FAYETTEVILLE — I’ve got two friends dealing with life-threatening illnesses.
Both are former executives - one a bank president, the other a department head of major multinational. Each has had to take a leave of absence from their work. They now face the loss of their employee health insurance benefits. However, they both are able to pick up COBRA coverage, a government insurance program started in 1986 during the Reagan presidency. COBRA gives certain workers who have lost their group insurance the right to buy their own health coverage at group rates. But COBRA runs out after 18 months.
We’re praying they get well. We’re also praying they get well before their COBRA coverage expires. As people with pre-existing conditions, finding insurance will be dicey for the rest of their lives.
If they are able to go back to work, their options will be limited to companies with employee benefits like health insurance. The majority of private employers in the U.S.
do not offer health insurance (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality survey in 2005, before the recent rash of benefit cuts).
Cured, healthy people with pre-existing conditions can find their work options very limited, because they can’t get affordable insurance.
One of these two friends I’m talking about is young, early 30s I think. (It’s impolite to ask a woman.) She is tremendously talented and gifted. But she can forget the American dreams of owning a small business or of being self-employed. She now has a pre-existing condition.
Access to health care is an American value. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all dependent upon health. But today, toomany Americans are slaves to the health insurance industry. The policies of private insurance companies dictate our life options.
Entrepreneurs are inhibited from being self-employed or owning a small business. For so many working Americans, insurance is unaffordable or unavailable.
For those of us who are Christian, health care is a priority. Jesus was best known as a healer.
Caring for the sick was a characteristic, daily activity for him. If Christians are to be interested in what Jesus was interested in, we must be advocates for health care and healing. Christians should be at the forefront of advocacy for universal access to quality medical care. Anything less would be contrary to the spirit of Jesus.
Two things should be painfully obvious to all Americans:
> More and more people are being denied access to medical care.
> Our nation gets less health from its investment than any nation in theworld. Here is some research from the respected Commonwealth Fund:
A majority of unemployed adults are without insurance.
Most of our uninsured adults are in working families.
Middle class workers are losing their insurance faster than any other income group.
No other nation spends close to what we spend per capita on health care.
The 20 developed nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development spend $2,571 annually per person for health care. The U.S. spends $6,102. And we rank 19th in mortality amenable to health care. We spend more and get poorer results than any country in the world.
Yet, our nation knows how to administer an efficient medical insurance program that covers everybody. It’s called Medicare, and every American can breathe a little easier when we reach 65 because we know we are covered. Our government runs Medicare and Medicaid with only 2 percent of our premiums spent on nonmedical expenditures.
Private insurance spends 5 percent to 40 percent - typically around 16 percent.
Government insurance, 2 percent non-medical costs - Private insurance, multiples of that.
What if we dropped the Medicare age to 50 and included more people? What if we included everyone in Medicare? We would be a healthier, more productive nation. Everyone’s illnesses could be treated proactively.
There would be fewer deaths, fewer bankruptcies.
67 percent of the bankruptcies in 2007 were health-related.
We can learn from other nations. Other countries cover all of their citizens’ health care. They tend to have better health results than the U.S. We can do better.
To insure access to medical care is an American value. It is also a Christian mandate.
LOWELL GRISHAM IS THE RECTOR AT ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN FAYETTEVILLE.
Opinion, Pages 7 on 02/07/2010