What’s on offer for health care?
AS AN 87-year-old retired physician active in the effort to achieve single-payer, universal health care in the United States, and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, I call your attention to my series of articles on the Rag Blog.
Our health care is, to say the least, a national shame. There are two viable bills before Congress--Rep. John Conyers' bill in the House, and Sen. Bernie Sanders' bill in the Senate. Both would cost approximately half of the legislation proposed by Sen. Max Baucus, who has sold out to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. The legislation hinted at by President Obama is little better.
The Baucus plan will legislate that everyone must buy insurance. This is absurd on two levels; (1) Constitutionality--can one be forced by fiat to purchase a product from a private supplier? (2) Such insurance that is made available at a lower price will be full of deductables, co-pays, exclusions and innumerable bits of small print.
I fear that, due to the prostitution of many of the Democratic legislators to the insurance industry, a single-payer, universal health care system remains an impossibility. The fact that virtually every European nation, Canada and Australia can provide excellent, affordable health care while we cannot speaks to the corruption of our system.
Stephen Keister, M.D., from the Internet
