Posts Tagged ‘Universal health care’
Americans of a Lesser God?
- Image via Wikipedia
I came across this honest piece at the excellent Blog for Iowa. Sounds like it was originally published in my home-town newspaper, The Burlington Hawk-Eye. [That’s beautiful Burlington, left, at the top.]
I had the following published in the Burlington newspaper last Saturday. I offer it here for people to use, distribute further, etc. My essay is a little long and rambling, but I have been silent too long. And we dare not lose this fight.
David Ure
Burlington, Iowa
~To what lesser God do those people who have no health care insurance belong? What sin did they commit? I have no doubt some of them have made mistakes, made bad choices, engaged in illegal or immoral activities in some instances, didn’t get themselves elected to the state house or Congress; but not all 47 million plus.
The time has come, if we are to continue to call ourselves a nation of God and faith and fairness, for every American to have health insurance. My preference is to plop everyone into Medicare whose operational costs are half to 2/3 lower than the private sector, and allow the insurance companies the opportunity to sell all of us supplemental policies as my elderly, now long-gone, relatives purchased for years.
But I won’t say it has to be this way or nothing. More than anything else, I want to see coverage in place for everyone, and for it to be there in as direct and obvious a manner as can be cobbled together. Read the rest of this entry »
“I denied a man an operation, and caused his death”
Former Humana and Blue Cross/Blue Shield cost-cutter Dr. Linda Peeno confesses “I know how managed care kills and maims patients,” and how her salary skyrocketed when she began cutting care that patients needed.
Think this is an exception? That this isn’t how the system was meant to be? You may be surprised when the video cuts to a tape-recording from a historic White House.
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Here’s a written record of what she said in that hearing on May 30, 1996:
I wish to begin by making a public confession: In the spring of 1987, as a physician, I caused the death of a man.
Although this was known to many people, I have not been taken before any court of law or called to account for this in any professional or public forum. In fact, just the opposite occurred: I was “rewarded” for this. It bought me an improved reputation in my job, and contributed to my advancement afterwards. Not only did I demonstrate I could indeed do what was expected of me, I exemplified the “good” company doctor: I saved a half million dollars.
I contend that “managed care,” as we currently know it, is inherently unethical in its organization and operation. Furthermore, I maintain that we have an industry which can exist only through flagrant ethical violations against individuals and the public.
Some insist that health care funding is best left in the hands of private industry. I say the for-profit insurance industry is—by definition—committed to its own wealth, not to America’s health.
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Satire: Top 10 reasons to oppose universal healthcare
#6, yup. #5, uh-huh. #2, yes, that, too.
I’ve actually heard some of these pitched with a straight face—and you may find some in the comments, below.
But here’s the simple truth: Americans pay twice as much for healthcare as that paid by citizens of any other nation. For their money, they get a healthcare system ranked worse than that of more than twenty thirty-six other nations.
Now it’s not Hillary’s plan we’re talking about here – or Obama’s. No, true universal single-payer healthcare is much different, and much more efficient.
Which leads me to the reason I hear the most: “Inefficient government bureaucracy would drive prices sky-high!” Really? Think of this: Those millions of pages of paperwork doctors pass to hundreds of different private insurers—each with its own forms, deductibles, and co-pays; each advertising for its market share; each with its own unique mix of coverages—that’s more efficient?
Twenty Thirty-six other nations get better care for half as much. Have we, just maybe, been sold a pro-business bill of goods?
Take a look at Jane Bryant Quinn: Yes, We Can All Be Insured. Or Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan.
Have you seen the fellow traveling with John Edwards who couldn’t speak for the first fifty years of his life? He couldn’t afford cleft palate surgery. What kind of ruthless dogmatism is it that has persuaded us to keep private insurance at twice the cost—while 47 millions of our neighbors go without?
Tags: universal+health+care, Clinton+health+care, Romney+health+care, single+payer+health+care, Monte Asbury