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talking
points on why we need a new health care
system in Michigan:
Our current system of health care financing is failing.
We say that in light of the following:
- 49
Million people in the United States, and over 1,400,000 Michigan
citizens are without basic health care coverage. These figures
have been growing each year, and there is no end in sight.
- Our
employer-based system adds to the costs of goods and services
and reduces the global competitiveness of Michigan businesses.
- It
leaves an increasing number of people who have been laid off,
in these hard times of the "jobless recovery", without
basic health care coverage.
- Medical
costs are the second largest reason for personal bankruptcy in
the United States, second only to job loss itself.
- We
spend huge sums on our health care system in the US, but fall
behind in basic measures of health, such as life expectancy and
infant mortality, while we leave 1/6 of the citizens lacking basic
health care coverage.
- Nearly
20,000 of our US citizens die each year of conditions that were
left untreated due to lack of access to health care. In what is
still the world's wealthiest economy, that is nothing short of
criminal.
- We
spend 25% to 30% of every health care dollar on administration.
While critics of government programs cry "bureaucracy,"
our present patch work system is difficult to administer, expensive,
and takes time and resources away everything, including sometimes
even from the practice of medicine.
- With
the money that we spend on health care in Michigan, we could provide
affordable and comprehensive coverage for everyone in Michigan,
if we would just spend this money wisely and fairly!
- In
fact, we could well save money. At least, this is the calculation
of activists in California. SB 840, the California Health Insurance
Reliability Act, will cover every Californian with comprehensive
health insurance and give them the ability to choose their own
physician. This model is estimated to save $8 billion, in the
first year alone, in statewide healthcare spending. It will save
money for families, businesses, individuals and local governments
It
is for all these reasons that we launched the Green House Universal
Health Care Initiative. Currently, however, our readers are referred
to MichUHCAN (See http://michuhcan.tripod.com)
Hopefully, the initiative to bring universal health care to Michigan
can be re-started. First, the health care crisis is hurting Michigan
as much as anywhere. But more significantly, the Michgan constitution
states in Article 4, section 51 that the public health of the people
of the state is a matter of “...primary public concern.”
Also, MCL 325.2001 says that there is supposed to be a statewide
plan to provide “...adequate access to health care for all
segments of the state’s population.” These two measures
were the basis of a lawsuit filed by the Michigan legal team to
compel the state to come up with such a plan. The judge in the case
threw it out, but hopefully a higher court will one day reverse
that decision.
We
need broad citizen participation in this battle, if we are going
to succeed. What we want you to do is get your organization, city
council, county commission, or business on our side. We need you
to
get them to pass a resolution calling on Governor Granholm to establish
a commission to study health care financing and propose recommendations
so that all citizens shall have access to a system that is:
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hospital, Hamtramck |
- affordable
and efficient
- promotes
prevention,
education, and early intervention
- provides
continuity of care
and protects consumer choice
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