Health Care Meltdown

I just read Health Care Meltdown by Robert H. LeBow, M.D., and I want to tell everyone about this book. Please read what I've written, and if it makes you think twice, pass it on.

It's tax time again, and I have been out of town working and seeing my tax professional ...

Speaking of tax time, I want to say as I struggle to come up with that payment, that I would resent it a lot less if it meant that I could have health coverage and know that every other person in this country could have it, too. I could pay twice as much and still be happy! This is a crucial issue that the American public MUST become better educated on.

This book is written by a doctor who has spent his entire career in low cost/free community health clinics for the poor. His perspective is that Big Money is withholding health care from more and more people in this country in order to stay Big Money, that it isn't right, and that we need to dismantle our current "system" and go to universal health coverage. It's not only very doable, but the only moral thing to do.

Dr. LeBow points out in his first chapter that this country is the ONLY DEVELOPED NATION in the world that has not yet guaranteed access to needed health care for all its citizens and the only advanced country that permits someone to go bankrupt because of poor health. If every other developed nation on the planet can do this, why can't we???

At the same time we are the richest country in the world and spend twice as much per person on health care than any other developed country, the World Health Organization ranks us 37th in the world in quality of health care, and we are among the bottom of the developed nations in life expectancy and infant mortality. Yet many Americans believe we have the best health care system in the world.



"Faith in "the market," writes Dr. LeBow, "and competition, stress on 'personal responsibility' and individualism, and dislike of government regulation or managed anything have contributed to the creation of a system which turns a blind eye to millions of patients ... who 'do without.' We Americans live in a milieu of purposeful health care ignorance. Merchants of misinformation and myth spend millions of dollars to keep us clueless. By doing so, they limit improvements in our health care system to piecemeal bits of change. Remember Harry and Louise? The bus from Canada? Citizens for a better Medicare? They're only a few of the scams perpetrated on the Amercian public by the vested interests. By delaying or averting a comprehensive solution, the health care entrepreneurs prolong the time they are able to reap profits from the system. Profits they keep for themselves and their shareholders while my patients, and millions more like them, are forced to become 'health care beggars' or 'go without.' "

He then goes on to detail the 13 myths he believes are stopping us from achieving real access to health care for everyone in this country.

1.) We don't have a problem with access to care in America since anyone can get needed health care by going to an emergency room.

In fact, the ER is the worst way to do it. This system causes ER's to be overburdened and underfunded. Care there is more expensive, and since there is no follow up, leads to worse outcomes overall. Uninsured people relying on the ER for care have a 10 to 15 percent higher mortality rate and earn 10 to 15 percent less because of their poor health.

2.) The system's not broken, so it doesn't need to be fixed.

It's broken for over 50 million people who are underinsured or not insured at all. These are the sickest people who need care the most, and they cannot afford it.

3.) "The market" can solve the problems in our health care system.

Actually the market is failing in just about every way ... except for putting profit in the hands of Big Money. It does that very nicely. Please, read this book for the details!

4.) Private is always better than public

Dr. LeBow presents the statistics that show that government sponsored programs are covering more peopl

 

Don't you just love NAFTA?

 

That's just one of the reasons why the American social welfare system is a big failure.

 

Just out of curiosity, what do either of those two replies above have to do with health care?

scribe888, thanks for starting this topic, though I do believe there's another thread on health care authored by Vaderize. But I haven't seen it around for a long time; it must be on page 20 or something by now.

Anyway, I have long been a fan of single-payer government health care, though Vaderize did much to expose the flaws of that kind of system. This book does sound interesting, though, and gives a lot to the case for national health insurance.