Fixing Healthcare Now: A Live Discussion With Health Subcomittee Chairman Pete Stark, Jim Gilliam and Roger Hickey

Everyone who reads FDL, and most Americans for that matter, knows health care in America is broken. It’s not just the 45.7 million who are uninsured, it’s that even if you have insurance it almost certainly won’t actually get you the healthcare you need, and trying to make up the difference yourself will probably bankrupt you. Half of personal bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills, and of those three-quarters had insurance when they got sick.

The video above, from Health Care for America Now, speaks to this and to the horrible decisions and burdens people have to bear. Jim, in the video, needed surgery and the insurance company wouldn’t pay for anesthesia. "Sorry, but your pain helps our bottom line." Nancy Cantor, who had insurance, was hit by so many uncovered fees and deductibles that she wound up having to declare bankruptcy.

The system doesn’t work. It is in insurance company’s interest to decline care. The more care they decline, the more money they make and their first duty isn’t to sick people, it’s to their shareholders. So they use the bludgeon of "reasonable and necessary" to decide that hey, anesthesia isn’t necessary. They use it to overrule doctors on what tests are reasonable, what surgeries are necessary.

Speaking as a Canadian I can tell you this. In Canada I get to go to any doctor I want, and my doctor chooses what health care I need and other than setting the initial list of covered services, the government doesn’t interfere. I spent 3 months in hospital, I never even saw a bill, and when I wanted to leave, they made me stay 2 weeks longer to make sure I was well before they let me out the door. Meanwhile, in the US, a good friend of mine had the flu, didn’t go to the doctor because he was a poor student and couldn’t afford to pay, and the flu got worse and he died. And he didn’t die easy, it looks like he tried to make it to the door when it got bad and couldn’t.

In Canada, he’d still be alive, because he wouldn’t have not had his flu treated because he was too poor.

Joining us today to discuss the situation, and what can be done to fix it are:

• California Congressman Pete Stark, who is head of the Health Subcommittee in the House of Representatives.
• Jim Gilliam, whose story you can see in the video above. Jim built Brave New Films and was a driving fore behind a great number of progressive films. He’s survived cancer twice and a double lung transplant.
• Roger Hickey, who is co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, an organization seeking to advance ordinary Americans needs in the debate about the economy. Roger was one of the leaders against privatizing Social Security and also helped found the Economic Policy Institute.

If you want to help get Americans universal health care, I hope you’ll take the time to take action and send your Congressman an e-mail through Health Care for America’s system.

Related posts:

1. Pete Stark: Hanging Out with Health Care Lobbyists, Won’t Take the Pledge
2. Fight the Health Care Lobby: Bomb Pete Stark
3. Pete Stark: “Brain Dead” Blue Dogs Just Looking to Raise Insurance Industry Cash
4. Rationing Health Care? Let’s Talk Health Insurance in America Right Now
5. Health Care: Pete King is Out of Touch with Long Island, New York, and America