Let me first of all apologize right from the beginning for this post. One of my self-imposed limitations I have put on myself as the publisher of Home Office Warrior was to not rant about an issue. Or to get too personal with any of the post we put up here. But, I have had just about enough. And to be frank, I am freaking pissed.
Let me also say, just for the record, I am a registered Republican as if that matters a hill of beans in this political environment. The lines that separate the political parties in this country are so blurred these days, one can’t hardly tell the Left from the Right. There is no longer a Republican party in my humble opinion. Because like every other politician and political party in this country, they too are so damn concerned about getting re-elected they pander to special interest and the Washington Beltway. OUR federal government has become the largest special interest group in Washington. They, OUR federal government are more concerned about their own interest they no longer appear to gave a damn about the PEOPLE of this wonderful country. And, I don’t care which party they are from, it applies across the board.
Please don’t misunderstand for one moment that I don’t thank God every day that I live in a country where I can pick up my computer’s keyboard and start writing a post such as this. In too many countries, this would be a crime to say the least. I am certainly not saying it is the country that is screwed up. It is the politicians who are in D.C. with our permission. Do you get that? They are there with our permission. We put them there by our participation in our political process.
And don’t even get me started on mainstream media. Once again, let me just say, I don’t watch network news and I darn sure don’t read any of the big newspapers in this country. I no longer believe a darn thing any of them say. For me, I would rather get my news from bloggers. I am serious. I would rather trust the citizen journalist (bloggers) than place my trust in anything spoken or written by mainstream media. They spend so much time kissing the collective asses of the Washington Beltway, one doesn’t know where the politicians and the media begins and ends.
Which is why I am all for terminating all press credentials for all mainstream media and make the politicians get off their plush chairs and get back out and actually look their constituents in the eye and explain to us why they have things so screwed up. And let us decide if you are qualified to retain your office and remain our employees or not. Where by the way, we are paying for your salary, full benefits, including everything. Oh, and we are paying your retirement funding and this one really gets under my skin, we are paying for your health care too.
And, if you haven’t already guessed is what this post is about. Why is it, those of us paying for your health care can’t get the same health care coverage as you get Mr and/or Mrs. Politician? Can someone please explain that one to me. We are the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. I am not saying it should be free. But, give us ALL the opportunity to pay for and obtain coverage. And it is those of us who are small business and self-employed who are hit the hardest.
The problem is not that it wouldn’t work. The problem is that our politicians have turned it into such a political quagmire, nothing can get done with it. And, I don’t care what McCain and Obama say, neither of them will get crap done when it comes to universal health care. Because the largest special interest group, our federal government won’t do it.
And another real problem with it all is that no one in Washington has taken the time to actually explain what it is and what it isn’t.
- First of all, single payer universal health care is not socialized medicine. It is health care payment system, not a health care delivery system. Health care providers would be in fee for service practices, and would not be employees of the government, which would be socialized medicine. Single payer health care is not socialized medicine, any more than the public funding of education is socialized education, or the public funding of the defense industry is socialized defense.
- Repeated national and state polls have shown that between 60 and 75% of Americans would like a universal healthcare system (Harris Poll #78, October 20, 2005)
- There would be a free choice of health care providers under a single payer universal health care system, unlike our current managed care system in which people are forced to see providers on the insurer’s panel to obtain medical benefits.
The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered. This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans. (Physicians for a National Health Program)
The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans’ health dollars.
Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do. (Single Payer Resources )
And I know my doctor friends are saying, what about us. we would be employee of the government. “Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.” (Physicians for a National Health Program )
All of that is well and good, but here is the real problem with why we won’t every see it in this country until changes are made. A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. Until we take this issue out of the hands of special interest and big government lobbyist, such as insurance companies, we won’t see universal health care in this country. And all the promises that McCain and Obama want to make won’t amount to anything.
Something has to change and we can’t put our hopes on those in Washington, It is time that we, the People of this country told our employees in Washington what we expect them to do and to make it happen. This should no longer be a Conservative or Liberal argument or position. It is time it became the right position and the right issue.
Categories: Home Office
12 Comments
Bravo. Now that you let it out, don’t you feel better. Well, maybe not in good health better, but better.
Awesome post! My friends overseas have commented many times that they can’t understand why our country’s health care system is so out of wack. You’re right. The public needs to remember that these politicians are essentially our “employees” and more of us need to aggressively remind them to listen to their constituents.
Amen Grant. You and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but we agree on this subject. We NEED universal health care in this country. In my practice areas of personal injury and Social Security disability, I see the tragic results that come from people not being able to afford health insurance.
Grant, you did break all your cardinal rules and I’m glad you did. And Home Office Warriors (entrepreneurs, single employee businesses) and their families suffer greatly. It is an intelligent and appropriate post for your site and your readers.
As Bob says, we may be at different ends of the political spectrum but on this issue there is nothing to argue about. It’s a necessity which is long overdue. And with Home Office Warriors at near records of 20 million…I think we have a powerful voice if we turn up the volume.
Chuck, Stephanie, Bob and Susan — Thank you for your comments, I appreciate all of you.
For the most part, I just posted at Chuck Newton’s blog re HSA and insurance companies. ….. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2005 and am a veteran of this medical care mess, as I know your are from your posting.
However, I have two comments that may (or, may not) appeal to your misguided GOP leanings:
First. My former stepfather is a physician (Ob-Gyn). I remember the efforts he and other physicians made during the the first Clinton Administration’s to stop health care reform dead in its tracks. Every single one of them thought that Hillary Clinton (someone I did not support in the primaries, but would have supported in the general election) was the devil incarnate. For all their hard work, these physicians became slaves to the insurance companies. It is so bad, that in the last six months, every doctor I have consulted for medical purposes, ends up telling me his problems with Blue Cross and never listens to my medical complaints.
Second. Besides being a lawyer, I started out my working career as a MBA building contractor. (I was one of a few women in California in the 1970s who became a building contractor based upon work experience and testing as opposed to “grandfathering in” on a husband/father/brother’s license.) I can tell you that most business persons in the know would love to have a national health plan.
The reason? It would make American business and its products more competitive.
How? Because our competitors in the free trade scheme of things do not have to pay for little pesky things like health care because the governments where these businesses are located pay for it through payroll taxes and such.
The bottom line is that we Americans are cutting off our noses to spite our faces. Why we fear government, I don’t know because the the one sure thing is that my mother’s social security check arrives every month like clock work. ….. I guess in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve. For some inexplicable reason, we are being punished for being stupid.
Corinne- Thank you so much for your comment and please continue to post about my “misguided GOP leanings”. As I said in my post, I am not sure it really matters anymore as the the lines between the two are getting so blurred. It was interesting to read about your former stepfather’s position as a physician. That seems to be the majority of the positions taken by the physicians in our rural Kansas community.
1. No one is “forced” to see providers to obtain medical benefits. You are free to do whatever you want. You can see the provider, not see any provider, or pay out of pocket to see another provider. You just don’t like those options.
2. We all DO have the opportunity to pay for coverage. You just don’t like the amount you would have to pay. Could it be that you think we should have the ability to pay for CHEAP coverage? This is called regulation, and regulated markets never work. Just ask Gorbachev.
3. I can think of a time when repeated national and state polls would have shown that 60 and 75 percent of Americans thought black people should be forced to sit in the back of the bus. Pure democracies don’t work, which is why our country was founded as a constitutional republic. You should know the difference. If you don’t, you should look it up.
4. Negotiated formulary salaries may not be socialism, per se, but they sure as heck aren’t capitalism.
5. You talk about the “free choice” of the citizens to see healthcare providers, but you don’t talk about the free choice of the health care providers. Would they be free? Free to set their own fees? Free to turn away patients who couldn’t pay those fees? It seems that what you are actually proposing is that we sacrifice the freedom of one person in favor of something that you deem is good for the collective. There’s a word for that.
One thing I do agree with you about, though, is that the lines have been blurred. It’s probably because most people are unwilling to look deeper than their emotionally driven gut reaction to a situation. The question you should be considering is this: What is an objective standard we can use to define what constitutes a “right” and what doesn’t? My guess is that you haven’t considered this. You aren’t alone. Most people haven’t. But if you are going to rant about an issue, perhaps you should.
Trust me, if the federal government was running health care, the amount of bureaucracy would soar and the 31% cost would seem cheap. Consider the defense industry — well more than half the cost goes to meeting regulations totally unrelated to military requirements.
I know our health system is not good now, but in our chronic illness chat room (peaceinchronicillness.blogspot.com), it’s the Canadians that uniformly do not have the medicine and other help they need; the American, somehow, do get it. Virtually none of the Canadians have the pain meds they need and one lady had to wait two weeks just to get x-ray results. The folks from the UK seem to fare better but I hear odd stories from there sometimes, too.
Actually, the situation reminds me of what Churchill said about democracy — it’s the worst except for all the rest.
Oh, my! I cannot speak for the Canadian system, but I was born in Panama and have lived in France, both having “socialized” medicine. I never experienced anything similar to the above comment by Liz4cps.
What I have experienced in the good ol’ US of A:
1. I had a health care crisis beginning in August 2005.
2. During one of my surgeries I contracted MRSA, the deadly form of staph infection.
3. It took several days for the infection to manifest, so when it did, I was home.
4. I had to be taken to a hospital closer to my home than the one where I contracted the disease.
5. I waited almost two hours to see a doctor in the ER. Once I saw the doctor, he prescribed an antibiotic IV drip.
6. It took over an hour after seeing the doctor for a nurse to attempt to start the IV drip.
7. That nurse was annoyed when my mother asked her to wear latex gloves while inserting the IV.
8. She was probably annoyed because the ENTIRE time she was attempting to insert the IV she was TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE TO HER BOYFRIEND.
9. Another nurse, and then another and another, tried to start the IV drip, but since I was so sick and dehydrated, no one knew how to find a vein.
10. The phlebotomist, who had no trouble drawing blood, offered to help the nursing staff, but he was told to leave the room because his license only allowed him to draw blood, not start an IV.
11. I demanded to see the doctor again, and when the doctor did not respond, I managed to get up and attempted to leave the hospital.
12. Finally, a nurse just coming on duty was able to insert (immediately!) the IV drip.
13. Less than five minutes after the IV drip was started, an administrator told me to leave as I had spent too much time in the ER. The IV drip had approximately 99% to go before it would have been empty.
14. Overall, I spent six hours in the ER.
And my surgeon, the one who operated on me? He had to have all the medical tests redone at another lab so he would know what to prescribe; the ER had a turn around of five days, and then did not have the time to send him the results via FAX for an additional two days.
I do not begrudge others apparent favorable hospital experiences, but I had one hospital give me a deadly infectious disease and another almost kill me for lack of care.
I won’t even go into the UNPRESCRIBED radioactive isotope iodine treatment I inadvertently received years ago at a THIRD hospital which put me at risk for, and indeed may have caused, my breast cancer. It did destroy my thyroid.
My point is, anyone can relate horror stories. Just this morning, it was reported that here in the States, the average wait time in an ER prior to seeing a doctor has increase to more than one hour from 28 minutes four years ago.
OK. I cannot help it! Just one more comment! Re: the above comment on providers.
As I stated over on Chuck Newton’s blog, sometimes you think you have your bases covered by choosing providers and you don’t since so many physicians are “independent contractors”.
For example, I am lucky enough that once I meet my deductible of $3,500, that Blue Cross will pay 50% of what it thinks the health care service is worth. Usually, that starts at a reduction of 33% of what the health care provider bills and then whittles down from there.
When I had my mastectomy, I choose a general surgeon that was not a Blue Cross provider. It was my choice. However, I made certain that all other providers, including the hospital, was a Blue Cross provider. What a shock when I received a bill from the pathologist.
It seems that even though the hospital was a Blue Cross provider, and the pathologist was on contract with the hospital as the ONLY pathologist for the hospital, and I had no choice of a pathologist, the pathologist was an independent contract that was not a Blue Cross provider.
The pathologist billed Blue Cross $3,600, Blue Cross deemed the value of his services as $1,200, and paid 50% of that, or $600. I was billed for the remainder, or $3,000, plus my $3,500 deductible, plus what I owed my general surgeon.
The same thing happened when I had another surgery last year and developed what thankfully turned out to minor complications at 3:00 a.m. That hospital called its “hospitalist” which was part of a group of doctors, also independent contractors, and not Blue Cross providers. Blue Cross paid 50% of what it deemed the services of the hospitalists were worth, I paid the remainder.
I just got an email from a friend that her young daughter had an accident several months ago. It turns out that the ER doctors were independent contractors and not part of any insurance plan. You guessed it! Even though my friend and her husband had insurance, they will probably be paying these ER doctors for years to come instead of paying into this child’s college fund.
….. As for the “free choice of health care providers”, is that why the physicians in California had to sue Blue Cross under the civil RICO statute just to get paid?
We need to think about truly including complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the future health care plan. I’m an acupuncturist treating infertility. I’ve seen many patients that have undergone 3 IVF cycles, costing the insurance companies (us) over $60,000. The co-pay for the drugs is upwards of $10,000 for 3 cycles. Unfortunately, many of these women are not getting pregnant.
I’ve seen patients that have had 3 unsuccessful IVF attempts get pregnant after 3 months of acupuncture at a cost of $1500 for 3 months with herbal medicine. The advantage to a fertility program with an acupuncturist is no side effects, less miscarriages, less pre-term births, less multiples and an overall healthier pregnancy.
That’s my 2 cents from the acupuncture arena. Great blog by the way!