[go read this blog here:
http://mutablewheel.blogspot.com/, and click on the ads, as all money i receive from the ads goes to new american press publishing efforts.]
The Institute of Medicine recently predicted that an average of 60
Americans die every day (every day!) due to lack of or insufficient
healthcare. And this in the richest country in the world. Italy, which
ranks in the double digits of richest countries, has an estimated zero
deaths per day due to lack of or insufficient healthcare.
So,
what is the solution? According to the majority of doctors, nurses, and
health economists, the answer is single-payer healthcare. And, in 2003,
Obama supported this as well. When he was asked then what it would take
to enact single-payer, he said we would need to take back the White
House, the Senate, and the House. Well . . . in case you missed it,
we've done that. And now Obama is suddenly siding with the insurance
companies who heavily funded his campaign (I know, I know, all we heard
was that small donors, average Americans were driving his fundraising,
but look at any report and you'll see he got tons more corporate
support than McCain, mostly because it was obvious any Dem was going to
win in 2008, so they wanted to own whoever it was, and now it's paying
off big-time).
But why single-payer? Well:
1) there is no such thing as pre-existing conditions as an excuse to deny coverage, since everyone is covered from birth.
2)
It will cost much less overall, since people won't wait until the last
minute to get attention they need, thus allowing their diseases or
ailments to progress to a much more difficult and expensive stage.
3) Did I mention that 60 people die every damn day because we don't have this?
4) The other options are what Dr Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of New England Medical Review,
calls "the futility of piecemeal tinkering". And these solutions still
leave millions uncovered and cost as much or in mosts cases more than
single-payer.
So . . . write your congressmen and -women and tell them to stand up for real healthcare reform, not some meaningless tinkering.