Ezra Klein: Going Universal: The American Health Care System is, simply put, a mess....

[marmar]

Published on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times
Going Universal
The American healthcare system is, simply put, a mess, but we may finally be ready to fix it.

by Ezra Klein

The stastics, by now, are well known. Forty-seven million uninsured Americans. Premium increases of 81% since 2000. Small businesses failing, big businesses foundering, individuals priced out and, amid all this, skyrocketing profits for insurers, hospitals and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The American health system, put simply, is a mess. An expensive one. Indeed, in 2002, we spent $5,267 per capita on healthcare — $1,821 more than Switzerland, the nearest runner-up. And yet we had higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy, more price inflation and an actual uninsured population, a phenomenon virtually unknown in the rest of the developed world, where universal healthcare is, well, universal.

These are unsustainable trends. The U.S. healthcare system cannot, in its current form, go on forever, or even for very much longer — employers can't afford it, individuals can't handle it and the country's conscience won't countenance it.

And change may come sooner than most think. Across the country there are unmistakable signs that the gridlock and confusion sustaining our sadly outdated system are coming to an end and that real reform may finally emerge, possibly even starting in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promising to spend his upcoming State of the State speech explaining how he will push the Golden State closer to universal healthcare in the coming year.

And it's about time. Few mention this, but the American healthcare system is something of a mistake. It blossomed out of a World War II tax reform meant to guard against corporate war profiteering. Liberals, with their usual combination of good intentions and inadequate foresight, imposed massive marginal tax rates on corporations, effectively freezing their profits at prewar levels. But the law had a loophole: Corporations could funnel their wartime riches into employee benefits, such as healthcare, thus putting the cash to use within their company. And so they did, creating the employer-based healthcare system. ........ (more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1226-26.htm

[Cleita]

1. Considering the legislature of California passed universal health

care and Schwarzenegger vetoed it, I don't know how he is going to do anything useful. Half his campaign contributors were from the health care and insurance industries. So all he will probably bring to the table is something like Mass. got or seniors got with the prescription drug benefit.

This isn't going to be a model that any other state might want to imitate. I'm afraid you are going to have to look elsewhere than California. Ahnold is corrupt and has to pay back his contributors. No doubt they have already written the plan that they want and I'll bet it will be similar to Massachussets.

I doubt if the Democratic legislature will pass anything like this so Arnold can then say oh, well he tried but was shot down by the Democrats and that will probably will be the last we hear about it until he leaves office.

[jaxx]

2. Anytime universal healthcare gets a headline, it's progress.

We need this, yesterday.