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Positions and Views on Other Issues where Information is Available: |
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| Health |
Positions and Views |
| Pennsylvania Health, a General Statement |
George: No Response |
| Improving Pennsylvania Health Care |
George: Fixing health care before we’re all bankrupt
By State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, D-74 of Clearfield County
In 1945, President Harry Truman called for universal health care for Americans.
Sixty-one years later, America is still waiting … and withering.
There’s no silver lining in our bankrupt-a-country health-care system except for the riches that private insurance and pharmaceutical companies are leeching from America’s well-being.
The president of the National Coalition on Health Care said it best: "The crisis in health care is the central economic problem facing America -- adversely affecting living standards, job creation and retention, wage growth, the adequacy and viability of pension benefits" and the global competitiveness of American business.
Some 45 million Americans are uninsured, including almost 1 million Pennsylvanians.
U.S. health spending per person is more than twice the average of such spending in Canada, France, Italy and Britain -- countries that guarantee health care for all their citizens.
Having among the costliest health-care systems in the universe -- average family health insurance premiums were pegged to hit $14,545 this year -- has not ensured quality. The U.S. trails in satisfaction and outcomes. We’re a laggard in life expectancy and an embarrassment in child mortality rates.
Businesses can’t afford this runaway, Rube Goldberg machine that chews up money, families and businesses and spits out despair. Automakers say health costs add $1,600 to the price of a vehicle. Small businesses can’t stay viable and still offer health care to workers.
Our health-care professionals are suffering dearly. No one wants doctors or nurses to be bean-counters, preoccupied with mountains of red tape and arcane insurance rules. We count on them to preserve and protect lives, yet many doctors have seen their incomes level off as their paperwork and bureaucratic headaches skyrocket.
Last year, I wrote that some conservatives [Response was truncated to maximum response length of 2000 characters.]
Source: Submitted by CAMILLE George Date: 10/04/2006 |
| Reducing Health Care Costs |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Children’s Health Care |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Obesity |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Drug Addiction |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Smoking |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Mental Health Care |
George: No Response |
| Pennsylvania Nursing Homes, Hospices and Assisted Living |
George: No Response |