Health care debate uncovers detrimental policy flaws

October 19, 2009 • Megan Manion  
Filed under Opinion

In 2000, director M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed a film called Unbreakable, with two characters, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Willis, who is blessed with almost freakishly superior health and Jackson, who suffers ailments procured from simple activities. The sick man tries to find the necessary balance of healthy and dying genes before it is too late.

While Republicans and Democrats argue which health care system will produce the freakishly healthy or is itself healthy, it is simply a fact that the American health care system represents the invalid and thus, a change must be made.

On Sept. 9, President Barack Obama took one of his first steps toward government subsidized health care; this step has too long been awaited. According to President Obama, he intends to be the last President to take up this fight for the American people.

The plan is an admirable one and contains simple components.

•If you have insurance, through whatever wealth, nothing in the plan requires you to change your plan.

•It will be against the law for insurance providers to deny coverage based on a preexisting condition.

•It will be against the law for companies to drop coverage when you are sick and need it the most.

•It will be against the law to place a cap on the amount of coverage a person can receive in a year/their life.

•There will be a limit on out of pocket expenses.

Most importantly, the American government will be held accountable to this aspect: “Insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care…That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives,” says President Obama.

America needs this plan because people who have insurance need better, more affordable coverage. Those who cannot afford or who are denied coverage have the right to their health.

We might all agree that these are crucial aspects of health care and goals of a health care system, but we will disagree on ways through which to accomplish these goals. As of this moment, the people of the United States cannot afford to continue to refuse  to compromise.

A common argument against this plan is that it supports the euthanization of senior citizens. While this is not only preposterous, it also distracts the American public, the president and the individuals responsible for such statements from the issue that matters: our health care system is not working.

Others argue that illegal immigrants will be covered by government insurance. While I am not a government official, it is simply illogical that an individual without a social security number would be eligible for insurance and thus health care that requires such a number, especially since this new program also would have easily accessible records etc on an electronic system.

This does not mean it will be on a server like Google or Web MD. It means that doctors, as some medical providers do today, will send records over secure networks. These will include records like X-rays, MRIs and basic records that all doctors are required to keep.

While there are those with a certain technological acuity who remain skeptical of such a system, I ask if they can brainstorm a cheaper, greener and more efficient way to keep billions of medical records that takes advantage of our growing dependence on computer technology.

But that is not the only change we must request. We must be asking our friends, our families, our teachers and our lawmakers if they are willing to waste time and lives until they get their way; if they are going to deny the right to health care coverage because it will be expensive, because it will require change.

We need a new health care system. We need one that covers every single American, not just the wealthy. We need a system where insurance providers are not able to deny coverage in any way. We need a health care system where the goal is not to make money or to run a business, but to make people healthy.

Though we have some of the best doctors, most dedicated nurses and leading researchers, we are ranked 37 on the World Health Organization’s list of top health care systems (coincidentally #1 is France who operates with a universal health care system) behind Colombia, Oman and Costa Rica.

Bruce Willis’s character was genetically designed to be healthy, but the rest of us don’t have that luxury. We must do our best to build a system that emulates the ideal of such health and then acts upon it.

President Obama has a plan that will put America on the path to this health care system; all we have to do is walk down this road.