Alas, it is a gray day in Streeterville. The sky above is gray. The lake below is gray. The hair on my head is gray. Rain comes forth from the gray above, periodically. The Streeterville Weather Service tells me that it's 64 degrees outside. It's 4:30 PM on a Wednesday, July 8th. Do you know where your summer is? Mine has apparently been lost in the global warming shuffle. Been thinking of moving to Canada. As long as it's this cool here, I might as well move to Toronto. They have universal healthcare.
Come to think of it just about everybody has universal healthcare, but the U.S. In point of fact, there are two major industrial nations that do not have universal healthcare. They are the United States of America and Turkey, and it may be debatable whether Turkey counts as a major industrial power. Nevertheless, this is the company that the United States keeps when it comes to healthcare.
In the Americas, not only does Canada have universal healthcare, but so do Brazil, Colombia, and Peru for goodness sakes. When it comes to major English speaking countries, U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, everyone has universal healthcare, save one. Guess who.
The European Union, in its entirety, offers universal healthcare. For that matter, virtually all of Europe provides universal healthcare for their citizens. In Asia, not only communist nations like China offer universal healthcare, but Japan, Taiwan, Thailand (Thailand for goodness sakes), India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, and, of course, Israel offer universal healthcare.
This has not been an exhaustive list boys and girls, just a short representative one to make a point. Virtually every advanced nation in the world sees the advantage and the need for providing healthcare to everyone. Yet the United States has firmly resisted taking care of millions of people year after year after year. You have to wonder why.
Are these countries getting healthcare that is somehow not as good as that in the U.S.? I think not. A great many of these countries have average life spans that are longer than ours. They have a lower infant mortality rate. They have advanced, modern healthcare, and they provide it for every man, woman, and child.
Is healthcare for everyone just too expensive? Is it realistic to expect us to pay for such a thing? Absolutely. Perhaps the best measure of a country's wealth and productiveness is its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the total monetary value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. OK? The largest GDP, and arguably the wealthiest place on earth, is found in the European Union. Of course the EU consists of a bunch of separate countries who have combined their economies. The next largest, that is the single country with the largest GDP in the world? That would be the USA. No one else is even close. Japan and China are distant also-rans at this point in time, even with the worldwide economic slump.
What I'm saying here is that every single country in the world has less operating capital than does the US, yet somehow they can pay for universal healthcare and we can't. Even if you look at per capita GDP, and not at the overall GDP, the US and the other industrialized nations are very close. We can afford to provide healthcare for all. The fact that we do not is shameful.
What we have is a society of self-centered individuals who think because they can pay for medical care out of their own pockets, everyone should be expected to do the same. What we have is a society that is rapidly becoming like a 3rd world nation, with large gaps between rich and poor. What we have is a society where those who are wealthy enough can get the world's finest healthcare and can expect to live to be at least 80 years old. What we have is a society where the poor, the unemployed, the underemployed cannot afford to go to the doctor and if they (God forbid) have to undergo surgery or other such expensive treatments, risk losing everything they own, risk bankruptcy, and have life expectancies similar to that in 3rd world nations.
The hospitals, the doctors, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, they have all failed us in the US. They have failed us in the name of profitability. It is time that we, as Americans, took a long look at ourselves, and at our healthcare system and do something to fix it. It is time that we, as a nation, showed that we care about all people, not just for the wealthy, and for the profit, for once in our history. Bill Clinton tried to do something about this situation during his Presidency, but was not able to make it happen. The US now has a President who is, once again, committed to universal healthcare in the US. Congress is struggling with this issue right now. Yet there are those who still trot out the same lame arguments, who swear that it can't be done, that socialized medicine is the downfall of all that we hold sacred.
At this point I find myself thinking of those who resist universal healthcare like those who resisted the end of slavery, like those who resisted equal rights for all citizens. I find myself thinking, like the civil rights leaders of the 1960's, "If you're not a part of the solution. You're a part of the problem." Everyone needs to get on board with this. For those who don't have health coverage in America, it's sort of like the medical advice dispensed in the old vaudeville skit. The patient says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." The doctor says, "Well don't do that." Well, as a nation we are saying, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." So what is the answer?
AMERICA’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!
ReplyDeleteIt’s official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health.
Progressive democrats the Tri-Caucus and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements, congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and request that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don’t even have any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
If President Obama has to declare a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY to rescue the American people from our healthcare crisis, he will need all the sustained support you can give him. STICK WITH HIM! He’s doing a brilliant job.
THIS IS THE BIG ONE!
THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!
Join the fight.
Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless You
Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS