Why Address Healthcare at the Federal Level?

Historically in our country, we have addressed major issues across society through federal legislation.  Example: giving women and blacks the right to vote had to be legislated because some states were unwilling to address the issue.  It was the right thing to do.

So, the question of the day is why do we need national health care?

- Because all people should have access to affordable quality healthcare and not have to decide between food and medicine.  

- Because an emergency room is not affordable quality healthcare.

- Because people with pre-existing conditions should not be denied health care.

- Because cancer (or anything requiring expensive treatment) is a major cause of bankruptcy.

Here is the reality.  When people are under-insured or have no insurance, they delay getting necessary health care and they don’t fill life-saving prescriptions due to cost. That leads to poor health outcomes. When people delay too long, the outcomes are catastrophic. For example, in just the state of Maine, someone dies every three days because of lack of health insurance (over 130 deaths per year). 

Another reality is that it's not just poor, lazy people who do not have health care.  

 - It's people working full-time for small companies who do not offer health benefits.  

 - It's adjunct professors at universities and colleges.  

 - It's people who work 2-3 part-time jobs while trying to land a better job after their well-paid software development job was out-sourced.  

 - It's widowed-moms or dads that have a child with serious health issues.

Opponents of universal care can argue that "socialized," "single-payer" systems -- both terms are often misused -- are inefficient and offer worse care than the American system. However, medical indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality rates, wait times and cost do not lie. 

If people are living longer in countries like Japan, France, England, Germany, Cuba (yes, Cuba) and Taiwan, then maybe they are doing something better than us: providing very good health care to everyone.

If other countries can (and do) offer very good health care to everyone at a national level, why shouldn't we?