Putting the "You" in Universal Health Care

After spending this past week with my M.O.M. (Mother On the Mend) in Ohio, I come back with a renewed belief in the need for universal health care (though whether it is a single-payer system or not is open to debate). Between looking at the stacks of papers from the many services she uses and she has to keep straight (thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, she manages) and the twenty or so prescriptions she has to keep track of, it is mind-boggling how she has time to live life in between. I would be thrilled for her or anyone to have this system streamlined.

And check this out from the National Coalition on Health Care

• In 2005, the United States spent 16 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. It is projected that the percentage will reach 20 percent in the next decade.
• Although nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.
• Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
• In 2006, employer health insurance premiums increased by 7.7 percent – two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $11,500. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,200.
  

I know that the pursuit of universal health care will be an uphill battle. One statistic I looked at showed that the pharmaceutical industry alone has spent 1.2 billion dollars lobbying Congress for its interests since 1998. Health Care lobbying in 2000 was $237 million

For a universal health care system to work well, everybody needs to be in the pool. Some candidates call for mandates and others do not. Mandated health care for children makes complete sense, we want healthy kids and it shouldn't matter if their parents can afford it--it is an investment in all of our futures to insure kids. With adults, there is an expectation that we can make decisions that serve our own best interest...and yet we don't. At least not with health insurance. Those in poor health are more likely to apply for insurance and more likely to need treatments requiring high insurance company payouts. Those with good health may find the cost of insurance too high for the perceived benefit, and some will remove themselves from the risk pool and this keeps the cost up for everybody.

In the European model of universal health care, everyone is mandated to be in the pool and the monies are divided such that those likely to be in poor health are subsidized by those likely to be in good health. Hence, the cost of insurance is affordable and covers even the "riskiest" person. And, yes, it does cost everybody--but isn't democracy about equality?

In the US, industries are hemorrhaging because of the cost of benefits to employees and contribute to the exporting of jobs. Ford Motor Co. spends $3.2 billion a year on health premiums and General Motors that spends more on health than on steel. in 2005, it cost employers in private industry on average $1.64 for health benefits for each hour worked by employees. If we want to protect American jobs, we need to invest in universal health care because it will lighten the load for employers.

If health care is an issue you haven't thought that much about, I encourage you to see what the candidates are saying:

Democrats
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
Chris Dodd
John Edwards
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Barack Obama
Bill Richardson

Republicans
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson