Guaranteed Healthcare

This is one of those updates on the movement for guaranteed healthcare that is difficult to write, both in terms of the gravity of the situation, and the need for Washington to act accordingly.

The numbers are staggering, and barely made it into the US media: 101,000 Americans died preventable deaths last year due to our insurance industry-dominated health care system, according to a new study by the respected Commonwealth Fund.
 
That is shocking, lobbyist-induced genocide.
 
The good news is that, despite the best efforts of the insurance industry and their Washington allies, the movement towards guaranteeing healthcare on a Medicare for All or “single-payer” model is clearly strengthening.  The latest advocates?  Doctors, who just this decade have joined nurse, in solidly supporting Universal Medicare, a fact which will fundamentally alter healthcare politics.  
 

Back to the Commonwealth Fund.  I challenge anyone reading this data to argue for the retention of for-profit insurers in our healthcare system:

The U.S. now ranks last out of 19 countries on a measure of mortality amenable to medical care, falling from 15th as other countries raised the bar on performance. Up to 101,000 fewer people would die prematurely if the U.S. could achieve leading, benchmark country rates.

In other words, the insurance industry, which has a death grip on healthcare system, does so at the cost of 101,000 American lives per year.

By comparison, that’s more than colon and breast cancer combined.

The system is collapsing...

As of 2007, 75 million working-age adults (42%) were either uninsured or underinsured, a sharp increase from 61 million (35%) in 2003. More than one-third (37%) of all U.S. adults reported going without needed care because of costs in 2007, versus only 5 percent in the benchmark country….. Much of this growth comes from the ranks of the middle class.

Just as more Americans are being financially constrained by it…

By 2007, two of five adults (41%) reported they had medical debt or problems with medical bills, up from 34 percent in 2005.

Before we look further, absorb these numbers and realize why America’s RNs cannot, will not, and are not compromising to protect a role for the insurance industry.  Middle of the road solutions will not address these grave problems…no more than withdrawing some of the trops in Iraq would the Iraq War.  The solution is obvious, because we have reams of data from dozens of other countries supporting it; what we need now is more political will.  HR 676 by John Conyers has 91 co-sponsors.  Is your Congressperson one of them?

Nurses have long been leading proponets for a genuine healthcare solution.  They are now joined by doctors, reports Roger Bybee, the American Prospect’s excellent healthcare reporter:

The latest sign is a poll published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine showing that 59 percent of U.S. doctors support a "single payer" plan that essentially eliminates the central role of private insurers. Most industrial societies -- including nations as diverse as Taiwan, France, and Canada -- have adopted universal health systems that provide health care to all citizens and permit them free choice of their doctors and hospitals. These plans are typically funded by a mix of general tax revenues and payroll taxes, and essential health-care is administered by nonprofit government agencies rather than private insurers.

The new poll, conducted by Indiana University's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, shows a sharp 10 percent spike in the number of doctors supporting national insurance: 59 percent in 2007 compared to 49 percent five years earlier.  This indicates that more physicians are eager for systematic changes, said Toledo physician Dr. Johnathon Ross, past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

"What this means is the usual bloc of anti-reform is breaking up," he told The Toledo Blade. "These doctors are looking in the eyes of sick [uninsured] patients every day."

Remember that the AMA defeated the original bill for Universal Medicare, back in 1948, when Harry Truman re-introduced Franklin Roosevelt’s dream.  To their shame the AMA is currently headed by an insurance exec…but they have clearly lost their ability to speak on behalf of doctors on this issue.

And for those who don’t think genuine healthcare reform is possible…business consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas...
 
...predicts U.S. companies, desperate to shed burgeoning health-care costs, will join a movement to eliminate employer-paid health benefits and create a national, single-payer alternative. disagrees, and advises their HR customers to get planning for single-payer.

Watch this space for more info on upcoming rallies and protests for guaranteed healthcare!