The Doctor Won't See You Now

A new report from the private group Families USA, reported on MSNBC, is fuel for the impending firestorm in healthcare. Over the two years of 2001 and 2002, almost 82 million Americans were without health insurance for at least part of that time - most for more than nine months.

The problem reaches deep into the middle-class, affects African-Americans and Hispanics disproportionately and is most pronounced among people younger than 25, according to the group’s analysis of census data.

The state with the highest number of uninsured?

The study, which was being released Wednesday, found that 8.5 million Texas residents, or 43.4 percent of the non-elderly population there, did not have health insurance — the highest rate in the country.

Other states where more than 35 percent of people younger than 65 were uninsured were: New Mexico, 42.4 percent; California, 37.1 percent; Nevada, 36.8 percent; Louisiana, 36.2 percent; Arizona, 35.7 percent; Mississippi, 35.1 percent, and Oklahoma, 35 percent.

There are so many countries with single-payer health care systems, most of them work very well, so that we have a broad array of systems and components to choose from. We are the richest country in the world, and in history. There is no reason that we could not ensure that every citizen's health is taken care of.

It's been shown that on a system wide basis, a single-payer system is less expensive because of economies of scale and because of reduced redundancies in administration. Businesses would reap immediate and huge savings from not having to subsidize insurance for their employees. Society would reap huge benefits in not having large swaths of the population with no regular access to preventive health care as emergency, follow up and long term care of chronic illnesses are much more expensive.

The economic questions are all answered, in some form, around the world. The ethical question has only one answer. The only question remaining to be answered is "why not?"

The answer you'll get to that question from those opposed to universal coverage is ugly and exposes the worst in Americans.