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Position on Accessible and Affordable Health Care
One of the imminent dangers facing our country is the rising number of uninsured people. As health costs have skyrocketed more and more people are unable to afford basic health care for themselves and there children, and over 15% of Americans lack basic health insurance coverage. America spends 15% of its GDP on health care costs; other developed nations spend around or less then 10% and have similar, if not better health care results. Paul Krugeman says that nearly 1/3 of all U.S. health care costs are administrative! England spends 40 cents for every dollar America spends on Health Care! And it has a better life expectancy! (Source: NY times article, Center for Economic Policy Review). Our current system is incredibly expensive and inefficient.
The democrats at UCF support the exploration of universal health care for all Americans. Canada, England, and other developed countries have universal health care systems and spend much less then we do. Government run health care would prevent disastrous bills now shouldered by hospitals and state and local governments to treat the uninsured, and cut down on overall costs associated with uninsured people in America. A study by the America Medical Student association estimates the cost of implementing a universal health care at 70 billion dollars. This would be more then offset by a lowering of secondary costs affiliated with the uninsured. You can get a detailed explanation of these affiliated costs from a web link below. By providing basic health insurance for all Americans we are allowing for equal opportunity for all, no matter how wealthy they are, and helping to stop the erosion of the middle class in America.
Weblinks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/opinion/18miller.html?ex=1147233600&en=7406864f1749e91d&ei=5070
http://www.amsa.org/uhc/
http://www.uhcan.org/
Affiliated Costs/Benefit analysis:
http://www.amsa.org/uhc/CaseForUHC.pdf
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