HEALTH CARE IN DIRE NEED OF CRITICAL CARE

There is something terribly wrong with the state of health care in America. I am not talking about the quality of health care which is second to none. I'm talking about the astronomical cost of health care and I'm talking about the lack of health care delivery for millions of Americans who cannot afford private health insurance. We are the richest nation in the world and it is a real shame that so many of our men, women and children are deprived of decent health care.

The cost of health care reminds me of when I was hospitalized a number of years ago. I had a runny nose and requested some Kleenex. I was given a very small box containing at most 25 tissues. What do you think my hospital statement showed they charged for that little box? Would you blieve 30 dollars? Well, that's what they charged. Yes, 30 fucking dollars for 25 tissues. If that isn't highway robbery, I don't know what is.

Have you ever gone to a hospital emergency room for a medical problem on a weekend when your doctor's office was closed? If you went there for a problem that was not too serious but did require some attention, you probably had to wait a lot longer than the time it took for you to be attended to. If you were seen for just 20-30 minutes, I'll bet your emergency room charges ranged anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 fucking dollars.

With hospitals required to offer emergency care to the indigent and with many patients unbale to pay their medical bills, the costs for their care are simply passed on to those of us who have insurance or can otherwise pay for our health care. That $30 little box of tissues and other exorbitant hospital charges are desiged to make up for whatever hospital care the poor receive that they are unable to pay for. And on top of that we have to help pay for all those newfangled high-tech diagnostic and therapy devices and for the technicians operating that equipment.

And the cost of prescription drugs is also outrageous. Why is it that American drugs cost so much less in Canada than they do in the United States? I am tired of hearing that the high cost of drugs pays for the money pharmaceutical manufacturers are pouring into research and development. If that were true, the cost in Canada would be the same. While research and development costs are high, they are only a fraction of what the drug companies spend on marketing. I know this is true because I once worked as a pharmaceutical representative for one of those companies.

The skyrocketing cost of health care is forcing many employers to drop the health insurance they provided their employees and retirees. General Motors and Chrysler have been begging the government for billions of dollars in bailout money to avoid bankruptcy. GM and Chrysler, as well as Ford, have only themselves to blame for the financial crises they are experiencing.

The big three have been poorly managed. The quality of their cars was inferior to those of the Japanese and German automakers. They rested on their laurels and failed to recognize and prepare for a future with less reliance on fossil fuels. They gave in to unreasonable union wage and featherbedding demands. But the heaviest millstone around their necks is the high cost of health care for their workers and retirees, a cost which has prevented them from competing with foreign automakers and has brought them to the brink of bankruptcy.

Our nation's health care delivery system needs a drastic change. We should switch to some type of universal heath care system. The question is, should that care be administered by the government or by private carriers? History has shown that the government often screws things up royally, wasting money while achieving negligible results. The private sector has demonstrated that the profit motive has driven up health care costs year after year to astronomical proportions.

The private sector and the medial profession have railed against "socialized medicine" as practiced in Canada and Europe. They provide us with horror stories about the poor quality of medicine and lack of care patients receive in countries with nationalized medicine. Someone told me today that Norway's government health program has a built-in age preference system - persons under 65 receive treatment preference over seniors. He claimed that even with emergency calls, those over 65 are put last if there is a waiting list for ambulance service. I find it awfully hard to believe such horse shit.

For the most part, those horror stories are fabricated fairy tales. While there are long waits for elective procedures, people requiring medical attention receive it in a timely manner. I have a close buddy in Germany, two good friends in England, and I know a number of Canadians from my son's ice hockey playing days. Without exception, these folks have expressed their satisfaction with the quality of care they are receiving through their respective government health programs.

Of course, some wealthy Canadians and Europeans come to the United States for their health needs because they think their money will provide them with better care here. And a number of doctors have left Canada and Europe to open practices here, believing they will strike it rich like so many of our doctors have. But those patient and doctor defections are not an indication that the Canadian and European nationalized health care systems are in disarray.

Because someone has to pay for this care, there is a downside to nationalized health care systems. The people of Canada and the European countries are paying for their health care with very high value added (sales) taxes and other government fees. We complain about the taxes we have to pay, but ours pale when compared to the taxes in countries with nationalized health care systems.

Anyway you look at it, the American health care delivery system is in dire need of critical care. So, should we turn to the private sector or to the government to cure what ails the system? I just cannot see turning to the private sector for a solution when that sector has been the problem all along. Now, as somone who keeps getting accused of being to the right of Attila the Hun, I am going to bite my tongue and come down on the side of the government and a nationalized health care system.