Health Care Reform Info

For anyone out there who had been out of the loop on health care reform, here is a primer.

 

Americans spent over $2.5 trillion dollars on health care last year.  In 2007, health care expenditures equated to over 16% of the GDP.  France is the next highest at 11%, while Canada is 10.1% and Ireland is 7.6%.  The average for modernized countries is 8.9%.¹

 

Over 45 million people in the U.S. under the age of 55 do not have health insurance.  This includes 9 million children.²

 

Despite spending more on health care than any other country in the world, the United States ranks 50^th in life expectancy³ and 45^th in infant mortality rate⁴.

 

American families with insurance pay a hidden tax of roughly $1000 for the cost of caring for people without insurance.⁵  In 2008, the uninsured cost Americans $57.4 billion.  Of this amount, 75% is paid by federal state, and local funds.  The other 25% by private dollars.²  We are currently paying for the uninsured via tax dollars or it is passed on to us in our health insurance premiums.

 

A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.  According to the study, the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance.⁶

 

The Obama administration believes that health care reform should:

• Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government
• Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs
• Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans
• Invest in prevention and wellness
• Improve patient safety and quality of care
• Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans
• Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job
• End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions⁷

President Obama has promoted the creation of a public plan as an option in addition to the current private plans available.  Many of the uninsured would be covered by the public plan.  This is not socialized medicine but actually encourages competition within the private health insurance cartel.  

 

Many opponents of health care reform claim that the government will impose rationing of treatment.  These people do not realize that rationing by the private health insurance companies already occurs.⁸  Denying care to individuals is fundamental to health insurance company profits.  This denial includes current customers, as well as those seeking insurance.  Health insurance companies deny or drop care for sick customers in order to turn a profit - customers who have paid them lots of money for their insurance products.  This is a truly disgusting practice.

 

Opponents have also come up with the bizarre claim that the government is going to set up "Death Panels" that will euthanize Grandma and Grandpa.  Rather, the House bill provides an option for voluntary advance care planning.  This would allow elderly patients or terminally ill individuals to meet with health professionals and learn more about living wills, health care proxies, hospice care, and other forms of end-of-life planning. Advance care planning gives the patient control over end of life decisions and provides them with the information necessary to legally make these decisions.  Both Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have advanced the fallacy of death panels.  This is truly hypocritical, as both endorsed end of life counseling prior to taking the partisan stance of opposing it.⁹   

 

The battle over health care reform unfortunately is not about health care.  Blue Dog Democrats are worried about losing campaign money from insurance companies.  But mainly, it has turned into a purely partisan battle.  The Republican Party believes that defeating health care reform is their best way to strike a blow to the Democrats and President Obama.  They hope that by doing this, they will be able to claw their way back to prominence nationally.  It is unfortunate that they feel they must use the health of the American people as a pawn in their political game.

 

1. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/2/38980580.pdf

2. http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7451-04.pdf  

3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

4. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

5. http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq

6. http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.w5.63v1

7. http://www.healthreform.gov/about/index.html

8.http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/PotterTestimonyConsumerHealthInsurance.pdf

9. http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/13/palin-deathpanel-flipflop/