Will New Bailout Mentality Result in Universal Health Care?

One of President-elect Obama’s promises was to reform our country’s health care system. With the burgeoning economic crisis, many pundits have observed that health care reform is something that will have to wait. At first, I thought this observation probably made sense, but now that our new bailout mentality has taken hold, I’m not so sure.

As reported in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the massive job losses we’re seeing are causing a massive loss of health insurance. For years and years, we’ve heard about the poor lacking access to health care. Now, within just a few months, we’re hearing about millions of formerly middle class and even well-off Americans lacking access to health care because they’ve lost their jobs. A new kind of panic is engulfing the residents of Main Street.

A pregnant employee, upon learning that she was about to lose her job and her health insurance, persuaded her midwife to induce labor immediately. She had an emergency Caesarean section only to learn that her employer’s insurance wouldn’t pay for the birth because the employer had quit paying premiums a couple of months before actually closing its doors.

Employees who’ve been laid off or whose employer has gone out of business are taking antidepressant pills every other day rather than daily as prescribed; aren’t taking prescribed medicine for high blood pressure, thyroid problems, and heart conditions; are postponing surgery; are stopping chemotherapy treatments; and are telling their children that they can’t buy Christmas presents and pay for the medicine the children must take for chronic conditions like asthma.

COBRA does these folks little good. If an employee has been laid off, she may qualify for COBRA but can’t pay the premium for it because she can’t find work. If an employee’s employer has shut down, he’s not even eligible for COBRA because his employer has also terminated its health care plan.

Inevitably, bailout comes to mind and is articulated by a former employee of a business that recently closed its doors and terminated a few hundred employees: “The government is bailing out banks, but who’s going to bail out little companies . . . and help us?”

If the feds can spend billions (probably now trillions) to bail out the scions of Wall Street, Freddie, Fannie, and the big three automakers, then surely there are more billions to bail out stranded employees who have no jobs and no health insurance. We’ve been told that all these bailouts were for the benefit of the people on Main Street. Prove it.

Instead of continuing to talk about the complexities of universal health care, do another bailout — this one for the rapidly growing number of citizens without health insurance. If we can socialize our financial system and our manufacturing system, then it’s time to socialize our health care system.

1. 

   LKS says:

   December 10, 2008 at 12:11 pm

   I have an English friend whose entire family are doctors and have been for centuries; they even have an international charity which was called Dr. Barnardos until a few years ago http://www.barnardos.org.uk/

   His father and brothers advised him against going into medicine, so he became a social worker. There are issues with socialized medicine as well. Everyone has access to it, but it is not necessarily quality care. The rich still pay for better care in England…

   I wish we could reform the system we have, and make it more affordable – rather than turning to socialization.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   December 10, 2008 at 5:13 pm

   Thanks for your comment.

   I’ve never been a fan of socialism, but I’m willing to admit what’s happened this year, which most people won’t. We have moved to a socialistic system. It’s a great irony that the move occurred under a Republican administration. My guess is that the new administration will move us further in that direction. I understand that we may not have had a choice, but let’s call it what it is and then see how it works out.

   As I’m sure you know, a lot of American doctors advise their children and the children of friends (and anyone who’ll listen) not to go into medicine. I guess I’ve become skeptical of our claim that America provides the best medical care there is. I think you can look at some models in other countries that are admittedly socialistic and find care equal to ours. No system is perfect, and the rich will always be able to pay for what’s better in any system, whether it’s medical care or fine dining.

   I hate to say it, but just as we couldn’t reform the financial industry, the housing industry, the auto industry (and God only knows what else) without government intervention, we can’t do it with health care either.

   Thanks again for weighing in.