Affordable Health Insurance is a Right not a Privilege

Congressman Jim McDermott, a democratic representative from Washington State thinks Government sponsored universal health insurance would provide medical coverage for every American. This type of healthcare insurance creates a vast “risk pool”. It will reduce prices and ultimately deliver better healthcare.

In a recent Opinion piece the Congressman went on to say that access to affordable healthcare coverage is the most important domestic issue facing America today. McDermott believes that if you are not among the wealthiest one-percent of Americans, then even if you have health insurance you may be just one catastrophic illness or injury away from financial devastation due to a medical crisis.

The Congressman and many of his contemporaries in congress feel that a Government sponsored single payer healthcare insurance system would solve many of the ills with our current health delivery system. He envisions such a system that will be sponsored b the government but enacted by the private sector, so it can be a win for all concerned. For people that fear a Government sponsored healthcare insurance system, McDermott is quick to point out that currently the Federal Government actually pays for over 70% of the healthcare insurance used by Americans in the country. And one of the government’s most efficient federal healthcare systems, Medicare, only takes 4% out of paid premiums for overhead, while most private health insurers take 12 %.

McDermott believes that affordable healthcare insurance is a right to be enjoyed by all Americans. Not the privilege it has become. That is why he has introduced legislation for a single payer healthcare insurance system. He notes that gainfully employed Americans now make up more than half of the 47 million of those younger than sixty-five years old who do not have healthcare insurance. The number of uninsured children in the country is up for the first time in the past ten years. Access to low-cost health insurance because you have a steady job just is no longer a given.

Those Americans who are lucky enough to have group health insurance through their jobs are paying more or forced to take cuts in benefits, or higher deductible amounts and co-pays, leaving them vulnerable to financial devastation in the event of a medical crisis. Medical Bankruptcy is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in America today.

Congressman McDermott says what is best about America is that we are a country that has been founded on the common good. When it comes to health insurance and healthcare, somehow we have strayed from that principal. He quotes Winston Churchill as once saying, “You could always count on Americans to do the right thing after they tried everything else.”

Americans it is time to do the right thing.