These days it seems the only folks pushing back are the health insurance-pharma-medical mafia, the banks and the auto executives. It's time to push back and show President Obama that those of us on the popular side of the spectrum really do want the change for which we voted.
Indeed, many more of us than public polls reveal would gladly take over the banks, get rid of the insurance companies and put the pharmaceutical and medical industry at the service of society.
Health care, as long as it is available for one, is a human right for all. To be healthy is an essential condition for human dignity. To force someone to live with pain and indignity merely because we are too selfish to share resources is inhumane and cruel.
Yet this is what is proposed by those "moderates" in Congress who are willing to jettison even a very modest "public option" for the sake of "bipartisan" bribery. For the richest country in the world to deny health care to about 50 million of its people, when the next 20 richest countries manage to care for all just fine is inexcusable, wrong and foolhardy.
If I had my druthers, we would have a national health service (see the presentation on H.R. 676, a bill by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.) much as there is in in those benighted, backward isles of Britain and that technologically primitive Germany and those Third World economies of France and Japan. Or our oft-forgotten neighbor, Canada. All of which work. I've lived in Britain and Canada and occasionally received medical care there just fine.
In no other advanced industrialized nation is health an economic burden on the average individual. You can change jobs, get sick, grow old, anything, secure in the knowledge that society will take care of you.
Don't cave in, Democrats. In fact, put a single-payer system on the table.
4 comments:
Glad you approve of our NHS! But it may be necessary to stipulate some upper limit w/r/t access to new, expensive drugs/ treatments if cheaper options exist - an aging population can be costly if all are to have the absolute best of everything! Learn from our experiences.
I definitely agree with Cecileaux. I am grateful to be a senior citizen on Medicare. As a nurse, I have seen many struggle to obtain health care. Also, I have seen many remain in jobs that they hate because they cannot give up their health insurance. Being free of the worry of health care would expand the horizons of all of us. Jeanne465
I am all for single-payer, too. It seems so sensible. Yes, it will cost a trillion (yes, I hope it will be less) but we are looking a an uncapped trillion if we continue as we are. Why in the world can't the naysayers admit that the present insurance system just doesn't work. I am not a business owner, but it seems to me that businesses would be _glad_ not to be responsible for health coverage. Why should an employer be responsible for me?
Yes, I am very leery of the cost of taxes...I can't afford them now! and I really don't want to see them increase, but I can't see how America will function healthfully if we don't incorporate coverage within our tax system.
Of the same mind as your blog, C, is Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, with Elizabeth Cooney writing " The debate in Washington....has included little from advocates for a single-payer plan. ..."
There is more: The Boston Globe - Boston.com
"DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER | G FORCE
Single-minded on healthcare
June 22, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/06/22/harvards_dr_steffie_woolhandler_is_single_minded_about_healthcare/?comments=all
Plus there is room for comment, among which are links to advocacy groups supporting single-payer.
Anne (p.s. Hello, Jeanne465! Welcome!)
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