HEALTHCARE - What American Really Want

"Health Care Solutions- What American Want" by Ken Grandlund, Bring It On

In Ken's post he refers to an Online Health Care Poll with interesting results, with over 10,500 responses.

While the Republican controlled Congress spends their days on our dime bantering about issues of vital importance like gay marriage, flag burning, and killing the death tax, average Americans all over the country are weighing in on an issue that really matters to them, to us all. And that issue is health care. Health care is not an issue with theological implications (well, maybe for a few), so the debate about what kind of health care system we want does not fall apart along religious arguments. Instead, the divide in the health care debate is about money. Who pays and who profits? And it is also about quality and availability of health care. But mostly, it’s about money.

Health care costs have been growing at a rate that far out paces inflation for several years now. Yet in communities across the nation, hospitals are closing or reducing services. A shortage of qualified nurses and doctors increases the time it takes to see a medical professional. Premiums for coverage, doctor visits, medicines, and diagnostics are going up. These factors affect health care consumers on a daily basis. That’s you and me. Mom and Grandpa. The neighbor lady and the kid who cuts the lawn. Everyone.

And yet on the other side of the coin, pharmaceutical companies are getting richer and richer while plying their designer drugs on a public all too conditioned to expect a little pill for a quick fix to what ails them. Pharmacists are refusing to fill legally prescribed medicines because of ‘moral issues.’ Accountants are deciding what a patient ‘really needs’ instead of letting doctors do their jobs. And politicians are trying to play God by sticking their noses in issues they have no sense being involved in, like the right to die or the course of medical research.

Summary of Online Health Care Poll:

• 80% strongly agree that it should be public policy that all Americans have affordable health care insurance or other coverage.



• 85% believe that everyone should be provided with coverage for health care, for a defined level of benefits by either expanding the current system or creating a new one.



• When asked which services should be included in a Basic or Essential coverage package:

- 93% want annual physicals and preventive care
- 71% want more community based services for people with disabilities
- 81% want dental care included
- 87% want doctors office visits included
- 90% want to include emergency room visits
- 71% want home health care79% want vision care
- 92% want to include hospital stays

The list goes on, but the message is clear- most Americans want a comprehensive medical care program for everyone. And they are willing to compromise too.

There’s more to read in the survey, and you can even add you own thoughts to the ongoing poll. You can also submit your own thoughts on health care to the group by the end of August 2006.

So now is the time to make our wants known. Write your Senators and Representative.