Scaled-Back Solutions to Healthcare Crisis

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-golden24jan24.story
MICHAEL HILTZIK / GOLDEN STATE
Scaled-Back Solutions to Healthcare Crisis
Michael Hiltzik

January 24, 2005

The medical insurance crisis, like the common cold, is tenacious enough to inspire a carload of new remedies every year.

For the sniffles, there's echinacea, vitamin C and zinc tablets. For the bankrupting of our medical infrastructure by the cost of caring for more than 6 million medically uninsured Californians, at least half a dozen legislative proposals will appear in Sacramento this year.

The good news is that this guarantees the issue a lot of attention. The bad news is that some of our customary advocates for expanding health coverage have wearied of the fight and are making proposals that represent a retreat from their traditional stance.


<snip>Richman, a physician, was cagey with me about his proposal, which will be introduced next month. He says one important element will be "flexible benefit design," adding that his plan isn't merely a green light for catastrophic coverage alone.

He may include mechanisms for reducing certain requirements, such as the frequency of diagnostic tests. He may also encourage insurance purchasing pools with the aim of cutting costs for small employers. But Richman acknowledges that reducing the ranks of the uninsured in California will require government subsidies for low-income families "no matter what."

What isn't clear is whether the Legislature sees that avoiding the meltdown of statewide health services looming ahead means spending money now.

"The Republican approach is no mandates, no taxes," Lewin says. "That won't get us anywhere."

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1. our political "leaders" are criminally negligent on healthcare

18000 Americans die every year because of no healthcare. Just about every other western industrialized nation has universal healthcare. Their citizens just walk into a hospital and get treated--no lifetime debt, no bankruptcies.

Polls show that up to 70% of Amricans favor a universal healthcare system. But our "leaders" just sell us out time and again. How many tens of thousands of deaths are our "leaders" responsible for?

Every single one of our "leaders" who has not been pushing for universal healthcare ought to be tried and punished to the utmost extent of the law. We execute dozens of criminals every year for just ONE DEATH! Yet our politicians have killed up to ONE MILLION or more American citizens by not pursuing universal healthcare. Why cannot we try and convict and execute our highest politicians for these horrible crimes!?

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2. It's very simple.

We don't need "medical insurance", we need health care. All this
"medical insurance" just sucks up money and gets in the way of providing
health care to those that need and want it.