Onehealthpro

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE NOW

Rehab centers have them and so do long term care facilities, home health agencies, medical equipment providers, pharmaceutical firms and hospices.  What do they have?  Employees who are paid and provide no benefit to patients.  Who are these staff members? 

Marketing staff.  These folks are paid dollars to tell other professionals their organization and/or services are the best. 

If your service and/or organization is the best, professiosnals in the area know it because patients and familiy members share their experiences and professionals judge the quality of health care facilities by results.  The health care dollars we waste on sales would be better spent improving health care quality.

If universal health care were reality, there would be no need to advertise services.

Consider the number of facilities in your area with paid marketers.  Suppose those facilities put the marketing salary dollars into hiring professionals to care for the patients they have.  There would be less need for marketers because happy patients, families and staff members would be doing that job for free.   

UNIVERSAL COVERAGE AND INSURANCE COMPANIES

Ever notice when insurance companies argue against universal health care, they appeal to the notion that American's can choose their own health care providers while simultaneously marketing insurance products that restrict American's access to choosing their own health care providers?  Can you say Orwellian twist? 

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH CARE QUALITY

In Las Vegas, Nevada a number of patients are worried they contracted illness while receiving care from a free standing medical clinic.  In an effort to make a buck, the clinic ignored proper protocol...reusing tubing on different patients instead of replacing it.  In Kansas City, Missouri a pharmacist diluted chemotherapy to make a buck.  These individuals were caught, but I wonder how many others are engaged in similar practices and haven't been discovered...yet.  Would universal health care, which would eliminate the profit motive from the health care equation, prevent money making schemes from contaminating patient care?

UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR THE HUMAN FAMILY

Hard working, middle class Americans have a problem. 

If they turn 40, employers are anxious to replace them with younger workers.  Yes, this is happening within health care organizations.  The reason:  health care costs are soaring.

These displaced workers are unwanted in the current labor market so they are attempting to pay their own way with health insurance coverage. 

Good luck with that on zero income.  Dipping into shrinking retirement plans to purchase daily needs is a short term solution that will lead to long term disaster.

And you younger folks who think this problem doesn't affect you, consider this:  you too will become expendable and at a younger age.  Do you think health care jobs can't be outsourced?  Consider the implications of robotic surgery.  Surgery has now been performed in which the surgeon was on one continent, the patient on another.

The opportunity to find work in America is shrinking.  Don't bother me with the unemployment statistics until you research how that number is obtained.  There are many workers who are no longer eligible to draw unemployment to say nothing of the underemployed who cannot afford to purchase health insurance on their low wage job.

If you want to believe that all is right with the current health care system, call it a religion and believe.  If you want to be a knowledgeable individual who investigates facts before reaching conclusions, please examine the multitude of health care systems around the globe before you decide our plan is the best plan.  And while you're looking consider this:  you and your organization are competing with systems around the world as we all live and work in the global community.       

MEDICARE OPTIONS

Perhaps the easiest way to get started with universal coverage is to allow Americans to join Medicare.  This option would help keep Medicare solvent and support the free market.  If current health care insurance is as wonderful as some believe, people will keep their insurance and not join Medicare.  If Medicare enrollments rise, insurance companies would be forced to deliver better service to attract customers.

UNIVERSAL CARE FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE

There will be no concerted effort to provide first rate medical care and reduce costs until universal coverage is a reality.  Hospitals spend dollars advertising and building designer lobbies instead of investing in improving their quality.  Insurance companies spend dollars advertising for new customers and hire staff to guarantee no extra service is provided.  Pharmaceutical companies care not for reducing prices because they can stick the insurance companies with the costs.  Same for medical equipment companies.  The shell game of who has the most profit has ruined our health care system.  Patients are suffering.  It's no longer safe to leave your loved one unattended in health care settings.  And...you'll pay an excessive price for subpar care.     

UNIVERSAL COST MANAGEMENT

What happens when persons with limited or no health insurance experience medical symptoms?  If their symptoms can be tolerated, most individuals ignore them until they intensify...At that point, the underlying health problem has worsened and costs more to treat.  When those with no health coverage experience severe symptoms, they report to an emergency room...facilities that provide among the most expensive care offered in America.  Doesn't it make financial sense to give everyone access to the care they need rather than asking those without insurance benefits to wait until their problem becomes a health care and financial crisis?  If it doesn't bother you that many working people are suffering and have no health care coverage, then think of your pocketbook.  Sooner or later, these folks do receive care and their care is expensive.  You are paying for their care in the form of higher health care costs.  It makes financial sense to treat the need when it arises rather than ignoring the need until it requires the most expensive service we have. 

HEALTH CARE COSTS

We are living through an amazing period of scientific discovery.  And the price tag that comes with medical innovations is unbelievable.  Without universal health coverage, the best care will be reserved for those with the most money.  The rest of us will get second rate treatments.  Does anyone believe our country will thrive when our health care system treats some individuals as if their lives matter more than others?

I understand universal coverage will require us to be good stewards of medical care, but without universal coverage, I worry these good steward decisions will be made not by medical professionals who operate with codes of ethics that require patients needs be primary, but by bean counting accountants who worry most about profitability.  

UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE

What if Thomas Friedman is correct? 

Friedman is among the writers who are examining the impact of globalization on the lives of people throughout the world.  Friedman's eloquent discussion regarding the job losses that may be realized in America due to technology is empowering and frightening.  Empowering because people need to know how globalization has shifted the balance of job availability.  Frightening because if he and others are correct, the opportunity to provide ourselves and our families basic health care coverage through employment is shrinking.  If America loses more jobs and people are unable to afford health insurance, how will health care organizations survive?

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Suppose you were asked to compete in a race in which your opponent wore appropriate attire while you wore padded clothing and carried a fifty pound weight.  Such is the proposition offered the American worker and America's corporations who must compete against workers and corporations whose burden is lighter.

We need universal health care now...we do not need more decades of debate about the issue.  It's time to implement a system, recognizing it will not be perfect and like all systems will require adaptations.  The United States cannot compete economically in the global marketplace with countries who provide health care for their citizens. 

Businesses are fleeing our country because health insurance premiums are astronomical; corporations can't or won't foot the bill.  Providing universal health care would  give American workers the opportunity to compete on the global stage.  If we don't solve the health care coverage issue, even more businesses will leave, adding to the rolls of the uninsured.