I hope you take the time to study this issue, instead of blindly accepting what CNN and FOX news are telling you. Both lack the WISDOM of finding a middle ground. How well does a bird fly with only a left or right wing? It is not about CAPITAL or LABOR. It is about a BALANCE of both.
I believe the best solution to our Health Care Crisis is to address the unfortunate fact that it deals with only 10% of the factors that affect our health. The 90%, nutrition, prevention, lifestyle, environment and social/emotional issues is mostly ignored.
The cost of Medicare “available” to all should drop by defunding a whole lot of the fat in the present system. This is particularly true when we consider that the overhead costs for corporate insurance companies is about 30%, whereas Medicare’s is 5%.
What do I mean by “AVAILABLE to all?” Corporations will not easily step aside and let others play with their marbles. A well-to-do person has the right to keep paying exorbitant health insurance premiums. But the less fortunate could choose to enroll in Medicare. We already have a similar system in education—private and public schools compete with each other. Yes, there are problems with such arrangement, but it is a step in the right direction. To completely eliminate Corporate Health Care would take a revolution. Our country is not ready for that, yet. No, not when “socialism” is a dirty word, never mind Corporate welfare.
But don’t take my word for it. At least read the articles below:
Warning: austerity can seriously damage your health, BMJ 2013;346:f3659
“Hurtling Down the Road to Ruin.”
“A recent New York Times article, (“The $2.7 trillion medical bill”) that focused on colonoscopies highlighted the questionable science, predatory unit pricing, and overutilization that characterize this procedure and much of US healthcare. Patients get routine screenings that, in other industrialized countries, cost one half to one thirtieth of what they do here,
“But Elizabeth Rosenthal, the Times reporter, zeroed in on the root of the crisis, which is how healthcare interests have shaped market and policy forces to their own ends. “The high price paid for colonoscopies mostly results not from top-notch patient care, according to interviews with health care experts and economists, but from business plans seeking to maximize revenue; haggling between hospitals and insurers that have no relation to the actual costs of performing the procedure; and lobbying, marketing and turf battles among specialists that increase patient fees.”
“Many physicians own a financial stake in the care they deliver…“Pricing is typically unrelated to cost or quality, varies wildly among providers… Insurance companies may make a percentage of total cost and so are incentivized to allow healthcare to cost more. Every level of the system is rigged.
“The elephant in the room is that US healthcare costs are crushing the larger economy, not because the clinical science demands it, but because corporations and other interest groups have captured both the healthcare marketplace and the regulatory environment that oversees it.
“We are gridlocked, with no apparent hope of improvement. Last year, Florida Governor and former Hospital Corporation of America CEO Rick Scott observed, “How many businesses do you know that want to cut their revenues in half? That’s why the healthcare industry won’t fix the healthcare industry.”
“Following the money, independent of appropriateness, is hardly unique to healthcare. Several recent exposes in the mainstream press have detailed the cleverness of other industries’ market control efforts.
“But lobbying is an opportunity for anyone with the resources, “It is impossible not to despair after reading these pieces.
“We’re being propelled by powerful vested interests. Our dearest freedoms are being eroded, our pocketbooks emptied, and the nation’s wealth is relentlessly concentrating into fewer hands.
“Large corporations and Congress, through lobbying, are the principal proponents of these threats to our individual, national, and global futures. Their leaders understand that the long-term outcomes will almost certainly not be favorable, but are distracted by short-term benefits. The rest of us are likely to be pawns, consigned to seek the attention of the few influencers who ultimately value the welfare of the many more than that of the few.
“One can imagine events that could disrupt these downward spirals. Bursting economic bubbles, a national outcry against corporate control, or market-based offerings that exploit commonplace market vacuums could force the pendulum to swing back toward balance and more of an open, egalitarian society. Unlikely, but possible. We prefer to hope that the marketplace of ideas remains the most powerful driver of enlightened self-interest, and that workable solutions abound.
“In healthcare, titanic economic pressures are already creating market opportunities, with many young firms innovating with new approaches that deliver measurably better quality at lower cost… But we also need a new Flexner Report, the 1910 study of medical education that revitalized US medicine, establishing a drive toward rigor, science, and professional standards. Now, US healthcare is broken in different ways and needs a clear-eyed, comprehensive reassessment of what we know about care and cost, and how it must be transformed to ameliorate its current threat to our national economic security.”
“Bridging the divide between health and health care,” JAMA 2013;309:1121
“Health Care delivery accounts for only 10% of preventable deaths, with the remainder attributable to personal behaviors, social and environmental determinants, and genetic predispositions. As currently constituted the Health care delivery system has little direct control over these other factors. However, consensus is developing that truly controlling health care costs and improving the overall health of Americans will require a much closer partnership, permeable boundaries, and increased interdependence among the health care delivery system, the public sector, and the community development and social service sectors.”
“To create a culture of health will require creating a market for health, moving away from the current market for treating disease.”
