If You Can Find Money to Kill People You Can Find Money to Help People

by Barbara Mascio
(Senior Approved Services)

"If you can find money to kill people you can find money to help people", Former British MP Tony Benn states as he sums up the overall impetus behind Britain's decision in 1948 to provide access to quality health care to all of its citizens. After WWII Britain was faced with the challenge of rebuilding its war-torn country and decided then that stimulating the economy should include creating jobs. First priority; building hospitals, clinics, and schools that would focus on recruiting and educating the next generation of physicians and nurses. What a novel idea.

Jump to 2009. The United States now ranks 39th of all countries by the World Health Organization. 38 other countries have longer life expectancies, better infant mortality numbers, better outcomes of chronic illness, and better preventative health and wellness programs.

Who profits from the American health care system? Well, our doctors are rewarded by the number of treatments and tests and prescriptions that they order. Insurance companies profit by collecting your insurance premium and then denying treatments that your doctor has ordered. Pharmaceutical companies profit insanely in the U.S. - because they can – our government allows them to charge whatever they wish to charge, something completely prohibited in other countries.

In other countries doctors earn more when their patients become more healthy. Help a patient quit smoking, you get a bonus. Help a patient balance their blood sugar, lower furthers risks of diabetes, you get a bonus. Help an overweight patient balance their weight, you get a bonus.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 was sold to the American people as being a great overhall of the Medicare system and touted as a godsend for helping seniors with medication costs. Anyone in the health and elder care industry knows what a farce this law has been, in most cases, causing severe difficulties for the majority of seniors to pay for their prescription costs. Who made out? Politicians involved in this bill were well compensated by the health care lobby and the pharmaceutical industry has made higher profits and anyone owning stock in these industries.

We are at a cross roads right now, one that we've been at before. The Clinton's were nearly run out of Washington over their attempt to reform health care, but we've had this battle way before the Clintons. And it's always the same. Why is it that developing a system that allows everyone in our country to see a doctor, to get regular wellness check ups, to receive necessary health treatments, to get the drugs and treatments suggested by your doctor, is somehow twisted into socialist scare tactics?

I watched Michael Moore's documentary “Sicko” again this weekend. Again, I cried. If you haven't seen this yet, you need to. Sicko

Mr. Moore documents how health care is delivered here in the U.S., in Canada, in Britain, France, and even in Cuba. He interviews regular families, physicians, and shares footage of congressional hearings, and the audio tapes of Richard Nixon agreeing to make a deal with Kaiser after hearing that Kaiser's HMO model is designed to 'decrease' access to health care. You later see footage of Nixon endorsing Kaiser's HMO model to us, the American citizen, as being a great idea to open access to health care.

It has been documented that just this year, 1 MILLION dollars PER DAY is currently being spent by the health industry to either stop health care reform or to water it down. This money is being spent on ads and on 'buying' congress.

What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below.