Some Thoughts on Healthcare Reform

The Institute of Medicine recently predicted that an average of 60 Americans die every day (every day!) due to lack of or insufficient healthcare. And this in the richest country in the world. Italy, which ranks in the double digits of richest countries, has an estimated zero deaths per day due to lack of or insufficient healthcare.

So, what is the solution? According to the majority of doctors, nurses, and health economists, the answer is single-payer healthcare. And, in 2003, Obama supported this as well. When he was asked then what it would take to enact single-payer, he said we would need to take back the White House, the Senate, and the House. Well . . . in case you missed it, we've done that. And now Obama is suddenly siding with the insurance companies who heavily funded his campaign (I know, I know, all we heard was that small donors, average Americans were driving his fundraising, but look at any report and you'll see he got tons more corporate support than McCain, mostly because it was obvious any Dem was going to win in 2008, so they wanted to own whoever it was, and now it's paying off big-time).

But why single-payer? Well:

1) there is no such thing as pre-existing conditions as an excuse to deny coverage, since everyone is covered from birth.

2) It will cost much less overall, since people won't wait until the last minute to get attention they need, thus allowing their diseases or ailments to progress to a much more difficult and expensive stage.

3) Did I mention that 60 people die every damn day because we don't have this?

4) The other options are what Dr Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of New England Medical Review, calls "the futility of piecemeal tinkering". And these solutions still leave millions uncovered and cost as much or in most cases more than single-payer.

So . . . write your congressmen and -women and tell them to stand up for real healthcare reform, not some meaningless tinkering.