Fix health care now

Americans understand something that the political classes are just beginning to take seriously: America’s health care system is dysfunctional.

As a poll of 1,281 Americans conducted in February and issued in March by CBS News and The New York Times, about nine in 10 say “the system needs at least fundamental changes, including 36 percent who favor a complete overhaul.”

Much of the concern, according to the poll, is due to cost. Most people say “they are generally satisfied with the quality of their own health care, including 41 percent who say they are very satisfied,” but only “one in five are very satisfied with what they pay for health care, while a majority (52 percent) are dissatisfied, including a third who are very dissatisfied.”

A report issued today by the Commonwealth Fund, a non-profit group that studies health care, offered a glimpse into where the dissatisfaction comes from.

The report, which studied health care in Germany, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, found that all five “provide better care for less money,” according to Reuters. The U.S. system “ranks last … on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes,” the non-profit group said in a press release.

“The United States is not getting value for the money that is spent on health care,” Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told Reuters.

That seems pretty obvious, though Congress has made little effort to do more than nibble at the edges since the failure of the Clinton health care plan more than a decade ago.
Congress, President George W. Bush, many employers and insurers have all agreed in recent months to overhaul the U.S. health care system — an uncoordinated conglomeration of employer-funded care, private health insurance and government programs.

Despite spending about two times per capita what the other countries studied spend — $6,102 for the United States in 2004, compared with $3,005 for Germany, $3,165 for Canada, $2,083 for New Zealand, $2,876 for Australia and $2,546 for Great Britain – there are about 45 million Americans with no insurance.

And this disparity is likely to get worse, unless we change the way we manage our health-care system.

The answer? Single-payer, universal coverage.

Taking the profit out of the health-care system would level the playing field while addressing the long-term costs that our broken system creates — offsetting the cost to taxpayers of implementing universal coverage.

And it is the right thing to do — health care should not be a commodity but a right. No one should have to worry about whether he or she has enough to see a doctor.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Another bloody mess

Our preoccupation in Iraq and our focus solely on Islamic terrorism has blinded us to the growing number of humanitarian crises — like this one in Somalia, which has not gotten even the modest attention that the genocide in Darfur has received.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Twenty questions

The quirky blog, The Long Cut, offered an interesting post recently — a quiz designed to see if, 1.) anyone is reading and 2.) if readers have a sense of Mark as a blogger. So, like any good blogger — and newspaper editor — I have no compunction about stealing an idea and remaking it. So here is the first edition of Channel Surfing’s Twenty Questions:

1. My favorite band/artist is:
a.) Bob Dylan; b.) Bruce Springsteen; c.) The Beatles; d.) Lou Reed; e.) none of the above

2. Which presidential candidate did I not vote for?
a.) Bill Clinton; b.) Michael Dukakis; c.) Al Gore; d.) John Kerry; e.) none of the above

3. Name the three colleges/universities that I attended:

4. I majored in English, but minored in what subject?

5. True or false: I scored higher on the math portion of the SATs than on the verbal portion.

6. Which job have I not held?
a.) Movie theater usher; b.) lighting rod installer; c.) mall security guard; d.) short-order cook; e.) none of the above

7. True or false: I attended the game at which the Knicks retired Earl Monroe’s number.

8. True of false: My wife Annie and I will be together 25 years next month.

9. Which of the following novelists do I not like?
a.) E.L. Doctorow; b.) Don Delillo; c.) Stephen King; d.) Joan Didion; e.) James Ellroy

10. Am I a dog person or a cat person?

11. Which magazine to do I subscribe to?
a.) Time; b.) Newsweek; c.) The New Republic; d.) The Nation; e.) none of the above

12. My all-time favorite baseball player is:
a.) Felix Millan; b.) Darryl Strawberry; c.) Tommie Agee; d.) Tom Seaver; e.) Willie Mays

13. My reporting beats have included which of the following:
a.) South Brunswick; b.) Cranbury; c.) Hillsborough; d.) Plainsboro; e.) Allentown; f.) Edison; g.) Princeton Borough; h.) Monroe

14. My favorite newspaper columnist is:
a.) Bob Herbert; b.) Frank Rich; c.) Paul Krugman; d.) James Carroll; e.) George Will; f.) E.J. Dionne Jr.

15. True or false: I supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

16. True or false: I opposed the first Gulf War.

17. Who is not among my favorite film actors:
a.) Humphrey Bogart; b.) James Dean; c.) Jerry Lewis; d.) Frank Sinatra; e.) Robert DeNiro

18. True or false: I prefer the Who to the Rolling Stones.

19. Which of these bands/artists have I not seen more than once?
a.) R.E.M.; b.) Steve Winwood; c.) Wilco; d.) Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes; e.) Bob Dylan

20. My favorite poet is: (fill in the blank)

Answer by responding to this post. I’ll post the actual answers later this week.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Fighting corruption

Consider these bills a good start, though more needs to be done. New Jersey’s reputation as the corruption capital of the nation (aside from Washington D.C.) needs to be cleansed and taking a tough stand against those who so blatantly and shamelessly violate the public trust should not be negotiable, even in Trenton.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.