Health Care As A Right

[babylonsister]

German system values health care as a right

Roman Deininger is a political reporter for the Suddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, one of Germany's two leading daily newspapers, and is visiting The Philadelphia Inquirer on an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship.



I was in an American hospital's emergency room only once, and then I was not the patient. A friend of mine from Malaysia was, and he received excellent care. But I have to admit this is not what I primarily remember from that night. Instead what springs to mind is that the first thing this frightened patient was asked by the hospital staff wasn't how he was doing. It was how he intended to pay.

For me, as a German, this was a culture shock. The scene nurtured a feeling - grossly unfair as it is to countless dedicated professionals - that the U.S. health-care system was more about money than health. You hear terrible stories (told not only by polemics like Michael Moore) about commercial insurers weeding out customers they deem unprofitable. Stories about people getting sick, losing their job because they are sick, losing their insurance because they lost their job, and losing their life because they lost their insurance.

This couldn't happen in Germany. Don't get me wrong: Our health-care model is full of flaws and in constant need of reform, and of course it's also about making money. But the drive for profits is held in check by one overarching principle: solidarity.

I know this sounds a bit like "socialism," but it isn't. And I understand the conservative philosophy feeding the American distrust toward public health insurance. However, if there is to be an honest discussion about universal health care - as provided by nearly every industrialized nation - we must dispel the myth that it infringes on individual rights.

The German model, the world's first national system, dating back to 1883, is based on the conviction that every person should have a basic protection at any given time in his life, and that this should be guaranteed by the collective sharing of risks. Therefore, health care is financed by individuals on the basis of what they can afford to contribute while being available to everyone on equal terms. Ninety percent of Germans participate in the public system; 10 percent have private insurance.

We're not talking about "socialized medicine." The system, once almost self-sufficient, is supervised by government but not run by it. America's Medicare and veterans health plans, already in place (and working neatly), are much closer to being socialized than the German model.

Yes, the state co-finances the whole structure - for example, by covering children for free from general revenues. Yes, the state collects the premiums as taxes (15.5 percent of income, with employers and employees contributing roughly half). And yes, the state redistributes the money to insurers and on to doctors and drug companies. But the insurers don't work for the government, and neither do doctors. They're making autonomous decisions regarding patients' health.

There are more than 200 insurance funds in Germany. They are nonprofit, but independent and competing for customers from the risk pool. Granted, competition is lame compared with the United States, but there is enough to give people choices.

But first things first: In Germany, health insurance is mandatory. Only a minimal part of the population - 0.1 percent - goes uncovered (mostly illegal residents and homeless, but some self-employed, too). In the United States, this number is close to 15 percent. Those too poor to afford health care in Germany have it subsidized by the state. Almost no one is in danger of being ruined financially by medical bills.

more...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20091004_German_system_values_health_care_as_a_right.html

[stray cat]

1. Its the only right that actually costs money that someone has to pay for

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, but we should think of it as a right, not something only the

richest among us can afford, and that's the way it's going.

[Old Codger]

5. Life expectancy

should not be based on income...

[babylonsister]

10. You're right. I think the Dems' framing needs a lot of work. nt

[HillbillyBob]

7. If we take out the insurance companies 'right' to profit

the costs might be higher taxes, but would cost less overall and fewer people would have to go bankrupt or end up disabled through having to wait until you are destitute and sick enough to get medicare and medicaid.

I worked 2 jobs (electrician and restaurant grunt)to cover the cost of my insurance and feed the family. My insurance denied payments on 25,000$ hospital bill, I paid all but 5,000 off, which was all life savings.

I made so so money, when I got hurt on the job, then got sick, I had to lose everything, home(homeless for almost 2 yrs working some times), job, car(I only owed 4 more payments on a 5 yr loan), spouse, self respect and I did furniture refinishing as a side line too, then landed in ICU racking up another 30,000 in debt I had no way to pay.

Add up all the costs to those families that lose everything, cost in lost work/paychecks and production for the company you work for, a small bump in taxes is not much to pay, when you are not paying exorbitant insurance premiums for CEOs to bring home 3.99 million$ like the CEO of Blue Cross Blue shield in NC does, my partners health insurance costs him around 800 a month. His insurance does not cover shit, only about 10% of any bill is paid by bcbs.
I only owed 4 or 6 more payments on a 15,000 truck, it was my transport to work, and I used it on the job too, so add the cost of my truck to the loss too.

I am now on Medicaid and Medicare and SSD, would that I could still work because I might even be able to actually make enough to have a decent living instead of wondering how I am going to pay all of my share of the bills.

The teababbler lie that it will ration health care is nonsense, Medicare for all would be a boon and those insurance ceos could go find something productive to do like digging ditches or shoveling shit somewheres.


Oh and the other socialist shit you have to pay for
Police, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Fire Department, EMTs, Paved Roads, Public Schools, County Government(oversight in building fire, electric, sewer safety/code, State Government that oversees safety /road maintenance/consumer safety and protection,
That may sound socialist to you, but you really likely don't even know the definition, a country has to have a social contract or it would be ok to murder someone cause you think they are ugly or 'ain't like you' it is what makes us civilized and not animals.

[Name removed]

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[MNmom]

3. Here the only rights belong to corporations!

Our Billionaires group gave Minnesota's Senator Klobuchar a check for $1 million to thank her for her refusal to take a stand on the public option. The insurance corporations will make billions from any bill that doesn't have a public option. Check out the action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnCkJIq573s We have to expose what is really going on in this "healthcare debate"!

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Welcome to DU (from the other side of the St. Croix).

It's always great to discover another ally in the Good Fight.

[azul]

6. The right to healthy food and water and air?

What's the incentive to promote health or find cures when treating disease is so much more profitable?

The right of the health industry to get taxpayer money to treat inadvertently or otherwise poisoned people?

Get the profit out of the system.

[HillbillyBob]

8. Yea we need to take the right to profit,

away from the Monsantos, Cargills, Exxons, Masseys (coal mining/mountain destruction), Dukes/Southern Powers(coal fired power plants) and Kraft who influence our government with campaign bribes to let them hide poisons in our food and pollute every damn thing.

We personally did make changes to try to be healthier, and we need better education in schools about what is healthy and what is garbage.

I mean really tater tots in school lunches, and 'cheese' sandwiches made with 'american' cheese food product which is hydrolyzed corn oil for the most part and 'enriched' white bread(enriched is when they put chemical food supplements in the flour to replace what is lost in the bleaching process, then there are all those other chemicals that keep it 'fresh' for weeks. Real bread moulds in a week or less, I buy whole grain real bread and keep in the fridge.
Subsidies to fossil fuel, monsantos manufacture of Roundup and round up ready seeds.

My partner and I started collecting heirloom seeds a few years ago and are changing our diet, well started changing years ago. We eat fewer and fewer processed foods and our BP and cholesterol numbers are way better. I was nearly diabetic, I cut almost every bit of high fructose corn syrup and most sugar from our diets. I look at labels and if i cannot pronounce it or figure out what it is (I do do research) I don't buy it. We still eat beef, but much less and almost all of it comes from a local farm that only sells grass fed beef, it is much leaner and the serving is about half the size of commercial grown beef. We occasionally get free range chicken and eggs, I use local produced honey most of the time.
need to find a more steady supply, only eat bacon once in a while.
I don't even keep margarine in the house. We have a can of crisco for the occasional batch of biscuits in the deep freeze because it will go bad between uses.