I”m an architect of health-care reform! So are you, for that matter, if you attended a community meeting this Sunday, Dec. 28.
The Obama-Biden Transition Project has identified three interrelated problems in the nation”s health care system:
* Health care costs are skyrocketing, hurting U.S. families as well as the economy;
* More than 45 million Americans have no health insurance; and
* The nation”s investment in prevention and public health is inadequate, leading to rapid spread of chronic diseases, many of which could otherwise be managed or prevented.
In order to reform our nation”s health care, the transition team, headed by Secretary-designate Tom Daschle, is asking U.S. citizens to share their personal stories. It has encouraged them to host meetings in communities throughout the U.S.
One such meeting took place on Sunday, Dec. 28, organized through the efforts of our Unitarian Universalist community.
I was impressed by the heartfelt stories of insurance companies denying care and of escalating premiums that left local businesses unable to provide insurance for their employees.
I found myself in agreement with several people in the room who favored single-payer insurance that could be paid for with a small tax premium and made available to everybody.
I also agreed wholeheartedly that this care must be comprehensive. Medical, dental, vision and mental health care must all be widely available.
It troubled me, however, that some of those present advocated being able to “opt out” and buy private insurance instead. One reason that this bothers me is that I think it violates what people otherwise expressed as an underlying belief: that health care should be a right and not a privilege.
I”m concerned that opting out from “single-payer” insurance would perpetuate the varying levels of treatment that exist today, with the wealthy getting better care ? or, at a minimum, greater respect.
Looking back to my days in college, I qualified for Medicaid. My intake worker behaved toward me with de-humanizing contempt.
She brusquely rushed me through the process of signing up for Medicaid, rudely talking over my attempts to read what I was being asked to sign.
When I had to pick up prescriptions at Bay Area pharmacies, I was given a lecture on how to take my medicine.
I”ve noticed, in contrast, that when I pick up pills that were paid for through private insurance, the technician always asks me first if I need my prescription explained. No one ever asked me this question when I was on Medicaid; they just launched into lecture mode.
The other issue at stake for me in contributing to single-payer is a social contract that I owe to my local community. Perhaps I can explain this issue using school-district bonds as an example.
My husband and I have decided that we will not have children. We receive no direct benefit from our local schools, so by rights we ought to be able to “opt out” from paying our share of the bond.
But even though we don”t have children of our own, we will someday rely upon the children who are now in school. They will become our firefighters, our police officers, our physicians and more. The money we pay toward the bond is our share of an investment in our society at large.
Our contribution to the single-payer system would be a similar investment toward everyone”s common good.
For more information about contributing toward U.S. health-care reform through the Obama-Biden Transition Project, visit http://change.gov/page/s/hcdiscussion. Community residents are being invited to host health care discussions at any time until Wednesday, Dec. 31.
Contact Cynthia Parkhill at cparkhill@clearlakeobserver.com.
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