82% of Americans think our health care system needs a “major overhaul.” On top of that, over 90% of Americans [pdf] think the next President and Congress should improve the quality and affordability of health care.
With the worsening economy continuing to be the top issue for most Americans, this hope for change isn’t hard to understand. American health care spending is projected to reach a full 1/5th of our GDP by 2015, which means by then, we’ll be spending twenty cents of every dollar we make on health care. Health care premiums have risen 86% between 2000 and 2006 while wages only rose 20%, putting the strain on working families. Health care costs continue to be the #1 cause of bankruptcy in America.
Americans are paying $217 million for health care per hour. Meanwhile, insurance industry profits have risen 1,000% in the past five years.
According the to Government Accountability Office, health care reform is necessary to keep our country on the right track:
“Rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem,” the GAO report says. “Growth in health-related spending is the primary driver of the fiscal challenges facing state and local governments as well. Unsustainable growth in health care spending also threatens to erode the ability of employers to provide coverage to their workers and undercuts their ability to compete in a global marketplace.”
Quite simply, with rising health care costs (including $50 billion per year to pay for insurance industry advertising) being born out by working families and American businesses, health care is a top economic concern. To keep American workers at their best, and to keep American business competitive in the world, something has to change.
Nancy Pelosi has recently declared health care expansion to be #2 on her list of legislative priorities, right after ending the Iraq war. In the past month, tens of thousands of Americans have told us they want quality, affordable health care for all. Now it’s time to ask Congress.
So, Congress, which side are you on? Are you with us for quality, affordable health care for all? Or are you with the insurance companies, working to preserve our broken system?
We’ve set up a quick and easy way for you to contact your Members of Congress and ask them if they support our vision for health care reform. Just click here and enter in your phone number and address. Choose the elected official you want to talk to and in a few moments, we’ll call your phone and connect you automatically.
Over the next few weeks, we want to make 100,000 calls to Congress, asking every Member which side they are on. We need your help to do it, so please click here to call!
Once your done with your call, tell us what happened so we can keep track of where Congress stands. As of today, we’re proud to announce Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), are with us. The rest, so far, are unknown. You can see the full list here.
Health care is a priority for the American people. It’s a priority for Nancy Pelosi. It’s up to us to make sure it’s a priority for Congress as well. Please take a moment, call your Members of Congress, and ask them which side they are on.
Oh, and if you have a blog or website, you can help spread the word about this campaign by embedding the widget you see above on your site. Just copy and paste the code here.
What we really need is for
What we really need is for people to be able to have Health Savings Accounts so they can take care of themselves, rather than be dependent on another sure-to-fail nanny-state flop.
In Canada and England, so beloved by the fans of socialized medicine, health care isn’t nearly as good as it is here, with Canadians waiting years for basic MRIs, etc.
Their own governments hope they will die before they will have money spent on them. That’s the socialized medicine way.
Health savings accounts are a scam
See http://www.theseminal.com/2008/08/02/health-saving…
HSAs no silver bullet
While I agree that HSAs are by no means the silver bullet to our heathcare woes, they will certainly be part of the solution. Needless to say, HSAs will not be helpful to certain segments of the population, specifically the poor, working poor, and the elderly. However, some, especially those 18-40 with sufficient, will utilize them as a valuable tool to reduce their own health care costs.
HSAs, along with many other reforms – some of which are noted in my post below – must be part of a comprehensive solution to the health care problem. HSAs, in their present form, are ineffective due primiraly to the lack of price transparency for health care products and services; a fact that is further twisted by insurance companies for financial gain. Greater price transparency will bring functional HSAs.
Finally, I believe the ideal heathcare system would be a hybrid between HSAs and a solely government funded program. However, given the destruction of our progressive tax structure and any thought of fiscal reponsiblity, I wouldn’t count on it anytime soon.
JM
You are half correct
Policies encouraging widespread availablity of Health Savings Accounts would be an excellent way to make sure individuals spend their health care dollars wisely, and would provide the added benefit of incenting healthy lifestyles.
However, this approach will not be as effective as it could be without other major changes to our health care system, such as allowing RN’s to practice to their full scope of education and training, providing better access to medical cost information across competeting providers, and bringing the whole system into the 21st century with Health IT.
Of course, all of these advancments would still not prevent someone from loosing everything they have worked for in the event of a major injury or diagnosis of a disease that entails costly treatments. That being said, mandatory catastrophic insurance would need to be carried by all, some at a subsidized price, to protect against major financial loss. In the event that an individual reaches the limit of their catastrophic insurance benefits, the Federal goverment would kick in to make up the difference. In a caring society with so much wealth, there is absolutley no reason why we cannot make these fair policy changes.
To summarize, HSA’s for our routine medical care (checkups, blood work, prescriptions, etc.). Catastrophic insurance policies for major injuries (car accidents, gun shot wounds, sports injuries, etc.) and costly diseases ( MS, Cancer, Heart Disease, etc.). Finally, a Federal goverment program designated to protect citizens, who go over their catastrophic limits.
JM
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