Posted: Tuesday, 08 September 2009 6:13AM
by KYW's Kim Glovas President Obama is preparing his speech for Wednesday night on health care.
A local Senator believes the president will stand by the public option as part of the package.
Senator Arlen Specter is looking forward to the president's speech before the joint session of Congress. He says the president will use this opportunity to regain control of the debate over health care:
"President Obama is going to lay it on the line that we really need to do something about the rising cost of health care and covering all Americans."
Specter believes the president's plan will include a robust public option, despite opposition from right wing critics. The senator says he hopes President Obama gives Congress guidance in getting a health care package completed soon.
The president's remarks to Congress on Wednesday at 8pm can be heard on KYW Newsradio 1060AM and at KYW1060.com.
To some extent the debate on Health Care and Health Insurance is over. There has been considerable implosion of insurance over the years since 1993. More Americans are uninsured and more have health insurance plans that don't work for them with high deductibles and unrealistic premiums.
There is a hidden PROFIT to providing quality health insurance to all Americans and that was captured by Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Science in a report they issued in 2003 entitled, "Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsured in America (click here):
Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsurance in America, the fifth of a series of six reports on the consequences of uninsurance in the United States, illustrates some of the economic and social losses to the country of maintaining so many people without health insurance. The report explores the potential economic and societal benefits that could be realized if everyone had health insurance on a continuous basis, as people over age 65 currently do with Medicare.
In the report, the Committee concludes that the estimated benefits across society in health years of life gained by providing the uninsured with the kind and amount of health services that the insured use are likely greater than the additional social costs of doing so. The potential economic value to be gained in better health outcomes from uninterrupted coverage for all Americans is estimated to be between $65 and $130 billion each year.
In the report of 2004, "Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations,: it is stated, "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States." It is difficult to believe of the USA, but, it is a fact to realize it is the only industrialized country in the world that allows people to die UNNECESSARY deaths preventable through adequate health insurance.
The report goes on:
"In Insuring America's Health (click here): Principles and Recommendations, the committee offers a set of guiding principles, based on the evidence reviewed in the Committee's previous five reports and on new analyses of past and present federal, state, and local efforts to reduce uninsurance., for analyzing the pros and cons of different approaches to providing coverage. The principles for guiding the debate and evaluating various strategies are:
1. Health care coverage should be universal.
2. Health care coverage should be continuous.
3. Health care coverage should be affordable to individuals and families.
4. The health insurance strategy should be affordable and sustainable for society.
5. Health insurance should enhance health and well-being by promoting access to high-quality care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.
Although all the principles are necessary, the first is the most basic and important....
Is it such a 'leap' for all to realize there is lost productivity in people chronically left ill or profoundly disabled due to lack of health insurance coverage? I don't care what numbers of uninsured you want to abide by it is a large number of people. People that don't maintain an optimal state of wellness because they have no access to health care that works for them. People choose on a regular basis between health care and maintaining a home.
That is the American Dream?
No.
That is the American Nightmare and it is time to end it.
