Why Healthcare Can't Wait

Through the years, there have been many issues where labor and business don't see eye to eye. Here's one where we firmly agree: the need to fix healthcare, now, not in spite of the economic crisis, but because of it. For this reason, we are proud to stand together with President Obama as he reinforces the urgency of health care reform in the State of the Union speech before Congress.

America's economic recovery depends upon solving the healthcare emergency that is bankrupting families and eroding our competitiveness in the global economy. Bringing healthcare security to every American will help jump-start the nation's recovery and provide a foundation for new economic opportunity, innovation and job growth.

The evaporation of nearly 600,000 jobs in January alone makes the need for healthcare reform more urgent than ever. Each one percent rise in the national unemployment rate strands a million more people without health insurance. Even for many of the employed, healthcare costs are outpacing income and forcing hard choices, such as taking care of a family's health or keeping a roof over its head.

President Obama is firm in his resolve to create a fair and sustainable healthcare system and millions of Americans stand behind his vision. Congress must take swift action to enact comprehensive healthcare reform today.

Taking the right steps to reform and rebuild our healthcare system--now--will put us on the road to a healthier, economically robust America. There are rapid gains to be made. America loses an estimated $207 billion every year due to the poorer health and shorter lifespans of those lacking good coverage. Another $1.3 trillion is lost through easily preventable and treatable chronic conditions, such as hypertension, asthma and heart disease. Right now, we spend only four cents of every healthcare dollar on prevention and public health, opening the gates for the most expensive chronic diseases, and paying heavily for the inevitable results.

Solving our healthcare crisis will do more than help rebuild this economy. It will set the stage for the next. Our teaching hospitals and medical centers educate and train the world's most advanced healthcare workforce, accounting for one out of every ten jobs in the United States. A comprehensive approach to healthcare reform will remedy workforce shortages, spur innovation, and add new job opportunities in areas such as prevention, wellness and home-based care. Helping Americans stay healthy will pay off now and for generations to come. For example, reducing deaths from cancer or heart disease by just one percent--readily attainable through universal coverage--would be invaluable on a human level and worth nearly $500 billion to current and future Americans.

With so much at stake, we must begin the work today to create a new healthcare system that:

• Provides affordable, comprehensive coverage for every man, woman, and child in America
• Builds on the strong foundation of employer-based coverage
• Encourages continued innovation in prevention, wellness, and disease treatment, and
• Lowers overall costs, and increases the value of each healthcare dollar spent.

At this critical moment for our nation--with jobs eroding month by month--we can no longer afford a system that costs way too much, excludes too many people, and fails to meet the most essential need of American families--staying healthy.

A new healthcare system is within our reach. With the future of our economy and the future of the American dream at risk, there's no more time to lose. We can change healthcare from what it is now--a quagmire of expense and frustration--to what we know it can become--a source of greater health, innovation and opportunity.

Andy Stern is President of the Service Employees International Union, North America's largest and fastest-growing union.

Jeff Kindler is Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, the nation's largest research-based biopharmaceutical company.

Comments

[biabouman41]

Let us hope that when they come up with a system it will be a Single Payer system. A multiple payer system will inevitably give the insurance companies and their Republican supporters a thin wedge with which to later destroy the system and reduce the ability of users of the healthcare system to influence and control it.
There is never perfection in these matters, so we wil all need to stay engaged to get the most out of it and also change it WHEN it needs changing, as all human systems continuously do. I have relatives in both UK and Canada and can tell you none of them want to surrender their system, but they all say major changes are needed.
Expect a flood of entrepreneurs once we have a healthcare system because employees who have the urge to try some business endeavor will no longer be shakled to his employer's health insurance.

[FaceReality2]

"Expect a flood of entrepreneurs once we have a healthcare system because employees who have the urge to try some business endeavor will no longer be shakled to his employer's health insurance."

The wingnuts seem incapable of understanding this.

[Hamish Gowans]

Before the entrepreneurs come the established companies that are suffering like an anemic Atlas under the weight of health care costs that rise 5X as fast as wages!

[saibotchilizm]

Does it have to be only economic reasons that make us decide to have a just healthcare system? What about the moral arguments?

Isn't it shameful that the richest nation in the world provides no stable healthcare for the 15% of its citizens that are uninsured? Isn't it shameful that the other 15% who are under-insured don't get much better? That's 30% of the American population with poor access to healthcare-- 90 million people. Larger than most nations.

It's important to design a healthcare system that is economically sustainable (unlike our present system), but we should focus our attention on the moral arguments for providing EVERYONE with health care. Good health should be a right, not a privilege.

[FaceReality2]

We are not a moral nation. While many countries around the world are appalled that we torture people assumed to be terrorists and indiscriminately bomb innocent civilians, few people here care. As long as Joe the Plumber has coverage from his employer, he doesn't care if you have insurance or not.

[Arthur954]

Of course it goes without saying that the present health system is a profound immorality, with seniors dying of diabetes or going blind because of a lack of health coverage.
The health care and insurance cartel is a mafia - like situation that has no equivalent in any civilized country in the world today.

[Testiculus]

Good health should be a right??? Have you lost your mind?

So if I go to the gym 4 days a week (which I do) and someone lays on the sofa all day drinking beer and smoking, you are saying this person has the same RIGHT to be healthy as me?

Health is a RESPONSIBILITY not a RIGHT.

Disease is another matter but then does anyone have the right to not have a disease?

[Hamish Gowans]

Does anyone have the responsibility NOT to get MS, or the flu? And if they do, are you going to tell them "sorry, your own fault, should have been more responsible"? I think you have a selfish point of view that totally misses the point of a NATIONAL health care system. Public health systems take care of all of us, not just those who can afford it, because America is a better place with healthy residents.

[avocats]

That's a dnagerous road to travel down. If healthcare is a "right," which means taxpayers fund it, then taxpayers have an interest in what you eat, how much you exercise, whether you smoke, etc. Your lifestyle is none of my business until you ask me to foot the bill for it.

[popworld7]

It's very simple, it's called single payer healthcare. The insurance companies as we know them will go away, so they won't like it and the drug companies will still exist but won't be able to have quite the profit because the country as a whole will negotiate with them like the rest of the world. By the way, there is an article on yahoo that now says we spend 8,000 per person for healthcare, by far the most expensive in the world and yet our health indicators are about 39th. See anything wrong?

[Testiculus]

So how do you MAKE the drug companies make the drugs if they can't afford to?

Let's say we tell them you can no longer make a profit, you have to break even and they shut down and move, then what?

Do you see the stupidity of your argument?

Like it or not people don't go into business to serve you, they go into business to make money, period.

[Hamish Gowans]

Testiculus make good point. If drug companies no make huge profits, then they obviously not afford to do anything. If pesky, do-gooder, government try to negotiate price with them, they go out of business.

Actually, I only see the stupidity of your argument, Dear Reactionary Testiculus. Those like you who would only argue against changing the system as is with stories of the sky falling under any other options need to butt out and let people who make decisions based on facts have a say in this. You can sober up from your Young Republicans frat party and rejoin the convo after getting some: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

[ThomH]

How to save $350 billion per year of healthcare spending now going to waste: enact Medicare for All, HR 676, and eliminate the 50% markup over the cost of actual medical treatment that the healthcos now cost us.

Will we do this? Not likely. The fix is in for "The Obama Healthcare Plan", which will entail increased government intrusion, mandates, subsidies, higher taxes and a higher overall national bill for healthcare. It will leave millions with no healthcare coverage, and many others who think they are insured will end up in bankruptcy court with unpayable medical bills. And the healthcos will continue to spend gobs of policy holder money on armies of denial clerks to hassle doctors and hospitals to disallow treatment - to those policy holders.

But the healthcos love The Obama Plan, because it will increase their total take, at considerable expense to the taxpayer. So obviously, it is what we must have.

Why? Because the healthcos divert a small portion of the $3 billion per day they collect as premium payments to stuff the satchels of four thousand healthcare lobbyists who run around Washington dispensing "campaign contributions" and "speakers fees" (i.e., to Daschle).

Those politicians they can't bribe, they scare, like Joe Biden, who said he opposes HR 676 because "I don't want to be eaten alive by Harry and Louise."

Shame on you, Andy Stern, for supporting this nonsense, to the detriment of your members and the pubic at large.

[FaceReality2]

Sadly, this is the situation. The only solution, I guess, is to educate the public and try to force a change through public outcry. Unfortunately, at least 30% of the public is on the intellectual level of Joe the Plumber.

[avocats]

Uh, what is "The Obama Plan"? I thought the idea was to come up with one under the leadership of the Obama administration--which Daschle delayed by being grasping and dishonest.

[lobear00]

Take the "Profit" out of healthcare. People should not be profitting off the blood of others. There are CEO's of healthcare companys raking in Billions of dollars for themselves, thats what's wrong with healthcare in the united states.

[DuganS1]

The biggest problem facing Americans health can be solved without spending any government money. It's a better diet and increased exercise. The problem isn't hat people don't know what they need to do, because they do know. They know they eat poorly and they know they don't exercise enough. They know they need to eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less fatty food and fast food, but they chose not to. They know they need to go out and run, but they don't want to. If only people would do what they know they should do, healthcare costs would be much much less and the health of Americans would be significantly better. Increasing spending is just not the answer. IMO, the answer lies in having people pay more for their own personal care, so there is incentive to take better care for themselves and a disincentive to be over-medicated (which America is).

[Peabodies]

Dugan -- most people don't have the TIME to exercise. We have the longest working hours, and the shortest vacations of any other country on earth.

[DuganS1]

Everybody has time to exercise.

[Hamish Gowans]

Dugan, "don't get sick" is not a health care plan.

Eating right and exercise are a personal choice. You can make it easier for people to make the right choice: stop subsidizing corn, take junk food out of schools, and increase wages so people don't have to work every waking hour to make ends meet -leaving no time for dinner except at the drive thru on the way to the other job.

[krocklin]

People are not aware of the dysfunctionality of our medical system.
There is no centralized data base from which doctors can glean information, previous test results and diagnoses so doctors just perform the same tests repetitively and they have every economic incentive to continue to do this.
National Healthcare removes these economic incentives towards profit and thereby will improve qualtiy of care exponentially in addition to halving the costs.

[dsws]

Health-care reform can't wait until the economy is booming again, but it can wait until some laws are passed to re-regulate the financial system.

[Arthur954]

Exactly !!! the financial system has to be regulated back to where it was many years ago ....

I am WORRIED that this issue has not been brought up yet by the Obama team. The financial system is an infinite black hole that will absorb funds that are needed for an extensive change in the U.S. health care situation.

[biabouman41]

That is why the Obama administration needs to stop running away from the idea of bank nationalisation. This has been done by all Western goverrnments and by Bush One in the S&L crisis. It should not be a permanent nationalisation , but it will be needed. Just do it.

[avocats]

One month. Obama's been in office one month. The healthcare issue was derailed by Daschle's bad behavior, but it doesn't mean that Obama has abandoned it. How many things can a person do in one day, anyway? He had figured that his team of healthcare experts would be working on it. Now he has to rebuild that team, and save the economy, and address world politics, and . . . .

[FogBelter]

Gentlemen thank you for sharing your opinions. There is no good argument against Universal Single Payer Health Care for all Americans. Every argument uttered is the same old stale talking points that don't stand up to intelligent analysis.

Our major economic competitors have health care for their citizens, which takes the burden off of their businesses and makes them more successful. A Universal Health Care program would eliminate the tragic stories of Americans having to declare bankruptcy while dealing with a catastrophic illness. We would be able to eliminate future Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls. We would be able to grant access to our Veterans in a new Universal System so they could go to whatever doctor they choose instead of dealing with the limitations of the VA system. It's a win all the way around.

If it were my plan I would pay for it all with a slight consumption tax ... it would be painless, spread the cost to everyone and likely provide a surplus to help finance new procedures and even aid in financing R&D for companies like Mr Kindler's.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth about the dreaded "Canadian System" is such a red herring. We already have successful HMO models that can be utilized for a government plan, so it wouldn't be reinventing the wheel. The Kaiser Permanente model strikes me a good place to start ... I have been more then pleased with there services for decades.

Let's get Health Care for all Americans done!

[rocketman69]

Hey, why not just pay the bills of the 'poor' people who are going bankrupt? Bills paid= no bankruptcy.

[nolabels]

Yeah, what the hell? Let's have a system that gets us to the same place but makes people suffer as much as possible for their health issues along the way. Brilliant!

[indyleftist]

I agree healthcare reform is the most important thing we can do.

However I don't think phizer would really support any real reform.
Mostly because it would involve making their company a regulated public utility

[rocketman69]

The government can't REGULATE drug companies and you think letting them MAKE the drugs is a good idea?

[nolabels]

What?

[indyleftist]

ummm, I agree with the other commenter........what?

You should investigate the meaning of the word public utility

[nolabels]

What?

[indyleftist]

do I need to write slower?

REGULATED PUBLIC UTITILITY

[RoloTomassi]

I can't imagine how you worked that out, but it's just not true, not even remotely or figuratively. US Pharma companies sell their products all over the world for much cheaper prices than in the US, but our corporatist government allows them to fleece us at whatever price they see fit.

Your logic is utterly confounding.

[indyleftist]

No, you are making an incredibly wrong point
We do not pay less for medicine here, far from it.

That's why you always hear the constant fights over whether to allow Americans to buy drugs from Canada where they are much cheeper

[VikingQuest]

My stance on universal health care pretty much comes from a couple of questions that everyone should ask themselves:

1. Do you trust Government?

2. Do you like how Government spends your tax dollars?

3. What programs can you name of that Government runs well?

My answers are no, no, none.

I think making health insurance companies, hospitals, etc. non-profit is a much better idea.

[indyleftist]

Road Construction, Fire stations, Postal Service, Nuclear Power Plants, The Military, ect. are all socialist projects in the United States that work just fine.

As far as liking what they do with tax money....we like how they spend it the less involved conservatives are

[VikingQuest]

The post office is on pace to lose $6 billion or more this fiscal year . . .

[RepugsOut08]

You don't understand how universal health care works. The government isn't standing over your doctor telling him how to treat you. That, in fact, is what insurance companies are now doing.
If you've had to have any medical proceedures done, you know that the insurance companies have to okay EVERYTHING! And usually, even with insurance, you still end up owing 15 to 20% or more of the bill.
Your insurance rates will also go up if you have health problems, and you can be dropped entirely or refused insurance for previous conditions. Is THAT your idea of a program "run well?"
The Government runs fire depts. and police stations pretty well. Would you like to have to pay insurance for those services? To have to pay a premium on where you live, or have to do without those protections because you couldn't afford the insurance, or they don't offer protection in your neighborhood?
How are you going to make an insurance company non-profit? Easy. Take them out of the mix, and make the government the single payer.

[VikingQuest]

"The government isn't standing over your doctor telling him how to treat you"

They will . . . once they see the additional costs of giving away a free product.

[SeriousBlack]

1. Yes. At least NOW, with an intelligent, competent, well-intentioned, concerned-for-the-average-american president at the helm rather than an intellectually-deficient, incompetent, clueless, concerned-only-for-the-wealthy cretin like George W. Bush.

2. No. AND THEREIN IS THE ARGUMENT FOR MAKING IT SPEND OUR TAX DOLLARS WELL, via having an intelligent, competent, well-intentioned, concerned-for-the-average-american president who is putting together an entire government of people with those same values instead of a government consisting of conservative ideologues whose goal is to DESTROY government. Yes, of course, THAT kind of government is neither to be trusted or will spend tax dollars wisely.

3. The military. Any other questions?

[rocketman69]

1. Where did that TARP money go? Not to healthcare!

2. Like Timothy Geitner, tax cheat, who is breaking the law with the TARP money now? Where is your 'friend of the world' president, that couldn't put $40-50 billion for healthcare in the stimulus bill? Lookin' out for GM, and the Banks.

[nolabels]

Exactly the right point on number two. The notion that whenever the government spends money it is misspent, even when we all agree ahead of time that a specific type of spending is good, just doesn't compute for me. Purely ideological thinking. We have the power to make our government better. The people that have the most severe problem with our government just want to scrap the whole thing at every turn. The same people that want to abolish our government or completely tie its hands claim to be the most patriotic and don't feel that any alternative to our government is worth proposing. It is sad that their hopeless logic is still prominently included in our national debates.

I don't think the government spends money on the military very well but then again, I wish they didn't spend 90% of the money they do on the military. Since the military has been the only thing that Americans have wanted the government to spend money on, it stands to reason, though, that the government has worked harder at spending that money better than they do for other areas.

[fleaba]

I know that when my parents had military insurance, Tri-care it worked pretty well. Don't know how it works now, though.

[VikingQuest]

"At least NOW, with an intelligent, competent, well-intentioned, concerned-for-the-average-american president at the helm"

You know that this won't always be the case and that the President hopefully won't be running health care.

[Arthur954]

In Germany, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, etc you have the governmant running health care, and many other things, with competence, so why can´t it be done in the U.S. ?

[FaceReality2]

Because their government officials are not all on the payroll of special interests like they are here. Their politicians actually have the public interest at heart, unlike here.

[joe73072]

1. sometimes. i generally trust them more than i trust Blackwater or ADM or other large private businesses.

2. yes much of the time...see #3

3. highways, state universities, police, fire departments, defense programs, public libraries, schools for all children, social security (there for my mom when her wall street funded pension crashed) and yes, even the postal system (has its probs but still among the best),

the biggest problems in this country today are private for-profit healthcare, the deregulated financial industry, and the unregulated energy industry

[VikingQuest]

Social Security is in trouble and Congress has been spending the SS surpluses since the mid 90s.

[RepugsOut08]

We absolutely need universal health care in this country, just as it is in every other civilized industrial country in the world. Trying to rework our current system to make improvements while still involving the insurance companies is just delaying the inevitable.
You cannot have a fair and truly effective health care system if profit is involved. It's as silly as saying the only ones who get police protection are the ones who can afford police insurance. Just try getting something like that started, and see how far you'd get.
People need to see that health care is just as much as a right as police and fire protection.

[nwfurn]

No Way to pharma's or insurance companies involved in a new system. They drive up the cost and I agree if you want more expensive care, buy it. We need single payer coverage for everyone. I just got bumped off my plan and the next affordable plan costs twice what I paid with much less coverage and a much higher deductable. Whoopee!

[VikingQuest]

Take a guess what happens when the Government takes over health care a foots the bill for it?

Strict laws against bad habits like eating fatty foods, smoking, drinking, etc.

[RepugsOut08]

I also imagine it's all those "strick laws against bad habits" that are responsible for the British being named one of the nations with the biggest obesity problem in the world, and why the French are forced by their government to eat all those croissants and pastries.
Come back when you have something other than a Limbaugh argument to offer.

[nolabels]

Any examples to offer? Any rational reason to make that assumption?

[EinChicago]

There should be strict laws against smoking. It's basically an assault on those around you and should be treated as assult and given the same jail time.

[irregularjoe]

"Builds on the strong foundation of employer-based coverage "

Employer based heathcare is NOT of a strong foundation.
Just ask the millions of unemployed, partime, and self employed people.
It's time move beyond this archaic system.

[Magee]

Single-payer, non-employment based, portable health care is the only plan that will work. Support the latest version of HR676, the bill introduced by John Conyers this congressional session. Go to Progressive Democrats of America's website you'll learn more about this plan and the reasons to support it. Someone in the senate needs to write a companion bill for it.