By Genie Ahders
The Faster Times, Nov 12, 2010
President Obama was wrong. The recent mid-term election proved that this is how the American people felt. He tried to compromise too much. That was obvious when it came to health care reform. I can still see him walking into a meeting on health care legislation with Big Pharm and insurance company executives, literally by his side, and with his back to single payer advocates. He turned his back on the American people. And the deal was done. It was all finished. But it can’t be finished for those of us who support the only method of health care reform that will be fair to everyone — the single payer system.
Every industrialized nation, with whom we compete in the world economy, has some form of universal health care. Are they all wrong? There is so much misinformation out there about the single payer option. Canada is often used as an example of the problems with a single payer, yet no one dies in Canada due to a lack of health insurance. But over a hundred a day die here from a lack of health insurance. In response to the myth about rationing of health care, Public Citizen points out that our health care is already rationed by private health insurance companies. By eliminating their administrative costs and profits we could be saving billions and billions of dollars.
Why can’t we have a system that takes profit out of the health care? Let us begin at the beginning. This is a concept I first wrote about years ago, insuring children from birth. Howard Dean instituted this type of program in Vermont with the understanding that not only do you raise healthier children but they are less of a burden on society later on. The children have improved eyesight and hearing, do better in school, are less likely to go to prison.
The ramifications are obvious to most of us. Our country is in dire straits and we need money. That money is already being given away to the very profitable health industries. I’m still hoping for the day, so vivid in my mind, that the president will consult will all the people on this issue and health care reform will be true reform.