Speak Out!
What Can We Do about Healthcare?
Sun, 07/15/2007 - 21:00 | Health
Michael Moore’s documentary film, Sicko, has intensified the debate on healthcare in the U.S. The problems are complex and opinions are all over the map.
"There's not just one way to do this," he [Wasserman] said. A senior policy researcher for the Santa Monica think tank Rand Corp., [Jeffrey] Wasserman is working on a project comparing just about every healthcare plan proposed by states, congressional leaders and presidential candidates. As Moore's movie points out, the problems associated with America's system are economic, social and cultural. They go beyond the boundaries of the provision of medical care.What should be done about the healthcare system in the U.S.?
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Comments
Medicare is not an entitlement
I hear people talking about health care etc as if is one thing. Then I hear politicians and you talking about entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. I paid taxes for Medicare that were almost as much as what I paid into Social Security. I paid the top rate all my life from the time the program started. Medicare is a contract between the federal government and the people who paid in to it. I paid taxes that paid for state funded Medicaid which is charity. Medicare is insurance I paid for. Medicaid is money I donated to public charity. They are not the same so stop talking about them as if they were. Policticians like the phony from ND who was complaining about the cost of health care should remember that Medicare is a bleeping CONTRACT lust like the AIG bonuses were contracts. If congress thinks they can not change the AIG bonus why is it they think and do keep cutting the Medicare benefit contract with people like me who PAID for it all our lives.
Dont mess with Medicare. If you do you will be sorry. One term Obama is what it will be called and out with Democratics in the Congress who take care of their big business budies just as well as the Republicans do. Do what you want with Medicaid thats your perogative.
I am sometimes unsure if we
I am sometimes unsure if we all are so accustomed to using the catchphrase "underserved" when we refer to services available to residents of predominately or assumed as so, low income communities. Healthcare is already available in low-income communities. I don't know of any family that lives in my neighborhood that doesn't have access to healthcare. If you step inside of your local Department of Social Services you will be pressed to find anybody that has been denied MediCal Benefits. What, in my opinion, is a much more needed conversation, is the QUALITY of healthcare. As a black woman, I am bombarded by all of the dismal statistics about my health and my future health. Even if I am enrolled with the best HMO and have the best physician it appears as though I am more likely to die from diabetes, heart disease, cancer, HIV/Aids, domestic violence, obesity, etc., etc. than a non-black woman.
Is access to healthcare really the issue here or shouldn't we be examining the underlying causes of so much sickness. The rate of cancer (any form) is staggering, not just children are fighting obesity and the statistics for "undiagnosed cases" of diabetes in minority communities is so outrageous that if all of the diagnosis are confirmed, nearly 1 out every 2 residents will have diabetes. What is really going on?
obesity,
I have recently viewed the
I have recently viewed the film (Sicko) by Micheal Moore. Initially I thought I knew exactly what the film would be about, poor people who are not insured. Being that my family and myself have never been insured, I know the disparity first hand when it comes to receiving needed treatment. I was shocked to find insured people being made to suffer just as bad as the uninsured.
I really feel the issue of health care is something our entire nation should agree on. Free universal health care for everyone now! We should really be ashamed
and scared of the direction our country is heading. How can we ignore our own citizens in pain? How can we boast ourselves as the richest and most powerful country in the world? How can we reach all the way around the world with countless measures of aid?
I am a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division currently serving in Afghanistan. I am insured by the government but I am not going to get into how the system has failed me or my family. What I will get into is something which must change for the future of our FREE society. Free universal health care! I have never felt an issue is as urgent. Blacks in prison, reparations, police brutality, or just plain racism are all current issues and won't change any time in the next twenty years, but I believe health care is something we can change in less than five years. This is an issue we as people, so called human beings, cannot ignore any longer. We can change it all right now and make a better America. I actually have a political agenda I feel will help all people and I am willing to support the movement towards free universal health care no matter what. The people of America should not watch these drug and insurance companies deny care, kill people, and collect funds. Wake up America and get off the boo boo, free universal health care now!
Having worked for the health
Having worked for the health insurance industry for almost 20 years, I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Too long has the industry generated too many millionaires on the the backs of members and low-rank employees. The health care system as it exists is doomed to fail. A United Health Care system will not work either. There will be several moral questions that need to be addressed if we try to implement this system. Who will get a transplant? How many people will stand in line for urgent care. What is the cut-off age for major services when you know the quality of life going forward will not be positive. We need to get business leaders, government leaders, hospital administrators, doctors, HMO's and Insurance companies at the table to collaborate on this topic. There are not easy answers. Health care insurance is a privilege and not a right. You need to be able to work. There is not a free lunch concept in this paradigm. The finances need to come from somewhere. I think that there should be some basic preventive insurance provided for all citizens for an affordable price.
The military corps serves to
The military corps serves to protect us from physical harm.
Medical Students spend a large amount of their salaries on payback of student loans. We need to eliminate these costs that are passed down as fees for health care.
We need a medical corp to service our health needs. This is one way to take the high cost out of medical care. If college eduction was free for all qualified medical students who would be required to spend six years donating their skills to the nations hospitals. Their salaries would be minimal and housing would be provided free. No monetary profits received from any entity involved in this process.
All of the branches of the military have their own education institutions such as West Point, Annapolis etc. There should be a U.S. Medical Corps College turning out men and women to serve their country in its health care needs.
When I read this question on
When I read this question on healthcare, a blanket of sadness covered my heart. Why... in the richest country in the world-we would have a need to ask any questions concerning the welfare of it's citizens... We proclaim to be a leader (an example for others) but who would at this point want to be a mirror of our image?
America, and this is a hard thing to say, but America has become a nation drowning in it's own sin. It is a nation that has no echo-no conscience. Its image has become an image of Lucifer the Prince of darkness. I know from the bible that times will not become better and the road to righteousness is narrow but the reality is clear we have set the tone for self destruction. We are forever attentive to what has no meaning and yet less attentive to what is important. America used to be a place where even in its deceit-it's overwhelming desire for truth would some how prevail-not anymore. We have become like a pot of burning beans on the back-burning unattentive and destined for destruction... The few people that do care enough to become advocates for change are surrounded by demons of destruction on every corner. We are a Nation-as proclaimed to be-of riches and Integrity-so please tell me why are we fighting to get healthcare for our kids and their families?
We are soaking up valuable resources with this war in Iraq-is it possible we are so filled with arrogance that even the truth about our integrity seems like a conspiracy?
My son sits in a hospital far away from home waiting on a liver transplant. He has served his time in the army and yet the Government continues to make us fight for service connection-when in fact he should be getting what he deserves from the start...As a mother I continue to be his caregiver in his time of needs.
What I desire to do in my life has been put on hold until I can get him well. It's in the time of need -the beam of strength is dim.. But eventually it comes back.
I thank God I was born in America-but I wonder what is America thanking God for lately?