Lessons Learned

Last week I analyzed the National Health Service of the United Kingdom and both identified the pros and the cons of the system. As our government comes closer and closer to forming a bill, what can they learn from the pros and cons of the NHS and maybe adopt? Well some would argue that the NHS has really nothing good to offer the United States (cough …cough the GOP) but is that really true?? Based on reports from the World Health Organization (click here for full report) the United Kingdom per capita spending on health is three times less that the per capita of the United States. Even though they pay less, they provide the same amount of doctors, nurses and services. Therefore what can the US learn and possibly benefit from the UK system?
One lesson the US can learn from the NHS is the system’s ability to pay much less per person than the American system while still guaranteeing coverage to all its citizens. By being able to provide insurance to the entire population (either with a single payer or public option) cost per capita can decrease. The United States is known for having large gaps in its health insurance coverage which contributes to the high per capital cost. An additional ability that the United States (and its people) can benefit from is having no limit on the amount of health care treatment provided. In the United States, time and time again we heard the stories of terminally ill people being denied coverage or dropped by their insurers since they reached their coverage limit. This is one of the major concerns that people have with the health care system in America and one major pro about the UK that should be included in the reform.

Although I do see some ways in which we can learn and benefit from the pros of the NHS, we can also learn from its problems. It is clear that this country is not ready or willing to have a single-payer system as the UK since they believe it will cause long waiting times for medical assistance and inadequate care and treatment. Although these cons are subjective, the US can adopt some aspects of the single-payer system and add them to the current system and meet half way. What I mean by meeting half way is that the US should consider something like a public option meaning an option offered to citizens that is government controlled. By having an option to citizens that is low in cost and coverage, we may be able to keep all the good aspects that work in the NHS and apply them to our health care system. Therefore if a citizen is worried about having to wait sometime for a general surgery they may chose to have private insurance. If a citizen does not have the adequate funds to have private insurance or just lost their coverage as a result of losing their job then they will be able to be covered under the public option. So by having some citizens in the private sector and others in the public both systems will be balanced and waiting lines can be less of a problem since the population will be divided between the two.

The NHS provides citizens with great care at a low price and the US should consider attaining some of these great aspects by adopting something like a public option, which provides the good aspects while not adopting the entire single-payer system.

Working on some research

Ever since I started this blog, I have been able to see countless videos, letters and posts by both angry and passionate Americans on health care reform. I wondered why so many of these citizens felt so strongly about the health care reform. I decided to do some research on the sociological aspects that motivate people to feel so passionate about reform but much of my research came up empty. Most of what I found dealt with explaining why the health care system is failing and what can be done to reform the system. Although that is very useful information, it does not address why it is so hard to pass a reform bill. Across the nation, senators and representative faced angry mob crowds demanding that they leave their health care alone yet when we look at some studies done other years it shows that a large majority want reform. There are very few articles that explain why Americans want reform yet when it comes down to passing a bill it either does little in reform or it completely fails in congress. Therefore I will venture in to the world of academia and seek to answer the question of why the public opposes reform when they are clearly demanding for it. As seen in the past couple of months, public opinion, if loud enough, has the power to change the course of policy in government. If we do find explanations to these questions, we may be able to finally understand the concerns of the voters and discover a better plan of attack to make reform more appealing.

Obama Addresses the Nation

To begin my coverage of Healthcare reform (Yay! first topic post) I feel I must cover the main event of this week, the President’s address to Congress.

On Wednesday September 9, 2009, President Barack Obama made a joint address to Congress about healthcare reform and strongly declared...

“…the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the
season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties
together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent
here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care.”

After months of speculation, rumors, and out of control Town Hall meetings, the President needed to address some concerns. Obama accomplished what he needed to accomplish in his speech this week by addressing several of the issues that have been causing chaos throughout American. He first addressed the fictitious rumors being circulated around, specifically those involving death panels (explained in previous voice blog), healthcare coverage of illegal immigrants (which I got a whole lot of calls about this at the Senators office), and federal funding of abortions. He makes it perfectly clear that they are all UNTRUE. Right after he dismisses these rumors a Republican Representatives from little ol’ South Carolina, Joe Wilson, had an outburst, shouting “You Lie” to the President. My first thought was who ever thought of a heckler in Congress!! Please save the heckling for Town Hall meetings. Just had to mention that…

Now back to the issues at hand, Obama also offers his own plan and firmly states his goals including: providing access to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, provide security and stability in cost to those who have insurance and extend it to those who don’t have insurance. He also reaffirmed his position on a Public Option as being an aspect of the bill, which was unclear during the past few weeks since there have been claims of the Democrats retracting from the option. But he’s main proposal is to provide every citizen with some kind of health insurance either from a private or public institution. All in all, the President sought to clarify a message that he was not trying to force American citizens to change their health insurance completely but to provide them with relief from the growing cost in this troubled economy. So as the Senators and Representatives return to Capitol Hill from their summer vacation, some hurt and bruised from the frantic Town Halls, the time has come to start forming legislation that is meant to benefit the American people not hurt them. Although there are many points in Obama’s Plan, available here, not covered in this post, I will address them in future post along with reactions to the Speech.

And so Obama ended with a few words from a letter written to him from the late Senator Ted Kenney saying

"What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of
policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our
country."

For full text click here.