Single Payer, It Just Makes Cents

If you had just been mugged, you would call the police. They would ask you where you were and would rush to the scene. At no point would anyone ask who you were insured by. If your house is on fire, you would call the fire department. They would ask you where you were and they would rush to the scene. At no point would they ask who you were insured by. If a loved one had a heart attack, you would call 911. They would ask where you were and they would rush to the scene. At a later date you'd be asked who your insurer was and then be slammed with thousands of dollars of bills.

Why are two out the these three services considered to be too important to be left to the free market? Every year over 22,000 american die due to their lack of accesses to health insurance. Almost 300,000 in the past fifteen years. The free market is made up of for-profit businesses attempting to make the largest profits possible. Why should your health be risked for a greater investment return? Billions of dollars are wasted every year on cumbersome unnecessary administrative costs. These billions of dollars could be used to supply the needy with health care, for a fraction of the cost.

Our government is currently attempting to reshape the health care industry, but for whose benefit? Single payer health care (everyone in, nobody out paid through taxes) has been thrown off of the table due to the power of large lobbying groups like the AMA (American Medical Association) and the insurance industry. Single payer is off the table even though polls show time and time again that it is preferred by a majority of doctors and citizens.

The Obama administration has offered up two plans for health care reform. The first being the introduction of health care plan being offered by the government designed to COMPETE against the private insurance industry. The idea being that the public health option could help keep the private industry honest. An idea which is simply laughable. Capitalism dictates that in order to be successful one must do anything possible to insure success. Competition will not keep the insurance industry honest, it will force them to goto to new measures to keep their business profitable.

The other option is a government mandate that would require anyone who can afford it to obtain some form of health insurance. In effect this would hand over millions of new clients the insurance industry further expanding the industries growth and making it all the harder for us to ever shed ourselves of it. With this being the only other option being offered by the government it makes the idea of a public health care option seem ridiculous. And while a public option is not a solution it is a much better step in the right direction then mandating private insurance.

In the past year we have seen billions of dollars handed out to companies with no strings attached. All in the name of saving the economy. In the recent the debacle with General Motors many American learned that the auto giant was spending more on health care than steel. The government could have saved businesses that supply their employees with health insurance lots of money without having to hand them anything by creating a single payer health care system. The government would have also saved thousands of dollars for each American paying into private insurance, this money could then have reentered the economy. All of this could have been done for a fraction of the cost of the trillions spent in bailing out failing companies.

Now after wasting trillions of dollars keeping a float failing irresponsible companies the government is ready to think about health care. This is not only outrageous but criminal. The government has gone and outright stole our tax dollars in the interest of private businesses. WIth the passing of an insurance mandate the government will again being helping big business instead of "we the people".

Here are some recent articles on the national health care crisis:

Doctors' Group Opposes Government Public Insurance Plan By Robert Pear

We Need a Holistic, Cradle-to-the-Grave National Health Care System by Carol Miller

Deaths In Peru

A while back I posted a link to a brief article on the Peruvian Free Trade Agreement signed by President bush in his final days as president. I mentioned that this could lead to the destruction of 70% of the Amazon. This is quickly becoming a reality. In Peru Indigenous protesters have been massacred while peacefully protesting the destruction. Below is a segment from Democracy Now! which explains the events and the history of the struggle.