Date Posted:02:37:40 08/24/06 Thu Author: jobee Subject: DIE YOU BASTARDS! In reply to:
jobee
's message, "BUSTED" on 18:06:55 08/22/06 Tue
>Message:
>href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1498">h
>ttp://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1498
>
>Health Care: It's What Ails Us
>by Doug Pibel and Sarah van Gelder
>
>Health of our nation
>
>For Joel Segal, it was the day he was kicked out of
>George Washington Hospital, still on an IV after knee
>surgery, without insurance, and with $100,000 in
>medical debt. For Kiki Peppard, it was having to
>postpone needed surgery until she could find a job
>with insurance &ndash it took her two years. People
>all over the United States are waking up to the fact
>that our system of providing health care is a
>disaster.
>
>An estimated 50 million Americans lack medical
>insurance, and a similar and rapidly growing number
>are underinsured. The uninsured are excluded from
>services, charged more for services, and die when
>medical care could save them—an estimated 18,000 die
>each year because they lack medical coverage.
>
>But it’s not only the uninsured who suffer. Of the
>more than 1.5 million bankruptcies filed in the U.S.
>each year, about half are a result of medical bills;
>of those, three-quarters of filers had health
>insurance.
>
>Businesses are suffering too. Insurance premiums
>increased 73 percent between 2000 and 2005, and per
>capita costs are expected to keep rising. The National
>Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) estimates that,
>without reform, national health care spending will
>double over the next 10 years. The NCHC is not some
>fringe advocacy group—its co-chairs are Congressmen
>Robert D. Ray (R-IA) and Paul G. Rogers (D-FL), and it
>counts General Electric and Verizon among its members.
>
>Employers who want to offer employee health care
>benefits can’t compete with low-road employers who
>offer none. Nor can they compete with companies
>located in countries that offer national health
>insurance.
>
>The shocking facts about health care in the United
>States are well known. There’s little argument that
>the system is broken. What’s not well known is that
>the dialogue about fixing the health care system is
>just as broken.
>
>Among politicians and pundits, a universal, publicly
>funded system is off the table. But Americans in
>increasing numbers know what their leaders seem not to
>— that the United States is the only industrialized
>nation where such stories as Joel’s and Kiki’s can
>happen.
>
>The shocking fact about health careAnd most Americans
>know why: the United States leaves the health of its
>citizens at the mercy of an expensive, patchwork
>system where some get great care while others get none
>at all.
>
>The overwhelming majority — 75 percent, according to
>an October 2005 Harris Poll — want what people in
>other wealthy countries have: the peace of mind of
>universal health insurance.
>
>Message:
>href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1498">h
>ttp://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1498
