The Health Care Crisis

The cost of health care has skyrocketed in the last few years. Americans spend more on health care than food. In fact, 16 percent of our GDP goes to health care (as of 2004). Compare this to 1960 in which it was only 5.2 percent. This is bad enough but it’s really severe if one doesn’t have health insurance. In America there are 46 million without health insurance. 8 million of those uninsured are children. Not having health insurance can be a death sentence if one becomes seriously ill. According to one study those individuals who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer were 70 percent more likely to die if they lacked health insurance than those who were covered.

Usually the debate over health care is presented as being between just two alternatives. One choice given is to leave the current system of private insurance and private providers essentially the same. Possibly add a safety net here or a tax deduction there but not do much else. The only alternative to the status quo is usually presented as the specter of “socialized medicine” with the entire medical system owned and operated by the Federal government. According to this scenario all doctors would become government employees while all private hospitals and clinics become government facilities.

But as my regular readers should expect I believe that there is a third way to solving this crisis. A major component of this third way alternative would be a single-payer health care system. According to the Physicians for a National Health Care Program (PNHCP), the “National Health Insurance Act” HR676, which is currently up before Congress, introduces a “publicly financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories.” PNHCP states at their web site, “This program will cover all medically necessary services, including primary care, inpatient care, outpatient care, emergency care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, long term care, mental health services, dentistry, eye care, chiropractic, and substance abuse treatment. Patients have their choice of physicians, providers, hospitals, clinics, and practices.”

While HR 676 would be a great leap forward the business model of medical providers also needs to be changed. Rather than corporate ownership, medical facilities and clinics must be converted into non-profits institutions. Many should be community-owned while others should be established as non-profits.

In addition to removing corporations as medical providers there needs to be an end to Big Pharma. Unfortunately, how to change the way we create pharmaceuticals requires far more than this one post can address and will have to wait until another time.

It’s important to note that in such a health care system with single-payer insurance, non-profit and community-owned medical providers and a reformed pharmaceutical system there would still be private practitioners. Americans would still be able to choose their own doctors.

In a third way medical system the power over life and death of Americans would no longer be a commodity controlled by a corporate oligarchy nor would it power belong to the State. That power would rest where it belongs; with the American people.

To learn more about HR676 visit the RESULTS web site.