205-277 people EVERY day

My previous post was "60 People EVERY Day." Now I often also think of the 205 to 277 people who die every day in the United States under age 75.

These are UNNECESSARY DEATHS. Why are they not necessary? The United States is the bottom of 19 countries in its ability to minimize the number of deaths due to preventable diseases.

• As per a study partly funded by the Commonwealth Fund, which announced the results in January 2008:

• The U.S. ranked 15th out of 19 using 1997-1998 data.
• The U.S. ranked 19th out of 19 using 2002-2003 data.
  • Rankings from 1st to 19th: France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, United States

The researchers (E. Nolte and M. McKee) estimated how many lives would be saved in the United States if the U.S. performed better ...

205 people EVERY day
would NOT be dying
if we were only
average in performance
among 19 countries
in minimizing preventable deaths

For more explanation go to www.99oh9.org and select "Real People" ... or go directly to that web page.

60 people EVERY day

Ever since I saw the January 10 PNHP Quote-of-the-Day, I have often thought of the 60 people, on average, who die every day in the United States under age 65 due to the fact that those people did not and do not have health insurance.

Whether or not you were already aware of the update of the number of deaths from 18,000 per year (50 per day) in 2000 to 22,000 per year (60 per day), please read or re-read Doctor Don McCanne's comments.

60 people EVERY day

Please remember that this number is ONLY those who die due to uninsurance. As Dr. McCanne highlights, it does not count the number who died due to underinsurance.

What's In It for ME?

A couple of days ago a close friend said that Americans want to know what's in it for them in terms of immediate benefits ... such as in Joining Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! to give some indication that there is interest in writing notes to the U.S. Congress.

Isn't it good enough to have a more caring society ... and remember the details that preceded of Sally Brown's death on the 10th of January 2008?

Examples of those details:

• "asthma, emphysema and congestive heart failure"
• "every breath an agony"
• "little more than a year to live"
• "medical bills piling at her door"
• "(health insurance company) ... policy had been canceled"
  
• "unable to work at the job she loved"; "(employer) terminated her employment"
  
• "disability expired the same week she lost her job"
  
• "more than $20,000 in bills"

Isn't it good enough to remember that citizens of other countries are more satisfied with their health care system than we are with ours, often simply because they know that people get care? -- See "World's Best Medical Care?" PNHP 8-20-07 here.

My family of four lived in Canada for over four years. After several years of having been back in the United States, I started asking Canadians what they think of the health care there. The first answer I received was very positive and was based solely on the fact that Canadians care for one another. To give you another example of an answer, the last reply that I received from a Canadian was only one word: wonderful. But let's not focus on individual answers, just refer to the previous paragraph.

Taking Care of Single Mom with Triplets

I could hardly believe my ears when a woman in Michigan told me that she's a single mother with triplets. I immediately wondered if there was anything that I could do to help her if she needed specific help, especially since I love children.

She said she had heard that the U.S. is the ONLY country in the world without health care for all of its citizens. I emphasized to her that the fact has not sunk fully into the minds of U.S. citizens, trying to indicate what a huge injustice it is to the vast majority of us.

So, shortly after the brief chat, I thought once again that WE the citizens of this great country of ours, the United States of America, can help take care of this single mother with triplets ---- and everyone else. "All" we have to do is implement a non-profit national health insurance, such as the extremely efficient single-payer option. All we have to do is demonstrate that we care.

But we must take action
---- www.healthcareforallNOW.org.

Disease in the Belt-Way

One of the times in 2007 that I was in Washington D.C. I learned this: some people in the Washington D.C. area apparently refer to D.C. and the surrounding area as the "Beltway"

There is a kind of a disease in that beltway. It causes most of the members of the U.S. Congress to have their vision blocked and their ears closed. It causes an endless repetition of one of these sets of words:

• "Single-payer is not politically feasible."
• This is the short version that is said the most often.
  
• "Single-payer is definitely the best solution, but I don't think it has the political will to make it happen."
• Heard face-to-face during a chat with a U.S. Senator.
  
• "If I was starting from scratch, I'd certainly want single-payer, but (speaker fills in his or words for the rest)."
• Heard directly from another U.S. Senator of another state.
  

Here is my translation of these sentences and any other similar sentences:

• A huge number of dollars are spent by health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies in this county fighting what is good for the United States. U.S. citizens have the option of rising up with literally millions of direct contacts with the members of the U.S. Congress. One of those sets of direct contacts could be the activity of "Notes and Votes" pouring two to four thousand personally composed letters into the offices four times per year, growing each time. But, until something massive like that happens, there will continue to be zero support in the U.S. Senate and less than one-fourth support in the U.S. House. Why? Because there are many more health care lobbyists than there are members of the U.S. Congress. These lobbyists have a continual impact on the minds and the activities and the actions of the U.S. Congress.

It's important to keep in mind that

• The people HAVE spoken.
• The medical horror stories HAVE been communicated in multiple ways.
• The polls HAVE been taken over and over again.
  
• The federal government's own reports and working groups have documented that the nation will benefit from non-profit, single-payer national health insurance.
• There is no excuse.
  
• The facts are known.

Based on everything written above, it is nothing short of corruption that most members of the U.S. Congress are not responding to what over half of Americans want. Today I read it described by another single-payer activist as "a flagrant betrayal of trust by our legislators (which is a definition of treason)."

Very Angry Medical Biller(s) and a Look to the Future

Very recently I spoke with the husband of a medical biller. He said that every U.S. citizen should see the movie SiCKO. After seeing SiCKO his wife declared that it was all the truth, that what's seen on SiCKO is what happens all of the time. She's very angry about the situation.

I asked him about his wife losing her job when the U.S. implements national health insurance. With a very big smile he said that he'd be very pleased if she lost her job for that reason.

She and others in her billing department (one of two or three billing groups in the organization) make up a group of health care workers: technicians and nurses. In other words, they are highly skilled people who are doing the billing job for various reasons, such as better working hours. But their training is such that they could readily be working as health care workers, helping satisfy the need for an expanded amount of health care activities that will occur when the U.S. implements single-payer national health insurance.

Based on what is written above, I write the following with tears in my eyes:

• A Glimpse of the Future: some of the health care workers might not like the hours as well. But, according to the above words, but they might very much like the caring for people within a more caring society. Wow, that's a very heavy positive thought.
  

Out of Touch with Reality

As a general statement:
Most Members of the U.S. Congress are Out of Touch with Reality regarding Health Care

In mid-June 2007, when I personally went to the offices of the 435 U.S. Representatives and 100 U.S. Senators to notify them about Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine!, I noticed many staff people, such as the personnel for mail, house-keeping, and maintenance.

I spoke with one of those persons briefly, asking them what they had for health insurance. The person assured me that those workers were all set as federal employees. They all have health insurance with the same federal benefits as the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. Wow! During the last 20 years my company did exactly what thousands of other companies did. The services that I listed are contracted out. In many cases the resulting personnel performing those services not only have lower pay rates, but their benefits were also slashed. In other words, those people have no health insurance benefits in many cases.

Since our society is slashing wages of the lowest-income workers, the least we could to is to have a fair, equitable, cost-efficient, non-profit health care financing so that everyone has access to health care.

Members of the U.S. Congress are continuously surrounded by people who are not experiencing the same reality as the average American. Why? Because they do not operate their organization in the same fashion as much of the rest of the nation!

With my insurance going up 44% this year and roughly 550% over six years, I am one of those people who is IN the reality that we, the citizens, must work to get single-payer financing ... and get the factor of profit out of health care financing.

By the way, what triggered this sharing was my listening to Morning Edition's segment about health insurance and U.S. Presidential candidates this morning. See or hear it here.

Ah ... there's so much more to say ... but that's enough for today. --- Bob