Universal Health
Care, why are so many Republicans against this?
Every industrialized
nation in the World has Universal Health Care, except the United States. Is it
because our Health Care system is the best in the world, and Universal Health
Care would make it worse?
Health Care in the
United States is now a $2.2 trillion industry,
encompassing significant portions of federal, state and local budgets, as well
as a huge private sector market. The issues of growth, inflation, pricing,
sources of funding, as well as coverage and quality of services are central to much of today's health policy discussions. From
Consumer-Driven Health to Universal coverage, the state (and federal) debate
has intensified in 2005-2006. (Source: National Conference of State
Legislatures)
According to a
federal analysis released in January of 2007, in 2005 the U.S. health care
spending increased 6.9 percent to almost $2.0 trillion, or $6,697 per
person. The health care portion of gross domestic product (GDP) was
16.0 percent, slightly higher than the 15.9 percent share in 2004. (Source:
National Conference of State Legislatures)
The United States
spends more per person then any other country in the world, yet every other
country has Universal Health Care.
So how does the
Health Care system here in the United States, compare with all the Universal
Health Care systems throughout the world?
We spend more per
person then anyone else, so we must have the best Health Care money can buy,
Right?
Wrong.
According to the World Health
Organization’s (W.H.O.) report from 2000, the United States health care ranks
only 37th in the world, yet we spend more then
anyone else.
The report measured
not just the overall spending on health, but also how health care was
distributed among different groups in each of the 191 nations that are members
of the World Health Organization.
The countries were
judged according to five health-care categories that W.H.O surveys found to be
most important to the people in various nations.
The five measures
used are:
1. Overall level of health or life expectancy
2. Health fairness or life expectancy as
measured across various populations within a country
3. Responsiveness or how well people rated
performance of their health care system
4. Fairness in responsiveness among different
groups in the same country
5. Fairness in financing among different groups,
which looked at what proportion of income is devoted
to health care
Fairness, well that
is obviously something that has NEVER been associated with our Health Care
System.
Life Expectancy, well
that is something that people assume we excel in with our Health Care system.
The five top nations
for Health Care
According to the
report, the five top nations for Health Care were France, Italy, San Marino,
Andorra and Malta.
One surprise in the
findings, said Dr. David Evans of the W.H.O.'s Global Program on Evidence for
Health Policy, was the good rankings for southern European countries such as
Italy and Spain.
Oman ranked No. 8, a
surprise because its health care system was in shambles in the 1970's, with a
very high infant mortality rate, and because it has a relatively small budget
for health. Its spending per capita on health is one-ninth of that of the United
States, for example.
Dr. Christopher J. L.
Murray, an international health economist from the Harvard School of Public
Health, who is one of two leaders of the project, said Oman demonstrates that
great changes in a country's health can be produced in a short period of time.
Another surprise was
China's ranking of No. 144. A little more than a decade ago, China had a public
health care system, but it has collapsed, and now people there pay for
virtually all their care out of pocket. It was ranked No. 188 in fairness of
financing.
The United States
outspends the world and ranks near the top in average health measures, but
fails to deliver good health care to a large proportion of its population and
distributes the cost relatively unfairly, according to the report's measures,
leaving it at number 37 in the rankings.
There are currently
49 million Americans without any health coverage, and 12 million are children.
As you saw with the
world rankings, one of our major short comings is that large portions of our
population are left out of our health care system.
Morals
A word that
Republicans like to throw around is “morals“. The Republican Party likes to
think that they have the high ground on all related policies that morals would
play a roll, such as Abortion and Gay and Lesbian marriage.
Never mind the fact
that most Republicans are Pro War, and Pro Death penalty.
I cannot understand
how Universal Health Care is not a Moral to be considered by the Republican
Party..
There are currently
ten, soon to be eleven, Republicans running for President, and each and
everyone of them are against Universal Health Care.
All of the Republican
Presidential candidates can not see that 49 million people which 12 million are
children, without Healthcare is IMMORAL.
And in a stunning
contrast, all eight Democratic Presidential candidates have a plan for
Universal Health Care.
I do not have enough
space to go over each and every candidates plan for Universal Health Care, but
I will say some plans such a John Edwards calls for a tax increase for those
who make more then $200,000 a year, and other plans such as Obama,
would have those who can't afford health care coverage getting a subsidy on a
sliding scale depending on their income, and virtually all businesses would
have to share in the cost of coverage for their workers.
None of the plans
call for eliminating the way most people get their health coverage, what all
eight Democratic Presidential candidates want to do, is make sure that everyone
has access to health care, such as the 49 million who currently do not.
Premiums have
increased 87 percent over the past six years. Family health coverage now costs
an average $11,480 annually, with workers paying an average of $2,973 toward
those premiums, about $1,354 more than in 2000. (Source: National Conference of
State Legislatures)
The U.S. Census
Bureau has estimated that because of the yearly increases on Health insurance
that we have experienced, they have projected that by the year 2012, 150
million Americans will no
longer be able to afford health insurance.
Universal Health
Care, it is the Moral thing to do, and it is the Right thing to do…