Plain and simple, healthcare costs are rising at an unprecedented rate ["Two Fatal Flaws in Health Reform Resuscitation," usnews.com]. They will double in a few years. Lack of healthcare reform means death to the afflicted. This is not what we want for America. We finally have a president willing to take on the job, which his predecessors failed to do for 60 years past. Support President Obama, and bring America into the enlightened 21st century, with assurances that all Americans will be cared for in their ill and desperate hours, that they will find comfort and compassion instead of insurance corporations that pay handsome bonuses to their corrupt executives while they care nothing for the sick. Healthcare reform is vastly overdue in America. We need health insurance for every single citizen, stem-cell research to find cures for all illnesses, rejection of silly filibusters in Congress where partisan Republicans seek to derail and delay Health Reform for 60 more years into the future. The Republican "Party of No" cares nothing that our beloved families die at the hands of the corporate insurance. Health reform has come to other civilized nations of the world already. It is an urgent need whose time has now come for all Americans to embrace.
Comment by Melody of PA
A single payer system would be the downfall for patient care and government budgets. If you take a step closer to single payer systems such as Germany and England, they are moving toward private insurance if you desire higher technologies verses the rationed public. Sure it costs more if you place a stent in a 65-year-old male who just suffered a heart attack and who would have otherwise passed. And yes, he may live another 20 years, then be diagnosed with lung cancer, and then require expensive chemo. We are all going to die. The issue is how many quality years do you get, and who will decide?
Comment by Ray of FL
"Single payer" implies some evil socialist idea that is not and should not be the reality. I feel that a better word and something that should describe what it does is "shared responsibility." That is the real issue at heart. We are a part of the government so we have a responsibility to each other. It is what we should be teaching in our schools (which we should be dumping money in), and it should be the motto of our health CARE system.
Comment by William Martin of CA
A huge part missing from this discussion and many others is the need to decrease the amount of money we spend on healthcare by looking at best practices—things like using fewer physicians and especially specialist physicians and using more nurse practitioners (who actually promote health and spend more time with patients to decrease risk for chronic diseases), midwives (since we spend far too much with too poor of outcomes on pregnancies and deliveries), and more generic and lower cost drugs. We can save billions of dollars each year and get better outcomes and care. We spend far too much to deliver healthcare in the U.S., and it's ridiculous—reform is drastically needed!
Comment by Jaime of CA
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Reader Comments Read all comments (2)
AntonioSosa of FL 1:25PM February 21, 2010
Milo of VT 7:44PM February 19, 2010