POOR MEN'S HEALTH CARE; AN AMERICAM EXPERIMENT
Sign in

POOR MEN'S HEALTH CARE; AN AMERICAM EXPERIMENT

POOR MEN'S HEALTH CARE : AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT


G.P. Baroowah

"Spiraling health care cost are bankrupting Americans, causing 14000 people to lose their health insurance everyday and will also bankrupt the nation", President Barak Obama said while defending his new Health care proposal for poor people of America.

The Health Insurance reform is the central to the theme of the rebuilding the crisis laden economy of the country stronger than before, he asserted.

In India helath insurance has not come up of the age.The health insurance in India is still vrerycostly and cannot be afforded by the senior citizen and poor people of the country. However India has medical system in place to healp the poor and rich alike through civilo hospitals but it doesnot work, properly.


In India health care is miserable yet we are not getting enough fund to take care of the humanity.The civil hospitals were set up during British Raj. The best of Doctors were deployed in the civil Hospitals and the Civil surgeon of the district was considered top Government official along with the District Magistrate, Police super and the Chief judicial Magistrate. These civil hospitals were serving humanity very well till the middle of twentieth century. Now a days the service of the most of the hospitals have deteriorated and in some case the condition is deplorable. Despite adopting socialistic pattern of society concept in our constitution the Health care institutions in our country have not improved, primarily due to lack of funds and secondarily due to bad management and lack of work and service culture of the society. The rate race of making money has blind folded the responsibility of service class of health care fraternity. Availability of Fund remains a problem even after sixty two years of independence. During my recent visit I found that America has almost fifty billion people who is deprived of proper health care facility. The Obama Administration has tried to rejuvinate this sector now. How ?

Depite the country is passing through worst even recesssion aprogramme to rejuviate the healkth care has taken up . This is for the first time in the history of America the congress is considering a bill which would virtually mean that robe the Peters to pay for the Paul. The bill under discussion would imposed an income surtax on wealthy american to pay for the more than 50 million citzens of America who are deprived of proper health care fascilities. This shows how capitalist America is turning towrds socialistic values of late. The most of the right of the middle path American donot like it. They never liked it when bank and auto giants were also helped. They feel that this kind of asistance by government would put their progonies under debt for many decade. This is not always true.

However the bill now proposed that he House bill would cost between $1 trillion and $1.2 trillion over the next decade, depending on changes to Medicare physician payments. It would impose a surtax on wealthy Americans, beginning with a 1 percent levy for couples earning $350,000 and rising to 5.4 percent on income above $1 million. A single tax payer now drawing income of more than $200.000 shal have to also pay surcharge. There are lots of professors, service holders, scientist and Mangers who draw a salary of $200 0000. Those persons would not like the imposition.
Business leaders issued several critiques of the House approach. Both the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce weighed in forcefully against proposals requiring employers to contribute to the cost of health care.

About 1,000 insurance agents fanned out across Capitol Hill, lobbying against creation of a government-sponsored health plan that would compete with private firms.

"This scares the heck out of me," said Tom Minkler, president of the Clark Mortenson Agency, an insurance and financial services agency in Keene, N.H. On visits to congressional offices, he expressed fear that the so-called public plan would lead to a European-style, single-payer system.

Obama, acknowledging the enormity of the task, observed: "It's time for us to buck up."


But there are a few intelectural who have hailed the move. one such person is

Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He was the secretary of labor during the Clinton administration. He said recently


"I don't recall the last time Congress came up with such a direct redistribution. Occasionally Congress closes a few tax loopholes at the top and offers a refundable tax credit to workers at the bottom, or it creates a poor people's program like Medicaid, paid for out of general revenues from a progressive income tax. But to say out loud, as the House has just done, that those in our society who can most readily afford it should pay for the health insurance of those who cannot is, well, audacious."

I really agree with views of intellecturals here that it's the most blatant form of Robin Hood economics ever proposed. The universal healthcare bill reported by the House Tuesday pays for the health insurance of the 20 percent of Americans who need help affording it with a surtax on the richest 1 percent.Taking a tiny sliver of the incomes of the top 1 percent will reduce all that much of their ardor to invest, innovate and hire in the future. Yet if this tiny sliver means affordable healthcare for a far larger number of Americans, who will be able to get regular checkups and thereby stay healthy and productive, the positive effect on the American economy is likely to be far greater.


There several critic who pointed out that French Government once tried to do the same thing but failed. The French experiece resulted in a net loss of national income as high wealth families fled to tax havens in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. No, if Obama really wants to make this work he has to royally stick it to the middle class. They can't leave the country.


It is foolish to think American businessman would leave the country for imposing 1% tax on them Where would they go? Mexico, Canda or Soth America? The level playing field of those countries would not make them comfortable there. People no forget that most of the American were paying much high tasxes two decades before. The health care bill would gnerate lots of criticism but according to some of us feel that this is an act which would combine the society and enriched the society much nmore gloriously.


--------------------------------------

start_blog_img