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According to various media reports, forty-seven million Americans are without health insurance, and millions of others have inadequate health coverage. According to the World Health Organization, the United States' health care system is ranked thirty-sixth in the world. These two points are clear indications that our current health care delivery system is not working. A universal health care system is the best way to provide health care to all Americans.

When Congress passed a bi-partisan bill to approve health insurance to cover ten million uninsured children of working parents, President Bush vetoed it because it was considered to be a step toward socialized medicine. Conservatives argue that health care is the responsibility of individual Americans and not the government's. This would be valid if health care was made available to all Americans at an affordable cost. Most private health insurance companies will not provide coverage for those with preexisting medical conditions. Millions of working people who are self-employed, or work for employers who don't provide health insurance cannot find affordable family coverage. Parents without health insurance can take their children to the emergency room if they are sick, but we taxpayers end up paying the hospital bill. If that child is seriously ill, he or she will have to be admitted for care, which might not have been required if earlier medical intervention was available.

Lack of affordable health care has also affected our ability to compete globally in industries we once dominated; namely, the automotive industry. Domestic automakers have been crippled by health insurance costs provided to current, as well as retired employees. These costs largely contributed to the subsequent bankruptcy filings by both General Motors and Chrysler. Many other firms have had to cut their contributions to their employees' health insurance premiums because of their escalating costs.

Universal health coverage is the only answer. The profit motive has to be eliminated from the equation, because people who most need health care are unable to attain it. Physicians won't be burdened by hiring staff to perform insurance billing, nor would they require approvalfrom the insurance carriers to perform medical procedures. A greater emphasis can be placed on prevention, rather than treatment. Most important of all, everyone will be covered: no exceptions.

Learn more about this author, Leslie Schwab.
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