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Healthcare is a Human Right, Too

By possum

Our nation today has millions of people without health insurance of any sort.  Millions more find themselves underinsured under our current system of private health insurance.  Martin Luther King said it very well

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.

No nation wishing to be great can continue without adequate health care for one and all.

Some states have various forms of state supported health care already in place.  Congressman John Conyers authored the bill, H. R. 676, "The United States National Health Insurance Act."  Under Conyers' bill private health care receives public funding.

The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans will have access, guaranteed by law, to the highest quality and most cost effective health care services regardless of their employment, income or health care status.

Under the system we have today and with too many proposed systems of health care the important question becomes

Who do we leave out?  Which child?  Which adults are not covered?

Only a nationwide system of universal, single-payer health care offers a real solution.  

The United States today is the only wealthy industrialized nation in the world without some form of universal health care.  Today

Medicare provides coverage for items and services for over 43 million beneficiaries.

Medicaid covers millions more in state funded programs for low income citizens.  In addition to those already covered by government programs there are additional millions of people who may be eligible but are not yet enrolled.

The costs of a universal healthcare program must be borne by society as a whole.  Under the current system much of the costs of the uninsured is funded by the ones with insurance.  That is, bills for people able to pay are higher as a direct result of the costs associate with those unable to make payment.  Any taxpayer funded system of national healthcare will necessarily be redistributive in that people with higher incomes may pay a higher percentage of their healthcare costs than will those with lower incomes.

The initial costs of a national program are not easy to predict.  The longterm benefits to society and to the nation in general are easier to see.  With a workforce protected day to day by health coverage encouraging routine and preventive care the nation's employers will find increased productivity in the workplace.  As employers are no longer required to pay the costs of employee health care American businesses may become more competitive around the globe.  And last of all large savings may be recognized when people become old enough to qualify for Medicare, but will have their chronic diseases cared for years in advance.  Many entering the Medicare system today come with years of untreated illness leading to costs far above those associated with care in the years prior to retirement.

The issue of healthcare will not be going away soon.  Government and society as a whole must begin to take firm steps to correct the current imbalance in our healthcare system.  As we as a nation begin to look to the future, let us never forget the one important question

Who is to be left out?

Let us all hope no one among us is the one chosen to be left without adequate healthcare.

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 14, 2008 (boomark / email).