The colors that don’t run and the numbers that do not lie.
An Op-Ed from News-Leader.Com (Link)
My interest in health care reform is both personal and professional because I have a daughter who cannot afford health insurance and I am a health care provider. I decided to research how we are affected by the health care crises financially and medically. I learned how we compare to other countries in health costs and outcomes. And finally I was surprised that there are “socialistic” models of health care already operating in the U.S.
How do health care costs affect our pocketbooks? Health care represents 17 percent of our GNP and we spend about $7,000 per capita. France, Germany and Japan spend about half that. In the U.S. the costs of treating the uninsured are shifted by providers to the insured. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums rose by 119 percent from 1999-2008, leaving more people uninsured or underinsured. High health care costs account for $2,000 of the price of a U.S.-made luxury car, affecting America’s ability to compete in the global marketplace. Defensive medicine adds $1,700 to $2000 to each insured families’ yearly insurance bill. The employee portion of premiums has increased by 79 percent with wages only increasing by 10 percent from 1996-2006. In 2007, 62 percent of bankruptcies were due to medical bills.
How does the high cost of medical care affect America’s health? 22,000 people die each year from lack of health care. Most of these are people with jobs but no health care. 25 million Americans are underinsured, 45 million are uninsured. The World Health Organization in 2000 ranked the U.S. 37th, just behind Costa Rica and ahead of Cuba in quality and fairness of our national health systems. The U.S. ranks below European countries and Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore in life expectancy. In infant mortality, the U.S. ranked last among 23 developed countries. Being uninsured is associated with receiving fewer necessary services, substandard care, and greater risk of dying in the hospital or shortly after discharge.
We already have “socialistic” models of health care in the U.S. Those with employer-sponsored insurance have the same model as in Germany, Japan, and France. Those with Tricare or who are Native American have the same model as in Britain, Italy and Spain. Those over 65 on Medicare have the model found in Canada. And 17 percent of our citizens have the uninsured out-of-pocket model found in China and India.
In countries with universal health care, citizens regard access to health care as a right, not as a commodity. This is how we regard fire protection, law enforcement and K-12 education. None of the universal health models is perfect, and many countries struggle with the increasing costs of delivering health care to all. But in all of these countries, my daughter would have affordable health care. What can be done for her and the 45 million other uninsured people who can’t afford health insurance but who work just as hard as those with employer-sponsored insurance? The United States needs our own universal health plan that will bear the stamp of the American way of doing things. We can’t afford to wait any longer.
