Get on Board for U-Care Now!
As we approaching 2009, over 60 years since Europeans thought their citizens deserved a shot at good health, and over 130 years since the Western World (Germany c1883) thought it was a good idea, it’s time in this World Economy that all Americans put their worries aside once and for all when it comes to the basics of good health care.
It is far more economical and much less painful when uninsured citizens (48 million uninsured – 90 million under-insured) are given only the choice of a trip to the emergency room that could have been avoided with a simple trip to the doctor’s office a few days prior. It is also important in a downed economy when jobs are short and workers are in transition, and when the number one killer in the US is stress.
American tax payers are providing health care for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, we pay more for a Japanese automobile so that Japanese companies can pay for their county’s Universal Health Care System, and we give Israel $3+ billion a year in support which helps to fund their Universal Health Care System and Free Education.
Perhaps you don’t like all Americans for political, religious or cultural differences, but have a care, we are all human beings, we rely on each other.
Write your Federal Senators and Representatives today in support of
H. R. 676
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1. Get on Board!
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2. Write a letter — not an email — in your own words to your member of Congress stating that you’d like their commitment to vote for H.R. 676. If your member of Congress is a co-sponsor of the bill, express your support for that stand.
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3. President-elect Obama has asked for volunteers around the country to host discussion groups on the health care issue during the last half of December. Attend a discussion in your area and make the argument for single payer. Click here for more information.
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Education:
Coverage mandate will fail as a health-care reform plan
Statement of Dr. Marcia Angell introducing the U.S. National Health Insurance Act
A Brief History: Universal Health Care Efforts in the US
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First World Nations Providing Universal Health Care
1883 Germany (see 1996)
1948 U. K.
1958 France
1973 Australia
1984 Canada
1987 Spain
1988 Brazil
1993 Japan
+1995 Israel
1996 All EU Nations
Other Countries Providing Universal Health Care
*Afghanistan, Argentina, Chile, China, Cuba, Costa Rica, *Iraq, New Zealand, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea Sri Lanka
*provided by the tax payers of the United States
+Supported by the taxpayers of the United states
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It’s time!
"no doubt about it that nut's a genius" 
I’ve still got mixed feelings on Universal Health Care. On paper, it’s a great idea. But then on paper, so is communism.
While I’m not a health care professional (and I wish I were – it’s one of the few occupations that is still in demand during this recession), I am married to one, and I have several in my family (including my own mom), so I’ve been exposed to it all my life.
One family member got to experience, as part of a travelling nurses’ thing, the up close and personal details of the Canadian Universal health care system. To put it bluntly, she was not impressed.
Okay, to the benefit of the system, anyone with a Canadian ID card can get a doctors office visit, no questions asked. Now, that’s wonderful, and as mentioned in your blog, it does reduce a number of ER visits. But doctors office visits are only the tip of a very large medical iceberg.
Let’s say that you go to your free doctors office visit, and they can’t figure out what’s wrong with you. In our current medical system, you’re referred to a specialist, which most insurance companies are now covering just the same as anyone else. You make an appointment, and can usually be seen in a matter of days, if not on the same day.
But in many UHC nations, when the government foots the bill, they won’t let you just pop by your local specialist. There’s paperwork, government forms, a request has to be made by you and the doctor. And that’s just the starting point. Once the government gets it, they can decide to approve the request or not. When the decisions leave our hands and wind up in the hands of bureaucrats, you know disaster is inevitable. They would have the right to reject you for no good reason. They could approve you, but instead of letting you see the expensive doctor you want to see, they can send you to the specialist whose just out of medical school, inexpensive, and probably less experienced than the referring doctor.
And there’s the other stuff. It’s no secret to our family that we’re going to a reproductive specialist in hopes of getting pregnant. Now, what happens if the government decides the US is too overpopulated, like the socialized medicines in the Asian nations? All of a sudden we get a letter telling us we’re not allowed to see our doctor anymore. How nice that will be. And for that matter, the doctor we’re seeing is one of the more expensive ones. We’re driving 60 miles to see him because he’s good, even though there are far cheaper, and less effective doctors in our back yard. In socialized medicine, if they even approve fertility treatment, they might force us to leave the doctor we’ve been at for several months, to take a close, cheap doctor.
The bottom line is that I don’t want the government thinking for me. I want to go to the doctor I feel can best suit my needs. Socialized healtcare, in all the nations that have tried it so far, seems to indicate that you lose tht freedom.
If it passes, I’ll work with it, and make do, but I’m far from being sold on the idea.
All the same, I enjoyed your post. It was well written and expressed your thoughts quite well. Peace!
Amen to the sentiments in the video there… as a Brit who already enjoys universal healthcare (although it’s increasingly coming under attack by those who want to break it up an privatise it), I hope the American people get the high quality health provision they deserve. I think it’ll be a long fight, but I believe it’s can be won in the medium to long term!
jesus you DID get all fired up!!
Jim, you are missing the most important point, but when you have no Health Care, like 48 million people in the US you’ll know what it is.
Take a look at Ralph Nader’s proposal, I think you’ll might like it – http://www.votenader.org/issues/single-payer/
Jan,
I’m unemployed, I returned all the christmas gifts I bought this week for food, and more importantly, I have no health insurance. If I get seriously sick, I am screwed, no doubt about it. My wife’s insurance is the only way we could get her treatments.
Being in a place with no job, no money, and no insurance, it’s tempting to grab the dangling carrot that is free universal healthcare. And like I said, I’m not immediately opposed to the idea. However, when the feds are footing the bill, traditionally the result is that everyone can have the basic, “ground floor” doctor visits, but getting the higher levels of care, the specialists and the specialty medicines, require convincing the government of your ailment. Great, I can go get my flu shot and a checkup when I’ve got an ouchie in my tummy, but if I have a serious medical issue a family practice doctor can’t fix, I just trade off an insurance bill for paying litigators to convince gray little men in gray little suits that the my gray face is illness related, and not government.
Yes, I agree that something needs to be done to make healthcare available to those in need. I agree that it’s a tragedy that so many millions are uninsured (myself included). I would love to see something happen. But since the government is likely going to restrict healthcare to the minimum possible payout anyway, why not pass a bill to open thousands more free clinics. You’d get the free base level for the uninsured, and my wife can keep seeing her specialist with her insurance.
Again, if the bill becomes law, it won’t break my heart, but if it does happen, I DO want to have some checks and balances in place to avoid the problems created by UHC nations overseas. Just a thought 😀
sorry about your Christmas… 😦
BTW – the Feds aren’t footing the bill we the tax payers are. This will cost you roughly 12% of your gross income
21% of your private health care goes to Admin fees, not to mention billion$ lost to waste fraud and abuse – the VA, outside a few areas, Admin costs run at 3% and most doctors prefer one source rather than 100 which allow them to lower their prices.
I don’t know too many insurance companies that don’t pick and choose what specialist or meds you can take or use.
Most of the country is under-insured and can’t see them anyway – in fact, a friend of mine is on state based care and has more options than I do!
Read Nader’s plan, it’s the best I’ve seen. He has been for single payer for years, you chose doctor and hospital. His team is making it the #1 priority – hop on board, click Nov 5 above and scroll down for the details.
good luck!
My experience of universal healthcare in the UK has been that I can see a doctor on the same day I call to make an appointment (that’s in the town I’m from in W Sussex, it does vary. In Oxford where I am now, I may have to book an appointment a couple of days in advance).
My GP is absolutely brilliant and there is no limit on the number of times I can go and see him or whatever. There was a period I went through with a recurring illness when I must have seen him every 3 weeks or so, but it didn’t matter.
Any prescription medicine I get costs a flat rate of £7.50. Ok, we don’t get some of the very few new trial drugs easily, but once they’re proven to be worth the cost beyond doubt, they too come under the normal presription cost and availability.
I’ve also personally had to go for a couple of scan (I think they’re called CT or CAT scans, I’m not sure) and they were a couple of weeks after the doc told me I needed them.
There are some crappy elements to the system, like issue with accident and emergency at 2am on a Friday night (although, shouldn’t everyone be seen equally, rather than me being able to see an emergency doctor quickly merely because I’m wealthier than other people?!), and hospital infections that got out of hand but are now under control again since the gov brought in new hygiene standards.
Whatever is wrong with the system, it’s served me very well so far in my 23 years of life, and if it’s still around in another 23 years, I can be secure in knowing that my gaining of medical treatment is not based on my ability to pay. To me healthcare is a human right, not a luxury.
Oh, and the NHS costs less for the British gov in terms of GDP than the US’ mess of a system. Britain spends 7% of its GDP on healtcare while the US spends 14%. In 2005 (I’m pretty sure, may have been 06) around 49cents of every tax $ was going towards the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s the priority of the US political establishment that probably needs to be reversed if American citizens are to get more out for the amount they’re paying in and for a more equitable health system.
there’s no argument that stands up against Universal Health Care for every citizen other than greed and self interest over the destitute.
What ever the health care as long as everyone is covered, it can get better, because people can get better.
Look 70% of any care you pay into goes towards end of life, having young people support the system guarantees a long one.
If you have to wait a few extra days for something that’s not vital it’s worth it, but that said, it’s not like we don’t have the people or the know how to have the best in the world. Those who want to deny their fellow citizens health care are basically assholes and shouldn’t be in positions of power, they should be minding the books for any fraud and abuse.