Guest Opinion: U.S. needs to wake up and provide universal health care
Ray Clasen
The News Press
Fort Myers, Florida
September 04, 2007
I’ve reckoned that if I did not have health insurance, the annual physical exam I receive at my family doctor’s would cost, including blood work, over $500. Without insurance I couldn’t afford these physicals, but without them my high blood pressure would still be undiagnosed, and I’d be a walking medical time bomb, a stroke waiting to happen.
Isn’t it ironic that the wealthiest nation on the planet is also the only “developed” nation that does not provide some sort of universal health care plan for its citizens? Forty-five million Americans do not have health insurance. As The News-Press pointed out in June, one in four Southwest Florida residents lives without coverage.
Some of these people are probably in good health, but many are in urgent need of medical attention and drugs they can’t pay for. This situation is a national disgrace and needs immediate attention. We must make it clear to the current crop of presidential hopefuls, be they Democrat or Republican, that health care reform must be their most important domestic issue.
Forget the hodgepodge of ideas that have been floated in different states on this issue; the only solution to this problem that makes sense is a single-payer universal health system administered by the federal government, a sort of Medicare for everyone. The argument that the government cannot be trusted to efficiently administer such a plan is ludicrous. The government already effectively runs Social Security and Medicare. Other large governments, for example Canada and Great Britain, administer universal health care programs, and do so quite efficiently.
Frankly, I’ll trust the government before I’ll trust a private entity that’s driven by greed.
Equally ludicrous is the argument that a single-payer government-run system will lead to rationing, an argument often repeated by President Bush. I’ve got news for the president: we already have rationing, and being denied health care because of an inability to pay for it is the most insidious form of rationing.
Those of us who have health insurance have no reason to be complacent on this issue. Skyrocketing premiums are forcing employers to consider dropping their coverage for employees entirely or making employees take on an ever greater share of premium costs. Larger deductibles and ruthless HMOs mean that health insurance is increasingly just a hedge against bankruptcy. It doesn’t take a catastrophic illness anymore to cause a family to be thousands of dollars out of pocket, even though they have health insurance.
It isn’t difficult to figure out why our political leaders are so reluctant to try to solve our health care crisis. Look what happened to Hillary Clinton when she tried to run point on some relatively modest reforms in 1992. The health care and pharmaceutical industries spent millions in a campaign to frighten the public into accepting the status quo, and it worked. And they’ll do it again. These industries are some of the biggest donors to the campaign coffers of our politicians and expect support in return. It will take a president of enormous courage and resolve to tackle this problem, but the problem must be tackled.
In Europe, even in Cuba, access to quality health care is considered a basic right of every citizen, not a privilege of the fortunate who work for good companies or are wealthy enough to buy insurance. It should be so in the USA. No American family should have to use the local ER for their family doctor. No American should be denied medical treatment because of an inability to pay for it. No American should have to choose between filling a needed prescription and paying utility bills.
I lived in Britain for some years and am familiar with their National Health Service. Are there problems with their version of “socialized medicine?” Yes. Waiting rooms can be crowded. Doctors and nurses are often overworked and feel underpaid.
There can be waiting periods for non-emergency procedures. But no one in Britain is worried that a catastrophic illness is going to drive their family into bankruptcy. No one ever worries about being denied medical attention or being unable to fill a prescription.
There are few issues that are literally a matter of life and death. The status quo on health care in this country is beyond unacceptable, and we need to make this clear to our presidential candidates and congressmen. It’s sad to think that the nearly $2 trillion wasted in Iraq could have provided the basis for universal health care here in America. We need to get angry and proactive on this issue.
— Ray Clasen lives in North Fort Myers.