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| July 24, 2007 |
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During my recent visit to the Lake District in England, my father-in-law, George Kingston, hiked up a 1,000 foot hill and hiked 5 miles around a lake on a rugged, swampy trail. He is almost 88 years old and I have been watching him age for the last few years. I have been able to do my own independent study of health and aging in the United Kingdom through my numerous trips to England.
Universal Healthcare was adopted in England when the World War II Veterans came home wounded and insisted on it. When Margaret Thatcher came into power she virtually undid almost all of the government programs with the exception of The National Healthcare System. She knew she would be quickly voted out of office if she touched it.
I have been a believer in Universal Healthcare for over ten years. I believe we have come to a point in our history as a nation when we simply can’t afford to not have it. People’s lives are at stake and the underlying values of the medical profession are being eroded so that the self interests of industry profits can be satisfied.
Every day across the United States families, men, women, children and seniors experience healthcare crises. With 40 million people in America without even basic healthcare insurance these crises often lead to homelessness, bankruptcy and loss of home ownership. The material losses simply cannot measure the emotional losses and stress that accompany them; depression, anxiety, despair and sometimes suicide.
Ten years ago when Hilary Clinton tried to restructure healthcare in America about 40% of Americans believed we needed a national healthcare program. Today that figure has risen to over 70% of Americans. We simply are no longer buying the myth that socialized medicine is bad for us because the facts bear otherwise.
A 2000 year report by the World Health Organization put the United States 37th out of 190 nations in health care services -- between Costa Rica and Slovenia. The 36 countries that have lower infant mortality and greater longevity all have one thing in common; they have a form of universal healthcare. This ranking of the US also explodes the myth that we have the best medical care in the world.
The only universal healthcare program we have, Medicare, is now being privatized; it is being financially tapped by private HMO’s and the pharmaceutical industry through the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Medicare has less than 2% overhead but our current system of private insurance has 25% to 30% overhead. It is no surprise that we pay more for healthcare than any other country in the world with that kind of obscene profit margin.
Another “myth” that has long been circulated is the myth of waiting for procedures. A recent study demonstrated that if you have a serious disease, such as cancer, you will wait longer for surgery in the US than you will for surgery in Canada. The wait for elective surgeries in Canada is longer, but then again, those are not life threatening!
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