Fixing Health Care in America: One Survivor’s Opinion

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own. They don't necessarily reflect the stance or values of this site. And, since we live in a democracy, you have the same right to disagree with my opinions as I do to make them. A simple request: If you disagree, please have the grace to do so agreebly. Thanks.

Star light, star bright…

When I see the first evening star, I always make the same wish. I’ve been making this wish for as long as I can remember: as a 6-year-old running through fields on the way home to supper; as a teenager waiting for the late bus after field hockey practice. Here’s what I say:

I wish everyone will be happy, and no one will be sick.

It's a child-like wish, but one I’ve held onto my whole life – despite the odds of it ever coming true.

I’m sure we all agree that this wish is unrealistic. Everyone in the world isn’t happy.

And someone will always be sick. And need health care.

In our current system, health insurance premiums have quadrupled in the last decade, and that rate of growth shows no signs of slowing down. Medicaid, the safety net for those who can’t buy private insurance, will go broke within 8 years, if it remains on its present course.

And a whopping 45 million Americans have neither private nor government-funded health insurance. They live in constant fear of financial ruin, one car accident away from the edge.

So when we dig in our heels against government-funded health care – rationed health care – we ignore reality and retreat to an Oz-like vision of a society where there are sufficient resources to ensure everyone’s good health. A Utopia where old people don’t have to choose between drugs and food, and middle class families aren’t bankrupted by cancer.

Wake up, folks. Health care in America has always been rationed. In our current system, you get the care you can personally afford; isn’t that a form of rationing? Even if you have employer-provided insurance, it’s the rare plan that covers 100% of your health care wants. You inevitably dig deep for co-pays, drugs, dental care, and office visits.

Heck, I have a reasonably good insurance plan at work; but I’ve already shelled out over $7,000 this year on co-pays. I’m lucky I can afford it. If I couldn’t? I’d go without my cancer drugs, and take a chance on recurrence. I’d forget the osteoporosis drugs, and hope like hell that exercise and calcium would do the trick. In truth, I’m probably one freelance job away from having to make those decisions for real, not just in theory.

And there are millions of Americans who are way, WAY worse off than me.

Is this any way to run a country?

A recent poll cited in The New York Times reports that 54% of Americans claim they’ve forgone needed health care due to its cost. In the United Kingdom, the figure is 13%. In the Netherlands, just 7%.

A Gallup poll taken last year (and also reported in the Times) asked Americans, Canadians, and Britons if they had confidence in their respective countries’ health care systems. 73% of  Canadians and an identical 73% of Brits said yes, they do have confidence. Just 56% of Americans gave an affirmative response.