Health Care

[ThomWV]

I just now came to understand something unspoken about our health care system. There are future cost issues surrounding health care that confound me. Take this for instance; we are told that in some not so distant future our Government's non-discretionary spending on health care will be greater than its current spending on all fronts. Think about that for a minute. More money than is now being spent for all programs, including defense and its contractors, including the energy sector and its contractors, including our nation's subsidies to education, will be landing in the hands of this nation's medical doctors and the stock holders of pharmaceuticals. Talk about a privileged class. Now, does anyone really think that is going to happen, that doctors, not lawyers or politicians or importers of plastic, or even makers of war, will become the economic ruling class of this nation?

Next, and this one should really be of concern to people who are around 30 or 40 years old right now. While its true that the overall cost of health care will be getting much higher its important to consider just how that will effect the average person. I have been told that most of ones health care expenditures will occur in the final days of their life. The numbers are absurdly high, something like 75% of the money gets spent in the last 30 days for most of us. That is where the crunch is going to hit hard. With future costs its not going to be a problem that you can not afford care for life's lessor accidents and illnesses. Those will cost you an arm and a leg, but you'll make do. Where you are not going to be able to afford care is at the end, where the costs are the greatest your ability to come up with the required money will be least. I have known two people who have died of treatable illnesses after having been sent home to die because of lack of money - I expect to see more of that.

[Virginia Dare]

1. This is a puzzle that I'm trying to figure out...

how are we going to deal with this? 20 years from now you will have a generation of people getting ready to retire with no health benefits, and no retirement income, save social security, assuming it's still around. How is that going to work exactly? I'm scared for myself, because I'm one of these people, and I just don't see any way possible to prepare for this, except sock away as much money as you possibly can (where to invest it is another issue altogether), and get out of debt.

[Merrill]

2. healthcare

Middle Class can and should take absolute control of our government for the
middle class is the most powerful influence on the USA planet. Remember the wealthy are only 1% of the population so middle class rules with votes. A change in voting and financing of elections is the only way. Elected officials do not want change. USA citizens NEED change!

We the people demand these issues be placed on the 2008 presidential ballot:

http://www.instantrunoff.com/
http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/
http://www.publicampaign.org/
National Healthcare for All

""Ironically, few Americans understand that a relatively small number of consumers, roughly 5 to 10 million have the economic power to severely damage the American and global economy. Spending cutbacks could be become contagious. Leaving out the working poor with little discretionary spending, the amount of discretionary spending by millions of middle class Americans with ample disposable income is sufficient to threaten economic growth and the economy. A major reason is that there is a large "multiplier" associated with consumer spending, meaning that every dollar spent has a large ripple or cumulative impact through various sectors of the economy. One person's spending is another's (actually many others') income. The multiplier can range from four to six. For example, cut consumer spending by $250 billion and it can easily reduce the national GDP by $1 trillion. If the middle class does not soon use its consumer spending power, it will surely lose it as its discretionary income evaporates, because the war against will be won by the Upper Class.

Economic civil disobedience for the foreseeable future has much more power to change our nation for the better than the political act of non-voting. The goal of the economic strategy is to obtain enough reforms and improvements in the political system to restore the effectiveness of voting at some later time. Now, in our perverse society, dollars are more powerful agents of change than votes. In truth, as has been evident for many years, we cannot vote ourselves out of a corrupt, oppressive and delusional democracy that uses military and economic weapons of mass devastation on a global scale for the benefit of elites, while pretending to be the world's best democracy. The truth of all this defines the case for a populist Second American Revolution. We must motivate some millions of Americans that are so fed up with current conditions that they will eagerly join a loose network of American Insurgents for Democracy, not fighting with weapons in the streets, but by withholding their dollars from the economy.""

http://www.populistamerica.com/progressive_civil_disobedience

[Sir Jeffrey]

3. ...

"Now, does anyone really think that is going to happen, that doctors, not lawyers or politicians or importers of plastic, or even makers of war, will become the economic ruling class of this nation?"

No, the elites will always be the military industrial complex guys. Our economy runs on military expenditures. If it came down to it, they would cut everything else out of the budget before they would risk closing bases or canceling weapons/munitions contracts.

Health care in the US is pathetic. We could adopt any number of Western models and immediately reduce our health care expenditures by half. I think there is a growing concern about that even among the powerful in the country. Most big time CEOs would rather NOT be health care providers.

We have to adopt some form of universal health care or we will go bankrupt.

The rest of your post is spot on. I would add that most people my age (30 and younger) not only go without health insurance because of cost, but we also have crippling student loan debt. God bless America!

edited to add that about 50% of all bankruptcies are directly caused by outrageous health care costs

[LSK]

4. I can see how it can get scary, but I see a movement to change our system

We now have Presidential Candidates (Obama, Edwards) who now support Universal Healthcare.

We have a Democratically controlled House that is not beholden to Drug Companies for the 1st time in 12 years.

Europe is proving that universal healthcare does not have to be as expensive if you do more preventive care and do not allow drug companies to enjoy sick profits.

We have the power to change the system. Europe has a system that works. We just need the political will to move in that direction and the elections in 2006 give me hope that we can get there.

[aquart]

5. The patchwork system is destroying us.

EVERYONE has to be in the pool, not just the sickest, or the healthiest (depending on who is selecting the pool members). The biggest cost is the waste of money going to the middlemen of the insurance companies, taking their hefty cut of the PROFITS. The health of the American people should not be a profit-making enterprise. It is a national security issue. It is far too vital to our survival and our security to be privatized and left to the mercies of the greedy.