Health Care and insurance in America.

The American people do not stand united when it comes to health care. About 50 million people are without health insurance. According to people like Sean Hannity of FOX (a right-wing conservative TV- personality) there is nothing wrong with the health care system in America. There aren't any people dying in the streets, or are there?  A lot of Americans are under the delusion that the U.S.A. has the best health care system in the world.

What the right-wing pundits do not tell is that a lot of uninsured people die in the Emergency Room, because they ask for medical help when it is too late. People who have cancer, heart problems, asthma do not see a specialist or family physician because they cannot afford it. People die because they have no insurance. And if they do get help, their immediate relatives might go bankrupt because they have to pay the bills. Those bills are in general higher than the bills for the insured.Prices are higher for the uninsured because they have no bargaining  power, on the health care market.

Most Americans receive health insurance through their employers. It is an employer-based system. Health insurance belongs to the so-called “benefits” that companies offer their employees, and if you lose your job, you also lose your health insurance. For Europeans that is incomprehensible and shocking. There are a lot of companies (especially the smaller companies) that don’t offer these benefits because they are too expensive. Also, lots of bigger companies pay only half of the insurance premium.

And then there is also a large group of people that is underinsured. A lot of middle class families belong to this group.

Half of the bankruptcies of people in the USA is caused by high health care expenses and a lack of insurance.

President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary wanted to change the health insurance system. They wanted to set up a single payer system in which the government would have a big stake, but their plan was crushed by the health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical corporations. Their weapon: scare tactics. Billions of dollars were spent on commercials against the Clinton health care plan. Most infamous and cynical was the “Harry and Louise” campaign.

Another problem is that a lot of Americans are anti-taxes. For most Americans it seems hard to understand that there is a relationship between taxes and public services like education, police, fire, public and infrastructure.

Garrison Keillor,  a well known humorist and author wrote:

"Californians are like anybody else in that they want a great four-course dinner for $ 8.95. They want to live in the Greatest State (Fine Roads, Excellent Hospitals, Best Parks, Great Schools in which all children are Above  Average), and they also want low taxes. God bless them. People in hell want ice water." Garrison Keillor, Los Angeles Times, Oct 13, 2003.