A recent federal study states that the nation”s spending on health care in 2009 rose to an estimated $2.5 trillion or $8,047 per person and is estimated to double by 2019. This does not include monies spent by federal, state and local governments for the 52 million non-insured people who may seek emergency medical treatment at hospitals and asks the question, “How will we pay for a reform of our health care system?”
For me, it”s a matter of priorities when you consider we still spend $55 billion annually on foreign, economic and military aid to other countries; some of whom we compete with in the global economy. Add to that the recent revelation that stimulus funds awarded to some corporations will go to create jobs in China, Korea and Indonesia, and by the end of 2010, we the citizens of the USA, will have spent $1.75 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Of that the taxpayers of Lake County will pay $142.3 million, money which if spent in Lake County could have provided one of the following for one whole year;
* 58,588 people with full health care services
* 21,393 scholarships for university students
* 1,426 affordable multiple unit housing projects
* 53,210 children with full health care services
* 2,440 elementary school teachers
If as a nation we can do the foregoing, surely we can afford a health care system that covers all U.S. citizens and do it now, and special interests shouldn”t call the shots. The most insidious problems of our current health care system is that it is fueled by special interest groups, whose chief concern is their bottom line and personal bonuses and legislators with their hands in the special interest money trough, whose bought votes maintain the status quo.
You have to wonder who”s looking out for yours and my health and wellbeing. Do we as a country have our priorities right, and can we trust our elected officials at all levels of government to be acting in our best interest? In many cases I doubt it. As responsible citizens we need to know if our elected representatives have legislated as we want them to, and to know if they have fed at the “special interest” dollar trough. That information is out there, find it, consider it and take it to heart ? maybe it”s time for another revolution at the ballot box.
Ray Farrow
Kelseyville
