You Think You Have Health Care?

You think you have health care?

You may have a health care policy, but this is America, and in America our health care is controlled by for profit insurance companies. For profit insurance companies and hospitals used to be against the law in this country back in a time when we had a better health care system. Now they are not against the law...but they should be. Each day they deny health care to their customers, customers who have loyally paid their premiums for years and years. All the for profit health insurance company has to do is give a reason that is acceptable to the company as to why they do not need to cover you for a test, procedure, operation or medication. This is called recission, and they do it all the time to thousands of Americans every day. They are accountable to no one except their shareholders. Basically, all the shareholders care about is that the price of the stock goes up. Health care takes a back seat to profit in America.

You can be denied if they decide you have a pre-existing condition, and they can also initially refuse to accept you as a customer based on this pre-existing condition. You can be denied if the insurance company decides to call your surgery experimental or cosmetic.

Our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are all covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

Our veterans are covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

Our elderly are all coverered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

All the members of congress in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

As a matter of fact, most Republicans will tell you that our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care. I certainly do not dispute that. The reason I do not dispute that is because I think that not only do our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care, I think ALL Americans deserve the very best health care. This is, after all, the wealthiest nation on earth. Can it be possible that the wealthiest nation on earth not only boasts a huge population of citizens (nearly 50 million) who have no health care coverage whatsoever, but also boasts that someone in America, every day of the year, is going bankrupt due to a medical condition, while the for profit health insurance companies are paying outrageous amounts of money to their CEOs and are reporting record profits? Can something as immoral as that be possible here? In the wealthiest nation on earth? The answer is yes. It is not only possible...it is the reality today.

You may have a health care policy, but this is America, and in America, unless you are in the military, are a veteran, are old enough for Medicare, or are in the U.S. Congress, your policy can be denied at any time for just about any procedure, because you are beholden to a for profit health insurance company. You don't have socialized medicine like all those other groups I mentioned. All your for profit health insurance company has to do is say you lied on your initial application. That's it. The lie can be the most trivial lie in history, but they can use it to deny you health care for cancer, for a heart condition, for orthopedic surgeries, for anything. Maybe on the initial application you forgot to put that you once had bronchitis as a kid. They can call that a lie, folks, and they can deny you coverage at the drop of a hat once they call it a lie. They have people working for them who are paid hefty bonuses to come up with a good reason to deny you. That's how they make their money. And they make billions. That is why they are fighting so hard against health care reform. They are making millions and millions of dollars off the way things are right now. So, they pay millions to politicians to poison the argument about health care in this country. They have only one way to win, and that is to scare the living daylights out of you. They cannot win with logic. Logic and reason will kill them in their tracks. The way they have been preventing health care reform has been by scaring the American people with out and out lies for about seventy years!

Now, you remember I mentioned that most Republicans will tell you that our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care? That's out of one side of their mouth. Out of the other side of their mouth, they will then say that government run health care is no good. The trouble here is that our military has government run health care...you know, what the Republicans call the very best health care. The Republicans and the for profit powers-that-be will lie to you all day long about these things. They will tell you we have the best health care in the world here in America. Not according to the World Health Organization, folks. According to them, we have the 37th best health care in the world. That puts 36 nations ahead of us, the supposedly greatest nation in the world. Oh, we are number one in something: we are number one in the world in our health care costs. For example, you pay 75% more here, for the same drugs that people around the world take. Made by the same companies. If you are lucky enough to have health insurance, you have to pay a big deductible and you have to pay a co-pay every time you visit a doctor. Not in those other countries. Now, call me paranoid, but that sounds like price gouging to me. Why can they gouge us, but not gouge all those other countries? Well, because all those other countries have government run health care, that's why. And in each of those countries, ALL of their citizens have excellent health care coverage. Not one person is denied. Not one person ever goes bankrupt from a medical condition.

Now you will hear Republicans and some others say, "But you have to wait in long lines." Sorry, but there they go again. They are lying about it. It simply is not true. You have to wait here for some procedures, too...it all depends on how serious the situation is. If you need heart surgery, you don't have to wait. If you have a mole that you want removed, well, you might have to wait a little while. It is the same in other countries as it is here when it comes to the "waiting list" argument.

Here is another important thing: America is ranked 18th in life span. That means people in 17 other countries have longer life spans than us...and all of those countries have government run health care. And we supposedly have the best health care in the world? Not hardly.

You see, the Republicans and some others, including some Democrats, want you to think that government run health care is not a good thing. Yet, every member of congress has government run health care, and I have never heard them complain about it. Yet, they tell us that the government run health care that the U.S. military has is the very best health care. Well, as far as I am concerned if government run health care is good enough for our military, our congresspeople, our veterans and our elderly, then it's good enough for me. And the government that runs their health care is the same government that I live under. If it can do it for them, it can do it for all Americans. And if they can do it in all those other countries, they can do it here.

You see, unlike the Republicans and some of those Democrats, I understand that there are some things that should not be "for profit" and should be government run. Like our postal system, for example...it is one of the best, if not the best in the world...and it is government run. Our networks of libraries are also some of the best in the world...government run. Both are not for profit, because some things should not be for profit. Like the postal system, or the libraries, or the federal highway system, etc. And surely if something like the postal service should not be for profit and should be run by the government, then I think health care, something which is even more important than a postal system, libraries, or highways, should certainly be non-profit and run by government.

Now, the health care reform being proposed by the Democrats does not do this. They are not proposing a government run health care system. They are basically wanting to add a government option to our current health care system. So, if you like being with that for profit health insurance company that can deny you coverage at any time because their corporate bureaucrat comes between you and your doctor, then you are more than welcome to keep it. However, if you are a poor person, for example, then you will probably want the government option. But wait! That's not all. Yes, there is a bonus! In the new health care reform that's being proposed, we will go back to those good ol' days when it was illegal to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, and, recission will be illegal. Now, for some weird reason, you might not think that's a good thing, but remember, under the new health care reform, you can keep your current insurance if that's what you want. My guess is when you realize that what the Republicans like to call socialized medicine is a pretty damn good thing, you will want to tell that for profit insurance company of yours to take a hike. And that is exactly what the big health insurance companies, the big pharmaceuticals, and all the politicians who get money from them are scared to death of. They know that if we have a public option in our health care system, those big for profit companies are either going to have to quit price gouging us or go out of business!

By now you have probably figured out that I am for a single payer system. That is a system in which all health care in America is run by the government. No more Medicare. No more special government coverage for military or veterans. No more special government coverage for Congresspeople. No more big private health insurance companies. We would all be under a single government run health care system. Each of us will have the same kind of health care that our congresspeople currently enjoy. Now this new health care reform is not proposing a single payer system, unfortunately. You see, those for profit mega corporations are pretty powerful and they have been able to keep the Democrats and the Republicans from even having a single payer health care system on the table for any kind of discussion. I guess we have to take baby steps before we will be able to get to the goal of single payer health care, a health care system where the rich folks and the poor folks and all those in between have the same great health care system. Right now, only a privileged few have a great health care system in this country...those who can afford it. But I believe health care is a human right, and not a privilege for the few. I believe that small businesses and corporations should not have to provide health insurance coverage to their employees. That is becoming more and more of a burden to them and makes it harder and harder for them to compete on a global basis because their competitors from other countries don't have to worry about paying for their employees' health care. Just look at what happened to American car manufacturers recently. It is because of this that our current messed up health care system poses a threat to our economy, and therefore, a threat to our national security. It's time we do something that takes us in the right direction. It is time for health care reform.

Oh. I forgot to mention which country the World Health Organization ranks number one in overall health care: France. They have a single payer system, and their health care is top notch. Well...it's number one in the world.