A Corrupt Healthcare System
Our healthcare
system is corrupted by its dependence on for-profit
insurance. This has
resulted in a broken system.
Our For-Profit system has naturally evolved to provide
less care for greater cost - because maximizing profit
is the goal, not providing health care.
Making the greatest profit for the investors is always
the bottom line for any profitable venture. That's why
we have non-profit systems for education, fire
departments, and other public systems.
Every American should have access to a system that
eliminates for-profit insurance. The savings
from converting to a non-profit medical payment
distribution system would insure everyone.
All this means is that insurance corporations won't be
taking a cut off the top. Insurance companies provide
no healthcare at all, they simply collect our money,
skim off their profit of about 30%, then negotiate the
least amount they can pay your doctor while limiting
your coverage. It's a horrible system.
Paying outrageous profits is wrong practically and
morally. On the other hand, Medicare operates on about
5% overhead. That's honest, effective healthcare.
Fact
Sheet
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We spend more on health care per
person than any nation in the world, but we have
41 million people uninsured, 10 million of which
are children. Here we are, the proud USA, the
richest country in the history of the human
race, and we
have 20 million children living in poverty
and nobody talks about it. 20 Million. Imagine
them as a crowd. I cannot.
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Roughly 1/3 of every dollar spent
on health care goes directly to insurance
profits. According to the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO), that amounts to
$100 BILLION a year. These savings
in a single payer plan would insure
everyone in the nation with no deductibles, full
Rx benefits, full mental health coverage, and
you would choose your own doctor - without any
increase in total health spending. We are
the ONLY industrialized nation in the world that
does not have a national health care system.
Ehrlichman: “Edgar
Kaiser is running his Permanente deal for
profit...All the incentives are toward less medical
care, because …the less care they give them, the
more money they make.”
President Nixon: “Fine.”
Ehrlichman: “… and the incentives run
the right way.”
President Nixon: “Not bad.”
Comments
I don't see how any
reasonable thinking person can ignore the horrible,
brutal immorality of this situation. Our health care
insurance system was actually specifically designed
to maximize profit by denying care: that's it's goal
and why it was created and its been very good at it.
People ought to be in jail for engineering that
system since I consider it a crime against humanity
- the people of the United States.
Nothing has changed since the
law was passed - the current crop of Republicans
don't want everyone covered, let alone in a
non-profit way. Democrats at least want full
coverage for everyone, but doing it in a for-profit
insurance system is a terrible approach.
They must be forced by the
public to implement a Single Payer insurance system.
That is what Medicare is, and it works pretty damn
well - except for that rip-off prescription drug
program that President Bush installed.
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