The only solution I have heard from the Republicans in this debate is Tort Reform. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Tort Reform would produce a savings of $54 billion in the next ten years. That's a savings of $5.4 billion per year. To put that in perspective, Americans spent $1.7 trillion dollars on health care in 2003. I wish I could have found a newer number because health care has gone up since then.
So looking at how much we spend and how much savings Tort reform would save us, we would save .3% on health care. I really doubt a .3% savings would help any uninsured person be able to afford health insurance. It would just give those who are insured a .3% savings if the insurance companies decided to pass that savings on. That would have made made my 2 hour, $15,000, false alarm visit to the emergency room because of chest pain cost only $14,955. Not all that affordable to someone without coverage. Tort Reform might be needed, but it does not seem to be a solution to the health care crisis we are in.
If there was a solution for the health care crisis outside of the government getting involved, I would be for that. But I have not heard any solution proposed. Please propose one if you have a solution. I wish our system was one of seeking solutions rather than attacking one another for political gain.
Jim Wallis claims the current proposed health care bill is A Flawed Step Forward. "So for these three reasons: insuring 30 million people more, including some important health-care system reforms, and the abysmal alternative to having no bill — Sojourners is supporting the passage of health-care reform."
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
The rebuttal is often that health care is not a right in the Constitution. That is obvious and nobody is arguing that it is, although FDR did argue that it should become one. Should it? Should people have adequate health care? And why in our current system do some have it and others do not?
Maybe universal health care is just a dream that Americans cannot figure out how to implement, but I think things can only improve if someone gets us dreaming. And the current proposal doesn't seem to be the answer, but what is? We're in need of an answer, and quickly!
A Harvard study concludes that 45,000 Americans die each year prematurely due to being uninsured. That's 123 people a day. That's a man sitting on a recliner after a hard day of work who can't afford to go see if his chest pain is a heart attack or a woman who can't afford to get the lump in her breast examined. That's our moms and dads, brothers and sisters. Americans.
