The debate is on, but the best option, in my opinion and that of many other people in this country, is being ignored as much as possible by Congress and even the White House. The issue is health care reform. The option being avoided in the debate - universal, single-payer health care, or Medicare for everyone. And this is in spite of the fact that many Americans, including activists and health care professionals, are in favor of it. According to an article by David Swanson, writing for Truthout.org on Friday, June 12, 2009, universal, single-payer is the only solution consistently favored by a majority of Americans in various polls. And in spite of the fact that Mr. Swanson reports that John Conyers' single-payer health care plan, HR676, now has 80 House members supporting it. That is more solid support than any other plan on the table at this time!
Various sources report that the number of uninsured Americans is now around 45 million people. I'll bet that the number is much higher because our government has long had a policy of under reporting bad news. I would hazard to guess that most self-employed people don't have health insurance, including a significant percentage of farmers. Most small businesses don't offer health insurance. And many large companies don't either. In fact, the July/August issue of AARP Magazine, in an article titled: 8 Myths About Health Care Reform, reports that from 2000 to 2005 nearly 266,000 companies dropped their employees' health care coverage. I'll wager that many more large companies would like to drop their health insurance plans to help the company's bottom line on behalf of the major stock holders and the CEO!
And these embarrassing statistics describe what is said to be the richest, if not the best country in the world in which to live! And this is in spite of the fact that we spend more on health care than any other country in the world! Again citing the article in the AARP Magazine, in 2009 we will spend an estimated $2.6 trillion, or $8300.00 per person, even though lots of persons are probably doing without - until they end up in an emergency room!
Click, "read more" below, and I'll make my case for: why I think we don't have what Canada, England and almost all of Europe offers their citizens. In the next article, I will discuss why we should have single payer health care.
