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MAKE U.S. HEALTHIER and WEALTHIER: PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE
FOR ALL LABOR DAY: UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE
James V. Bertolone Guest essayist. August 29, 2008
This coming Labor Day, working people from coast to coast will
be working for candidates who are ready to turn around our health care system,
turn around our economy, turn around the decline of the middle class and turn
around America.
Our polling shows that more than 80 percent of Americans think our country is
heading in the wrong direction; that our health care system costs too much,
excludes too many, covers too little and is getting worse. The drive for universal
health care coverage is mobilizing thousands of working people in this year's
election cycle.
Whether measured by the World Health Organization, the medical profession or
our own government's statistics, our health care costs nearly twice as much
per person as that in other industrialized societies.
Of America's gross domestic product, health care costs totaled 17 percent in
2006, and now in 2008 totals more than $7,000 per person.
With costs continuing to rise in a contracting economy, we apparently are heading
for $1 out of every $5 spent in our $14 trillion economy going to health care
by about the end of this decade.
While other countries have universal health care, we have more than 47 million
Americans with no health insurance and more than 25 million underinsured.
We rank 24th among industrialized countries and 37th overall in the key areas
for how long we live, infant mortality and immunizations. Only in health care
costs does the United States rank No. 1.
We also pay nearly 50 percent more than most industrialized countries for prescription
drugs.
In most other countries, the concept of for-profit health care insurance is
alien, as health care is considered a universal right.
In a for-profit system, health care companies increase profits by denying coverage
to those at risk, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions,
and by denying medical procedures and tests.
I have yet to meet a person covered by Medicare who wishes to lose that coverage
to be at the mercy of for-profit health insurance.
The 15,000 doctors who belong to Physicians for a National Health Program say
that 60 percent of the uninsured and 28 percent of insured Americans go without
needed care due to costs, resulting in more than 18,000 deaths per year.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 1,100 mayors, in June endorsed HR
676, single-payer Medicare for all. Back in 2003, an article in The New England
Journal of Medicine reported that nearly one-third of U.S. health care costs,
$2,300 per person, were due to administration and profits. The article concluded
that a single-payer system would reduce administrative costs by $1,150 per person,
saving $350 billion a year, enough to insure all uninsured Americans. We know
these costs have risen in the past five years.
In our state, there is a large concern about the high cost of property and school
taxes. Imagine covering all health care costs for all our police, fire, state,
county, city, town and school district employees for less than $4,000 per person,
the average cost of universal health care coverage in other industrialized nations.
The thousands saved per employee would result in real tax savings.
Companies' health care costs put us at a competitive disadvantage in the global
economy. Health care costs thwart startup businesses. And they hinder workers'
mobility if a potential job excludes coverage for a spouse's or child's pre-existing
serious or chronic condition.
This issue is also about family values. We know the primary cause of divorce
and family breakup is financial strain. Nearly half of all bankruptcies are
due to medical issues, while the other half are due to job loss. In our system,
job loss and loss of health insurance are the same issue.
For-profit, deregulated health care is a wound on our country's soul. Labor,
with this election cycle and our advocacy after the election, will not stop
until universal health care is achieved for all - and we turn around America.
Happy Labor Day.
#30#
Distributed by: Kay Tillow All Unions Committee For Single Payer
Health Care--HR 676 c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO) 1169 Eastern
Parkway, Suite 2218 Louisville, KY 40217 (502) 636 1551 Email: nursenpo@aol.com
08/29/08
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