Stop debating, just reform health care
We are now in the midst of a debate on the necessity to reform our health-care system. The health-care insurance industry is lobbying to keep the status quo. And why not? Our cost of health care is the highest per person cost in all the western countries in the world. The profits are in the hundreds of billions of dollars as a result. It's been said that a revolution never begins with the king! No wonder we are being fed a constant misstatement of facts to keep the American people scared to "change" a system they have come to mentally and emotionally accept. Here are some facts that many Americans don't know and should no to make their support known to Congress. Fact One: The United States ranks 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990. Fact Two: The United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960. Fact Three: The United States ranks 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960. Fact Four: The United States ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall the United States is 67th, right behind Botswana. Fact Five: Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations. Conclusion: The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best trained health-care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation. Money alone will not fix the cause of our health-care shortfall. Already we spend more per person on health care than any nation on earth. What we need is accountability on our choices that will lead to coverage for all through by all Americans participating. Let's stop calling the health-care plan by the Obama White House socialized medicine and call it what it really is: America's Choice Plan. Or, we will see this opportunity slip away once again and see the ranks of the uninsured swell to an even greater number than our 45 million who are living without health care.
Tom Conomy
Libertyville