9 million chidren not covered by health insurance. Families work but don’t get paid coverage and don’t qualify for medicaid and cannot afford private health coverage. Government health insurance programs are loaded with red tape.
This, in America. And here we are just talking about children, not the poor and the elderly poor, who do get some form perhaps of medicaid, nor the millions of middle-class families who can’t afford private insurance.
I question why we’re discussing health insurance rather than health care We shouldn’t need to cover premium payments, but rather health care services. Why, in a country where we make education available to all–in fact, require it thru age 16–do we not offer medical services? People, children, die without necessary medical treatment; they may not do as well in life, but they certainly won’t die from lack of education. My father made it through eighth grade only before he had to go to work to help out the family financially. He lived to age 92. He paid insurance premiums all his life–including Medicare premiums, and aside from a physical we’d forced him to go for maybe once in every fifteen years, he never had any insurance claims for himself personally.
Sixteen years ago, Hilary Clinton stood by her husband’s side in his bid for the presidency and she personally promised that health care reform would be her mission. Maybe it’s just my current experience with lawyers, but I strongly abhor this liar/procrastinator potential.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology