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The health care crisis is not only due to a large number of uninsured but also the underinsured. This has come about due to inefficient government programs and overcharging of private medical insurance to cover emergency care and public health costs that are not currently paid for but are necessary to our continuous health. Existing health programs need to be restructured and expanded to cover all individuals.

Immunizations are not being given to children, which is causing new epidemics to appear. The public health structure has collapsed due to under-funding and privatization, no for-profit organization is going to willingly lose money on waiting for an outbreak or epidemic. Then when one comes along they are under-prepared. The worries that horrible care and waiting would accompany government plans happened with the private companies as well. It happened because they are businesses concerned with profit. The government is capable of taking surplus from one program to fund another, that balance is what will be necessary to handle diseases that are knocking on our doors. They can use the money that is already funding health care programs, just redirect the effort. Rather than paying private companies they can pay the people.

New HIV drugs are prolonging the life of HIV positive individuals creating a pool of pre-AIDS patients that didn't exist 15 years ago. These individuals are susceptible to infections and new strains of antibiotic resistant microbes are infecting the population, including tuberculosis, and then spreading to others. There are some strains though that can't be pinpointed to this pool and are appearing in hospitals, Staphylococcus strains that are resistant to every known treatment. Flesh eating group A streptococcus strains also have made an appearance. Los Angeles is awaiting yellow fever and hemorrhagic fever outbreaks brought from overseas in the wake of its public health collapse that occurred in the late 90s. Public health and prevention is an area that is in great need of government support, the areas that are a collective goal rather than an individual right.

Also, proper medical care should be a right, not a privilege. Who determined that only the wealthy are worthy of living? I can not fathom the thought process that goes into determining that medical care is a good that can be bought and sold. It is not like having your yard mowed, where putting it off a week won't hurt anyone. Sometimes a week is more than a person has. When a mother lay dying on the floor of a Texas emergency room a few months ago it was because the medical system and the government in this country decided that money is more important to them than life. For decades it has been argued, by both Republicans and Democrats, that there is a need for a health care program that will care for all Americans. But it also got pushed onto the state governments to take care of, governments that pushed it onto counties who had very little income to use.

The American Medical Association coined the term "socialized medicine" in the 1930's and the insurance companies have taken it up as their buzzword. It is how they have twisted health care into a political game, where money is won and lives are lost. It is true that most government programs are not well run. It is true that the current health programs are inefficient and waste money. It is time for a change, a restructuring, a return to the simple idea that we are all human beings who deserve to live and for our ailments to be treated with dignity. It is time for the government to step up and take care of its people.

Learn more about this author, Alicia M Prater PhD.
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