The Numbers Say It All

I just came across some shocking statistics: apparently, every day 14,000 Americans loose their health insurance coverage, and also every day, 17,000 Americans file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills.

With the debate about health care reform in full speed (or not? The Senate is likely to go on a month long vacation before they actually vote on the reform bill), I fail to understand why there even is a need for debate. When people loose their homes because they can't pay their medical bills, when insurance companies are dropping people just because they were unlucky enough to get sick, and worst of all, when people are dying because they can't afford the treatment they need - I think we are beyond debate! Who would have the audacity to say that the "status quo" is acceptable? Certainly, we each bear responsibility for our own health, and we each should retain the freedom to choose the treatment of our choice - conventional medicine or not - the fact remains that none of us is invincible. Things happen. A person who has become sick or injured should be able to focus on one thing: healing. Without the added stress of worrying how he can afford to heal. I do believe that society as a whole has the responsibility to take care of it's citizens to a certain degree. Right now, the system as it exists in America is broken, and brutal. Survival of the fittest? I rather think it is survival of the richest.

It is a cruel irony that one the one hand, stories abound of insurance companies trying everything in their power to find legal fault with a member who has been diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer, so they do not need to pay for an expensive course of chemotherapy and radiation, and on the other hand, there are plenty of stories such as the abeforementioned Daniel Hauser case, where the patient is court ordered to continue with chemotherapy against his wishes! So, in other words, the government forces people to have chemotherapy, but the insurance companies are refusing to pay for the treatment. In the end, the patient is broke and possibly dead. Who wins? Of course, the insurance companies and big Pharma. The average person, if he indeed survived treatments such as chemo at all, is left with unsurmountable bills and faces financial difficulties on top of the challenge of trying to heal. It's a no-win scenario indeed.

If you haven't seen Michael Moore's 2007 documentary "Sicko", where he takes on the US health care system and compares it with the systems in place in Canada, France, and Great Britain, I highly recommend to see it. As a European living in the United States, I can attest that what he presents about the health care systems in those countries is true. His film is the same time informative, funny, and upsetting, pointing out the grave injustices as they exist in the current system in the US.

I really don't know what amount of arrogance and hypocrisy can still make anyone bring up those redundant arguments about the evils of "socialized medicine". But, while listening to parts of the debate on C-Span, I not only heard those arguments again and again from the Republicans, I even heard one member of Congress argue that the Health Care Reform Bill would amount to "tax payer founded abortion". Oh boy. (I was about to bang my head against the wall). I pity those who actually listen to this. Well, it becomes really hard not to believe conspiracy theorists about the "Elite" secretly trying to reduce world population. If that was true, well, this would be one way to go about it, at least in America. Keeping as many people as possible, if not dead, then at least sick and broke, and with that, powerless.


But, enough of being cynical. I sincerely hope the health care reform will pass with a sufficiently strong public health plan. I for one part, would be one of the first to join, as I am one of the 50 million Americans who has no health insurance. I cannot emphasize enough what a relief it would be to know that should I get sick despite my best efforts to keep myself healthy, that I would not bankrupt myself trying to get care.

Here is the link to an excellent petition you can sign that covers a lot of ground relating to both health care coverage and health freedom. It was sponsored by http://www.naturalnews.com/. It covers areas such as restoring health freedom (the rights of people to choose their treatment of choice even if it is alternative medicine), ending FDA censorship, protecting the food supply (opposing irradiation of foods and GMOs), protecting the environment from flushing pharmaceuticals into the water supply, protecting children from products and advertising that compromise their health, and much more. About 25,000 people have signed so far, with the goal being to have 100,000 signatures to make an impact in Washington.

http://www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org/index.html?ID=10267

Sources:

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2009/02/health_in_crisis.html


http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2009/07/17/three-weeks/