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.
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!