Great D&C Article on National Healthcare
The D&C’s Mark Hare did a great job talking about the sorry state of our healthcare, and approaching the subject of national healthcare. It’s been working in every other industrialized nation, and despite the fact that the corporate right has been trying hard to raise it to bogeyman status, large majorities of Americans want it here too.
He interviews local experts and advocates for national healthcare. Here’s the key paragraphs:
Zoghlin is a retired family medicine practitioner from Hilton who volunteers at St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center in Rochester. He makes no secret of his belief that the medical insurance business is the greatest impediment to decent health care for all.
Under Medicare For All, the government would pay the bills, but you would keep the same freedom you have today to choose a doctor, clinic or hospital.
Zoghlin and Mott are working with the Interfaith Health Care Coalition of the Greater Rochester Community of Churches. They are circulating a brochure, “Health Care: Truths and Myths,” which they hope will prompt discussion and raise awareness of the need for sweeping change.
“I don’t care if you are for or against it, we need to get people talking about it,” says Joe Brown, of Henrietta, a retired professor in the School of Printing at Rochester Institute of Technology. Brown, who financed the printing of the first 10,000 copies, says “we have a moral responsibility to provide health care for people who don’t have it.”
“Health care should be like Social Security, part of the social contract,” says Bill McCoy, of Rochester, and a member of the coalition. About 40 million Americans have no health insurance, Mott says, but an additional 57 million are underinsured. In other words, about one in three Americans are not fully insured.
Hare doesn’t shy away from the tough questions that need to be asked of a national healthcare proposal, including:
Wouldn’t that bankrupt the country?
Most of the world’s advanced nations have national health care, and pay one-third to one-half less per capita than we do, with better outcomes, says Mott. So, a single-payer plan won’t bankrupt the country.
There’s more, and the whole thing is well worth the read. It’s nice to see Rochester area folks advocating for this– it’s long overdue.
Related posts:
[...] The D&C’s Mark Hare did a great job talking about the sorry state of our healthcare , and approaching the subject of national healthcare . It’s been working in every other industrialized nation, and despite the fact that the corporate … Continue here: Great D&C Article on National Healthcare [...]
[...] National HealthCare? Why not [...]