Home

It's health CARE not health insurance

Posted by Donna Smith - S... on June 3, 2008 - 8:01pm

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist CNA/NNOC

What a great night of political speeches.  And it was wonderful to hear both the now-presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, and the presumed runner-up Senator Hillary Clinton cite healthcare as a major concern. (Whew, the titles alone require hip-boots for wading.)

But we need a little retooling...  Both said every American should have health insurance.  Wrong.  Every American should have health care.

The presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain has a more outwardly obvious, pro-corporation healthcare strategy.  He wants to make sure he keeps the old insurance giants thriving.

But what did Barack Obama say there towards the end of his speech?  That we'll look back on this moment as the turning point?  That we'll see this moment as the time and place in which we made sure every American had healthcare.  Right on, Senator Obama.  But now we're going to help you see what real change looks like for every American: single payer, universal health care. Everybody in, nobody out. This is the moment.



»

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Health CARE, not Health Insurance

Submitted by Reese in Alabama (not verified) on June 4, 2008 - 5:08am.

Donna, you're absolutely right. Words do matter. What we call it is important. And I like to see it spelled out clearly, as you do. WHAT AMERICA NEEDS IS NOT HEALTH INSURANCE. It has to be fixed, but not with a band-aid. It requires radical surgery, a complete make over. What America needs is a new program, Universal Single-Payer HealthCARE NOW. And with people like you, and all the other advocates on this site, and all of us working together to hold President Obama to his words---it's going to happen!

»

reply

Submitted by Michael Laxton (not verified) on August 1, 2008 - 2:49pm.

It's so sad that the richest country in the world has such a staggering amount of people denied access to adequete healthcare. I'm afraid that whomever may be elected, that things won't change all that much; as this webpage correctly points out, the candidates only speak of health insurance instead of healthcare.
It's my understanding that current legislation requires that health insurance companies are required by law to produce maximum profits for the stockholders, and until someone steps up and changes that, little,if anything else will change. Unfortunately, the one candidate that truly wanted to change it is now out of the race (John Edwards). Until your one of the people that has lost years out of your life because you are sick w/o the benifit of being insured, you can't really understand what it's like. I've been there, done that. It's more cost effective to let people suffer and die than it is to show compassion (where are all the so-called Christians?). My question is, who is going to have the courage and strength to stand up to the lobbies and say "We've had enough". Healthcare should be about taking care of people, not profit margins.

»

Yes indeed, Donna

Submitted by nyceve on June 5, 2008 - 7:37am.

It makes me go crazy everytime I hear people referring to healthcare reform to mean getting all Americans rotten, junk insurance.

 Oh my God, we have so much educating to do.

»

Is Obama proposing health insurance for all? no thanks.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 6, 2008 - 5:42pm.

From my understanding, both Obama and Clinton propose to make health insurance more accessible to everyone. This mandate model has not worked well in states like Massachusetts. His proposal seems to support health insurance corporations---by even expanding their membership. Am I mistaken?

I'm not aware of either candidate proposing universal health care: a single-payer system akin to the NHS (UK) or Canada's system. I'm not encouraged by Obama's plan or "health insurance" rhetoric.

»

John McCain wants to kill me

Submitted by River on June 9, 2008 - 11:17am.

That's going to be the first post I enter here tomorrow, when I get blogging access. I agree with you, Donna, we need health CARE and not health INSURANCE for all. Health care is seeing a doctor or nurse practitioner for your illnesses and problems, or for wellness care. Health insurance is what the bean-counters are concerned with - and it is a system of denying care, not providing care. Our system is sick.

And John McCain wants to kill me. Oh, he doesn't know who I am. I could be a fly on the wall for all he knows about me. What you need to know to realize that he wants to kill me is that I am a kidney failure patient. He wants to gut Medicare, which includes the ESRD program, and he wants to tax or take away my husband's employer group insurance and throw me to the "tender mercies" of the open market, where I am on a national list of people whose kidneys have failed and who therefore cannot get insurance at any price. Dialysis costs upwards of $70,000 a year, far more than my husband's gross annual salary. The group insurance he has is what covers my dialysis, so I can stay alive (and blog!). And John McCain wants to kill me.

My name is River, and without health care, I'm dead.

»