Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Saw this graph at Firedoglake-link




The figure for deaths due to lack of health insurance came from a Harvard study that was published in the American Journal of Health Care, the other numbers for accidents and deaths due to sickness are from the National Center for Health Statistics (part of CDC). I did not realize that there were 10K deaths from Swine Flu this year, turns out, that's the estimate, might be as high as 14K.

At the right end of the graph is a sliver that represents 16 deaths due to terrorism. Certainly there are some Americans that are totally freaked out by shoe bombers and underpants bombers, unfortunately the heads of most of our media outlets are among that group. So, if you subject yourself to American news programs it's most likely going to be Terror! Terror! Terror! for the most part. Any news about HCR will probably be inside baseball about how the big players are wheeling and dealing.

My problem with the graph is that it says deaths due to lack of insurance, insurance is not health care. I have insurance from my employer, we're all required to enroll in the company health plan if we're not covered by any other plan. The deal is the coverage sucks, if I got seriously ill, the co-pays and out of pocket expenses might well drive me to bankruptcy.

The endless war on terror that we seem to be committed to is siphoning an enormous amount of resources away from our health care problems. that is the shame of this nation. My suggestion, ditch this piece of crap masquerading as health care reform now, enact universal single payer health care/ Medicare for all, pay for it by scaling back the MIC accordingly. It's a plan, but I'm not holding my breath.