
The answer is very simple:
   - Single payer system is the cheapest HC system develop everywhere in the world...

CountryLife expectancyInfant mortality ratePhysicians per 1000 peopleNurses per 1000 peoplePer capita expenditure on health (USD)Healthcare costs as a percent of GDP% of government revenue spent on health% of health costs paid by government
Australia81.44.22.89.73,1378.717.767.7
Canada81.43.92.39.03,89510.116.769.8
France81.04.03.47.73,60111.014.279.0
Germany79.83.83.59.910.417.676.9
Japan82.62.62.19.42,5818.116.881.3
Norway80.03.03.816.25,9109.017.983.6
Sweden81.02.53.610.83,3239.213.681.7
UK80.14.82.510.02,9928.415.881.7
USA78.16.72.410.67,29016.018.545.4
  wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Cross-country comparisons of health care cost

   They say the picture is worth a thousand word...so is this data...
   We spend the highest percentage of our GDP on health care witch is THE MOST expensive in the world, but as we can see, that's only half of the health care cost our Government paid to the Health care private participants, meaning, that even so expensive, our HC system don't include premiums paid in order people as well as our Employers to purchase profit based Insurance, nor they include out of pocket expenses people face every time they get sick and need a medical help...
The GOP screams in order to protect their lavish campaign contributors interest, as well as many of the Democrats in the Congress, but  make no mistake:
The future of the Health Care system in America is including everyone in the health care system that is already in place in America, and it is called Medicare!
Yes, Medicare is a single payer Government regulated, operated and implemented system and our senior love it...  and they will love it even more if there is no plan A,B,C,D, no donuts wholes no supplemental insurance...no insurance at all...
All we need to do is send people in Washington DC who believe that every single American should not be discriminated against and deserve a decent Medicare for all...
That lead us to the question of: rising Medicare cost!
What a joke that is: day in and days out the GOP is screaming about that and we Progressives are wiggling like a kids in a school chair on a math test without real answers!
   - Well don't!
The Problems of Medicare are not the aging Populations, coming of age of the Baby boomers, or the fact that people live longer and longer, that is the most pitiful excuse not worth a eon of time spend on reflection on it...
The Medicare cost, as well as the Health Care cost are constantly rising because of the mix of the Public and Private entity collecting the occurring bills!
There is three Monopolies that Are constantly building up the price of medical services:
   1. The Hospitals, private and public...
   2. The Pharmaceutical Industry: the drugs  producers as well as medical equipments suppliers...
   3. The Insurance Companies!
They all are driving the prices of medical cost up for all of us, not just Medicare, cause they are bound like every other Corporation out there to make more and more profit with every passing quarter!
If we dedicate our lifestyle to a healthy green living and we don't need their services, they will rise the prices to sustain their growth! We are nothing more then a cost for them...
In all honesty: they will relentlessly perform better the sickest and worse we are like a Nation!
Now the most important question is:
   -What can we do about it!
My answer is very simple:
Single payer system for all...no insurance, strong public Medical sector where the employees are strong Unionized medical professionals who upon desire can open private practice, but meanwhile they can work as any other Government employee with a set time without looking how many patients they have in a given day, but to make sure their patients well being come first...sort of like in any Western develop Countries...
That will bring the cost pf Medicare down and here is why:
   - If We take the Profits of the  Insurance Companies out of the equation the cost of the Medicare will go down!
   - If We use public aka taxpayers money to build medical infrastructure the price of the Medicare will go down!
   - If We use the buying power of the size of the Federal Government to search for competitive pharmaceutical, including out of the country drugs suppliers, the price of the Health Care in general will go down! 
My Dear Progressives it is an economic laws coming into a place, and those Laws are sort of like a gravity: They happen like it or not, period!
The Problems of Medicare for all of our Citizen are purely of political Nature...as long as we accommodate the Special Interest of the Three Monopolies we will never have a Health Care that will serve our Nation, but our Nation will serve the Health Care providers!
The change will come sooner then we anticipate, cause the health care cost are hurting the bottom line of every other Corporations...they becoming to big to bare in the ever competing Global Market!
So far, GOP will like to trow all of us into the pang of the Health Care Private merciless Industry, but most of the people are becoming aware that there is another option...cheapest and more effective for the Nation...and those views I am sure will eventually prevail...
Marie

2 comments:

  1. I have my first reviews!
    Thank You guys, who ever You are!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great article Marie..."Medicare for all" should be the slogan...you have seen through to the core of the problems we are having...

    ReplyDelete