John Edwards titles his universal health care plan Universal Health Care Through Shared Responsibility. The responsibility for providing health care will be shared by business, the government, and the individual. John calls our health care system a broken health care system. He points to four major problems with the system: 45 million uninsured Americans, spiraling health care costs, a fragmented system of insurance, and inconsistent quality. John’s plan points out the following.
The 45 million uninsured doesn’t take into account the tens of millions who are at risk every day of losing their health insurance. It’s estimated that one in three Americans is without insurance at some point over a two year period. Many Americans will find their insurance canceled when they have a major illness. Half of the bankruptcies in this country are the result of medical expenses and two thirds of those people had health insurance.
For the past 50 years, health care costs have grown faster than wages and over the past six years health insurance premiums have grown by nearly 90 percent. In the past year, one in four Americans has a family member who has had difficulty paying medical expenses and more than 25 percent of the low and middle income families with credit card debt have charged medical expenses.
The job based system of health insurance works for most of the insured in America but of the 45 million without insurance many are small business entrepreneurs, part time workers, and independent contractors. Many of those insured are in danger of losing insurance if they change jobs. Those buying private health insurance are denied insurance or pay much higher premiums based on age, medical history, specific drugs they are taking, or their job.
We spend twice the amount for health care as the average for other industrialized nations yet we rank near the bottom of the list in areas such as healthy life expectancy and infant mortality rates. In 2005 we had fewer physicians and nurses per capita than the average industrialized nation and despite the fact we have excellent doctors and nurses, patients receive optimal care little more than half of the time. The system is broken.
John’s solution is to maintain the employer based system we have today, institute new Health Care Markets, and expand Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). To quote John’s plan concerning the Health Care Markets, “The U.S. government will help states and groups of states create regional Health Care Markets, non-profit purchasing pools that offer a choice of competing insurance plans.”
The responsibility of businesses will be to offer their employees a comprehensive health plan or contribute to the cost for the employee to purchase insurance through a Health Care Market. The responsibility of government will be to offer new health insurance tax credits to those who have to purchase insurance through a Health Care Market, expand Medicaid and SCHIP, require fair terms for health insurance from insurance companies, and secure the present system of public hospitals and community health centers. The individual’s responsibility is to purchase insurance for themselves and their families.
There are a number of other initiatives such as help doctors deliver the best care, invest in preventive care, and improve productivity with information technology. This is a well thought out plan but there are a number of points in the plan that concerns me. At the top of the list is expanding Medicaid and SCHIP. Whatever the problems it’s a least refreshing to see there’s a serious effort to bring our health care system up to the level of the rest of the industrialized world. Franklin Roosevelt wanted to institute a program during the time he was trying to get Social Security passed by congress. He decided it might interfere with his desire for Social Security. Over 60 years later we’re still trying.
I want to point out that I started with Edwards because he was the first candidate to offer a solution. It doesn’t mean I support or endorse John Edwards or any other candidate. The last Democrat I would have voted for was Robert Kennedy. This blog is not a political blog but the issue of universal health care has become a political issue. When we recognized the need for a national highway system it didn’t become a political issue. In that case, we copied the Germans. Maybe we need to do it again.
The 45 million uninsured doesn’t take into account the tens of millions who are at risk every day of losing their health insurance. It’s estimated that one in three Americans is without insurance at some point over a two year period. Many Americans will find their insurance canceled when they have a major illness. Half of the bankruptcies in this country are the result of medical expenses and two thirds of those people had health insurance.
For the past 50 years, health care costs have grown faster than wages and over the past six years health insurance premiums have grown by nearly 90 percent. In the past year, one in four Americans has a family member who has had difficulty paying medical expenses and more than 25 percent of the low and middle income families with credit card debt have charged medical expenses.
The job based system of health insurance works for most of the insured in America but of the 45 million without insurance many are small business entrepreneurs, part time workers, and independent contractors. Many of those insured are in danger of losing insurance if they change jobs. Those buying private health insurance are denied insurance or pay much higher premiums based on age, medical history, specific drugs they are taking, or their job.
We spend twice the amount for health care as the average for other industrialized nations yet we rank near the bottom of the list in areas such as healthy life expectancy and infant mortality rates. In 2005 we had fewer physicians and nurses per capita than the average industrialized nation and despite the fact we have excellent doctors and nurses, patients receive optimal care little more than half of the time. The system is broken.
John’s solution is to maintain the employer based system we have today, institute new Health Care Markets, and expand Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). To quote John’s plan concerning the Health Care Markets, “The U.S. government will help states and groups of states create regional Health Care Markets, non-profit purchasing pools that offer a choice of competing insurance plans.”
The responsibility of businesses will be to offer their employees a comprehensive health plan or contribute to the cost for the employee to purchase insurance through a Health Care Market. The responsibility of government will be to offer new health insurance tax credits to those who have to purchase insurance through a Health Care Market, expand Medicaid and SCHIP, require fair terms for health insurance from insurance companies, and secure the present system of public hospitals and community health centers. The individual’s responsibility is to purchase insurance for themselves and their families.
There are a number of other initiatives such as help doctors deliver the best care, invest in preventive care, and improve productivity with information technology. This is a well thought out plan but there are a number of points in the plan that concerns me. At the top of the list is expanding Medicaid and SCHIP. Whatever the problems it’s a least refreshing to see there’s a serious effort to bring our health care system up to the level of the rest of the industrialized world. Franklin Roosevelt wanted to institute a program during the time he was trying to get Social Security passed by congress. He decided it might interfere with his desire for Social Security. Over 60 years later we’re still trying.
I want to point out that I started with Edwards because he was the first candidate to offer a solution. It doesn’t mean I support or endorse John Edwards or any other candidate. The last Democrat I would have voted for was Robert Kennedy. This blog is not a political blog but the issue of universal health care has become a political issue. When we recognized the need for a national highway system it didn’t become a political issue. In that case, we copied the Germans. Maybe we need to do it again.
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