What is the hole in our health care system that needs fixing?

I hear there are millions of working americans and their families that have no health insurance..due to employers not offering it.....which sounds like a very bad situation. But I also often hear that everyone in this country has access to free health care if they need it. I also know that in politics people will exaggerate things to make their case so they can have their way. Which is it, are millions of americans not getting health care? Are millions of elderly gettting healthcare but its not really adequate, and their prescriptions unaffordable? Is health care too expensive? Maybe we dont have a problem at all as others say.. Which is it? If your positions is that everyone has access to good free preventative health and dental care, then please be kind enough to explain how it works...does it vary from state to state? Are some states not providing adequate free health care for those who need it? So many questions....but I think you get the idea, please give good information

What is the hole in our health care system that needs fixing?
A record 47 million Americans did not have health insurance last year, while the percentage of children without insurance rose for a second consecutive year, according to US Census Bureau data released yesterday, leading Democrats to charge that the Bush administration has ignored a growing, more vulnerable population.





The census data found that, compared with 2005, the number of uninsured Americans rose 5 percent last year to 47 million, due in large part to cutbacks in employer-sponsored health coverage. It also found that 11.7 percent of US children under 18 lacked health insurance, compared with 10.9 percent in 2005.





In a CNN poll this spring, 64 percent of respondents said the government should “provide a national insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes,” and 73 percent approve of higher taxes to insure children under 18. Those results track New York Times and Gallup polls last year, in which about two-thirds of respondents said it is the federal government’s responsibility to guarantee health coverage to all Americans.





Such polls allow Kucinich to joke that, far from being in the loony left, “I’m in the center. Everyone else is to the right of me.” More seriously, in a recent visit to the Globe, he accused the other Democratic candidates of faking it on healthcare reform.





“One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign — everyone’s for universal healthcare,” Kucinich said. “It’s like a mantra. But when you get into the details, you find out that all the other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system.”





Kucinich quoted the 2003 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine that found that 31 percent of healthcare expenditures pay not for actual care but for administrative costs. That compares with only 16.7 percent in Canada. Administrative and clerical employees make up 27 percent of the healthcare workforce in the United States, compared with 19 percent in Canada.





“With 46 million Americans without any health insurance at all and another 50 million underinsured,” Kucinich said, “isn’t it really time to look at the other models that exist that are workable for all the other industrialized nations in the world? When you think about it, the only thing that’s stopping us is the hold that the private insurers have on our political system . . . corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork. . .”





The hold of the healthcare industry on the top candidates is already apparent. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top recipient of campaign contributions so far from the pharmaceutical and health products industry is Republican Mitt Romney ($228,260). But the next two are Democrats Barack Obama ($161,124) and Hillary Clinton ($146,000).
Reply:The medical industrial complex is run by lawyers, who make 300 bucks every time they blink. If we got rid of the lawyers, medical costs would go down by 90%.
Reply:I can give you an example of my situation. I have 2 jobs.





I can get health insurance for $300 a month. I would have a $5,000 deductible a year before coverage sets in.





I would then be responsible for $100 emergency room visits, $50 if admitted.





No maternity benefits, not that I need that.





I would then be responsible for 30% of everything after that. I woud have to get pre-approval for almost everything.





There are 47 million people uninsured. You can get life threatening emergency care, but that's it unless you can get Medicaid (welfare). I make too much to qualify for it.





When I did have medical insurance under my mom's policy (COBRA) it was $324 a month. After several back surgeries, 2 the insurance refused to cover, I had to file bankruptcy. This was 16 years ago.





This is normal in California, the main reason for filing that here is now over 40%.





Yes, there is a crisis in this country, it is not exaggerated.
Reply:i have what is considered a very good insurance policy. i have bluecross of cali. i have paid for it since 1989 at $400 a month. i went to the hospital in 2005 for an emergency appendectomy. my appendix burst and was poisoning my blood. the hospital wouldnt take me if i hadnt had insurance. im still paying the hospital bills and my credit is kaput because of the bills that the insurance company was supposed to pay. i still pay for insurance cuz it will get you help and then you pay thru the nose later. and its not free if you work for a living they soak you for every penny u have its a hole in the health care system


and in case youre thinking i used it too much prior to the appendectomy, i didnt. i think i used it 2 times for very minor things like a couple stitches or a minor infection. im quite healthy and not a risk to the insurance co.
Reply:The glaring hole in the Health Care system is the privatization of our personal health to self-serving profit centers such as Insurance, HMO's, and Pharmaceutical companies.





This has lead to profits taking center stage and our health becomes secondary. Minor broken bones, stiches, and a few pain pills are one thing, but let something serious happen and scores upon scores of people's lives are ruined ... people either become very ill or they die because they cannot access the proper healthcare ... or people become financially ruined from the medical bills.





In an propaganda assault to preserve their gravy train, the Insurance, HMOs and Pharma paints the concept of socialized healthcare as some type of voodoo practice ... when in essence it works well in other countries.





"Sicko" is not a bad movie to watch ... No matter what your political affiliation, you can easily weed out the obvious political jabs, and you are left with a very revealing look at where the holes are in our healthcare system.

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