08/28/2006 03:36 PM
Clamor Magazine :: issue 38 :: economics
Page 1 of 5
http://www.clamormagazine.org/issues/38/economics.php
Our Advertisers
So This Guy Walks into the Emergency Room and …
Universal Healthcare Coverage in the U.S. and Other Timeless Jokes
By Tara Bracco
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 45 million Americans went without health
insurance coverage in 2004. Uninsured and underinsured people are often faced with
difficult decisions: putting costly doctor visits on credits cards, which escalates
personal debt; staying at an unwanted job in fear of leaving and becoming uninsured;
delaying the purchase of expensive prescriptions because they don’t fit within the
monthly budget. Put simply, America’s health care system is failing its citizens.
What will it take to ensure that all U.S. residents have equal access to health care?
Some health care advocates say that the power of drug companies and big insurers
can best be countered with by mobilizing the power of the nation’s employers—
corporate behemoths and small businesses alike. It won’t be an easy task. To pull off
this coup, grassroots organizers may first have to raise the profile of the health care
issue, fight off conservative anti-government ideology, and ultimately prevent
employers from shifting increasing health care costs onto workers.
Half-Measures from Massachusetts
In an effort to address the health care crisis in one state, Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney signed a law last April that requires all residents to obtain health
insurance by July 2007. The law expands eligibility for Medicaid and provides
subsidies to low-income families so that they can purchase insurance. Gerald
Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
believes the law “may end up covering more people, at least for a while.”
Nonetheless, the Massachusetts plan is drawing criticism from some health care
advocates. Criticism centers on the law’s requirement that those individuals who
make at least three times the poverty level (