I found out today that access to health care coverage at my new job would be delayed by an entire month. Not that I am surprised, because the state of health care in this country seems to get worse and worse all the time. What is most devastating about this is that people have become resigned to thinking that there is nothing we can do about it. The truth is that we are getting screwed and our government is letting it happen. Even though President Bush talks about the need to lower health care costs for the American people, his Administration and the Republican Congress has instead done everything they can to protect the medical establishment, while raising Medicare rates, and cutting Medicaid funds for the poor. The Republican-controlled Congress designed the entire Medicare Prescription drug bill in a way to reduce the burden on pharmaceutical companies. Not surprisingly, it was these same pharmaceutical companies who supplied millions of dollars in individual donations (i.e. "protection money") to President Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign.
Doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies aren't left out either. According to President Bush during the 2004 Presidential campaign, it's frivolous lawsuits that are the problem with health care, and they have to be stopped. While this isn't necessarily untrue, it is one of many issues, and the main intention of stopping frivolous lawsuits is to protect the medical establishment, not lower costs for the patient.
Now the federal government is denying health care benefits to over a quarter-million war veterans. The justification is that these war veterans already make a decent wage, and have no serious health problems or illnesses, and that the military can't cover so many veterans with so many seriously wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. So if you are a veteran, make sure that you stay poor and sick when you come home after serving our country, or else the government will have to cut you off.
As health care costs continue to spiral out of control, they are taking American jobs with them. The costs of employee-sponsored health care have nearly doubled since Bush took office, increasing the strain on large and small businesses alike. General Motors and Ford are forced to lay off workers left and right, not just because they pumped all their money into gas-guzzling SUVs, but because they have to spend billions of dollars each year on health care coverage for their employees. And if you think it's bad for large companies like Ford and GM, imagine how this affects small businesses that struggle to offer health care coverage to maintain a strong staff to build their business and keep it growing.
Pretty soon, more large corporations will be forced to lay off thousands more workers and outsource more jobs overseas, while more small companies will be unable to offer health care coverage to their workers, and won't have any options other than downsize or close up shop. If the problem persists, the average American will have to choose between their health and their bank account, and if they choose the former, they may have to get a second mortgage on their house if, God forbid, they have a medical emergency that requires a trip to the emergency room.
In 2004, 46 million people were without health care - 5 million more than when Bush took office. Even more had inadequate health care insurance, with a high deductible that forced them to avoid the doctor because it didn't fit their budget (especially with the rising cost of gasoline). The ability to see a doctor when you're sick or suffer an injury is not only essential for your physical health, it's essential for your mental health as well, but while Republicans were elected supposedly to "serve" the American people and make "moral" decisions, they end up serving the medical business and turning their backs on the "moral" choice of helping people when they get sick. Why should the people of this country care about policies that protect the profits of hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and insurance companies, if they can no longer afford to use those services?
The truth is that the Republican's record on health care is immoral, disgraceful, and shames our entire nation. Health care hasn't always been this unaffordable, and isn't this way everywhere in the world. The first step to making things better is for the federal government to start regulating the medical industry to limit the degree to which it serves as a profit-driven business as compared to a public service. Maybe the billions of dollars pharmaceutical companies spend advertising medication for erectile dysfunction could go to something more useful, and maybe our government should look into the reasons why an overnight stay in a hospital may cost an average person the same as two-months rent. Whatever the problems and inefficiencies, our government has to do more, but with the Republicans in charge, I am afraid too many of our friends and neighbors will be unable to afford their own health in years to come.
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/
Also, Josh Marshall's TPM has a new health care blog focusing on Medicare D(isaster)