Could Universal Health Care be the answer to all our problems?
And, what are the problems with our current health care system?
Issues with our current health care system (Conn. Col. for Univ. Health Care)
# Fact One: The United States ranks 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990
# Fact Two: The United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960
# Fact Three: The United States ranks 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960.
# Fact Four: The United States ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall US is 67th, right behind Botswana
# Fact Five: Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease, and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations.
# Conclusion: The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best trained health care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation
What is Universal Health Care?
"More Americans are favoring a tax-payer funded government administered health care delivery system to replace the privately owned and administered system we now use. Universal health care is a form of health coverage which is provided by a government so that all of its citizens have access to health services. Canada, Western Europe, parts of South America, and Russia have programs described as universal health care." (http://www.insurancespecialists.com/industry-articles/universal-health-care/)
Pros and Cons of Universal Health Care
Here's a good news story to digest on the pros & Cons of Universal Health care from News Channel 8
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So just a quick question. What is the argument against those who say that if health care is nationalized, it will become similar to Canadas (quality of care will be reduced rather than high quality for everyone)? Just curious because I have heard a lot of people say that, assuming that although cost will be reduced so will quality of care?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big fan of Michael Moore but I like his point about free health care coverage for terrorist prisoners. The same thing happens with illegal aliens. So far, I'm not pro nationalized health care but open to ideas. Everyone I know who has lived abroad will say nationalized health care isn't much different than what we already have. The rich still pay physicans for better, faster care and the poor get free lesser quality care.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not always agree with Michael Moore, he is definitely good at what he does and pushes us to think. Permit me to offer my own complaints about the insurance industry. My last job, my monthly premium was almost as much as my rent. I had a second job just to pay for it. And what did this get us with Altius? I can't tell you how many denials we had to wade through. I figured if they put as much effort and money into denying us as they did providing service we would have had pretty good coverage.
ReplyDeleteMy job before that the annuals premiums would increase more than my annual raise. Consequently, the longer I stayed with them the less I made. Despite this, I do not believe the government could do any better, in fact I am certain they would do much worse. What is the solution?
Well I'm not a specialist in this area, but my knee jerk response is to encourage a free market. I'm wondering if the government encouraged more competition in this industry, where these lumbering giants actually had to fight for our money rather than the other way around, we would actually not be forced to decide between health care or food.
Katie: It seems like anytime universal health care is brought up there is a "knee jerk" reaction to say, "yeah, but the quality of care and waiting lines would be terrible". Is this not already the case? I sprained my ankle playing noon basketball about 3 years ago, went to the hospital, had to wait for 45 minutes to be seen by a Dr., paid $30 in co-pay for a Dr's visit (keep in mind, I worked for the same hospital as a full-time professional), then the Dr spent 5 minutes with me and had to be on to the next patient. The hospital spends more time trying to get authorization from the (money making) health insurance companies than they do trying to treat their patients. Wouldn't it be nice to walk into a hospital, no anxiety about if your condition will be covered by insurance, no time spent by the administration trying to get authorizations, and just see a Dr? As a professional in the health care industry, I would have half as much stress if I didn't need to appease the health insurance companies. My mind could then be fully devoted to caring for patients.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm with Jim on this. I don't know that the government is going to do any better with health care than what is already happening. Like the Canada argument, what will be the quality of our health care if that happens and the government takes over? I think (part of) the reason our health care system hasn't been fixed yet, is because it is such a hard thing to fix. It is not like policy makers haven't been trying to fix it. It is just a tough issue.
ReplyDeleteThe above facts are interesting, but I wonder at the causes. Is the infant mortality rate related to health care as a whole or to our approach to birthing in hospitals? (The evidence seems to point to the procedures rather than the quality of care on this one.)
ReplyDeleteLower living expectancy: Is it health care related or a product of more eating/treating our bodies ;). The food we eat, can it really qualify as food at times? Companies spend a vast amount of money formulating food to appeal to our taste buds rather than nourish our bodies. I don't know that the quality of care we receive from hospitals has gone down as much as the quality of care we receive from ourselves. How much do we exercise? How much TV do we watch? How much do we stress ourselves out by spending like morons and plunging into debt?
Won't argue with you on immunizations. We should be way up there. It is one thing for a government to mandate that everyone has to be immunized, even if they are willing to foot the bill. The question is, how do we enforce it?
Your first three facts seen non sequitur, I think there are actually more compelling arguments that have a causality link that could lend credence to the argument for universal care (such as the insurance point you delved into ever so briefly). One report I recall indicated that some crazy number like 90% of health care cost increases were related to administrative and insurance functions rather than higher cost of procedures and services. If I can dig it up I will toss it your way.
Anyway, great topic. I am afraid you may be sick of hearing from me before the semester is out (maybe already).
I really like this topic and think that it is extremely important. I for one, like some of you have noted, believe in a free market, healthy competition, and government reduction in this area because I truly think that they would do a worse job than the current system. However, after reading the postings and comments by Dan and others, it makes me wonder: is the problem the health care system and therefore we need to nationalize it, or is the problem the insurance companies themselves and reform and healthy competition would help with the problem? I would love to see more info.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan
Is there any information on health insurance companies annual income? Is it a profitable business? Is there room for competition?
ReplyDeleteMarci,
ReplyDeleteI'll have to find a link, but my understanding is that health insurance is very profitable, especially when the companies can deny coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition who needs a personal or family insurance plan. Most everyone my age knows someone in that boat.