“One of the greatest worries is about the cost of health care. This is a realistic concern since 100 million people fall into poverty each year paying for health care. Millions more are unable to access any health care.” ~ WHO, 2008 Summary World Health Report
Oh the taxes, oh the costs, oh the insurance companies and their price gouging! How on earth can we reform our awesome health care system? Too expensive, they yell!
Too expensive? Indeed but not like a $30 Aspirin. Fact is, the current costs are far too disproportionate and expansive, suffocating us like that freaky hand-type creature in one of the Alien movies. The one with Sigourney Weaver.
You see, the problem with the overall argument against reform is the public is already getting gouged, already paying far too much – both tangible and intangible, with and without correlative data.
Look at the Dutch. Every citizen pays less than a $150 a month out of their taxes and gets medical care far superior than ours (even their ’satisfaction’ levels are higher than ours). But how is that possible, (insert political figure here) the idiot asks?
Not ‘possible’, ‘reality’ in part because of the focus on primary care versus specialization. Or because their system is designed to deliver care at affordable rates while ours thrives on maximum profitability and incentive…big difference.
In the Netherlands health care is universal, here it is fleeting, save only for healthy people. And yes, they have private insurers yet still manage to spend less than 9% GDP on health care versus over 16% in the U.S. Or broken down, that translates to $3100USD per capita for them and $6700USd per capita for us…or U.S.
So, for every attack and shout-out, a stark realization must be delivered: we can and must do better, the costs are too grand. Others get twice the care at half the cost and without all the headaches. That is unacceptable, we are in crisis, we are at war, we face a financial iceberg unless we do something.
Consider that nearly 60% of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills yet even more dire is that nearly 80% of those people HAD health insurance - a situation indefensible by any and all American standards. Alternately, the league of ruin due to health care costs in the Netherlands numbers zero.
Yet, Democrats seem to lack the guts to use all the misguided ’anger’ or the facts to their advantage – turn it around, see it as an opportunity to highlight the current malaise, explain future benefits and reveal character. Get passionate about it, not Harry Reid passionate, but really, truly passionate. Don’t be afraid to get in their red faces. It’s a “big f”ckin deal” alright, so don’t get soft and retire when you should harden like Tiger’s wood in the Red Light District (Dutch reference!).
Plainly stated, our system leads the populace to poverty and ruin and lower classes where they consume federal and state resources and finances – far beyond if we simply covered them in the first place, protected their right to be treated.
Instead we get more crime, more prisons, broken families, foreclosures, bankruptcy, alcoholism, on and on. Seriously, on and on and on – touching all corners, all pocketbooks. How else is it that our health care costs double the Dutch yet still leaves so many without coverage?
Seems the best defense here would be truth, so shout it loud and proud, raise the roof on this damn democracy and expose the forces that put us in the current predicament. Don’t deny the needed sacrifice or the vast differences on the globe. Americans should ask why other countries do it better and cheaper. Are we not better than they are? Are we not better than, hold your nose, the French, who rank first in the world?
Merde!
Simplicity, in all its complex forms, is the key to the sale, the message profoundly clear: progress is painful but sacrifice is necessary because the status quo is simply unacceptable by any reasonable, global standard. Truth is you must be content to pay $30 a pill to defend anti-reform – which is, in itself, a defense of the current cluster. Means you should be ready and happy to pay $40 next year.
America can do better. No? For what is ‘reform’ if not a call to arms, a defacto war against excess, greed and glaring dysfunction.
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If Reform Doesn’t Work, We’re Not Doing It Right…
“One of the greatest worries is about the cost of health care. This is a realistic concern since 100 million people fall into poverty each year paying for health care. Millions more are unable to access any health care.” ~ WHO, 2008 Summary World Health Report
Oh the taxes, oh the costs, oh the insurance companies and their price gouging! How on earth can we reform our awesome health care system? Too expensive, they yell!
Too expensive? Indeed but not like a $30 Aspirin. Fact is, the current costs are far too disproportionate and expansive, suffocating us like that freaky hand-type creature in one of the Alien movies. The one with Sigourney Weaver.
You see, the problem with the overall argument against reform is the public is already getting gouged, already paying far too much – both tangible and intangible, with and without correlative data.
Look at the Dutch. Every citizen pays less than a $150 a month out of their taxes and gets medical care far superior than ours (even their ’satisfaction’ levels are higher than ours). But how is that possible, (insert political figure here) the idiot asks?
Not ‘possible’, ‘reality’ in part because of the focus on primary care versus specialization. Or because their system is designed to deliver care at affordable rates while ours thrives on maximum profitability and incentive…big difference.
In the Netherlands health care is universal, here it is fleeting, save only for healthy people. And yes, they have private insurers yet still manage to spend less than 9% GDP on health care versus over 16% in the U.S. Or broken down, that translates to $3100USD per capita for them and $6700USd per capita for us…or U.S.
So, for every attack and shout-out, a stark realization must be delivered: we can and must do better, the costs are too grand. Others get twice the care at half the cost and without all the headaches. That is unacceptable, we are in crisis, we are at war, we face a financial iceberg unless we do something.
Consider that nearly 60% of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills yet even more dire is that nearly 80% of those people HAD health insurance - a situation indefensible by any and all American standards. Alternately, the league of ruin due to health care costs in the Netherlands numbers zero.
Yet, Democrats seem to lack the guts to use all the misguided ’anger’ or the facts to their advantage – turn it around, see it as an opportunity to highlight the current malaise, explain future benefits and reveal character. Get passionate about it, not Harry Reid passionate, but really, truly passionate. Don’t be afraid to get in their red faces. It’s a “big f”ckin deal” alright, so don’t get soft and retire when you should harden like Tiger’s wood in the Red Light District (Dutch reference!).
Plainly stated, our system leads the populace to poverty and ruin and lower classes where they consume federal and state resources and finances – far beyond if we simply covered them in the first place, protected their right to be treated.
Instead we get more crime, more prisons, broken families, foreclosures, bankruptcy, alcoholism, on and on. Seriously, on and on and on – touching all corners, all pocketbooks. How else is it that our health care costs double the Dutch yet still leaves so many without coverage?
Seems the best defense here would be truth, so shout it loud and proud, raise the roof on this damn democracy and expose the forces that put us in the current predicament. Don’t deny the needed sacrifice or the vast differences on the globe. Americans should ask why other countries do it better and cheaper. Are we not better than they are? Are we not better than, hold your nose, the French, who rank first in the world?
Merde!
Simplicity, in all its complex forms, is the key to the sale, the message profoundly clear: progress is painful but sacrifice is necessary because the status quo is simply unacceptable by any reasonable, global standard. Truth is you must be content to pay $30 a pill to defend anti-reform – which is, in itself, a defense of the current cluster. Means you should be ready and happy to pay $40 next year.
America can do better. No? For what is ‘reform’ if not a call to arms, a defacto war against excess, greed and glaring dysfunction.