health care problems

This article really highlights for me, in statistics, what the health care problems in America are: lack of access to care, poor quality care, and overall poor health.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/health/16infant.html?em

And the candidate's plans do nothing to really fix the problems. Both candidate's health plans are big bandaids that don't really address the problems, but actually feed them in the long run. We have a socialist bandaid (Obama's plan) and a capitalist bandaid (McCain's plan), and both require people or try to entice people to buy into the insurance system--which, as I see it, is actually the CAUSE of the health care problems in America.

Think about it--what is the crisis anyway? It's that poor people and sick people can't get care except in emergency rooms, which then overtaxes the hospitals by forcing them to take on all the welfare cases while also forcing them to neglect the true emergencies. And, since it's so unpleasant to get care in an emergency room, and since you can't go there except in an emergency, preventable problems are killing people.

Even poor people who have bought into the government's existing welfare health plans, like medicaid, don't have access to care--nobody takes medicaid. A boy in NY died because he couldn't find a dentist who would take medicaid. (So how Obama's plan to just put more people on medicaid will help is beyond me--not only does nobody take it, applying is impossible if you don't have a graduate degree, and the things they require to prove you exist can cost up to $100/person to obtain!).

Honestly, this crisis isn't going to be over until we get rid of the insurance companies and find a new way for people to pay for medical care. And the insurance companies, protest though they will, really are the part of the 'crisis' that needs addressing. They cost too much for many many families to get into, even if they are paid for in part by employers, they (instead of doctors) determine what care is acceptable for patients (nobody's talking about the hundreds of patients who die every year because the insurance companies wouldn't approve the care the doctors wanted to give, or wouldn't approve it on time), they deny access to care to those who need it most either by outright denying access, cancelling coverage, or making it so expensive people can't get it, they own the hospitals and doctors that give the care (why isn't anyone crying 'conflict of interest'?!). In short, they have blatantly put their profit margins ahead of the health, welfare, and financial stability of the people and the doctors.

The problem is, the insurance companies are all caught up on their bribes. As long as they continue to fund the politicians, what honest chance is there of the kinds of changes in the health care system we need?

I realize the socialize it-privatize it debate is not so easily brought to a happy conclusion, but right now medicine is essentially socialized anyway, but by a private, for-profit industry that has placed access to care into the hands of the people who can pay the most, and they're milking them for all they're worth.

That article says we pay more for care and get worse care than other countries in the world, and we're getting worse. Worse, even, than the socialist countries. Think about this....how is encouraging more people to buy into this corrupt system going to fix things?

Personally, having been denied access to medical care or given poor-quality, demeaning care for many years, I am starting to get anxious for a REAL solution. Would Christ run the medical system the way it runs now? Absolutely not.