From Democracy for America, on health care

IMHO: Teri often has pithy things to say, and this rates as one of her best....

Teri Mills is a a longtime Blog For America community member and participant. You can find her comments under the name of "Your Aspiring National Nurse."

"Yes, we have trouble, right here in River City, OR. The number one domestic concern is health care, yet not a single elected federal official wants to talk about ways to improve our health care system. Instead, our government is using its usual duck-and-cover scare tactics; ducking the issue of health spending and covering it up with a crisis that does not exist—social security. As a result, costs continue to explode, and fewer Americans can afford the medical care they need and deserve.

In less than 9 years, health care in the United States is projected to be $3.6 trillion or about 19% of our GDP. This nation is expected to spend $11,045 for each person, and this cost is not adjusted for
inflation. Presently the U.S. spends about $6,423 on each man, woman, and child.

Our troubles become even more apparent when you consider that our government, which is already in the red by over half a trillion dollars, plans to foot the bill for nearly half the nation's medical costs. This is the result of the Bush administration's new Medicare drug plan. Remember—it was only supposed to cost a $400 billion dollars, but now is projected to cost $720 billion. This is what Al Gore referred to as fuzzy math.

Maybe we ought to model our health care system after Canada; whose citizens live two-and-a-half years longer than we do, who has an infant mortality which is 35% less that ours, and who spends about 50% less on their GDP for health care. Their prescription drugs do not cost anywhere near what we pay in the U.S. But what is even more appealing is that every Canadian is covered for basic/hospital care.

"What we ought to be demanding as Democrats, is what Harry Truman put in the 1948 Democratic Party platform: health insurance that covers everybody, just like they have in Germany, France, Costa Rica, Japan, Ireland, and Italy! Every single industrialized country on the face of the earth has health insurance for all of its people. Why can't we have what all those countries have?"
—Gov. Howard Dean's Speech at the Take Back America Conference, Washington, DC, June 5, 2003"