Our Current Health Care System is Flawed to the Bone

So, apparently they are going to vote this weekend.
Lets hope they do not get swayed by the pervasive myth that the US has the best health care system in the world.
We have learned that contrary to what we had believed, no one in the world envys our health care!

The life expectancy rate in our country is tied with Kuwait and Chile –
there are 31 other countries in the world whose people live longer than we do!
An African-American in New Orleans has a shorter life expectancy than the average person in Vietnam or Honduras.
A baby is eleven times more likely to die here than in Singapore!!!
(There but for fortune . . . )

Our health care system and its delivery is wretched by any measure.

But, interestingly, there is one bright spot in the analyses that have been done:
Our population over the age of 65 can expect to live longer than the average of the other industrialized countries.
And, that’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare.
Suddenly, a diverse population with pockets of poverty is no longer such a drawback.

Universal health care works!!!

It is a moral issue.
It is a humane issue.
It is about what we value as a society.

Let them know that we value our fellow citizen over corporate profits.
Our existing health care delivery system is flawed to the core.
Band-aids won’t fix it.

Our sick and dying brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers deserve better.
They deserve to know that we as a society care for them in their days of distress.
They deserve to know that we value them for who they are to us – and never consider them discardable and disposable.

Check out the Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times and let our folks in Washington know what you expect from the health care system in our country.