Universal Healthcare needed – Now more than ever
I just re-watched Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko last night, and I was reminded again how much we need actual health reform in this country. What Moore’s film illustrates, more than any other media in recent memory, is the problems with a for profit healthcare system, like the one that we have here in the United States.
In the absurdity of the for profit system, companies pay people large salaries to look for ways to deny coverage. That’s right, straight up cost benefit analysis, if the Company can pay $50,000 per year in salary for someone to save $50 Million in claims that don’t have to be paid out, then that is a winning venture.
Health Insurance companies exist to provide as little health care as possible. Period. If they provide more care, they lose money, and Wall Street doesn’t like that. This is an incentive to provide as little care as possible, in order to maximize profit and the growth of profits for their companies.
This is the genius of the Capitalist system. Paying people to deny coverage, profiteering off misery, letting people die. Killing people, who pay for a service that the companies refuse to provide in order to make more profit. Companies can come up with every justification to not insure someone, to deny coverage.
This is why we need Universal Heathcare in this country. Healthcare is a human right, and it should not come with any strings attached. If the Government exists for any reason, it is to protect the citizens. One of the concepts behind Insurance is to spread risk among a large pool of people, mitigating risk for any individual person for the benefit of all. The largest pool to spread risk across in our country is Every Man, Woman, and Child in the country, so why not do this with Healthcare? Everyone pays into one pool, via taxes. If you are sick, or need care you receive it, no questions asked.
Everyone pays in, everyone takes out when they need to. Other countries provide Heathcare in this manner, most notably our neighbor to the north, Canada. Sure, their system isn’t perfect, but when you are sick, you can just go to the doctor and get treatment by showing a card. Prescriptions are much cheaper than the US, and Citizens are protected.
I don’t expect this kind of change to come from the top without a strong movement from the bottom, but now more than ever it is time to demand that Healthcare become a Human Right in the United States of America!
