16 May Health Care For All Why We Must Change Our Entire Healthcare System to Have Universal Healthcare
We could have Universal Healthcare. We really could, if it were not for the fact that our corrupt government sold us out 50 years ago and allowed our healthcare system go to a “for profit” system with ZERO oversight or regulation on how much they can charge. Want to know the difference between us and all of the other industrialized nations that have Universal Healthcare? Their’s isn’t for profit.
Universal Health Care
So when did they start messing up with us?
Believe it or not, the downfall of the American health insurance system falls squarely on the shoulders of former President Richard M. Nixon. Yep, old tricky Dick again. Interesting since we are currently talking about how #45 is doing some of the same things Nixon did, including trying to gut healthcare for most Americans.
In 1973, Nixon did a personal favor for his friend and campaign financier, Edgar Kaiser, then president and chairman of Kaiser-Permanente. Nixon signed into law, the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, in which medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be. And which insurance company got the first taste of federal subsidies to implement HMOA73 … Well, of course it was Kaiser-Permanente! What are the odds? It’s all right here to read for yourself.
Now in addition to the above we also have the pharmaceutical companies charging U.S. citizens outrageous profits for prescription drugs that they can get for a fraction of the cost in other countries. Spending on all prescription drugs, including commonly used medicines like antibiotics, accounts for a tenth of the nation’s total health spending. Read that again, 10% of our total health spending is on prescription drugs!
Runaway Drug Costs
Drug companies, like doctors and hospitals, will charge whatever the market will bear and once the Pandora’s Box is opened it goes up for everyone. If a procedure is being done for $1500 and is successfully billed at $3000 that becomes the norm for everyone to be charged immediately. The same goes for prescription drugs. If a company can increase the cost for a drug from a couple hundred dollars to over $800 they can and will do it because their loyalty isn’t to patients, it is to shareholders.
According to statistics over 45,000 people a year die because they cannot afford treatments, medicines or both. In a supposedly advanced nation like the United States this is appalling and it should enrage every citizen to know that our country puts corporate profits above the lives of its citizenry.
So, why all this information?
My point is that the current debate over health insurance is a moot point without health care reform. Until we take serious measures to curtail corporate profits in the medical and pharmaceutical industry insurance rates will continue to skyrocket no matter what any politician promises. This is why the current battle in the House of Representatives has the GOP wanting to gut the Affordable Care Act. The lobbyists that represent insurance companies and even insurance companies themselves are spending a fortune to see that it goes their way, which means reducing their risk to almost nothing but stripping health care for women, the poor and elderly.
In order to move towards Universal Health Care we are going to need not only brave members of Congress but also a President that will put the good of the people and the country above corporate profits no matter what the cost even if it means importing the drugs from countries where they are less expensive.
As you can see a HUGE part of the problem lies in the outrageous salaries of healthcare executives. ALL of these things must be addressed and I say that if they have a problem with it, go somewhere else, your days of raping and pillaging the U.S. and its citizens are over.
I am including reference links for you to further educate yourself below. There is only one way to give healthcare to all Americans and that is to stop overpaying industry executives and cut profits to pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and health care organizations that are overcharging. In addition we must commit to lowering the profits to insurance companies on our way to evolving into a form of Universal Health Care.
President Trump himself admitted when talking to Prime Minister Turnbull of Australia that they had better health care than we do. Why not take a lesson from their playbook then?
