I am no expert on how to fix the healthcare crisis in this country. I just know there is one. Three unrelated occurrences drove that home this week. A relative told me about his being forced back to work so he wouldn’t lose health-insurance coverage for him and his wife. He is 62 years old, worked hard, paid his taxes all his life and is recovering from lung cancer. Yet, the system was about to throw them both under the bus. The second occurrence is my family doctor is leaving his practice years before his time, probably because of outrageous malpractice insurance premiums. The third is the opening of Michael Moore’s film "Sicko," which I haven’t seen yet, but focuses on the shame of healthcare in this country.
For years we have known about the burgeoning crisis and we have done nothing. Presidents, as far back as Harry Truman and as diverse in political philosophy as Richard Nixon, tried to get universal healthcare for all Americans and failed. The last attempt during the Clinton administration is still derided as "Hillarycare." It is an issue whose time has finally come.
For those who think our medical care is just fine the way it is, think again. If you want to ignore the statistics that show America lagging behind other major industrial countries in infant mortality and life expectancy, be my guest. But try walking into the ER of any hospital in this area and they are jammed with those lacking medical coverage for routine care. Talk to those who have lost their health insurance because they changed jobs or were too sick to work.
When Medicare was proposed, we heard the harpies of fear cry "socialized medicine!" Where would you be today without Medicare? Think private health insurers always do a better job? Think again. Medicare beats them by a mile in low administrative costs. Now compare the way government-run Medicare works with the pharmaceutical coverage of President George W. Bush and his then-Republican Congress using private insurers. You need a Rosetta stone to figure out how it works. The gaps in coverage make no sense. When it comes to healthcare, too many politicians worry more about the pharmaceutical industry than Americans lacking good medical coverage. Note: there is a legitimate concern the big dollars from drug companies pouring into Hillary Clinton’s campaign will make her less than a zealous advocate for universal healthcare.
Not that the leading Republican candidate is any better. In the last debate, Rudy Giuliani’s response to a single-payer system was the same one uttered by the Dewey Republicans in 1948: "socialized medicine!" The pharmaceutical lobby will no doubt drag out "Harry and Louise" in a new ad campaign to scare Americans. They are incredibly successful in making the average person frightened that a socialist nightmare awaits if universal health coverage was enacted. Horrifying images of lengthy waiting for care in the UK and Canada are invoked. Next time you are in London or Montreal try finding someone who would switch their coverage with an American. Besides, who’s kidding whom? If you need to see a specialist or schedule surgery in this country, try getting an appointment in less than three months. Better yet, with malpractice insurance being the way it is in these parts, try finding a doctor who, if he hasn’t "retired," hasn’t curtailed his or her office hours because of prohibitive premiums.
It is reported that when Michael Moore decided to make a film about the plight of medical coverage in this country, he ran an ad asking for people to relate their personal horror stories. He received 20,000 responses right after the ad was placed. All of us either have experienced the nightmare firsthand or know someone close who has.
I’m not against drug companies making a reasonable profit, but how much of the cost of a drug like Prilosec is due to the expensive ad campaign and wining and dining physicians to get them to prescribe it? Why is it one of the richest countries on earth has so many people lacking basic medical coverage? Why are doctors telling their kids not to become doctors? Why is it if you have a medical emergency, you have to sit in the waiting room for hours without being seen?
The 2008 election is coming up. We should be asking the tough questions and demanding answers.
