Friday, February 11, 2005

A national disgrace

Truthout via RDF:

[. . .]

A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.

As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.

But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.

[. . .]


Now, I've lived in Europe long enough to see the good and bad of socialized medicine, and I'm not advocating it for this country, but something's gotta be done. The health care system in this country has to be revamped or we're gonna have a huge social crisis as treatments (new drugs and equipment) get more expensive every year. The profit equation has to be taken out or no one but the rich will be able to afford health care. With the good jobs steadily moving offshore and what's left turning into a Wal-Mart nation, too many people are being left behind. Those who have nothing will end up on public assistance and those who have will be wiped out thanks to inadequate coverage. This is a much more immediate problem than Social Security and it would be nice if our lawmakers realized that while they take campaign donations from Big Pharma and Wal-Mart.

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