THE election issue, outside the Iraq Occupation

is, for me, in a nutshell, Healthcare NOT Health Insurance.

Besides, if you just read the Preamble to the US Constitution, you will plainly see that the Healthcare of the Citizenry IS one of the six directives of the founding document of our nation to the federal government.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

You've all (at least I hope you've all) heard the statistics: somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 MILLION of your fellow Americans lack health insurance and thus spend a part of every single day pondering the possibility of some major health event - and the ensuing destruction of their financial life.

I am one of them.  I work for a single doctor in a small clinic that serves mostly Medicare and Medicaid patients (over 97%). Imagine the irony of my daily life. I help provide healthcare to the elderly and the poor.  Unfortunately, that leaves my employer-doctor financially unable to provide healthcare insurance for himself or the other four employees of our small clinic.  Medicare and Medicaid do not pay well.  In addition, I am not old or poor enough to qualify for federal or state healthcare insurance assistance.  Perhaps irony is not a strong enough word.

Which brings me to the general state of our nation.

It never fails to amaze me, at least not for the past five years or so, when another momentous piece of our national psyche falls to the side of the road after being tossed out like so much trash by the mis-administration that is the G.W. Bush presidency.

Civil liberties such as personal privacy when it comes to telecommunications.  Gone.  The federal government cannot keep us safe unless they are allowed to listen in to our every electronic conversation, either verbal or written.  At least that is the rational being promulgated to raise support for the FISA bill being currently supported by no less than the Democratic Majority Leader, Harry Reid.  Go figure.

Invasion and Occupation of a sovereign nation.  I read that sentence and I want to think of Napoleon and Hitler, or Afghanistan in the 1970's and the USSR, but the truth is, it is my country that is now doing the invading and occupying.  Thomas Paine, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson must be spinning in their graves.

The attempts at dismantling the social safety-net created by the Presidents and Congresses following the Great Depression and WWI and WWII, via relentless attempts to privatize programs like Social Security and other programs that attempt to prevent poverty from destroying our older citizens after a lifetime of contributing to the wealth of the nation.  Who do these people think they are fooling?  I am not old enough to remember the Great Depression, but I am old enough to have spoken about it with relatives.  This nation has too much wealth to allow any part of our citizenry to live in abject poverty without end.  There is no excuse for having the attitude of "I've got mine, sucks to be you".

Which brings me back to Healthcare.

Which, as a basic directive to the federal government, as you will recall, from the Preamble

...promote the general Welfare...

should not involve profits for shareholders.

I refuse to apologize for thinking that my country of birth is too advanced socially and morally to continue to accept that anyone should be allowed, legally, to limit the care of a patient suffering in pain specifically to increase profits.  As my three year old granddaughter is wont to say these days, with a hint of her hispanic popi's accent, "I can't like eet".

Think of the disadvantage our big industrial producers have, at least the ones that are still here in the US, when it comes to competing in the Global Market that now dominates our economy.  How about GM locating plants in Canada instead of Michigan, because of the cost of healthcare for GM employees and retirees?

Think of the advantages of a nation of citizens who go regularly during their formative years and early adulthood to a physician for preventative healthcare.  If you are at least 40 years old, and have lived in the US all of your life, you remember quite well that from the 1950s through the late 1970s, most Americans were able to be seen regularly for yearly physicals, and received quite good preventative care from their family doctor - who had a long, established relationship with your family and it's healthcare history.  Compare that with the current healthcare insurance industry and it's easy to see what kind of system is more desirable, from both a personal and a public perspective.  Today's older generation, aged over 65 years, is the healthiest and longest-lived in American history.  

How about the general health status of the generation that will be in their shoes in another twenty-five years?  I predict it will be a generation who die earlier, from a variety of conditions that are mostly preventable:  
1.Lung cancer (cigarette smoking)
2.Diabetes (high fructose corn syrup-junk food-fast food)
3.Hypertensive heart disease (stress-filled modern life combined with causes of items @ 1 & 2)

In conclusion:

Our nation cannot afford to continue to spend healthcare dollars on insurance company profits.  It is that simple.  As a nation, we can well afford to "promote the general Welfare" if we do so on a non-profit basis.

Who wants to argue with the Founding Fathers on this one?

UPDATE:  I just read this diary by Eugene, which supports my views, so I recommend it to you for additional reading.

•  holiday alms bucket

  Your thoughts?

  by Angie in WA State on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:24:10 PM PDT

  •  to me, healthcare is a minor issue

    and this is coming from someone who is entirely uninsured and who's only medical care is from my herbalist and healer friends (good thing they know what they are doing)

    our country has been hijacked by christofacist thugs bent on robbing us blind, destroying everything we hold dear, and blaming it on the next guy. and ya know what, it looks like they are gonna succeed, even on the blame it on the next guy part. any attempts to stop this are oddly enough blocked by the very same people who are supposed to oppose this tyranny, and those who tell the truth and promise to restore liberty and freedom are derided as kooks and crazys by both the MSM and the general public. speaking of the general public, they are horribly un/misinformed. to the point that i honestly think we should review citizenship in this country. (at the very least have a mandatory civil ethics class, al la starship troopers).

    in the meantime, global warming is gonna kick our ass and end our species. (yes, our species, ill explain how in a bit). while politicians are debating on how a hike in fuel efficancy standards could hurt the auto industry, the world burns. and the big secret, the big BIG secret, is that we needed this 30 years ago. its already too late. the effects we are feeling now are the result of the 70's, and last time i checked, emissions have always gone up. in short, its going to get worse and worse for the next 30 years. Further we have just hit a bunch of positive feedback loops, including but not limited to, the release of methane due to the melting of permafrost, black ocean water replacing reflective white ice at the icecaps, the ocean near its carbon containing limit, and don't forget we are STILL loosing thousands of acres of rainforest a year.

    the water will run out, food will stop growing, no matter who takes wins at this point. civilization will fall, and when the acidification of the ocean finally raises to the point were it interferes with the lifecycle of phytoplankton and removing the largest remaining source of oxygen production from the planet, we, along with most if not all land animals, will perish horribly.

    I and my generation, barring some miraculous scientific breakthrough (read: magical silver bullet) have nothing to live for, nothing lasting that we can accomplish, with the possible exception of seeing those responsible be brought to justice before the end. and its lookin like we won't even get that.

    by Dude1701 on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:56:25 PM PDT

    •  Go down fighting

      More and more, I feel that you're right.  We're fucked.  Might as well go down fighting.  In whatever way we can imagine, in every aspect of our lives.  I hope I can find the strength to do that with some regularity.

      by tle on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 03:59:17 PM PDT

•  If the preamble to the Constitution

  guarantees your right to health care, why don't you sue the government?

  by bugscuffle on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:38:58 PM PDT

•  huge issue. it should be the most important, but

  our foreign policy is a cancerous mess at the moment. you'd think the not for profit, single payer healthcare for all would be a no brainer, but it appears we are headed toward a government program of subsidies for health insurance companies.

  by rasbobbo on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:39:36 PM PDT

•  If your point, as you state in your diary

  is healthcare, and not health insurance, then you should not have a problem. We have the best healthcare in the world. That's not the problem. Cost and accessability are.

  And the period from the 50's through the 70's you fondly recall, was for profit. Always has been. The doctor you work for makes a profit. If you can't, why invest all the time and money going to medical school? You can't begrudge doctors a profit. Take that away and you'll have no doctors at all. Not a good outcome.

  And as much as I would like to agree with you, I seriously doubt the founding fathers would agree that it is the role of government to provide free healthcare to every citizen (or non citizen for that matter). In fact, they would likely argue the opposite. The founding fathers believed in a small and limited federal government.

  But you raise a good point in the 50's to 70's comment. Back then the government had not over regulated the industry as it does now. Before the advent of health insurance, people paid cash, and were price sensitive. They shopped around. Now, the government tells them what kind of insurance they have to buy. You can't buy a policy for what you want covered. You can only by a policy for what the government tells you HAS to be covered.

  I say tell the government to let me choose. What's wrong with that?

  by NoBigGovernment on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:47:25 PM PDT

  •  Actually, what I would like to see

    is single-payer, not-for-profit catastophic healthcare from the government, and pay-as-you go for primary care doctor visits and a moderate amount of prescription drugs in a calendar year (above a certain dollar amount, based on your last three years income, the cost of prescription drugs should be classified as 'catastrophic').

    I, even at my $10 an hour clerical position, can afford (and have done so without healthcare insurance for a decade) to pay to see a doctor a couple of times a year, and to buy any presciption drugs I need.  

    But a single major visit to an ER or a chronic healthcare issue like COPD, hip replacement, Cardiac By-pass or an oncology issue would bankrupt me into losing my largest asset - my home.  It has been happening to your fellow citizens for a number of years now, just check out the bankruptcy diaries here on dKos as they relate to healthcare, it will open your eyes.

    Besides, the preamble notwithstanding, it is in the government's best interest to promote the general Welfare, to keep the citizenry healthy enough to remain active tax-payers.

    by Angie in WA State on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 01:58:59 PM PDT

    •  Interesting twist

      I hadn't thought about it, but the idea of not-for-profit catastrophic healthcare from the government is very attractive.  However, I don't see how you make that work.  Would there be a different health care system once the costs got too high?  Seems like it would in fact have to be insurance.  But I still see advantages with that.

      If I could rest assured that, no matter how high the bills, the government would pay for everything past a certain point,  I'd have no interest whatsoever in buying health insurance.   Wonder how that would affect the for-profit companies?

      by tle on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 04:17:13 PM PDT

  •  Well We Have Often Had the Best Spacecraft Too

    but there's no conceivable way that everyone could ever have had a ride.

    I think we have limited access to family doctors. I bet till I see proven otherwise, that we have a significant undersupply of much of that "finest" care.

    Otherwise with 15-20% of the population sitting out, we should be awash in jokes about idle doctors and empty beds.

    by Gooserock on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 02:44:27 PM PDT

  •  What Did an MRI Cost in the 50's? nt

    by Gooserock on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 02:45:25 PM PDT

    •  My point exactly! Thanks.

      An MRI is a wonderful example of a profit motive. You think you would have that machine if there was no profit in its sale or use?

      But why should you be forced to buy an insurance policy that provides for an MRI if you don't want to? Or acupuncture, or aroma therapy?

      You shouldn't.

      by NoBigGovernment on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 02:50:06 PM PDT