Do we, as a country, have an obligation to make sure everyone can get the medical attention they need?
Sounds like a pretty straightforward question to me, but there are plenty of people who don't have access to health care.
I don't worry about us in the immediate PunditMom family -- we've got good health insurance.
But I do worry about my parents. At almost 71, my dad is a farmer who drives a school bus part-time in the rural community where they live. Dad doesn't take time out from farming to chauffer school kids for the extra money per se -- he does it for the health insurance. My mom is a cancer survivor and she's got other health issues. And while my dad is pretty darn spry for a guy his age, I worry about what will happen when the day comes that he can't, or won't be allowed for age reasons to, drive that yellow school bus anymore to keep his BlueCross/Blue Shield card.
From time to time, politicians give lip service to changing the way people are insured in this country and how we can all get access to good medical care. I'd like for a few of them (especially the ones who have a little clout) to pay attention to a new survey that was released by Health Care America recently.
No big surprise -- the results show that people believe there should be more attention given to providing affordable health care to every American, aren't sure it can be done and think there is some room for the federal government to step in and help out a bit.
Fewer Republicans than Democrats think that the government should have a role in re-making the health care system, but I guess that's not surprising when the President and his pals aren't even sure the federal government should be paying just to make sure that children can get the medical care they need.
Is it so crazy to think that maybe we could take a little money from the tax breaks for the Halliburton gang and put it toward resolving the health care crisis we face? I know, I know, I'm a dreamer -- but if the majority of Americans want to make sure everyone can see a doctor or get the prescription medicines when they need to, why is there such opposition to that at the federal level?
Any good answers, anyone?
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Just Call Me Crazy
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11 comments:
I'm on the opposite side of the fence. As a libertarian, I don't think it's the government's obligation to provide social services at all. Especially since we'd all have a whole lot more cash in our pockets if they didn't. But that's just me. I'm a little crazy with my libertarian ways. :)
One of the reasons why I wanted to live in the USA instead of Canada with my new wife is the fact that the single payer healthcare system in Canada doesn't really work that well.
I believe if we both work hard enough and are on good plans, our children will have better health care in the USA than they would in Canada.
While I'm not opposed to some government intervention in catastrophic cases, a single payer system can be every bit as punitive and uncaring as a free market one.
You can learn more about Canadian Health Care here:
http://scribesandscoundrels.blogspot.com/2007/04/canadian-health-care.html
PM, thought-provoking post! Two ideas I believe are worthy of consideration, with more details in the blog post I wrote on this subject as a result of your question :)
1. Discourage businesses from offering health insurance as a benefit, which will lessen the demand for health care services and force the medical community to find ways to compete for the consumer dollar rather than the business dollar.
2. Require medical facilities to allocate funds for "free health care for the very poor" in every new building project they undertake. $80 million spent here on a new "patient wing" at a local church-owned hospital, but they could've spared the "dramatic design" and ear-marked some of the funds they raised toward caring for those who can't pay.
I agree that everyone should recieve health care...but it is disconcerting that people who work and pay taxes can lose everything when their insurance cap is used...while wards of the state need never worry about this problem. You should visit Terri at Steel Magnolia ( on my blogroll) to learn more.
As for the answers......I don't know. I do think that people should be responsible for themselves to some degree....but there are always those that simply are not able to help themselves.
How is that for a moderately conservative comment? :)
No good answers,but I have been worrying a lot about my mother and health care lately. Suck a fucked up system.
Oops! lol...that should read 'such'. :)
I wish there were an easier answer to this.
I think that people will pay more attention to this in the future because the cost of health care is starting to become a real problem for American businesses. I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point in the future, Amercian businesses actually start demanding some form of socialized medicine so that they can be competitive in a world market.
Yes, there are problems with socialized health care. It's a matter of allocating limited resources. But I just think it's appalling that some people go without any care at all because of the cost. And I also find it horrible that some families are financially devastated by a major illness, even when they already have healthcare. Something has to be done.
I hear the libertarian view from my husband all the time, he doesn't think government should provide social services. I guess it just goes back to what your view of the role of government is.
Great topic for discussion, PM!
Health insurance is a system flawed on both sides - the insurance companies as well as the care providers. Just recently two friends, who are fully insured, could have feasibly died trying to get the care they needed. One, who lives in PA, thought she was having a heart attack and languished so long in the ER waiting room - she was lucky it turned out only to be her gall bladder. The other, who lives in Manhattan, it turns out had an eptopic pregnancy that ruptured her tube sending blood into her abdomen - it took three weeks for her diagnosis. I am facing having a baby in 6 weeks, and even with my insurance it's going to cost me $5,000...if my husband were on the plan it would cost us $15,000. Sometimes I wonder what I'm paying for - but I also know the last surgery I had was billed at $40,000 and insurance company paid the hospital $5,000 and I paid $3,000. I think the two doctors and three nurses deserved to be paid for helping me and I doubt that $8,000 covered it. Just my thoughts...
Just recently two friends, who are fully insured, could have feasibly died trying to get the care they needed. One, who lives in PA, thought she was having a heart attack and languished so long in the ER waiting room - she was lucky it turned out only to be her gall bladder. The other, who lives in Manhattan, it turns out had an eptopic pregnancy that ruptured her tube sending blood into her abdomen - it took three weeks for her diagnosis.
The same thing happens in Canada under a single payer health care system. The government can not guarentee fast, efficient treatment.
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