Left News and Views

As a private consultant, I have to provide my own health-care insurance. Those who are responsible for their own coverage recognize all too well how out-of-whack the health-care system is in America.

Until a couple years ago, my wife and I had the Blue Cross Personal Choice plan. Premiums, which always far out-strip increases in the cost of living, ultimately crept up to the point where to renew we would be paying – for two people in very good health – more than $16,000 a year.

Under our current plan, Keystone POS, we pay more for prescriptions, visits to doctors and specialists, procedures and have a liability of $750 if we are hospitalized. But the change was necessary to bring down the cost to a point where we could afford it and still put food on the table.

This year the renewal cost went up 14 percent – again even though our health, if anything, has improved – and our annual cost now will be in excess of $13,000.

It is no wonder then that, according to a story in Reuters, a federal report issued Monday shows that more than 40 million people in the United States say they cannot afford adequate heath care and go without drugs, eyeglasses or dental treatment.

Tragically, of those without health insurance, nearly one-quarter or more than 10 million are children.

The report stated that “Nearly 15 million adults did not obtain eyeglasses, 25 million did not get dental care, 19 million did not get needed prescribed medicine, and 15 million did not get needed medical care due to cost.”

Yet, the United States spends more on health per capita than any other country, and health spending continues to increase.

Clearly, there is something wrong here in the U S of A. Could it be that the prescription drug and health insurance companies run the system where profits trump affordable health care in every instance?

To cut out these “middle men” who are gouging the system for everything it is worth, the government needs to step in and provide a plan for universal health care. The lobbyists are very successful in scaring Americans by referring to universal health care as socialized medicine. As I sit in a doctor’s office today waiting more than 2 hours to see a physician – after waiting up to 2 months to get an appointment – I have to laugh when the health-care lobbyists warn that “socialized” medicine will lead to long waits to see a doctor and long waits in the office.

The U.S. already had two very successful “socialized medicine” health care plans: Medicare and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

SCHIP, coincidentally, came about because of the budget surplus created under the President Clinton administration. The law authorizes states to provide health care coverage to “targeted low-income children” who are not eligible for Medicaid and who are uninsured. States receive an enhanced federal match (greater than the state’s Medicaid match) and have three years to expend each year’s allotment.

Congress passed compromise legislation to reauthorize the SCHIP program, which expired on September 30, 2007, but President Bush vetoed the compromise bill, maybe because poor children can add to his retirement fund.

So, how about universal health care? Look to the north for the answer. Under the health care system in Canada, individual citizens are provided preventative care and medical treatments from primary care physicians as well as access to hospitals, dental surgery and additional medical services. With a few exceptions, all citizens qualify for health coverage regardless of medical history, personal income, or standard of living.

And, Canada has one of the highest life expectancies (about 80 years) and lowest infant morality rates of industrialized countries, which many attribute to Canada’s health care system.

I have a close friend in Canada – an American expatriate – who can’t understand why Americans put up with the health-care system here. His family gets great care, can see specialists in a reasonable amount of time and don’t have to worry about losing their coverage if they move to a new job.

The system we have is unconscionable. If we want it to change, we have to put the greater pressure on our legislative representatives to reject the lobbyists and seek a workable universal health care system. If they fail, then throw them out and continue throwing them out until they realize that yielding to the lobbyists is more dangerous than not yielding to the voters who put them in office.