The real crisis - Medicaid

[burythehatchet]

or, I should say health care in general. Of all our domestic challenges, delivering health care may be the most crucial that Americans are facing. Healthcare is a right. The rest of the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa has access to quality health care, completely funded in the public sector. America is towards the bottom of most measures of health care quality. Yet republicans would tell you that people from all over the world come to America for treatment. That argument is idiotic and not really worthy of much debate. (In essence, we may be the best at delivering health care to a prince or a king, but the real measure is access for the masses).

So on NPR's Talk of the Nation, I came across this little tidbit:


Talk of the Nation, March 14, 2005 · Texas warns that Medicaid costs could leave the state broke. Florida is considering semi-privatization -- and in Kansas, the governor wants to extend coverage to more who need it. We host a discussion with governors about budgets, health care and the soaring costs of Medicaid.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4534118

You read that correctly, in the face of a public health crisis, Florida wants to "semi" privatize it... And my girlfriend is "semi" pregnant.

Private financing of health care is the core defect of our health care system. But you won't hear Bill Frist talking about that because his hospitals have been swimming in illicit profits for decades.

Healthcare = $X
Healthcare + Marketing = $X + Y
Healthcare + Marketing + Profit = $X + Y + Z
Healthcare + Marketing + Profit + Obscene Salaries = and on and on and on

Its just that simple.

[ananda]

1. racist but inclusive of whites

The healthcare system in America is privatized and profit driven. Costs are ridiculous and escalating.

This will not change because the elite establishment wants to keep the profits, and its powerbase is white, racist America, people who do not want to share social entitlements with people of color.

Yes, the aggravation of the healthcare crisis affects all poor and working class people.. whites included.. but that's OK as long as Blacks and Hispanics continue to comprise a cheap labor force. Why.. because they can always go to emergency rooms, which have to treat anyone that walks in the door, whether they can pay or not.

Sue

[firefox]

2. Chomsky and Kucinich say insuring everyone

would be cheaper than the system we have now. As Kucinich says, we are paying for the best health care in the world, but we are not getting it. Almost all of Western Europe has socialized health care. Canada spends 6% of GDP to insure everyone while we spend 16 to 17% for what we have. The corporate model is only concerned with profit. We have an FDA that is partly-funded directly by the pharmaceutical companies, which seems fitting since it is their profits they are concerned with.

We spend $28 billion on NIH and they cannot even figure out one legitimate purpose for cannabis, when Jamaica has had two for over twenty years. The heart of health care is in the wrong place.

[burythehatchet]

3. Its one of the great cons on the American people

This has become my litmus test for any candidate. The goal must be universal, publicly funded healthcare.