Thousands Turn Out for Health Care Reform
Maybe the front page of your newspaper is plastered this morning with photos of the late great Michael Jackson. But what you really need to know about is the huge health care rally that took place a few feet from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC yesterday.
An estimated 10,000 people convened on the Capitol to call on Congress to move swiftly and decisively to pass legislation for sweeping health care reform, reform that will help millions and millions of Americans who are uninsured and under-insured. The rally, organized by Health Care for America Now, heard repeatedly from individuals crying out for quality, affordable health care. The placards saying that health care reform cannot wait rose high above the throngs of community groups, labor activists, nurses, doctors, and ordinary people who came from all corners of the U.S. to make their case.
If you aren't following the health care debate, you should be. It affects every single individual in the U.S., and the very bedrock of our ailing economy. As one speaker explained it, it's always been a morally-imperative thing to do to provide insurance to all Americans, but now, it's an economic necessity, as our lack of universal health care interferes with our ability to prosper as a nation.
Some 50 million individuals have no health insurance at all. With more and more individuals losing jobs, the number is growing quickly. Millions more people do have insurance but it doesn't deliver when it is most needed. Or, payments are repeatedly delayed by insurers who conveniently hold onto money while dilly dallying paying claims.
There are horror stories galore from folks whose urgent treatments for serious illnesses are routinely denied by greedy insurance companies who put profits before people.
Among the protesters was a large and readily visible group of physicians wearing white coats and dangling stethoscopes around their necks. Calling themselves the National Physicians Alliance, they called on Congress to implement a system of equitable, affordable, high quality care for all people. One doctor, from West Virginia, said that both his parents have no health insurance. Like so many others without insurance, his mother, who recently suffered from a urinary tract infection, was forced to seek care in the emergency room.
The speakers included actress Edie Falco, who said that her personal health history, and her experience being uninsured, drove her to come to DC to advocate for health reform. Falco stars in the new TV show "Nurse Jackie," in which she plays a nurse. Falco introduced several individuals who have no insurance. One woman spoke tearfully of her experience having to have several toes amputated because her insurer refused to pay for treatment she needed urgently.
Protesters repeatedly cried out for a publically-operated insurance program to compete with private insurers. President Obama has said again and again that such a public option is needed to keep health care costs down, and to keep the health insurance industry "honest." The insurance industry is fighting the idea of a public option, naturally, as they see it as a threat to their unfettered control of the insurance market, a market that serves them up huge profits.
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It has been said that the true character of a people is shown by how they treat their most vulnerable: the very young, the sick, and the old. By that standard, the richest country in the world looks positively vicious for its treatment of the sick and the old compared to the "undeveloped" and "underdeveloped" countries of the world. In those places, the old and sick do not have shiny high tech equipment or the latest cure all from Big Pharma or a trained nurse let alone a doctor to attend them. But the sick have someone there all the time to give them water or a bit of food, to turn them or adjust a pillow, to listen or talk or just sit with them. The old are treated with respect, provided good and often the best food as well as first choice of what other comforts are available, and listened to for their wisdom. Yes, of course, people die younger and often of easily curable diseases in those places. But what value is there in living longer if your pain is magnified by neglect and isolation? If your caretakers are under-trained, under-respected, underpaid, and so overworked they can't give you the care they know you
Deborah makes many valid points. In our self-imposed hectic life styles, I think we can all examine our treatment of the sick and spend a little more of our precious time caring for and looking out for neighbors, friends, acquaintances, work mates and relatives who need meals, visits, comfort and help in time of illness and less time watching Michael Jackson funeral arrangements, Michelle Obama Style sections, and Sarah Palin videos!
"Shiny high tech equipment" is also important; most people in this country would not be the first to volunteer to give up the ghost after their pillow was plumped. So let us strike a "healthy" balance and look out for our neighbors as we would wish to be cared for.
A former CIGNA V.P. testified to Congress how health insurance companies screw the public to increase their profits. Please read it here:
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/PotterTestimonyConsumerHealthInsurance.pdf
This is why 72% of the people want a public option. Everyone would want one if they read this testimony.
Private insurance companies are in business to make as much money as they can, and they do this by denying claims, rescinding policies after people get sick, purging older people through huge premium increases, not insuring people who have health problems, and now, deceptively marketing policies which offer the illusion of comprehensive coverage for relatively low premiums but which in fact provide extremely limited benefits (the former CIGNA executive calls this fake insurance).
How do we get around the Sebelius problem? She has already come out saying that the public option would be crafted in such a way that America would never have a single-payer system, which is where we need to go with the public option. It should be where we go immediately. Kathleen Sebelius is a problem.
We need more people out like this on the street showing the politicians that we can't be ignored on this issue. We want universal affordable health care and the time is now!
Human health, in a sense, may precede all the other basic human rights as everything means nothing for someone without it. As far as my common sense goes, the major role of government will be to protect basic rights of the public from any threat. That is why all of the industrialized countries have public policy in place, I guess.
Under this premise, the strong public option needs to be cited as a part of 'PROTECTION' like anti-trust law rather than intervention.
The intention to introduce the public choice would be to protect the uninsured, economy and keep the medical industry honest, not be to drive it out.
Hopefully, the health industry can provide reasonable prices and quality service via tireless innovations like most of the EUROPE.
I think, given the fact that health insurance premiums have doubled over the last decade at an unsustainable rate three times faster than wages, the status more than 97% of all Massachusetts residents,the highest in the U.S., are now covered could be touted as success model, which features 'mandating insurance' and an option to purchase coverage through the "Connector," a program in which private insurers are required to offer coverage to those who can't get other insurance, regardless of age or health status.
But the Massachusetts model has a problem with costs control, because it relies exclusively on private insurers as Massachusetts' insurers implemented average premium increases of 8% to 12% only in 2008. And it highlights the necessity of having a publicly financed insurance option
To be sure, in case the president's proposal with respect to the strong public option, medical IT, increased efforts in prevention, and a broader array of cost-saving plans and beyond adds to the Massachusetts Plan with the provision of employer mandate and an individual mandate, the cost containment does not matter at all. And most importantly, the promising stem cell research is making its way.
I was there and it was incredibly energizing. I have to say that I'm disappointed that all the news outlets, including CNN, MSNBC and PBS have had constant celebrity death coverage but made no time for this.
Communications Workers of America were out in force....
I was there and so were my fellow CWA sisters and brothers...
it's a life and death situation. we must have public health care NOW !!!!
This was the first political rally I've attended in Washington D.C. ...very inspiring.
"What do we want? HEALTH CARE!
When do we want it? NOW!"
Kenneth Arrow's article "Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care" from the American Economic Review gives a pellucid view as to why health insurance is unlike any other "commodity" of the free-market.
For one, the relationship of supply and demand break down since the demand for health services is not regular or predictable. Two, the supply of services does not simply respond to the desires of the buyer. What that means is physicians are the ultimate informed consumers of health care. Although a patient can voice their opinion or insist on a specific treatment, the physician is the person who will be ordering the types and number of tests, procedures and prescriptions.
Three, there are limitation on who can enter the provider side of the market due to high start up costs and education, licensing and so forth. And finally, there is significant insensitivity of prices in the health care system. No hospitals or doctors are actively advertising lower prices or clearance procedures! Simultaneously, a majority of patients don't actively seek out those price reductions. There aren't many individuals who are willing to risk monetary savings for assumed quality of service.
Thus, we shouldn't expect to see many changes by trying to alter the current system a little here or there, or going as far as implementing cumpolsory health insurance. Moreover, as Dr Michael Ybarra states, "administrative costs make up 7% [of health care costs]. [Accounting] for $168 billion dollars annually". Compared to Medicare's 2%.
www.mentalpestilence.com
very thought provoking, thanks for the contribution.
The demand side for health-care isn't like anything else either. You can't buy chemotherapy on eBay. You can't wait for an after-Christmas sale to have a broken leg fixed.
One of the major factors that makes competition work in a free-market, is the ability of the buyer to walk away from a transaction. That is almost impossible when it comes to most health-care issues. That's why this is one industry that is very unsuited for traditional free-enterprise, and that's also why most other countries have simply abandoned that model for this industry.
great job! i applaud these people for not sitting around complaining and posting comments
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