Once again the rational behind this escapes me except to assign itall to stupid people who have misplaced authority over others. Thehealth care service can become more efficient and it can becomebetter. What it cannot do is become cheaper except by kicking costsback to consumers and that merely negates the whole premise. It itwants to be come a profit making business, then it must cherry pickand overcharge those who can pay. The ethics of this formula are notworth discussing.
If the only service provided by the insurance industry is cashmanagement, then why are they there? Any coop can do betterwithout executive expectations as to salaries. Perhaps the churchesshould do it. They at least are part of the community.
The whole purpose of universal medical insurance is to sharemandatory costs as they come up. The bigger the pool the better thecapacity to go a little further in solving rare problems. That isall that size provides.
Banksters Rip ApartSpanish Health Care
18 February 2013 13:54
By Thom Hartmann
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14635-banksters-rip-apart-spanish-health-care
According to theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development's latest healthcare rankings of the 34 most developed nations in the world, theUnited States ranks dead last in male life expectancy.
We also rank near thevery bottom in preventing premature death, infant mortality, totalhealth care coverage, number of practicing doctors, and preventingheart disease deaths.
But, here's some goodnews (at least for those fans of Americanized health care): our worldrankings might soon improve.Not because we'reradically changing our privatized system that puts profits ahead ofpeople's lives. But because banksters in Europe are forcing severalnations that rank ahead of us to ditch their national public healthcare systems, and replace them with more privatized (and profitable)American-style health care systems.
And, despite whatconservatives say about how the American health care system is theenvy of the rest of the world, those Europeans who are watchingbanksters re-make their public health care systems are outraged.
On Sunday, protestsswept across Spain, with thousands of doctors, nurses, and healthprofessionals demonstrating against new conservative austeritymeasures that will privatize more than 40 public hospitals and carecenters.
Spain, like Greece, isindebted to the very foreign banksters who crashed their economy. Andrather than telling those foreign banksters to take a hike likeIceland did, Spain's austerity-happy government is paying off thebanksters by taking money from working people through cutting socialsservices like health care.
Spain's Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy argues the health care reforms will save his nationmore than $9 billion this year, which can then be given to thebanksters.
But, as one protestingnurse, Emilia Becares, told France 24 News, "There is nostudy that shows that privatising the management of hospitals leadsto lower costs. This privatisation hurts patients' health care tobenefit other interests."
Those "otherinterests" are, of course, the banksters and the for-profithealthcare hustlers.
The United Statesproves Emilia right. Privatization here has produced the highesthealth care costs of anywhere else in the developed world; the UnitedStates spends far more money on health care than any other OECDnation. And, although the banksters and the health care hustlers aremaking a fortune, average working people are dying at rates thatshock the rest of the world: we rank near the bottom in health careoutcomes.[ just when arepeople going to come to their senses? arclein]
So while conservativetechnocrats in charge of Spain are willing to use health careprivatization to solve their short-term deficit woes, doing so willonly make them worse over the long term.
Soon, Spanishhospitals, run for a profit, will decide if prescribing certaintreatments and medical tests will boost or cut their quarterly profitgoals. Spanish citizens, who used to have a right to health care,will now have to haggle with privatized corporate death panels thatare more focused crunching numbers than saving lives.
As prices go up,preventative care will decline. There will be fewer visits todoctors. And the overall health of the population will plummet withthe moneychangers in charge.
This means that overthe long term the cost of healthcare to Spain will go up.
This is what Greece isnow dealing with, since their public health care system was rippedapart by the banksters in 2011. Prior to the crisis, Greeks enjoyedcomplete universal health care. But when the banksters shook down theentire nation, they targeted the health care system, and toldunemployed Greeks that they now have to pay for healthcare out ofpocket. And if they don't have the money, then...well...too bad.
Greek doctor, KostasSyrigos, told the New York Times about a woman with a tumor thesize of an orange that had broken through her skin because shecouldn't afford to see a doctor after the austerity cuts to healthcare.
Dr. Syrigos said,"Things like that are described in textbooks, but you never seethem because until now; anybody who got sick in this country couldalways get help...In Greece right now, to be unemployed means death."
Sick and unemployedAmericans face the same fate. According to a 2009 Harvard study,45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have healthinsurance. And half of all bankruptcies in America are due to medicalbills.
Most of the publichealth care systems across Europe were created after World War II, asthe people understood that they needed to rebuild together, andshould at the very least be providing free health care to each other,too.
But, the UnitedStates, triumphant after World War II, never learned this lesson.Instead, we handed the care of our citizens off to corporations andbillionaires, and are today paying dearly for it with budget-bustinghealth care costs, sick populations, and far too many prematuredeaths. But our healthcare banksters, like the CEOs of UnitedHealthcare, are literally billionaires.
And those models forhealth care reform across the Atlantic are now disappearingone-by-one – the latest victims of conservatives and their banksterausterity programs. But at least in places like Greece and Spain, thepeople are putting up a fight against these profiteers. And it's afight that's long overdue in America.
We should all askourselves why is it that thousands are taking to the streets todefend their public health care systems in Europe, but not once hasthere been a legitimate rally in America to defend our privatizedhealth care system that kills tens of thousands of American everysingle year. Deep down inside, we know we're getting ripped off. Justlike the Greeks and the Spaniards know they're getting ripped off.
Let's hope that thedecision banksters made to target universal health care rights inEurope will inspire a new struggle in the United States that affirmswe are indeed our brothers' and our sisters' keepers.
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