By Pamella Gronemeyer, M.D.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Letters, Feb. 2, 2013
We are all happy about and inspired by Sen. Mark Kirk’s recovery from the unexpected and catastrophic cerebrovascular accident that he suffered last year. His return to the Senate after a grueling year of intense and exhausting rehabilitation proves that we can fight back against medical problems if we have both the will and the access to quality care.
Sen. Kirk stated on his return that he will be āmuch more focused on Medicaid and what (his) fellow citizens face.ā He learned how expensive health care is even though he is covered by the plan offered to Congress and acknowledges that he spent a large amount of his own resources in the process.
One has to ask what would have been the outcome if Sen. Kirk were employed by a more conventional employer rather than the American people. Would he have kept his job while being rehabilitated? Small businesses can’t afford sick leave or family leave. How much of his medical expenses would have been covered by current employer-sponsored health plans? Even though pre-existing conditions cannot prevent him from getting insurance, they can and do raise premiums. We are all seeing our health insurance plans having a larger deductible and greater co-pays.
We need to have quality health care for all Americans (just like the kind that Sen. Kirk received). If we look around the world, we spend more money per capita for health care in this country with poorer outcomes in life expectancy and infant mortality, to name a few. Many people receive their best quality care when they enter the Medicare system.
Sen. Kirk, we are asking you to support a Medicare for all/single-payer health care system that will allow all Americans a chance to survive and thrive after a catastrophic medical event. Single-payer is really the only system that will allow us to control costs and make the United States join the other nations in the world where health care is considered a human right.
Dr. Pamella Gronemeyer resides in Glen Carbon, Ill.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-to-the-editor/americans-deserve-the-kind-of-health-care-sen-kirk-received/article_daea936a-783f-536b-ab0b-b40abf848ea8.html#.UQzv7jZyoTk.email