First time commenter. I'm not really on either side here (or maybe I'm against both sides) and I'm sure at points I'm going to stray over into "EVIL" territory but there are fundamental flaws here in the a public health option does not address the problems, only kicks the can down one further iteration. I'm going to try to organize this by problem but I'm tired and I've been prepping a lot of stuff on this so it all starts to jumble together.
First, may as well get the evil part out of the way. I do not believe health care is a right. We live in the real world and in the real world there is less health care available than what people want to consume. A human right is something that should be given to every human without question. At the point where giving health care to someone means denying health care to someone else (and this is the situation and will be the situation for the foreseeable future)I cannot in good conscience call it a right. okay, onto flawed assumptions/problems not being addressed much in the current debate countrywide.
1. French Health Care.
The problem with switching to a French Health Care system is that France is currently leaning toward switching to a US style HMO system to control costs and France faces the exact same problems as America despite being multi-payer rahter than private. Payroll taxes in France have increased from 13% to 20% to cover HC, benefits are being reduced, and there is a large gap of lower-middle class people (about 33% of french population) who have no access to things such as basic dental and vision care. The problems here are that the french are the largest per capita consumers of health care in the world, especially for trivial shit (they spend less $ per capita because of price controls), and as they have adopted more american style eating habits (fast food, etc) many of the chronic diseases associated with the american lifestyle (coronary disease, liver disease, type II diabetes) are becoming more prevalent. Because french health care reimburses 100% for chronic disease costs are spiraling out of control despite price caps. French HC is currently 49 billion euros in debt with no end in sight. which is why they're looking at introducing HMOs. Food and societal costs lead to the second point...
2. Agribusiness
Agribusiness is arguable the single most powerful lobby in congress. their regulatory capture is complete (more on regulatory capture later) and they receive more welfare than any other group. (the annual farm subsidies bill is tragic and the only reason i almost supported mccain is that he has expressed intermittent opposition to it) food corn subsidies drive a food industry that is leading to all types of preventable chronic disease. last year america spent $116 billion treating type II diabetes alone, another $147 billion treating obesity. for those keeping track, that's 10% of total US HC spending right there. On completely preventable diseases. This doesn't even include a variety of other diseases which are diet related. some estimate 30% of US HC spending is on this type of disease.
And it's only going to get worse. 15% of adolescent caloric intake is in the form of soda. Helllooooo, type II diabetes. If the french system cannot handle the burdens with less obesity and diabetes per capita, how can america withstand a similar system without as stringent of price controls? short answer is that it can't.
Food reform is the single most important issue (well, water may be more important, so second most) facing this country and almost NO ONE is talking about it. we don't talk about how food corn subsidies make cheap soda possible. We don't talk about corn being a nutrient intensive crop, leading to increased fertilizer use, leading to more nitrogen runoff, leading to a huge algae bloom in the gulf of mexico, killing off sea life. we don't talk about how no health care reform can work until we fix food.
And that is the absolute truth. any HC reform without food reform just pushes the catastrophe back. it doesn't solve anything.
no subject
First, may as well get the evil part out of the way. I do not believe health care is a right. We live in the real world and in the real world there is less health care available than what people want to consume. A human right is something that should be given to every human without question. At the point where giving health care to someone means denying health care to someone else (and this is the situation and will be the situation for the foreseeable future)I cannot in good conscience call it a right. okay, onto flawed assumptions/problems not being addressed much in the current debate countrywide.
1. French Health Care.
The problem with switching to a French Health Care system is that France is currently leaning toward switching to a US style HMO system to control costs and France faces the exact same problems as America despite being multi-payer rahter than private. Payroll taxes in France have increased from 13% to 20% to cover HC, benefits are being reduced, and there is a large gap of lower-middle class people (about 33% of french population) who have no access to things such as basic dental and vision care. The problems here are that the french are the largest per capita consumers of health care in the world, especially for trivial shit (they spend less $ per capita because of price controls), and as they have adopted more american style eating habits (fast food, etc) many of the chronic diseases associated with the american lifestyle (coronary disease, liver disease, type II diabetes) are becoming more prevalent. Because french health care reimburses 100% for chronic disease costs are spiraling out of control despite price caps. French HC is currently 49 billion euros in debt with no end in sight. which is why they're looking at introducing HMOs. Food and societal costs lead to the second point...
2. Agribusiness
Agribusiness is arguable the single most powerful lobby in congress. their regulatory capture is complete (more on regulatory capture later) and they receive more welfare than any other group. (the annual farm subsidies bill is tragic and the only reason i almost supported mccain is that he has expressed intermittent opposition to it) food corn subsidies drive a food industry that is leading to all types of preventable chronic disease. last year america spent $116 billion treating type II diabetes alone, another $147 billion treating obesity. for those keeping track, that's 10% of total US HC spending right there. On completely preventable diseases. This doesn't even include a variety of other diseases which are diet related. some estimate 30% of US HC spending is on this type of disease.
And it's only going to get worse. 15% of adolescent caloric intake is in the form of soda. Helllooooo, type II diabetes. If the french system cannot handle the burdens with less obesity and diabetes per capita, how can america withstand a similar system without as stringent of price controls? short answer is that it can't.
Food reform is the single most important issue (well, water may be more important, so second most) facing this country and almost NO ONE is talking about it. we don't talk about how food corn subsidies make cheap soda possible. We don't talk about corn being a nutrient intensive crop, leading to increased fertilizer use, leading to more nitrogen runoff, leading to a huge algae bloom in the gulf of mexico, killing off sea life. we don't talk about how no health care reform can work until we fix food.
And that is the absolute truth. any HC reform without food reform just pushes the catastrophe back. it doesn't solve anything.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html
good recent op-ed on the subject.
...character limit, splitting post