<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Dear Visionaries:</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">I'm back to regular column writing (I know--some will groan) and here is this week's offering. The long version is attached.</font></div>
<div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">My daughter in Edmonton did not want to be identified, so the reason for the "couple I know."</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br>
</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">Just got the first review of my book MS "The Origins of Religious Violence: An Asian Perspective," it is the best appraisal of any of my scholarly work in 44 years. Makes all that work worth while.</font></div>
<div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">May the ranks of the Obama-insured grow and grow and grow,</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">Nick</font></div>
<div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">WHY DOES THE U.S. MAKE HEALTH CARE SO
DIFFICULT? </font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"> In 1978-1979 I took my first sabbatical in Denmark. My
former wife was a Dane, but my daughter and I were able to join her as full
participants in the Danish welfare state. For a small initial fee we had
immediate access to free health care. There were no questions about our income
or pre-existing conditions.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"> I know an American couple who work at the University of
Alberta. They received unconditional
health benefits as soon as they arrived as landed immigrants. While on vacation in the U.S., the wife
forgot to bring enough medicine for a very serious medical condition. The local Rite Aide wanted $2,000 for the
drugs, so a friend in Edmonton sent the drugs by overnight express. The
Canadian pharmacy price of $50, which she of course did not have to pay, was
marked on the package. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Americans pay far more for their drugs
than people in any other country, even though many of them are manufactured in
the U. S. An article in <i>Health </i>Affairs
(April, 2013) discovered that “prices for brand-name drugs were 5 percent to
117 percent higher in the U.S. than in other countries.” Citizens of the United
Kingdom pay half of what Americans are billed for their prescriptions.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In 2011 Denmark paid out $4,448 for
each citizen for health care, and $4,522 was spent for each Canadian. In both
countries better health care was obtained.
In stark contrast the U.S. spent $8,508 on each American with much
poorer results. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Health care expenses in the United
Kingdom are $3,405 per capita, but people there fare better than Americans in
seven major illness categories. The U.S. ranks last among 16 industrialized
countries for preventable deaths, which, according to the Centers for Disease
Control, are estimated at 200,000 per year.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">I joined many others in opposing the
Affordable Care Act, and our opposition was included in the polls that
Republicans used to criticize a “government take-over” of health care. The public option was of course not part of
the final bill, even though decades of experience with the world’s government-run
health care systems prove that it the most efficient and least expensive. For years I have supported the late Senator
Ted Kennedy’s proposal to extend “tried and true” Medicare for all Americans.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> As many other
countries did after World War II, the U. S. should have instituted universal
health care fifty years ago. The
inefficient private health insurance industry, which has much higher
administrative costs than Medicare, is now so strong that the Democrats had no
choice but to piece together the complex plan that is Obamacare. It was destined to fail in implementation and
as well as in the goals of efficiency and cost cutting. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> Republican
obstruction in extending Medicaid in 20 states and refusing to set up state
health exchanges has made matters much worse.
Obama naively expected that states would set up their own exchanges, but
only 15 have done so on their own. This
was a tremendous extra burden on the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans
will be responsible for the negative effects on the uninsured in the Red States
they control, where an inordinate number of preventable deaths occur.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3pt 70.35pt 0.0001pt 0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt
Romney, over Democrats’ objections, insisted on the individual mandate in a
plan very similar to Obamacare, except the latter has more emphasis on
controlling costs.</span><i><span style="line-height:150%"> </span></i><span style="line-height:150%">Over 98 percent of Bay
State residents now have coverage. Critics claimed that Romneycare would
bankrupt the state, but health care costs have risen more slowly than the rest
of the nation. Two-thirds of those polled believe that Romneycare has been a
success.</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">I’m convinced that as
the enrollments increase, more and more Americans will agree with the people of
Massachusetts that achieving universal health care was worth the effort.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Nick Gier taught
philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.</font></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"></span></p></div></div>