Utah
Jobs With Justice

The term "UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE" is being thrown around by the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. What they're trying to make you believe is that all Americans should be covered by no fault health insurance, much like the no fault auto insurance they require us to buy in this state. We all know how well that works; every one who can't afford car insurance buys a plan for a month, and after they register their car they drop it. As a result more than one third the drivers in the state are uninsured. The insurance companies make a nice profit, and we end up paying for it with higher premiums, and taxes. They've had this kind of healthcare program in Massachusetts for about four years. The state is two billion dollars in the red because of it; but the insurance companies are making record profits.

There has to be a change in the way Americans get healthcare: we know this and so do the insurance companies. The employer based health maintenance organizations or HMO's that we've put up with for the last 30 years have proven themselves to be an unsustainable scam. Almost 50 million of us are uninsured, and most of the rest of us are under insured because of the high cost of total coverage. This system has worked very well for the HMO's, the drug companies, and the employers. The HMO's and drug companies have picked our pockets for too long, raking in billions; while the employers have chained us to our jobs, with the threat of loosing our healthcare. Those same employers have used that threat as leverage to keep our wages low, and cutback on other benefits like retirement, vacation, and sick leave. The workers in this country are being screwed, and told to like it because for profit healthcare is a "uniquely American system"

Now the center and rightwing politicians are feeling the heat, so they have gotten together with their major campaign contributors, the HMO's, drug companies, and employers to come up with a new scam, "no fault health insurance". In this scam you would be mandated to buy a policy from the insurance companies. If you couldn't afford it then the government would buy it for you from the insurance companies. Then they would charge the rest of us taxpayers for your inadequate policy. The policies that most of us could afford would be an 80\20 or even worse: a health savings account and neither would save you from bankruptcy if you spend two days in one of their hospitals.

Most Americans when asked would prefer a single payer system. Congressman John Conyers house bill HR 676 would cover all Americans by raising the Medicare tax from 1.7% to 4.9%, eliminating the insurance companies, and making Medicare the only health carrier. Medicare is more efficient than the HMO's, running at a 3% overhead compared to the 15 to 30% the HMO's average. It would encompass those already on Medicaid, S CHIP, the Veterans health system, and most of workman's compensation, saving us that tax burden. It would make the drug companies have to deal with us as a single buyer cutting out their outrageous profits.

Think about it, NO PREMIUMS, NO CO-PAYS, NO DEDUCTIBLES! JUST HEALTHCARE FROM THE WOMB 'TILL THE BUCKET IS KICKED!

Don't let these bloodsucking parasites confuse you and scam you again with the words UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. SINGLE PAYER is the fair and just UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE we need. ItÕs better and cheaper for us as individuals, and as a nation.

I would encourage everyone to see Michael Moore's new documentary, Sicko. Buy it, and lend it to a friend.

Log on to http://www.healthcarenow.org or http://www.pnhp.org and find out the details on SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE.

Call or write your congressperson, and ask why they haven't signed on to HR 676, then ask them how much money they've received from the FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY.

It's time the working people of America took a stand; weÕve been beaten up and robed by this corrupt FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM TOO LONG!

START FIGHTING BACK; send this letter to your whole E-mail list. Print it in your news letter. Talk to every one about it; information is the key. The corporate media will not talk about it, so it's up to us.