At a time when devastating earthquakes ravage surrounding countries and potential disasters, like the recently evolving swine flu pandemic, run rampant, the American public should take these events as an unmistakable warning.
A warning sign that during the last year the United States has labored immensely, through expensive efforts, to deploy public health supplies and staff to the public in order to deal with vaccine production and distribution.
The answer to America’s bewilderment is universal health care.
The U.S. spends twice as much as any other industrialized nation on health care per capita. Our system performs poorly in comparison, leaving 46.3 million people without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.
Reforming America’s health-insurance system is not going to be an easy task for the Obama administration, given society’s natural aversion to change, not to mention the Republican disdain for anything that might help Barack Obama.
With that in mind I guarantee unless our nation repairs, or even simply enhances, our capacity to deal with major medical crises on our own soil, America will be vulnerable during the serious challenges that surely lie in wait.
That repair comes in the form of health care reform -- known to Republicans as the end of times or a government takeover if you will. However, this conservative rhetoric amounts to nothing but whiney qualms. The House bill is not, I repeat not, a “government takeover.”
The current proposal subsidizes the supposed “takeover” by giving the investor-owned insurance industry power to reduce premium costs for tens-of-millions of families and small-business owners who are priced out of coverage currently. To make this more clear, the bill carries provisions for the expansion of Medicaid, for example. It also provides strong regulation of the insurance industry and no denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, such as cancer.
Simply put, the debate in Washington boils down to this: The insurance companies are spending $1.4 million a day to oppose reform and now is the time to act. If we do not reform our feeble health care system, insurance companies will continue to profit off middle-class Americans by keeping the system as it is, i.e.- denying care because of pre-existing conditions, raising premiums, denying claims and making health care decisions instead of our doctors.
If that is not enough for you, health insurance CEO's continue to make record yearly profits, while health insurance premiums have been going up four times faster than wages. At the same time they are giving millions in campaign contributions to push through reforms that will add billions more to their profits and do nothing for the rest of us.
Lastly, health care reform gives your employer a strong incentive to retain your health insurance or make it better.
The House of Representatives' health care plan would practically pay for itself during the next decade. Yes, from 2020 to 2029 it would add to the federal budget deficit, but if we stop bombing for oil we wouldn’t have to shell out billions each year to our military. Additionally, the House has stipulated that taxes will not go up for the middle class either.
Moreover, The Lewin Group, an independent study of the legislation, issued a study recently that conveyed 29.7 million people would get coverage by 2011, which would shrink the number of projected uninsured by 60 percent.
The bill would also create health insurance marketplaces, in which consumers could shop for coverage. The Lewin study also estimates that 41 million people would obtain coverage through those exchanges, including 21 million in a public plan.
No matter what your view on our nation’s health care system is, we can all agree reform is needed. America is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t carry universal health care and it seems to be working pretty well for Hawaii.
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