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Whither Health Care Reform?
By Laura Knoy on Friday, February 26, 2010.
This week President Obama hosts a bipartisan summit on health care. The White House has offered its ideas, while Democratic leaders in the House and Senate say they’re close to a deal to resolve differences between the bills they already passed, and Republican leaders on health care say they intend to challenge many of the ideas now being considered. We’ll look back at the summit, take stock of what policy changes are still on the table, and evaluate how those changes might affect Granite Staters.
We'll also get an update on yesterday's wind storms in New Hampshire from Josh Rogers, NHPR reporter.
Guests
- Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy
- Ned Helms, director of the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH and former commissioner of Health and Human Services
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I really wish that someone would please point out the fact that we are not really talking about changing the health CARE in this country. It's the health INSURANCE system that we're trying to CORRECT. The hyperbole surrounding this subject is truly offensive to those who don't have any access to the care because they can't afford the insurance!!
This morning a woman called saying that the Democratic party approaches healthcare from a social outlook not a financial outlook like the Republicans and that is why plans are not progressing. As someone who is paying over $5,000 a year for a $10,000 deductible healthcare plan that is not usable for anything not major it is a financial issue (throwing money to the insurance industry now and the cost of care down the road). Going without regular care and/or preventive care in the long run is a financial problem. Hopefully, doing catch-up care later will take care of problems and they haven't gotten out of hand. I attended a talk/slide show on health conditions in Ethiopia this week and the lack of ongoing healthcare is financial as well as marching to death.
Health care is the new hot topic, and it will never be resolved because there is no money in healthy people. The insurance companies are making record profits and have been for quite some time, this also applies to the pharmaceuticals. Congress can battle, discuss, negotiate this until they are blue in the face, but the issue will continue because the underlying cause of the health care issue is not being addressed.
70% of the cost for health care, the so called chronic diseases such as heart, pulmonary, obesity, diabetes, and cancer, are self inflicted by individuals.
As a nation we have the worst diet in the world, and it is quickly becoming our demise.
It is harder to find wholesome, unprocessed foods than potato chips. So if it all comes down to dollars, then tax the twinkies and all other processed foods and snacks much like the alcohol and tobacco taxes, let them pay for the increasing health care costs.
Spend more on reeducating the people on healthy alternatives to junk meals.