As I read many of your blogs and review my previous blogs, I have come to the conclusion that my Beef is really with the insurance companies, the American Medical Association, privately owned hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and their Greed.
Of course everyone wants to obtain and preserve a comfortable means of living. However, these insurance companies have taking their means to the next level......at our expense.
In looking at our current US economic situation, it seems as if we're spinning closer and closer downward towards what many in the 30's experienced as, "The Great Depression". I understand we have a ways to go before then, but I can't help sound a warning cry.
As I study what happened post-Great Depression, I am seeing some of the same cyclical trends occurring.
1. We have a serious economic down-turn, people lose their jobs and they need health care.
2. The president (at that time Truman) offers a National Healthcare plan.
3. People (with a vested interest mostly) start screaming Communist!
4. The plan is flushed town the toilet.
5. The AMA and Hospitals are able to continue to raise the price of health procedure expenses.
In the 70's national health care is again shot down and quickly in the 80's we see more and more privatization of health insurance coverage. This is good right?
In the 90's we see health care costs rising at double the rate of inflation.
By the end of the decade 16% of Americans are without health insurance.
Has our situation become any better? No, still, over 17% of Americans are uninsured. Of course this has a systemic effect on families that I have talked about before.
So, what if "We the People" got together and told the government we're sick and tired of all this? Can the government, with our input, devise a healthy healthcare plan that is free of obtrusive Greed? I think so. Other models to look at are right to our north (Canada) and our friends in Europe. They do not allow pharmaceutical ads to run on TV. They do not have CEO's of Insurance companies making millions. They have a system that wants its patients (people) to get better (incentives for Dr's with the healthy patients) and it seems to work.
But, everytime National Health Care is brought up, someone yells, "Communist!".
This is an easy way to led the masses.
Instead, we should think critically, and for ourselves, as to what should be done about the healthcare system.
Healthcare Crisis: An excellent view of the progression.
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Hey Dan,
ReplyDeleteToday on the drudge this article was posted. Take a look, what do you think? Keep in mind that this is a conservative view and this is the first I have heard about this. Why hasnt this been more in the news since healthcare is so important to Americans?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs
If you take a look at what Mitt Romney did with Health Care in Massachussetts, he came up with a way to keep private insurance for those that had it and provide a working health care plan for those that have none. Friends I have from Boston say that most people really liked the way he ran the goverment, all this while cleaning up the hemmoraging budgets.
ReplyDeleteI think that we have some good examples right here in our own backyard that could be a great start. 51% of Utahns seem to support the health care for all children idea.
Canada, in some ways, is not a model for us to follow. Many of their patients, weary of the long wait sometimes a part of socialized medicine, cross the border to receive health care here. Crown prince Abdullah, a middle east leader, came to the Mayo clinic for health care. I agree with you concerning the exorbitant cost of health care; it's outrageous. However, when we seek to reign it in, let's not do so at the expense of the quality. Hybrid plans like Romney's, mentioned above, should be studied for their effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great responses.
ReplyDeleteWow, Katie, that was an interesting article you referred me to. Has anyone ever seen the movie "Soylent Green" w/ Charleston Heston or "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell?
I wouldn't want the gov't dictating what medical care I should get. If you want to see how that works, just look ask any chemical dependency counselor how much they like Minnesota DHS creeping over everyone's shoulders.
The Massachusetts health care plan sounds like a healthy model of health care. I will have to look into that more.
Yes, I have heard of many (wealthy) people from around the world coming to Rochester (Mayo) for medical care. But, just an hour north in the Southern Minneapolis suburbs (Bloomington), I received horrible medical care (45 minute wait + a 5 minute, rude Dr Visit). This occurred any/every time either my wife or I went into the clinic for anything.