Health Care, Americans Losing Out?

Recently I have been subjected to the whims of our health care system in the United States of America, trust me, I was not impressed at all. While I have had some health problems for many of my 81 years, once I passed the 70 mark, it seems all when to hell in a handbasket. And I got a deeper insight into the maelstrom of our for profit health care insurance industry. Prior to my retirement in 2012, I had been covered by my employer’s health insurance policies. Also, considering that I was usually in a senior capacity (manager, director, etc), my coverage from the employer was usually pretty comprehensive. Since our HR folks were managing the coverages, and all the incidental aspects, health care insurance was never very high on my list of concerns. Frankly, I suspect that this is the way with most people who are employed with firms that provide comprehensive benefit coverages.

Then came time for my retirement from the workplace. It was partly voluntary, but also not so voluntary. However, the facts are that in the summer of 2012, I resigned/retired from my technology consulting company and became a newly retired user of our Medicare and Medicare Advantage systems. It was a rather rude awakening!

Bear in mind, that during my almost 75 years of working life, I have lived in other countries than our USA, as a result of my employment. I was fortunate to have made many good friends in those areas, Europe, Great Britain, and the Far East. I was able to continue to communicate with many of those folks following my stay in their country. On level we talked about kids, grandkids, marriage, divorce, remarriage, homes, etc. But lately (past decade) we got off on the subject of health care coverage and health care aspects for patients. See in most of those areas, the people who visit doctors, clinicians, clinics, and hospitals are considered PATIENTS, rather than clients or customers as we are viewed here in the good old USA. Physicians actually have been known to visit their patients in their homes or other areas in addition to their medical facilities. Strange I know, right? The only medical practitioner I have witnessed in this country has been with the veterinarians who visited our home to care for our fur babies. We were concerned at the trauma that pets experience when shoved into a pet carrier, driven to a strange place and have their bodies poked and prodded and then shoved back in to that carrier and driven back to their home. So, we discovered the mobile VET. Great doctors and clinicians who care for our four legged kiddos in a comfortable and safe place, their home not a clinic.

But I digress, simply comparing the aspect that doctors and clinicians in countries other than the USA quite often make “house calls” is simply mindboggling even now. So now, back to the primary topic of this diatribe/post/observation.

In all of the developed countries of the world, the health care for citizens/residents are covered by a medical practice known as Single Payer Universal Health Care, that is all except one, ours, the United States of America. We are the wealthiest of these nations, yet they provide health care for their citizens far better and less costly than we do here. Oh sure, I hear that old bull shit trope from the medical insurance and their supplicants in Congress, that the USA is larger and has more incidental impacts, that our health care is superior, that our research and development is greater. Well, remember at the start of that sentence I called bull shit, and frankly that is exactly what it is, pure rabid propaganda bull shit.

At its lowest differential, US health care costs a third MORE per person than any of the other countries. In some countries, their health care costs half what ours does. AND the outcomes in those countries are far better than here. Oh HORRORS, the old curmudgeon is blaspheming our country. Nope, simply stating facts and studies discussed in publications by highly respected organizations worldwide. Hell folks the Washington Post posted an article a couple of days ago that showed our maternal deaths has actually RISEN, not lowered, and we are far behind the majority of countries in that regard. NOT equal, not above, but behind those countries in our health care outcomes.

Research and development? Let’s discuss that for a moment. The majority of nations have just as qualified and just as dedicated to medical research and development as we do here. Difference is that their end products are more highly regulated to ensure that their pharmaceutical companies are not price gouging their citizens for life saving medications, unlike in the USA. A single example was the recent increase in price for the injector for folks who are allergic and get stung by bees. Those medical injectors, vital to living by allergic people, had seen an increase of 600% or better when a certain Senator’s daughter was elevated to CEO of the drug company that produces those injectors. By the way, the medication has been discovered, tested and produced for market for over 20 years and the cost were very reasonable for a two injector pen package. Until the pharmaceutical marketing decided to increase their profit margin on something they had nothing to do with developing. Typical of USA’s health care industry, charge outlandishly for doing nothing!

Now let’s consider a couple of examples of health care here and THERE!

One of my pen pal mates in Great Britain, told me about his mother who developed a serious stage of cancer. Lucky for her, the SPUHC system in her country provided early warning testing and she was brought into the cancer treatment program, hospitalized as needed, treatments given and her cancer mitigated. The total cost? less than 10 pounds (12 dollars US), and that was for the parking lot charges. Counter point, in December of last year, I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in my bladder. The urologist/oncologist recommended and then performed a surgical procedure to remove the tumor. That surgery was successful and the cancer was removed. Au Contraire, there is still the potential of three, 1, that the cancer will return in my bladder, 2. that it could have cancer cells floating around in my body and show up elsewhere, and 3. the surgery was successful and the cancer is totally gone. Obviously my family and I are praying for number 3. But here’s the kicker, remember my British friend’s mom and her cancer? That 12 dollars? My COPAY for this tumor resection was almost 400 dollars! Follow on visit added another 95 dollars.

Another instance? I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with something called AFiB or Arterial Fibrillation a condition where my heart doesn’t work quite properly and could cause stroke or death, but very treatable. The blood thinner that I am required to take twice a day costs us over 400 dollars for each refill of my prescription (covers almost three months usually), I also have to take a daily medication to force my heart to pump properly. My daughter bought me a device, brand name Kardia, that allows me to test my heart condition several times a day. It recently went through an upgrade that expands the types of heart reading reported. I found that my heart was encountering a situation called Wide QRS. After reading up on this (didn’t want to bother the doctors if it was nothing serious), I found that this reading could be either nothing serious or deadly serious. After discussing that condition with my Primary Care doc, I was scheduled to have an echocardiogram. My copay? another almost 400 dollars charge. A good thing we had the financial capacity to pay that cost, but at least our parking was free!

So what is the solution to the USA’s pitiful health care situation?

Beginning a bit of history for our health care system as we see it today and how we compare with the rest of the developed countries in the world. During the Clinton administration, Hillary Clinton, then First Lady, was asked to head up a committee to study and develop an approach to a single payer universal health care system. It wasn’t called that then, simply a public insurance. But it was demeaned and blocked by the GOP House and never really got a chance for bipartisan debate. Typical though.

Then in 2003, a Congressman from Michigan, John Conyers, developed and presented a bill for consideration on the House for a “National Health Service” program. At least that was his initial working title. This bill was labeled HR-676 and was written in a style that a regular type person (not a lawyer) could read and understand the program presented. It also was, at that point contained all of the program content within a 28 page document, not the thousands that usually come from Congress. It of course went no where, being tabled in committee and not allowed to be debated on the floor. Again, the GOP and their owners the Health Care Insurance corporations stymied the efforts to bring universal health coverage to all Americans.

So did John and his Democratic Party cosponsors stop?

With the start of every new congress session, John Conyers and several others who joined with John as lead co-sponsors, would update the documentation as appropriate for changing circumstances, and re-submit the legislative bill as still HR-676 to the new Congress for consideration and movement to the floor for regular debate, approval and passage. It went nowhere again, with the GOP putting up barriers to keep the bill from consideration by the house and worse, to be exposed to the public! Of course the Republicans knew that if Conyers bill was moved to the floor for debate, the publicity and clamoring by the public would damage their money tree, the health care industry corporations, and the big dollars would dry up.

Until the most recent and final issue of the legislative bill HR-676 in 2017 and the death of Congressman Conyers, the opportunity for Single Payer Universal Health Care, entitled Expanded Medicare for All was stymied and today it sits in the Congressional Committees “dead letter box” and without Conyers pushing, it will probably NEVER see the light of day again, from that standpoint.

HOWEVER:

Through those years, from 2003 until 2017, this old codger was a staunch supporter and made sure to download each new version of HR-676 to my computer systems for safe keeping. I started this collection when I was a member of a senior citizens group that communicated through an online forum software site. The site was then called Senior Citizens Consortium and had a good collection of members from Maine to Washington, From Florida to California. And we had a lot of good ideas regarding political aspects, health care for seniors and the rest of American citizenry, gerrymandering of our voting rights by the GOP, and a growing sense of the right becoming more Christo-Fascist every year. Eventually that online web site moved the membership over to the Facebook media and it resides there now.

I have also created a couple of online web sites that will focus on issues that concern not only seniors, but every legal resident of this United States. These sites are not quite complete and ready for prime time yet, but in the next few weeks I will be completing the security and information sharing components and will then bring these web sites online and publicly promoted.

I recently (yesterday 5/21/23) received an email from Professor Robert Reich’s organization informing me of a movement by his organization and him, along with Bernie Sanders and a couple of House Representatives to restart actions in the Congress for a Single Payer system, and they are calling it Medicare for All. I have been a member of Professor Reich’s SubStack “blog” medium receiving his comments, opinions, and informational postings. I also joined his organization as a fully subscribed member hoping to gain more inside information regarding the positions being established by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell and if it is a version of Congressman Conyers’ original Expanded Medicare for All (original title was National Health Service), or whether they were reviving Bernie’s bill written when he was a candidate for the presidency. I read that bill also, it was four times longer than Conyers’ bill and didn’t provide the true SPUHC benefits. Still have that legislative bill text in my files.

My response to Professor Reich’s substack post about this group, was that IF they were incorporating the content and intent of the Conyers SPUHC bill, I would be happy to fully support and promote that activity. However, if they were simply going to resurrect Bernie’s Medicare for all bill, then not only would I not support that effort, but would use everything in my ability to protest the activity. Bernie’s original bill was simply a cushion between the current insurance activity and the government program. Essentially the for profit health care industry would still have their greedy fingers in the Universal Health Care pie. No thank you! I would truly love it if Congresswomen Dingell and Jayapal, along with Senator Sanders would promote the far better health care benefits for Americans though the Conyers bill. And I would encourage my senior peers to get on the wagon to support this through their Congressional reps.

I would love to have people like that Reich group, who can bring attention of the public to this Conyers legislative program that would;

1. Eliminate the for profit health insurance companies, because there would be no further need to their interference with medical care delivery.
2. Require that all hospitals and clinics be either nonprofit or not for profit. All of the for profit hospitals currently would have to convert to either the nonprofit or not for profit status, but the program would provide expense funding for the conversion. IT would not cover profit taking by stockholders, executives or senior management.
3. No copay or deductible. All health care decisions and treatment would be covered by the single payer system and compensation from billing would come from the HHS department
4. No limit on health care if determined by a medical professional, hospital, or clinic. Denial of care would no longer impact the health of American residents.
5. In addition to the regular health care, the Expanded Medicare for All would cover dental, vision and hearing, including dentures, glasses, and hearing aids.

I have noted that the senior citizen medical plans for Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage seem to have recognized the dangers in the potential for a Expanded Medicare for All type program and have interestingly enough, started promoting their coverage for hearing testing and hearing aid appliances. Granted, they require that you use THEIR NETWORK of Ophthalmology Service, but they are at least putting some minimal effort into this aspect.

So perhaps it is time to resurrect the push that we had going several years ago and press the House and Senate to pass the Expanded Medicare for All legislation and have President Biden sign it straight away.

I will have more on this topic as I gain more information and opinions regarding this program. I truly would love to have the physicians group that is pushing another healthcare program, but theirs still includes the for profit insurance and service companies. They stopped with the HR-676 type Medicare program evidently when John Conyers died.

Well this old curmudgeon ain’t gonna quit. Going to get my web site up to organize another Grey Panther march on Washington. Already got the Grey Panther Foundation set up, and the web site is nearing ready status.

So keep on looking for that better health care, you know, like the rest of the developed world already has! Hope we can catch up to them through the HR-676 program!!