by David Safier
More than 40 doctors signed an ad that appeared in this morning's Star supporting health care reform. Here is a copy of the complete ad.
This is how it begins:
One in 5 Tucsonans and one in 4 Phoenicians have no healthcare insurance. That is 108,000 and 381,000 people left vulnerable to catastrophe, in just our two largest cities. Our country spends twice as much as other nations that cover all their citizens and yet we leave millions without coverage.
Those with private healthcare insurance find that when a serious health event occurs, coverage is far from complete. The leading cause of bankruptcy is due to medical expenses, and 3/4 of these bankruptcies occurred with citizens who had insurance. We have all heard these tragic stories.
Here is the major reason why we do not have healthcare coverage for all our citizens, as other nations do.
Growth of the number of Physicians compared to Health Insurance Company Administrators, 1970-2007.
This costly army of clerks and administrators is there to find reasons to deny care, not to facilitate it. The overhead average for private insurance plans is 12-15%; for Medicare, it is 3%. The current proposals will only expand the use of this wasteful and costly system and further raise premiums to even more unaffordable levels. It would force citizens to buy these plans or pay a penalty.
The best solution to providing healthcare for all Americans is to improve and expand Medicare and make it available to all citizens.
Before the doctors are listed, the ad asks readers to take action:
Please contact Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at 881-3588, Rep. Raul Grijalva at 622-6788, Senator John McCain at 670-6334 and Sen. Jon Kyl at 575-8633 and strongly urge that they support Medicare for all legislation. If they do not, have them explain to you why they do not.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I’ve read the PDF ad. I disagree with one claim in the ad (which doesn’t happen to be quoted in your post).
It states “It is American medicine, not socialized medicine. Care is given by private physicians, not government employees.”
If the government is going to pay for health care bills that makes the doctor a government employee that provides his own office and staff.
If government paid health care isn’t socialized medicine it is fascist medicine.
If anybody thinks that the government doesn’t ration care they presume that the government has a cache of money they haven’t told us about.
Free government services aren’t free – the costs are hidden worse than the current third party payer health care system many Americans are using now.
http://healthcare.cato.org/
Lezli.
Don’t know who you are, but you’re free to present your views in the comments section. However, if you’re going to shout out meaningless phrases, I’m going to remove them from this point forward. Challenge ideas? Yes. Question me or commenter? yes. Act like a boo-er at a town hall or an out-of-control congressman while the President is addressing the Congress? No.
I respect your freedom of speech, but if you want freedom of crazy, you’re going to have to peddle it elsewhere.