When I got an assignment from my gov teacher to start a blog about current political events, I was really excited. I had never been very well-informed about my country or its political system, so I was intrigued and eager to learn new things about this great government of ours. Yet, the more research I do for this blog, the more depressed and disillusioned I become as I begin to understand the dishonest, self-serving, blatantly corrupt political system in which I have no voice and over which I have no control.
Take for instance the debate over health care. I am a huge proponent of socialized, single-payer health care. I believe this type of system would benefit every single American, except of course those few, super rich Americans who make millions of dollars exploiting the well-being of those 250 million Americans who have over-priced, insufficient health insurance. For example, George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, made 2.2 million dollars in the year 2000, while Kaiser itself is worth over 13 billion dollars. Because health insurance companies are private, for-profit enterprises, making money is there first priority while patient care is their last.
While the insurance companies are making gross profits, the average American still struggles with medical bills. In 2007, medical bills contributed to 62 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Of those that filed for bankruptcy, nearly 80 percent had health insurance. Seriously. Also, Insurance companies create needless bureaucracy and paperwork that are drains on the system. Nearly one third of all health care costs are wasted on needless administration. 350 billion dollars a year could be saved on paperwork alone if the U.S. switched to a single-payer system. That’s enough to pay for the entire system! Why don’t we switch to socialized medicine? Every other Western country except Holland and Switzerland has socialized medicine, and their life expectancies are vastly beyond our own. We need to switch to a government controlled, single-payer system that cares about patients rather than profits. Socialized medicine is a necessity.
