Our health care system is disintegrating. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home, more than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses.
In the midst of this horrendous lack of coverage, the U.S. spends far more per capita on health care than any other nation, and health care costs continue to soar. At 18 percent of our GDP, the skyrocketing cost of health care in this country is unsustainable.
At the individual level, the average American spends about $7,900 per year on health care. Despite that huge outlay, a recent study found that medical problems contributed to 62 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007. From a business and economic perspective small business owners in Vermont and around the country are forced to divert hard-earned profits into health coverage for their employees rather than new business investments and new jobs.
In terms of cost, we spend almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country – all of which have national health care programs guaranteeing coverage to all of their people. Further, despite all that we spend, our health care outcomes lag behind many other countries in such areas as infant mortality, life expectancy and preventable deaths.
THE SOLUTION
In my view, the United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to every man, woman and child in a cost effective way. In that regard, I think the evidence is overwhelming that we must end the for-profit private insurance company domination of health care in our country and move toward a publicly-funded, single-payer Medicare for All system.
Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Its function is not to provide quality health care, but to make huge profits for those who own the companies. With 1,300 private insurance companies and thousands of different health benefit programs designed to maximize profits, our country spends an incredible 30 percent of each health care dollar on administration and billing, exorbitant CEO compensation packages, advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions. Public programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the VA are administered for much less.
In recent years, we have been paying for a huge increase in health care bureaucrats and bill collectors. Over the last three decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the number of physicians. Doctors and nurses in Vermont have described to me in painful detail the amount of time and money they are forced to waste negotiating with insurance companies about how they can treat their patients.
Not surprisingly, while health care costs are soaring, so are the profits of private health insurance companies. From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation's major health insurance companies increased by 170 percent. And the top executives in the industry are receiving lavish compensation packages – averaging $14.2 million for the top seven companies.
A publicly-funded, single-payer Medicare for All Program would provide freedom of choice in terms of doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. Most importantly, it would save $400 billion a year in administrative waste by eliminating the private insurers’ efforts to fight claims, issue denials and make sure that the people they cover are profit generators.
Sadly, despite being the only approach that would provide comprehensive, cost-effective health care for all, the single-payer legislation which I’ve introduced in the Senate and which others have introduced in the House will not likely be passed into law this year. The reason: the enormous power of the insurance and drug companies who, over the last 10 years, have spent hundreds of millions on lobbying and campaign contributions.
WHERE CONGRESS IS AT TODAY
While the legislation that is currently winding its way through the Senate health committee is nowhere near as effective as single-payer, it does have some positive attributes. They are:
* An effort to provide at least a minimal level of coverage for all Americans who today lack health insurance. This would be done by increasing Medicaid eligibility and providing insurance subsidies for low and moderate income people.
* A radical improvement in primary health care by providing a medical home for every American. This would be accomplished by substantially increasing the number of Federally Qualified Community Health Centers and the number of primary care doctors, nurses and dentists.
* A major increase in funding to significantly improve our efforts at disease prevention and lowering the numbers of Americans who fall ill to chronic diseases.
* An increased focus on “quality control” and trying to assess why some medical facilities provide better care at far lower costs than others.
* Efforts to expand independent living and help keep the elderly and disabled out of nursing homes if they would prefer to live at home.
In addition to the difficult issue of how health care reform is funded, the most contentious issue now being debated is whether all Americans should be entitled to the choice of a public option – a federally-run, premium-based, Medicare-type plan which would compete with private insurance companies. While most Americans think that concept makes sense, the insurance companies and drug companies are pushing back fiercely. Most Democrats in the Senate and I support the concept. All Republicans oppose it.
We are on Twitter, FaceBook & MySpace,
please check it out...
Registered Representative and securities offered through ING Financial Partners Member SIPC
14726 Ramona Ave. # 410, Chino, CA 91710
Jyot Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. is not a subsidiary of nor controlled by ING Financial Partners, IncPLEASE NOTE: The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of the web sites provided here, you are leaving this web site. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these web sites. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, web sites, information and programs made available through this web site. When you access one of these web sites, you are leaving our web site and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the web sites you are linking to
We are on Twitter, FaceBook & MySpace,
please check it out...
Registered Representative and securities offered through ING Financial Partners Member SIPC
14726 Ramona Ave. # 410, Chino, CA 91710
Jyot Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. is not a subsidiary of nor controlled by ING Financial Partners, IncPLEASE NOTE: The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of the web sites provided here, you are leaving this web site. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these web sites. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, web sites, information and programs made available through this web site. When you access one of these web sites, you are leaving our web site and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the web sites you are linking to
No comments:
Post a Comment