By Dr. James “Jim” Kadlecek
“If criminals have a right to a lawyer, I think working Americans have a right to a doctor.” – Harris Wofford
It is one of the great failures of American public policy that we do not have universal health care.
At the risk of repeating arguments that most readers have heard before:
• Nearly every industrial society in the world, except the
• A healthy workforce is a more productive workforce.
• We are a wealthy country and can afford it.
• Providing a universal system would probably be less costly that the existing non-system, which is duplicative and inefficient.
• The current arrangement is horrendously expensive, eating up an increasing amount of the consumer dollar. Some 14 percent of spending is on health care.
• Access to health care should not be based on one’s financial status.
• If we can provide free public education to all citizens, shouldn’t we also provide free health care?
• Quality of care is now being sacrificed to the demands of insurance providers: Since they have the money, they often dictate (limit) treatment.
• Health care providers depend largely on government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, anyway.
• If we believe in equity, then all should have equal access to health care.
• Morally, health care should be available to all. It’s the right thing to do.
Problem affects working-class families
So who defends the existing, complex non-system? Not surprisingly, those who benefit from it – insurance companies, some doctors, private hospitals. And then there are those who are fortunate enough to have good insurance coverage, paid for by someone else – usually an employer or the government – so they don’t see a problem.
But it is a problem, and it’s eating away at the workforce and often preventing working families from getting care when they need it. In
Keep in mind who we are talking about. It’s not the elderly, because they have access to Medicare. It’s not the very poor on social assistance, because they have access to Medicaid. It’s not those who work for government or for the major employers such as the university, because those organizations provide good insurance to their employees.
No, it’s the working population, the folks who are farm workers or workers in restaurants, service businesses and retail stores. It’s the employees of most small businesses, and part-time workers. These are the people who make our economy function, and they are the most vulnerable to sickness and the least able to pay for the costs.
Current options are limited
What happens when local working people who have no insurance need health care? Well, there are some options: They can go to La Clinica or Ben Archer clinics, which are subsidized with federal funding. If they need hospital care, the county does provide funding, mostly to
With the current pressures on the federal budget, no one can be assured that the indigent funds will be continued. The $19 million set aside for “expanded care” to the uninsured runs out later this year, and while the owners of MMC (whoever they are now) are pledged to continue such care out of their own resources, some of us are very skeptical that a profit-oriented private hospital is going to absorb over $6 million each year in free care. We suspect they will find a way to avoid delivering those services.
Does the county have a fallback plan when uninsured, working families start complaining (as some are already) that they are being shunted over to
While Gov. Bill Richardson has provided strong leadership on some issues, he has disappointed many of us by not making proposals like NewMexicare a priority. What he might do if he were elected president is a question mark, but we do know that he has not taken the lead on this issue in
However, there is a glimmer of hope at the national level, since most presidential hopefuls are talking about providing some sort of universal care. Even President Bush suggested a plan in his recent State of the Union address. It was a very lame idea that would help only 3 or 4 percent of the 45 million Americans who currently have no health coverage, but at least he acknowledged the problem. That’s some progress, even though we all know he is doing anything he can to distract the American public from his failed
It is a tragic failure when a powerful, wealthy country does not provide equal access to basic health care for the workers of our society. We need to get angry and insist that our representatives correct this massive injustice. It must be a top priority.
Kadlecek has lived in