Health care costs wouldn’t be so high and there wouldn’t be so much concern about the cost of a public health care plan if so many Americans weren’t so sick.

Right?

On Monday, the New York Times reported on the hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic waste being dumping into the nation’s water supply by coal-fired power plants. In the article, “Cleansing the Air at the Expense of the Waterways“, Charles Duhigg reported:

“For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states — including New York and New Jersey — sued the plant’s owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain.

So three years ago, when Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant’s air emissions, environmentalists were overjoyed. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky.

But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of waste water containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.

‘It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,’ said Philip Coleman, who lives about 15 miles from the plant and has asked a state judge to toughen the facility’s pollution regulations. ‘We can’t escape.’

Even as a growing number of coal-burning power plants around the nation have moved to reduce their air emissions, many of them are creating another problem: water pollution. Power plants are the nation’s biggest producer of toxic waste, surpassing industries like plastic and paint manufacturing and chemical plants, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data.”

If the air pollution caused by coal-fired plants has already been linked to chronic asthma and COPD, just imagine the result of ingesting large quantities of the same toxins in your drinking water.

In an article for Care2.com, Melissa Breyer reported on the link between pesticides and Parkinson’s Disease.

A study by eminent oncologists Dr. Leonard Hardell and Dr. Mikael Eriksson of Sweden concludes that there is a link between “the world’s biggest selling herbicide, glyphosate (commonly known as Roundup, marketed by Monsanto), to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer.”

The following video clip is from the documentary “The World According to Monsanto” which took an in-depth look into the bio-chemical companies impact on agriculture, the environment and health.

And while we’re discussing Monsanto we certainly can’t forget their efforts to bury the truth about rBGH (bovine growth hormone) in milk.

There are many, many more instances of links between toxic waste and disease but I think that you get the picture.

Corporations have been dumping toxins in the water, air and food supply with impunity. The American public has grown sicker which has in turn driven up health care costs. Health care insurers are profiting from this illness. And now the corporate lobbyists and insurance industry spin machine are waging a full scale assault on health care reform.

Dear Members of Congress and President Obama,

if you really want to reform health care please take a comprehensive approach to this problem. How can you not pass health care reform with a public option when the government agencies which were supposed to protect the environment, agriculture and public health have failed us so miserably.

The previously cited New York Time article shows that the Riverhead International Coal Plant in Macon GA has been cited for 124 violations, paid $0 in fines and hasn’t been inspected since 1979. 1979 – 30 years ago.

Let the teabaggers and birthers rant, rave and spread lies about “death panels” but don’t give in to the insanity.

Americans can diet, exercise, visit the doctor and take all the pills we want. But if the biochemical and power industries continue to poision the air, water & food, we will grow sicker and sicker. Health care costs will both bankrupt consumers and increase the federal deficit. And in the end, we will die. Those without health care coverage will just die much quicker.

Congress must pass health care with a public option and if you want to reduce costs take on the corporations that have contributed to this crisis. Fine them. Shame them if you have to. Expose them for the greedy, heartless profiteers that they have become.

How dare Wellpoint sue the State of Maine to ensure that it is guaranteed a profit!

Enough is enough.

originally posted on Pam’s Coffee Conversation

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A few days ago, I posted on my blog, New Wave Grrrl, about the gaps surrounding Sarah Palin’s purported policy priority of addressing the needs of children with disabilities. I questioned the McCain-Palin ticket’s ability to put our money where their mouths have been on the subject of more funding for people with special needs. On October 24th, Palin gave a speech in my home state of Pennsylvania, on just what she and John McCain planned to do in order to better serve children with disabilities.

Although Palin’s speech was heartfelt, and I believe she truly cares about disability issues as a parent and as an aunt of children with developmental disabilities, her speech and the so-called McCain-Palin plan for children with special needs (which comes less than two weeks shy of Election Day) still falls flat, and still lacks any real promise of change in the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

One glaring reason for this is the complete lack of policies that support people with disabilities beyond childhood. People who live with physical, developmental, cognitive, and multiple disabilities need various levels of care and support services throughout their entire lifetimes, in order to achieve a better quality of life and live fully within their communities. This includes not just vocational services for people with disabilities who can and want to work, but actual Medicaid dollars to fund the programs that provide for independent living in the community and not in State institutions, regardless of the severity of one’s disability.

Palin did mention teens in her speech, within the context of education and transition to adulthood planning, but again, the McCain-Palin approach is fragmented and does not address the current and critical health and human service needs of young people with disabilities. A recent study published earlier this year in the Journal of School Health showed that adolescents in special education programs are more likely to contract Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) than their typically developed peers. In adddition, we know that young people with disabilities are more likely to be victims of sexual abuse and assault. Better sexuality education and health services are needed to address these serious issues, and under a McCain-Palin Administration which would continue to fund harmfully inaccurate Abstinence-Only Education programs in schools, it is unlikely that these issues would ever see the light of day.

Palin also mentioned how lucky she and her family are to have such a strong network of social supports, and acknowledged that others who are surrounded by less family or have fewer resources are less fortunate. Wow! But neither Senator McCain nor Governor Palin have track records of supporting family-friendly work policies that would make it easier for families to put together the kind of support networks that Palin referenced in her speech. Their actions of not supporting family leave, benefits for same-sex partners, or pay parity for men and women strongly suggest that they recognize their privelege of having access to services and family supports, but will do nothing concrete to create the same access for others. How is this a populist message?

Last, although it is not funny, I almost have to chuckle to myself when I hear Palin talk about IDEA and fully funding this law, which gives children with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate education that best meets their needs. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was originally passed with the provision of the federal government eventually funding 40% of the cost for states in order to provide education to children with disabilities. This act also includes a provision for Early Intervention, a voluntary program that provides therapeutic and educational services to infants and toddlers with disabilities. IDEA has never been funded fully, which has thrown the special education and Early Interventions systems within many states into decades of problems while not being able to serve enough children with disabilities. This story includes Palin’s state of Alaska, which has little infrastructure and one of the worst track records of serving children with special needs in-state.

Moreover, not only has John McCain routinely voted against more funding for IDEA during his tenure in the Senate, but he has also vowed to freeze all federal spending indefinitely if he becomes President. This could likely be disasterous for vital federal programs that serve people of all ages with disabilities, including veterans, not to mention for states which count on federal dollars to make their budgets whole and to provide the most basic of services to the most vulnerable people in our society.

The recent McCain-Palin proposal to address the needs of people with disabilities is not only too little too late, but it is derived from a complete lack of policy knowledge and understanding that has haunted their entire campaign.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Many people, like myself, feel that the way in which a society supports its most vulnerable or disenfranchised citizens is a critical indicator of how healthy that society is, and where it is headed in the future.

The issue of disability policy and the improvements that are necessary to elevate the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities in this country has rarely made it into the mainstream discourse during this election. Unfortunately, this is not surprising as individuals with disabilities are typically excluded from the larger social and political environments, both by actual physical barriers and by traditional social practices in our society which make them invisible.

Although it seemed that we might actually be treated to a serious debate on disability policy issues when Sarah Palin’s name was added to the Republican ticket and she announced that she has a child who was born with Down Syndrome earlier this year, no such rich or meaningful public discussion has resulted. Palin has vowed to make special needs children a priority in a McCain/Palin Whitehouse, however it is not clear how Sarah Palin, or John McCain, would accomplish this. In addition, given the track records of both Palin as Governor and McCain as Senator, it does not appear that the disability policy issues that will be crucial in the 21st Century, such as greater independence, de-institutionalization, community supports, and funding for special education will be represented by this ticket should they win the 2008 Presidential Election.

For example, McCain has repeatedly been unsupportive of fully funding special education for children with disabilities across the nation, and he does not support legislation to help move more people out of state institutions and into communities. Sarah Palin, as noted in a New York Times article in September, has not so far been an advocate of children with special needs in her state, which has one of the highest rates of out-of-state placements of children with disabilities based on Alaska’s inability to provide them with adequate services.

On the other side of the spectrum, Barack Obama released his plan to empower people with disabilities earlier this year, and it is a comprehensive plan that addresses many of the issues facing people, both adults and children, with physical, developmental, and cognitive disabilities, including health care, education, independent living, employment, and a host of other issues. In addition, Barack Obama supports the movement towards requiring that insurance plans cover mental and behavioral health services, which would positively impact people who are dually diagnosed with both disabilities and mental illness.

On November 4th, many who care about the rights and quality of life for people with disabilities will decide, in addition to other factors and issues, which candidate can best serve to support this population and honor their rights and abilities to live full, happy, and productive lives in American society. Hopefully, you will be one of them! Find out more information on where these candidates stand by visiting the links below:

Senator Barack Obama/ Senator Joe Biden:
Website: www.barackobama.com
Plan: Obama-Biden Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities

Senator John McCain/ Governor Sarah Palin:
Website: www.johnmccain.com
*Plan: Please note that although McCain does address some disability issues for veterans, he does not have a policy plan for people with disabilities.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Today, in a rare moment of representative democracy, the U.S. House of Representatives listened to voters and failed to pass the $700 billion bailout bill. While it may have been a bombshell to many, the fact is, it was American Democracy at work.

Legislators across the nation were bombarded with emails and calls from constituents saying, “Do not pass this bill.” According to the Rasmussen Consumer Index, fifty percent of Americans oppose the plan, and 63% of Americans worry that the government will do too much.

Today, legislators listened, and they responded. But this is in no way the end. The way I see it, the decision to stall the vote until Thursday is an opportunity to get it right.

Ever been in a crisis? If so, you’ve heard those you trust—whether a clergy member, financial planner or therapist—tell you, “Never make major decisions in the midst of a crisis.” And we’re all familiar with the term, “haste makes waste.”

Three days away (back home closer to their constituents) just may do our congressional leaders some good. It will allow each of them a chance to step away, clear their head.

The bottom line is, everyone in Congress is admitting that the current bailout bill is a “bad” bill they don’t want to pass but feel they must. But, what’s so wrong with having the courage to say, “This bill is bad, but I believe we can do better…and we must.”

This congress has an opportunity to not settle for the lesser of two evil bills (Paulson’s and now the enhanced version). Congress has an unprecedented opportunity to say, “We are committed to the American people. We are elected to be the best possible stewards of taxpayer dollars. We will not sell the taxpayer short. We can do better and we will.”

Come back on Thursday— huddle, compromise, study, research, write and rewrite, ask tough questions, demand answers, and compromise some more— and then come back with a plan that you can vote for with dignity. Popular legislative sentiment is that to “do nothing” is unacceptable. No. To do “just anything” lacking any real confidence in its merits or assurances of its success, is unacceptable.

Congress, please, for the sake of the American people, go back to the drawing board.

If the last few days have left you with the same feelings that you had during the run up to the Iraq War you’re definitely not alone.

Remember the WMDs that posed an imminent threat to America?

Remember the statements that implied that the Iraqi oil revenue was going to pay for the war?

Now the Bush Administration and The Fed are saying that we have a financial crisis that needs an immediate $700 billion infusion from the American taxpayer. Did you know that some of that money could be used to bail out foreign owned banks?

Within the next 24 hours, Congress is expected to make an historic choice in addressing America’s financial crisis:

Cut the Bush administration a $700 billion blank check for Wall Street
OR
demand sensible public checks and balances in the $700 billion bailout.

Well, before you let them cut that blank check think about this?

Remember the brave US service men and women who were sent to war in Afghanistan and Iraq without proper body armor.

Remember the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Remember that the US embassy in Iraq which cost in excess of $600 million to build and is projected to have an annual operating cost of $1.2 billion.

Remember that President Bush vetoed a $35 billion expansion to the SCHIP program which would have provided health insurance to millions of America’s uninsured children. He said that we couldn’t afford it.

Remember the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and now Ike. There are still parts of New Orleans’ 9th Ward as well as many parishes in Western Louisiana which have yet to have all of the debris removed.

Remember that five years after the worse blackout in US history, the energy grid is still “in dire straits“.

Americans, Get Over The Shock Already!

Are you going to let The Fed, the Bush Administration and Congress rush through a $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street and the banking industry when all of the aforementioned have put America and Americans last time after time after time after time?

Now, I’m not saying that nothing needs to be done to fix this broken economy. But are you going to let them rush to a bailout like they rushed to a war?

I just took action with the Campaign for America’s Future to weigh in for common sense solutions. I wanted to urge you to do the same. Please write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: **No $700 Billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!**

Enough is Enough!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/v/kieyjfZDUIc&hl=en&fs=1

Speak up now, this may be your last chance.

In the following video clip, Rep. Dennis Kucinich sounded the cry –

WAKE UP AMERICA!

He may have been addressing the Democratic National Convention at the time but his words are a call to all of us.

Url: http://www.youtube.com/v/Lv0smG7ptcM&hl=en&fs=1

Americans wake up. Please!

Related posts:

A Healthy Dose of Economic Reality
July, 2008

In Search of Answers to the Foreclosure Crisis That Won’t Make Matters Worse
May, 2008

Bad Luck, Incompetence, Lack of Regulation, or Simple Avarice
March 2008

Where Are They Getting The Money?
March, 2008

Watch for the Signs
October, 2007

Lay, Skilling Convicted in Enron Collapse
May, 2006

For Minorities, Signs of Trouble in Foreclosures
February, 2006

and

The Debt Peonage Society by Paul Krugman
New York Times, March 2005

Journal Disputes McCain’s Health Care Claims

Senator John McCain’s top domestic policy adviser, former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, recently said in a conference call with reporters that Mr. McCain’s health care proposal would “put 25 to 30 million individuals out of the ranks of the uninsured, into the ranks of the insured.” In an article released Tuesday, a panel of prominent health economists concludes that Mr. Holtz-Eakin’s projection is off by, well, 25 to 30 million.

The article, published in the journal Health Affairs, argues that “initially there would be no real change in the number of people covered as a result of the McCain plan.” After a short-term reduction of 1 million in the number of people without coverage, the number of uninsured would increase by 5 million after five years, the authors predict. There are currently 45 million people without insurance, or 15 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau.

On Obama’s Health Care Plan…

By comparison, Senator Barack Obama’s plan, which would provide heavy government subsidies for insurance for low-income workers, would reduce the number of uninsured by 18 million in 2009 and by 34 million in 2018, according to the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution report. That would still leave Mr. Obama well shy of his goal of achieving universal coverage.

[read full article at the caucus]

Think You Know John McCain?   His Health Care Plan Will Penalize Women…

Presidential candidate John McCain’s health care reform plan would have a devastating impact on women, according to a new analysis.

“Tens of millions of women would be at risk of losing their current insurance coverage even though they use health care services more frequently than men, suffer chronic illness more often than men, and require maternity care and other reproductive health services,” concludes a report by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The aim of McCain’s health care plan is to break up the existing employer based health care coverage system and replace it with a market-oriented system funded in part by the government.

Employers that currently offer health care coverage would find fewer incentives to continue doing so under the McCain plan. Instead, individuals would be given a tax credit of $2,500 (families would receive $5,000) so that they could shop around on the open market for the best plan for them, whether that insurer is based in the same state or not. The catch, though, is that the private insurance market doesn’t treat women that well.

The study reports that if McCain’s plan is implemented, “more than 30 million women with employer-sponsored health insurance who suffer from a chronic condition could lose their coverage, find it harder to obtain coverage, or have to purchase supplemental insurance to cover their chronic condition.”

From MedPage Today…

McCain never talks much about his healthcare plan. Probably because it’s not an issue the Republicans fare well on, while it is a core Democratic issue. Maybe also because his plan doesn’t really offer much to take on the critical issues in American healthcare today. He’s got a plan, because it’s sort of obligatory to have one, but it’s just not an important issue to him or a core part of his campaign to be elected. (Which is unfortunate for him, because healthcare still ranks highly on the list of voters’ concerns.)  But there’s been a lot of talk recently about the McCain health plan, after the journal Health Affairs published a review of the estimated impact of the plan. My take home points from the wider discussion are these:

• This is an incredibly risky scheme. For the past 60 years, healthcare in this country has been financed through employers. While this is a poor system at best, McCain’s plan to tax healthcare benefits as income will radically change that. McCain’s plan is to replace this system with: nothing at all, tossing 20 million consumers into the private insurance market to sink or swim on their own.
• This scheme places consumers’ health at risk. The cross-state marketing of insurance means that insurers will domicile in states with the least protections and safeguards for consumers.
• This represents a hidden tax increase on consumers. Yes, there is a tax credit of $5,000 per family, but with a family premium costing upwards of $11,000 annually, it is not hard to see that most families will wind up paying more out of pocket, and paying more in taxes. (Some analysts differ on this point.) And for those employers who continue to offer health care as a benefit, it represents a massive payroll tax increase, making job creation more difficult.
• Roughly 20 million consumers would be forced into the private insurance market, which typically features higher premiums, higher deductibles and lower benefits.
• Patients with pre-existing conditions would be commercially uninsurable and no viable market exists to cover them, neither now or in the McCain plan.
• More people are estimated to become uninsured under this plan, which also does nothing to remedy the 45 million who are currently uninsured.

From Bitter Analysis:  McCain’s Health Care Plan May Make You Sick…

Are you one of the 158 million Americans who are covered by a health care plan by your employer?

Have you heard that John McCain wants to impose a tax on that benefit, based upon what premium your employer pays for you, while simultaneously providing a refundable annual tax credit of $2500 for an individual, or $5000 for a family, that may, or may not, cover the tax increase? But there’s more: the real possibility that your employer may terminate your company’s health care plan, under the pretense that the workers will be better off choosing a plan on their own, partially paid for by that tax credit.

On July 6, 2008, USATODAY.com carried an Associated Press article entitled, “McCain’s health plan: A threat to employer plans?” It describes McCain’s plan and its possible side affects:

Here is a video clip of Elizabeth Edwards on the Obama and McCain Health Care plans…

See More Information on this issue at...

Health Affairs:  The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere

Community member Slim, from no fish, no nuts – sent me the following email…

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has proposed a new rule that will limit the rights of women to receive medically accurate information and treatment. The alleged goal of the rule is to protect the rights of “conscience” of health care workers, volunteers, and trainees. The result would be limited access to birth control and abortion for women all over the country – regardless of state law.

Here is what you can do…

The ACLU has a letter you can send.

Planned Parenthood has a letter you can send.

NARAL has a letter you can send.

It will take you less than five minutes to click through and sign all three.

I urge you to sign and send every one of them – and pass every one of them along to every single family member and friend you know.

We have 19 days. After 19 days this regulation goes into effect and every single health care worker in the United States will be able to refuse any woman health care based on their own personal moral views.

Thank you.

Where do your taxes go?  Is too much going to help people who can’t or won’t help themselves?  Let’s check it out and see…

This is from National Priorities.org…

Ok – To make this a little easier to understand, I’m going to use $100 as the amount of taxes we break-down to see where they are going.  However, anyone can go to this site and put their actual number in and get a specific breakdown for themselves.

So, let’s check this out.  For every $100 dollars you spend in income taxes, this is where the money goes…

Of the $100 you paid in taxes:

• $42 goes to Past and Current Military
• $22 goes to Health
• $10 goes to Interest on Non-Military Debt
• $9 goes to Anti-Poverty Programs
• $4 goes to Education, Training & Social Services
• $4 goes to Government & Law Enforcement
• $3goes to Housing & Community Development
• $3 goes to Environment, Energy & Science
• $2 goes to Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation
• $1 goes to International Relations

So, 22 dollars of 100 goes to Health ($458 billion) is the federal funds portion of all health spending by the federal government, including the federal funds spending on Medicare.

And, 9 dollars of 100 goes to Anti-Poverty Programs ($179.4 billion) includes federal funds outlays on the sub-function areas food and nutrition assistance ($54.5 billion) and other income security. Other income security includes Supplemental Security Income ($38.5 billion) which provides cash assistance to disabled, elderly and blind who have very low incomes; payments where Earned Income Tax Credit exceeds tax liability ($38.3 billion); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($16.9 billion); payments where child credit exceeds tax liability ($16.2 billion); foster care and adoption assistance ($6.6 billion); child care spending and a variety of other small programs for children and families.

And, 4 dollars of 100 to Education, Training and Social Services ($90.6 billion) includes all federal funds outlays on the function area of the same name which includes the following subfunction areas: elementary, secondary, and vocational education, higher education, and research and general education aids, training and employment, other labor services, and social services.

And, 3 dollars of 100 goes to Housing and Community Development ($69.2 billion) includes all federal funds outlays defined by the federal government as housing assistance ($39.7 billion), and the function area of community and regional development ($29.5 billion).

Most of our tax dollars (52 dollars of 100) are going to the Iraq war and the military…

Cost of the Iraq War…

• • $4,681 per household.
  • $1,721 per person.
  • $341.4 million per day.

You can go here to see what the Iraq war is costing your community.

So, do we pay too much in taxes, YES.  But, it’s not because we are compassionately providing some of our tax dollars to services for the sick, impoverished, and the hungry…It’s because the average tax payer is being forced to pay more in taxes because our government is letting multi-million/billion/trillion dollar corporations avoid paying taxes.  

Don’t be mad about how much of your tax dollar is going to help needy Americans…Be mad about all the tax dollars that are not being collected by corporations making millions and billions and trillions each year that could be reducing your taxes and subsidizing programs that could be helping the needy among us even more than we already do (which isn’t enough).  This report does not even include all the millions in tax credits our government is giving out to huge corporations (such as oil), or corporate welfare.  This is were the anger needs to be directed, not at each other.

From Marketplace…

Lemme get your reaction to something here for a second. If I told you there was a report out today showing two thirds of all Americans didn’t pay any income taxes, would you be surprised? Outraged, maybe? If you are, calm down. There’s no report saying that at all. But there is a study out today from the Government Accountability Office saying something similar. It finds that between 1998 and 2005, two thirds of companies in this country had at least one year where they didn’t pay any federal income tax. So, back to the outrage. Where is it?

(AP) Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO’s estimate.

“It’s shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called “S” corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes.

“Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code,” Edwards said.

The GAO study did not investigate why corporations weren’t paying federal income taxes or corporate taxes and it did not identify any corporations by name. It said companies may escape paying such taxes due to operating losses or because of tax credits.

More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.

*Here is another interesting site on where your tax dollars are going, and how the government is trying to deceive the public about the real numbers.

A new report is out about insurance and health care, and it’s not good. If you think the cost of health care is high now, just wait…It’s going to get even higher. Who would have thought that you could have insurance, and still not be able to afford healthcare? How is that possible? Only in America.

A few weeks ago I posted about the rising cost of prescription drugs, now it’s copays and premiums that will be increasing. Even people who have insurance and prescription drug plans, still can’t afford their medications. I thought insurance was suppose to “insure” we have quality and affordable health care? Not so much.

The United States spends more of its income on health care than any nation on earth, nearly $6,000 per person per year, more than 15 percent of our total income. In contrast, the countries of the European Monetary Union spend about $2,500 per person per year, less than 10 percent of their income.

The United States is very rich and we spend the most in the world on health care. We have a right to expect more for our money than a life expectancy outcome that places us thirtieth in the world, behind Singapore, Chile, and Costa Rica as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and every Western European nation.

Our health care system certainly delivers innovations in pharmaceutical and other technologies. It leads the world in Nobel Prizes for medicine and physiology. But it does not deliver medical care equitably to all Americans. Those who can pay have access to the best health care in the world. Those with good insurance plans—a decreasing fraction of the population—get good, life-extending health care. The rest must make do. And the result is that enough people fall through the cracks to place us at the bottom of the rich country life expectancy tables.

Here is some of what other women bloggers are saying about the rising cost of health care.

From Green LA Girl…

Our health care system’s so fucked up that people are getting married — and considering divorce! — simply due to health insurance issues. In the NY Times: “For today’s couples, “in sickness and in health” may seem less a lover’s troth than an actuarial contract. They marry for better or worse, for richer or poorer, for co-pays and deductibles.”

From MOMocrats…

• Under McCain’s Plan, Health Insurance Benefits Would be Taxed For The First Time, Resulting In A $3.6 Trillion Tax Increase On Working Families. McCain’s health care plan would eliminate the payroll deduction on health care benefits, which would have the effect of raising taxes on working families by $3.6 trillion. [New York Times, 5/1/08]
• The Health Care Tax Credit McCain Offers Would Cover Less Than Half The Cost Of An Average Health Care Plan. The McCain health plan would give families a $5,000 tax credit to purchase health insurance. However, in 2007, the average family health insurance plan cost $12,000 – more than double the value of McCain’s health care tax credit. [“Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey,” Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/11/07; “‘Call To Action’ On Health Care Reform,” John McCain 2008 press release, 4/29/08; Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]

From Just Random‘s presidential wish list…

Universal Health Care (or at least affordable health care) – Why is the United States the only modernized country with out some form of universal health care? I know an argument could be made for the U.S. having the best health care, but why can’t we have both, come on some one smarter than me make it happen. Every child in this country should have access to health care.

From Christian Liberal’s Weblog…

Whatever the case, it’s surprising that so many self-professed Christians, and especially the evangelical type, are so eager to maul, mangle and manipulate those words, those lessons, so that it comes out as “every man for himself”, which of course is the exact opposite of the meaning and spirit of those teachings.

They’ll use phrases like “self-determination” or “market forces”, but it’s really just code words for “you’re on your own” and “don’t expect any help from me.” Likewise, they will use negative words to describe the concept. It’s been found that a majority of Americans favors universal healthcare, but if you change the language to “socialized medicine” the approval rating drops below 50%. And the greed-oriented apologists are quite expert at word-smithing.

The point is, any good-hearted Christian would not begrudge the care given to a needy neighbor.

Are you having trouble affording health care? Are you hoping if Obama is elected, things might get a little better? Are you worried, that if McCain is elected, things will get worse? Let me know what you think in comments.

I recently wrote a piece for BlogHer on how opponents of universal health care promote healthy lifestyles as a way to decrease health care costs. Sounds great doesn’t it? The trouble is, there is a fine line between encouraging healthy lifestyles and discriminating against the sick. It would be great if prevention and a healthy lifestyle could prevent chronic illness, but it just doesn’t, it’s much more complicated then that.

And the McCain plan (if you can really call it a plan), not only blames the chronically ill for the high cost of health care, but allows the insurance industry to continue to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. This country can not afford the kind of health care plan that John McCain is suggesting, and if you have any preexisting conditions, you are not covered under McCain’s plan.

Here Mrs. Edwards speaks from the perspective of someone recently dealing with cancer — and warns that McCain’s plan has very serious limitations and dangers for middle, modest and low income families. While protecting the wealthiest Americans, McCain’s proposals endanger the health security of those less fortunate.

Another troubling fact about the health care crisis, is that it isn’t just hurting the uninsured anymore. Now, even if you have health insurance, you’re not as protected as you might think. For more information you can read, What You Don’t Know About Your Health Insurance, Could Soon Cost You Thousands.

Even the Ensured Feel the Strain of Health Costs…

The economic slowdown has swelled the ranks of people without health insurance. But now it is also threatening millions of people who have insurance but find that the coverage is too limited or that they cannot afford their own share of medical costs.

Many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance are struggling to meet medical expenses that are much higher than they used to be — often because of some combination of higher premiums, less extensive coverage, and bigger out-of-pocket deductibles and co-payments.

With medical costs soaring, the coverage many people have may not adequately protect them from the financial shock of an emergency room visit or a major surgery. For some, even routine doctor visits might now take a back seat to basic expenses like food and gasoline.

So how much worse can this health care crisis get? Would you believe that some at the Pentagon are suggesting it could affect our military’s readiness for war? This is from the Boston Globe…

Like the many major corporations that insist their competitiveness is undermined by rising medical bills, the Pentagon is warning that mounting healthcare costs could jeopardize the military’s ability to wage war.

Because of an aging population and skyrocketing medical fees, the annual cost of military healthcare has more than doubled from $19 billion to $39 billion since 2001, according to Defense Department data. That number is expected to climb to $64 billion by 2015, Pentagon officials estimate, consuming roughly 12 percent of the defense budget.

“Without relief, spending for healthcare will . . . divert critical funds needed for war fighters, their readiness, and for critical equipment,” Dr. William Winkenwerder , assistant defense secretary for health affairs, recently told Congress. “Healthcare costs will continue to consume a growing slice of the department’s budget.”

[Just a thought. Bring our troops home, and stop fighting this stupid war in Iraq! Maybe then our veterans can get quality health care? I think they deserve it.]

Also See:

Health Insurance Companies To Increase Profits

More specifics about the McCain Health Care plan.

How has the health care crisis affected you? If it hasn’t affected you yet, are you worried it will?