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Verdict: Americans overwhelmingly endorse public health insurance option
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President Barack Obama addresses the American Medical Association, a
perennial foe of health care reform (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The latest New York Times/CBS poll confirms what a number of other recent surveys, including the Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll and one from Consumer Reports, have demonstrated: most of the American people, a super majority of two-thirds or more, support the creation of a public option, a clone or extension of Medicare, as part of health insurance reform. The New York Times strongly endorsed the plan in a lengthy editorial today.
Yet Congress is likely to water down or abandon the option altogether, because the moneyed, special interests oppose the program, and they, absent any public outcry, rule supreme in Washington, especially among the Republicans and conservative Democrats. The question is, why are we, the American people, standing on the sidelines while the battle rages on the field? Why aren't we involved? Why aren't we marching, organizing, demanding, protesting? Why are we so apathetic and indifferent, as if the outcome doesn't affect us? Why is our support so passive? We get more excited about sporting events and talent shows than we do about a threat that could literally destroy us financially if we get sick or injured.
By now, we all know about the decaying, chaotic state of the fragmented health care system in America. It's far more expensive than that of any other western nation, yet produces inferior outcomes. That's right. Inferior outcomes by all the traditional measures such as life expectancy, infant mortality, primary care access, hospital recidivism, etc. On top of that, we exclude fifty million from coverage altogether. Every other advanced nation insures everyone. Millions more are underinsured in America. And almost everyone who has insurance is one job loss away from losing it. And once without coverage, almost everyone is one serious illness or accident from facing financial ruin, from losing everything they have worked and saved and sacrificed for. And many with pre-existing conditions, those who need insurance the most, are left out in the cold entirely.
That is an atrocious record for the richest country in the world. Or half as rich. It is a disgrace, without parallel around the globe. Yet the Republicans, and many Democrats, want to stifle reform and keep it this way for those who make money off it, including themselves, in campaign contributions and other favors.
It is time for action. The private sector has failed us for decades and decades. They have had three quarters of a century, since FDR first tried to establish universal health insurance, to produce a system that works and covers everyone efficiently and cost effectively. They have failed miserably and catastrophically, while every other western nation has managed to come up with a viable solution. There is no excuse. It's time to fire the guys who created the mess.
Enough is enough. The system won't fix itself because those who run it make a fortune from it, and they don't care that it doesn't do what it is supposed to do. Many of our leaders in Congress don't care either, because they are wined and dined and bought by these special interests, so unless we the people demand it, we are going to lose once again, as we did under FDR, Truman, Nixon and Clinton.
It's time we spoke up. If we don't do it now, we may never again get the opportunity, because something is going to come out of this process, and it will exhaust our resolve to face the issue again. No public option means the status quo. Nothing will change if we don't change.
Many don't realize how dysfunctional the system is, because they are still sheltered from its ravages. As the NYT/CBS poll indicates, 77% are satisfied with the health plan and care they receive now. What they don't see is how precarious, how unstable the current system is. It cannot sustain itself. Most don't feel it yet - they are still covered by their employer's plans, their bosses still pay most of the premiums, and they aren't taxed on the premiums paid on their behalf. They haven't connected the dots, that others have to make up for the shortfall in tax revenues, that their contributions are going up, while their wage increases are diminishing to offset skyrocketing costs. That's one reason the middle class is stagnating in terms of income while the rich are getting ever richer.
But sooner or later, this strained and fragile system will reach the breaking point as employers necessarily drop employee health insurance as a benefit, and the ranks of the uninsured will swell, and more and more workers will need to purchase coverage in the costly and hostile private individual market.
Unless something is done. Now. Unless the public option becomes part of the plan. And the only way to make that happen is to get involved, to show your representatives that they won't get your vote next time around if they don't support you.
Do it. This could be your last chance.
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