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HEALTHCARE
We all deserve quality, affordable, and accessible Health Care! |
 The United States is faced with a healthcare crisis of national proportions.
We have 46 million people (10 million of them children) – one in five Americans –
with no health insurance coverage whatsoever; and scores of additional millions
of us are under-insured. Over 13 million "insured" senior citizens lack
prescription drug coverage, and many of them are forced to chose between food
and medicine. Nor are seniors the only ones suffering from inadequate healthcare
coverage. In Florida alone, more than 40% of our employers, especially small
businesses, are contemplating dropping health insurance for their employees,
jeopardizing the security of working families. Overall, with the most expensive
healthcare system in the world, the United States has been ranked by the World
Health Organization 37th among all nations in terms of meeting the needs of its
people.
The Bush Administration and our current Congress are moving the United States backwards with regard to healthcare. Earlier this year, a budget blueprint for Fiscal Year 2004 that would have made substantial cuts in both Medicare and Medicaid spending was passed by the House of Representatives (with Congresswoman Katherine Harris of this Congressional District voting for the bill). The House of Representatives also recently approved legislation creating tax deductible savings accounts for medical expenses (with Congresswoman Harris again voting yes). Medical savings accounts constitute yet another tax boon for the wealthy and the healthy. Their inevitable effect will be to exacerbate the current health insurance crisis by increasing premiums for the vast majority of Americans, and especially for those who are sick or at high risk.
Moreover, the Medicare prescription drug bills that recently passed the Senate
and squeaked through the House of Representatives by one vote (including that of
Congresswoman Harris) would perpetrate a cruel subterfuge.  The
Bush Administration and Congress are using the desperation of seniors and their
need for prescription drugs as a wedge for privatizing the Medicare system.
Seniors will be forced either to pay high premiums as a price for remaining in
Medicare, or to switch to managed care programs in which they will be at the
mercy of insurance companies. With the gaps and other defects in the proposed
plans, most retirees will benefit little or not at all; and many retirees who
already have drug coverage risk losing such benefits. Moreover, the Bush Medicare
program does nothing to control soaring drug prices for the rest of the
population.
 There are also a number of subsidiary areas in which Congressional attention is
urgently needed. For example, the critical shortage of nurses and other medical
professionals in this country needs to be addressed on a national basis.
Continuing simply to relax immigration laws to allow an influx of additional
foreigners is bad policy, for economic and social as well as security reasons.
Rather, we need to provide the working conditions and incentives necessary to
attract highly qualified, young Americans into medical professions.
Our current Congresswoman, Katherine Harris, has repeatedly voted against the healthcare interests of the people of this District (including by even voting against a bill allowing re-importation of American-made drugs from Canada and the European Union). Instead of representing the wishes and needs of her constituents, Ms. Harris has chosen to serve as a mere rubber-stamp for Bush Administration policies. As our next Congresswoman, Jan Schneider will fight for quality, affordable, accessible healthcare for all of the people in this country, including seniors, working families and minorities.
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