Every now and then, and more often than we know, there are good happenings within our City involving dedicated citizens. Today was no exception.Dr. Harold Levin, retired Dentist and former Director of the Lake Worth Democratic Club, conducted a public meeting requested by the Obama Transition Team in order to discuss our current health care system.
The meeting was held at the Masonic Lodge on North D Street and attended by 18 Lake Worth citizens and others from around our County. Not knowing much about our healthcare in the U.S. other than if you don’t have insurance or if you are not one of the Nation’s poorest or an illegal, you might just as well pack it up and die if you ever get sick or worse, I wanted to attend. Also, it is a fact that healthcare costs more in this country than in any other country on the planet. It is not too hard to guess the reason for that—doctors charge more and it is privatized. Doctors are sued more and their mal-practice insurance has gone out of sight. We are the only developed country that does not have universal healthcare.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000 ranked the U.S. health care system first in both responsiveness and expenditure, but 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study). I don’t know if we have improved. All those who can’t afford insurance in this country, an estimated 47 million, go untreated or they are charity cases with the costs absorbed by all tax payers in America. The other thing that is driving costs up for all of us is fraud. We used to look up to our doctors as if they were demi-Gods.
Many issues were discussed today…some of which were: Scrap the present system; educate the public on health thus cutting down health care costs; too much money going to our elected officials from insurance companies, etc. to fund their campaigns; We all need health care and we should all pay for it; Take the profit out of those companies that insure health care; Provide for a Single Payer System; Support H.R. 676; Stop bailing out companies and put this money into healthcare for all; Social Security and Medicare funds can NOT be used for any other purpose; Malpractice insurance is a tiny part of our entire health care system; We don’t need incrementalism, have just one plan.
We will be sending our recommendations on to the Obama Transition Team whose desire is to ensure health care to all Americans and to get feed-back from citizens throughout our country.
