Email

I received this interesting email today, I thought I would share it and my response to it.

"Hi Amanda,
I read with interest your blog about the “Free Healthcare Now” petition. I too received one, so when I found your comments from a Google search, I was very interested with what you as a Christian believer had to say.

I am not clear on a few of your points, however:
1. You said that the USA has one of the highest infant mortality rates and the lowest life expectancy rates among many nations.
What facts do you have to support such claims?
2. You cite anecdotal evidence that our health care system is inferior to that of countries such as Canada, Europe, etc. that have socialized medicine. What facts do you have to support such claims?

The late great senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said “Everyone has a right to their own OPINIONS, but everyone does not have a right to their own FACTS.”

The 46,000,000 your blog says are not insured are inflated numbers: many of those included in that number are illegal aliens, who have seriously taxed the health care system in this country. I do not think a discussion of nationalized healthcare should be tainted with cooked statistics. Taking care of the medical needs of illegal aliens is not the task of the United States. If private, philanthropic and religious groups take care of this, that is well and good; it does not seem to me that this is the responsibility of our country.

You thoughts to these matters would be appreciated.


J ******* of Metro Atlanta Georgia"

My response:

Hi Jon,

The CDC is the one who says that we have the highest infant mortality rate of the western world, They do make their calculations per capata - so population has little to do with the actual rate - I also recently read an article that claimed the calculations could be skewed because we report more accurately than other countries - I tend to think that is an excuse, however; the life expectancy in America is also lagging behind these other countries - and I'm not sure how one could argue that statistic as skewed by reporting - either you're dead or you're not.

Many people, myself included, accept lousy coverage as opposed to no coverage. If a nationalized health plan, similar to Medicare and Medicaid is passed, I think that many people who are currently insured will jump ship with the lousy coverage they have, and try out the new national coverage. So the 46 million anticipated to flood the system could be quite a bit higher.

I've heard a lot of arguments for and against nationalized health care - most of them boil down to money.
The people who have money to afford good coverage or good coverage provided by an employer as part of their compensation- want to keep the current system because they believe that when they get sick, or when their loved one gets sick they will have the care they need. Many of these same people also believe that they are taxed enough already, and should not have to pay for more and more spending.

While I agree that I am taxed enough already, I can not in good conscience, agree that whomever has the money should get good health care, and whomever doesn't - shouldn't. As a Christian my example is Christ - Love God first and love others as I love myself - I can not imagine treating myself, or agreeing to a plan to treat myself, as many Americans are currently treated - which is not at all. Currently I don't have a doctor - I didn't see them for over 18 months so they dropped me from their practice, if I am sick I go to Urgent care which costs me $100.00 a pop - at least they will see me - this is why I hadn't been to my doc in so long, when I was sick they couldn't see me for days, so I would go to urgent care rather than suffer for 4 or 5 more days. My son's have a doctor - who I called last week when my oldest managed to find a nail to step on (that went through his shoe and into his foot.) I have learned that when I call them - I don't come out and just tell them what I want until I ask questions to figure out what is needed- I asked them when his last tetanus shot was - it had been 5 years ago this July, then I then told them what was going on. The receptionist, qualified health care worker that she is, informed me he didn't need a tetanus shot, I asked to speak to the nurse who said he probably did need the shot, but they couldn't see us for 4 or 5 days - she recommended the ER. We ended up going to the health department that afternoon for their shot clinic - they gave my son the shot he needed free of charge, they would not take my insurance card, or money. Now I can tell you someone paid for that shot!

The argument that those with money to afford good health care should be allowed to do so, is in itself flawed. The fact is our current system is overwhelmed, people are going to the ER for silly things like a tetanus shot! The government, meaning my tax dollars, ended up paying for a shot that I had insurance to cover, because of a system that is completely broken. The second problem with the system as it stands currently is if you develop a disease that will take hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat, and will make it so you can not work - you will quickly find yourself out of a job, and uninsured - forcing our government to pick up the tab under our current medicaid program.
I have a friend who was recently treated for cancer - horrible ordeal he went through - he was young enough that he was still working, took FMLA and returned to work a few months after surgery. His employer had to pay a percentage of his costs, if layoffs come around at his work place, who do you think is going to be laid off first? Then my friend with a pre-existing condition will have no coverage, and if he can't work due to a recurrence in his condition he will be forced onto Medicaid.
This addresses the final argument that many people have about nationalized health care - the government is going to be the only insurer, and we won't have a choice. You may be right. Unless insurance companies change their practices, they will most certainly be out of a job. I am not in favor of a government run system, I am in favor of an insurance plan like Medicaid that I can buy into, if I chose to - this is the plan that has the widest approval over all. I hope this is the plan that is implemented because it will force large national for profit companies to cut profits and start making a difference.

The main problem that I see with any plan is the flood of people that it is going to send into the system. I don't think for a second that the hospitals are going to change how they do business - private insurer's reimburse them at a higher rate, and more quickly than Medicare or Medicaid. Unless a claim is over a certain threshold, private insurer's pay without much questioning, Medicaid and Medicare have a process which scrutinizes every claim - doctor's, nurses, hospitals, even social service workers - know this, and treat those insured under private plans much better than those under medicaid - they almost look at a medicaid patient as a freebie - nobody is going to get paid. That's why people who are the poorest of the poor are dumped off on Faith Mission, after minimal care.
I also think that employers- seeking greater profits in a down economy - are going to dump their employees off onto the government. Large employers - like Walmart - have already done this - actually circulating fliers to teach low income employees how to apply for and get medicaid in their states.
As a Christian - I see that the love of money - the root of all evil - rules this world - from the poor to the rich - everyone has their hand out, no one wants to pay - everyone wants greater profits.
This makes me very sad - I see nationalized health care as 1 small step in a direction of moral responsibility for others. People hate it when you say that - they scream "socialist" - but I am not a Socialist, or a Marxist, or a Humanist - these all lower the standards to make everyone the same. I believe we should raise the standards to make things more just. Actions have consequences and even under grace we have to live with those, so not everyone should be treated the same - but everyone should be treated as we would want to be treated, showing mercy towards one another, because of the Great Mercy that was shown to us.
In the early church (1AD) to whom do you think the sick went? When I visited Kenya this past summer I saw the church functioning as it should- the sick go to the pastor - he, with the help of a nurse, treated most common illnesses, only the very very sick actually went to the hospital (I have only heard of 2 people in their village in the past year who went to the hospital) While I ultimately believe that the church should fill the gap in health care, churches with a Nurse Practitioner on staff could offer walk in free appointments and a chance to show people how much we care- I don't ever see that happening - we can't even fill the gap in the Wednesday night service or Bible study departments!
So who will fill that gap? You have the choice between two lousy providers - Our Government and For Profit Insurer's. As usual the fault for the state of things in this country being what it is - falls completely on the Church. We have not through example or action done much of anything to help avert or deal with this crisis - if the Church would step up and do the things that Jesus commanded us to do, Barack Obama would be out of things to change.

Some facts mixed in with my 2cents
Amanda

Healthcare

I got a forwarded email today that said "free our healthcare now" It basically said no free healthcare should be provided, but that the government is hijacking our healthcare system by trying to institute nationalized healthcare.
I want to be able to chose my doctor - pay what I can afford, chose my insurance company, and have no waits, no denials and all that other stuff too - but the only insurance I can get is what is offered from Drason's work - and we have looked into buying insurance privately- our current insurance isn't affordable (about $350.00 a month) - the in network doctors stink, the co pays and deductibles are outrageous, my RX's aren't covered - one medicine that Mason needed was $348.00 - we couldn't afford to have it filled! So while I would LOVE to have all of the things on that website's list - the fact is that the only countries who actually have that stuff are Canada, France, Sweden and most of Europe.
The US has the HIGHEST infant mortality rate and the LOWEST life expectancy of most of the western world, on top of all that our doctor's are the best paid and we have the most mal-practice suits.
At Faith Mission, where Drason works, they have uninsured people dropped off by cab drivers in front of the mission almost weekly. They are the poorest of the poor - they should be covered by any number government of programs - but hospitals are so money hungry they treat them as minimally as possible - if at all - stick them in a cab, dressed in only a hospital gown, and dump them on the side of the road -many of them are hardly able to stand or walk - very few are able to coherently give their name and any information about themselves or their condition.
When I worked at C***** Medical in Columbus, I was taught how to manipulate insurance plans, provide cheap off brand diabetic supplies, and coach people into begging their insurance companies to pay for it. I can not tell you how many old ladies I spoke to on the phone that had Medicare part A, B, and D(Medicare part D is actually privitized - so it isn't really medicare - gov't run - it is run by insurance companies), and their very necessary diabetic meter and test strips, which SHOULD have been covered in their part D plans, were not covered and cost them several hundred dollars a month. So the old ladies asked me - a sales person - if they could take their blood sugar 1 time a day instead of 3 times a day. We were asked this so often that there was an employee handbook chapter that told us how to handle this. Here is how we were expected to respond - we call the doctor's office for them- explain the insurance coverage to the nurses - who can sometimes give them free supplies - but who more often then not we either talk to the doctor and explain the insurance coverage, or the nurses talk to the doctor's. The result was always the same - the doctor's change the orders to test once a day instead of the three times a day that is needed. The old ladies ask me if this is ok, if this will be good enough. We were actually given scripted responses so that we could lead them to believe that it was ok, without legally acting as a medical services provider - needless to say I quit that job after about 3 months - I could not "sell" the medical supplies to the patients and pretend that I didn't know they were getting completely ripped off. I was constantly put in a position that required me to negotiate a compromise between the medical care required and the medical care that the insurance company would pay for- or that the patient could afford.
The point is this - I don't know what the answer is to these problems - but our health care system is extremely broken. Some say lawsuits cause the cost - but even the insurance companies estimate this to be only 1/2 of one percent of the actual cost of health care, personally I think it is the companies themselves that are causing the problems - take it that my experience with insurance companies has not been good -but it is my experience that these people are out to make money - and a lot of it!
Many Christian people I know are very much against any nationalized healthcare - be that as it may - The following was taken from the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"Washington - President Obama has indicated he wants a healthcare bill on his desk sometime around October, before we worry about timetables, however, we as a nation have to answer two very fundamental questions.
First, should all Americans be entitled to healthcare in the same way we respond to other basic needs such as education, police, and fire protection? Second, if we are to provide quality healthcare to all, how do we accomplish that in the most cost-effective way?
The answer to the first question is pretty clear, and one of the reasons that Barack Obama was elected president. Most Americans believe that all of us should have healthcare coverage, and that nobody should be left out of the system. The real debate is how we accomplish that goal in an affordable and sustainable way.
To me, the evidence is overwhelming that we must end the private insurance company domination of healthcare in our country and move toward a publicly funded, single-payer, Medicare-for-all approach.
Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated, and bureaucratic in the world. But in America, the people who have to navigate that maze are the lucky ones. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home base, more than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses. That is six times the number who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Despite the fact that we spend almost twice as much per person on healthcare as any other country, our healthcare outcomes lag behind many other nations. According to the World Health Organization, the United States ranks 37th in terms of health system performance and we are far behind many other countries in terms of such important indices as infant mortality, life expectancy, and preventable deaths.
The main reason we get such bad results is that the function of private health insurance companies is not to provide quality healthcare for all, but to make huge profits for those who own the companies. With thousands of different health benefit programs designed to maximize profits, private health insurance companies spend an incredible 30 percent of each healthcare dollar on administration and billing, exorbitant CEO compensation packages, advertising, lobbying, and campaign contributions. Public programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the department of Veterans Affairs are administered for far less.
In recent years, while we have experienced an acute shortage of primary healthcare doctors as well as nurses and dentists, we are paying for a huge increase in healthcare bureaucrats and bill collectors. Over the past three decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the number of physicians.
While healthcare costs are soaring, it should surprise no one that profits of private health insurance companies are more than keeping pace.
From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation's major health insurance companies increased by 170 percent. And, while more and more Americans are losing their jobs and health insurance, the top executives in the industry are receiving lavish compensation packages.
It's not just William McGuire, the former head of United Health, who several years ago accumulated stock options worth an estimated $1.6 billion, or Cigna CEO Edward Hanway who made more than $120 million in the past five years. The reality is that CEO compensation for the top health insurance companies now averages $14.2 million.
The president has been supportive of a public option – a plan that people could opt into if they are uninsured or don't like their private coverage. But the situation is extremely fluid. How do you get to the root of a problem when you fail to take on the private health industry?
The time is now for our nation to address the most profound moral and economic issue we face. The time is now for our country to join the rest of the industrialized world and provide cost-effective, comprehensive, quality healthcare to every man, woman, and child in our country. The time is now to take on the powerful special interests in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and pass a single-payer national healthcare program.
Bernie Sanders is an independent senator for Vermont and a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee."