Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Health Care Crisis
We are in the middle of a crisis. People know about it but no one is doing anything. Health care in our country is in chronic distress. Costs are rising every day. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors seem to be operating on an obnoxious greed factor. The government does not do anything to stop it. Our president only has his eyes set on war. Other politicians take the donations from the medical lobbies to keep things the way they are. When is this going to stop? Soon, only the very rich will be able to afford health care. The rest of us can just die. Our lives are fast becoming worth nothing if we do not have money.
It is time for change. As much as we are a capitalist nation, the government needs to step in to reform and regulate the health care industry. People?s lives are more important than making those in the health care business richer. We must stop being afraid of words like socialism and get the government to bring things under control. Everyone is entitled to health care whether poor or rich and whatever age. Some possible solutions are: declare health care professions as humanitarian jobs, not a get rich profession; stop the pharmaceutical companies from advertising drugs on TV; and strict regulation of the insurance companies.
Health care professions should be declared humanitarian professions. People used to become doctors, nurses and such because they wanted to help people. Now, people seem to want to become doctors to get rich. They want fancy cars, expensive homes and country clubs over the lives of people. It is time to put a stop to this. Medical professions can be regulated. There should be a basic annual pay that would allow these professionals to live a decent, modest, comfortable life, but not exceed into the greed zone. Hospitals and other facilities should not be run on a for profit basis. Put them on a nonprofit status and free from paying taxes. There should be tax breaks for people who choose to enter these professions. This solution could lower costs a lot if the greed factor is eliminated.
Another solution would be to stop the pharmaceutical companies from advertising their drugs on television. Not an hour goes by on TV that you do not see some commercial for a type of drug. These commercials urge consumers to ask their doctors about them. Prices of prescription drugs are going up every few months. Why? Part of this is because the pharmaceutical companies are spending billions of dollars on these advertisements. Consumers should not have to pay for this advertising in increased costs for their medications. These companies were not allowed to advertise before, so they should go back to the previous way. Furthermore, a doctor should make the decision on what medications to prescribe for patients. People do not have the medical knowledge or training to make such decisions.
Finally, health insurance companies should be heavily regulated. Every time there is an increase in the money they have to pay out, they raise the premiums on people. Employers cannot afford to pay for this and are trying to get away from providing health benefits for their employees. The employees are encouraged to opt out of group plans for individual ones, but this creates other problems. When healthy individuals opt out, they leave behind a smaller pool of people who are sick or old. This makes the insurance company raise rates on the existing people to defray costs. Individual plans are not good either because they tend to have high deductibles, high copays, preexisting conditions clauses and are expensive. Our government needs to regulate the insurance companies to prevent price gouging and keep a balanced pool of insured to keep costs down.
It is time to change things and get health care under control. People?s lives should not be at the mercy of greed. Health care must be reformed. Our country is the only industrialized nation in the world without a universal health care system. Americans need to wake up and push for change. We must not be afraid of words like socialism. It is better to be afraid of greed. Some possible solutions could be to make health care professions a humanitarian and not for profit business, stopping pharmaceutical companies from expensive advertising that make them increase the costs of their products and regulate the insurance industry. Health care is not a privilege. It is a basic human right. We must do something now or the health care industry will start playing God, deciding who lives or dies based on the money they will gain from the person who needs medical treatment. Do we really want our society to regard a human life as only monetary value?
It is time for change. As much as we are a capitalist nation, the government needs to step in to reform and regulate the health care industry. People?s lives are more important than making those in the health care business richer. We must stop being afraid of words like socialism and get the government to bring things under control. Everyone is entitled to health care whether poor or rich and whatever age. Some possible solutions are: declare health care professions as humanitarian jobs, not a get rich profession; stop the pharmaceutical companies from advertising drugs on TV; and strict regulation of the insurance companies.
Health care professions should be declared humanitarian professions. People used to become doctors, nurses and such because they wanted to help people. Now, people seem to want to become doctors to get rich. They want fancy cars, expensive homes and country clubs over the lives of people. It is time to put a stop to this. Medical professions can be regulated. There should be a basic annual pay that would allow these professionals to live a decent, modest, comfortable life, but not exceed into the greed zone. Hospitals and other facilities should not be run on a for profit basis. Put them on a nonprofit status and free from paying taxes. There should be tax breaks for people who choose to enter these professions. This solution could lower costs a lot if the greed factor is eliminated.
Another solution would be to stop the pharmaceutical companies from advertising their drugs on television. Not an hour goes by on TV that you do not see some commercial for a type of drug. These commercials urge consumers to ask their doctors about them. Prices of prescription drugs are going up every few months. Why? Part of this is because the pharmaceutical companies are spending billions of dollars on these advertisements. Consumers should not have to pay for this advertising in increased costs for their medications. These companies were not allowed to advertise before, so they should go back to the previous way. Furthermore, a doctor should make the decision on what medications to prescribe for patients. People do not have the medical knowledge or training to make such decisions.
Finally, health insurance companies should be heavily regulated. Every time there is an increase in the money they have to pay out, they raise the premiums on people. Employers cannot afford to pay for this and are trying to get away from providing health benefits for their employees. The employees are encouraged to opt out of group plans for individual ones, but this creates other problems. When healthy individuals opt out, they leave behind a smaller pool of people who are sick or old. This makes the insurance company raise rates on the existing people to defray costs. Individual plans are not good either because they tend to have high deductibles, high copays, preexisting conditions clauses and are expensive. Our government needs to regulate the insurance companies to prevent price gouging and keep a balanced pool of insured to keep costs down.
It is time to change things and get health care under control. People?s lives should not be at the mercy of greed. Health care must be reformed. Our country is the only industrialized nation in the world without a universal health care system. Americans need to wake up and push for change. We must not be afraid of words like socialism. It is better to be afraid of greed. Some possible solutions could be to make health care professions a humanitarian and not for profit business, stopping pharmaceutical companies from expensive advertising that make them increase the costs of their products and regulate the insurance industry. Health care is not a privilege. It is a basic human right. We must do something now or the health care industry will start playing God, deciding who lives or dies based on the money they will gain from the person who needs medical treatment. Do we really want our society to regard a human life as only monetary value?
# posted by Freedomstar @ 1:16 PM 
