We have been trying for health care reform for at least 20 years. We have been relying on private enterprise and competition to drive down prices during that time. Now we have a health care system that costs twice as much of our GDP as other develped countries such as France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan.
Our health care is so expensive that people are desperate for affordable health care insurance. This has spawned a burgeoning limited coverage health industry, i.e. health care with surprisingly limited coverage; and, even worse, bogus health care insurance companies, companies that don't even plan to pay out money for health care. People often don't know what they are getting until they find that they have thousands of dollars worth of unpaid medical bills and no one to help them pay.
I mentioned France, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan above because these counries have universal health care, and very satisfied patients, even though they spend only half as much of their GDP on it.
We are told that the only alternative to our current health care system is the Canadian system of health care, government run health care. That is the myth promoted by the companies making profit on health care, especially insurance companies, managed care and hospital corporations.
There is an alternative, which is a public/private partnership running the health care system, using private hospitals and doctors, like France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. However, we won't get that until we insist on it.
I wrote The Price of Death to illustrate how the diversion of funds to profit affects us all. It's not just the uninsured. It also affects us by causing what care we do receive to be delivered by overworked and harried doctors and nurses. I think that it is hard to believe that if people die because of this diversion of funds those in charge wouldn't change the system. It is one thing to hear that 98,000 people die prematurely of medical error, it is another to see it happen in real (or fictional) life. So read The Price of Death and tell Congress that we want the health care system fixed.
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