In Spain, the firm stand of three Republican senators against the pressures from the White House and party leaders in congress has awakened journalistic interest in understanding just what the fight to wipe out Obamacare is all about. In today´s ABC, a center-right publication, their correspondent in New York gave readers El alto gasto sanitario en EE.UU. se traduce en pobres resultados. He tells us:
Obamacare was doomed from the beginning due to its exaggerated costs He estimates that as it now stands it takes up 27% of federal income. That is about twice and a half as much as the social medical system costs in many European countries. Why?
First, Nancy Pelozi and Harry Reid were good back room fighters but they had no negotiating skills nr long ranger vision. They failed to see that the Republicans would never agree to social medicine in the United States. Compromise was and is impossible. The bill was born dysfunctional.
President Obama worked to install a system of universal coverage. For such an option in health to work there had to be a single negotiators to face down the powerful special interests in insurance companies, pharmaceutical sacred cows, and the highly paid professionals known as Dr. Manny and his colleagues on Fox. Without a single negotiator, these organizations and individuals that place their interests far ahead of Medicine as Service to the People faced down deal makers unable to regulate the market. In Europe that never happens. . Aside from the article reviewed here, we can accept the frankness of Dr. Ferid Murad who discovered the potential uses of nitric oxide. For his work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998. He publicly laments that the pharmaceutical industry used it to earn millions selling the little blue pill rather than invest in real medical research. Money, money, money!
Americans in general are guilty of much of the dire situation we are now in. For generations we sat back assuming medicine and health were free because the company paid for it! Well, now those companies can´t afford to pay it and since the yearly charge per individual with limitations is at best some $3,800, you and I can´t afford it either. With a single, strong negotiator like the federal government, guess who would be slamming their fist on the table where deals are made! Of course the insurance people and persons in the pharmaceutical industry and the Drs. Manny of the medical associations are horrified by such a future.
All patting ourselves on the back aside, Outstanding American health care is mediocre for its cost because people can´t afford it. Elisabeth Rosenthal´s book documents the sad story in detail. When we in Europe see the figures we feel so sorry for you over there. Let´s look at the reality of costs of special interests in health care.
Hospitalization costs per day in the US > $5,220. In Spain > >$424. Is the food that good?
A colonoscopy in the US > $1,300. In Spain> $589.
A magnetic resonance in the US> $1120. In Spain> $ 130.
Removal of the appendix in the US > $15,900. In Spain > 2,000.
Hip implant surgery, in the US> $29,000. In Spain > $6,700.
Delivery in the US >10,800. In Spain > 2.000.
At this time the federal government spends over ten billion dollars of $ 10,000 plus per head via Obamacare. Before throwing your health care away, reform good intentions in the public interest into a functional system that really serves the public´s health needs.. If we in Spain, France, Sweden and other countries have done it, you can too. Of course we have problems but that is natural in great undertakings. Ignore the Republicans when they cry tears for insurance companies, drug makers, hospital administrators and the Mafias that control lack of public health in the United States, home of oh, beautiful for spacious skys for amber waves of grain,…, above the fruited plane. Whatever became of those alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears? Maybe they moved them up to Canada where people who look just like we do can go to the doctor without a bank loan. The Republicans defend our right to choose what we can´t afford due to their eternal negativism.
overcoffee 