McDermott pushes U.S. healthcare plan
November 30, 2004
U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-7) outlined the need for federally funded universal healthcare in front of a standing-room-only crowd of primarily pre-med and medical students last night in the Health Sciences Building.
McDermott, a licensed psychiatrist, currently has a resolution in committee that would establish healthcare coverage for all U.S. citizens.
During his lecture, McDermott outlined two major reasons to necessitate universal healthcare.
The liberal congressman stated that current healthcare is a "lottery" depending on how much you are willing to spend for coverage.
He asked onlookers why the United States was the only country in which citizens can go bankrupt because of healthcare payments compared to countries that provide healthcare for all citizens.
He used Canada's single-payer system, a system in which one government entity collects all health care fees, and pays out all health care costs, as a prime model for the United States to look toward.
"...[The American] system is everyone for themselves," said McDermott. "It's the free-enterprise system. It's how much can I take out of the system."
McDermott said he believes that another crisis for healthcare may be on the horizon.
He said that the sequencing of the human genome will allow insurance companies to discriminate against those who have predispositions to diseases with costly procedures.
"Right now you have tremendous controversy over the women's breast cancer gene," said McDermott. "If a woman has breast cancer, does she want her daughter to have testing to find out if she has that gene? Well, if now she knows it, the insurance company is going to know it. So maybe they wouldn't cover her. Right now it becomes a political problem."
The congressman said the only way to diffuse this issue would be to provide universal health coverage.
McDermott also believes medical students should receive far more federal funding than they currently collect.
He stated that the spiralling cost of education is causing more graduating medical students to look for jobs that pay more rather than what he believes is at the crux of healthcare, helping people.
He emphasized that students should be looking to help to contribute to the "greater good," instead of personal wealth
"Money should not drive you into this profession," McDermott said of healthcare.
Comments
Post a comment
You are not currently logged in. You must log in using your Facebook account to post a comment. It's fast, easy, and we don't store any of your personal information, except your first and last name when you post a comment.
Why?
Our old comment system was abused to leave racist, sexist, fradulent, or simply useless comments. We're hoping this verification step will improve the quality of our comments.
I don't have a Facebook account. I'd like to verify my identity using my MySpace/Google/Yahoo!/OpenID/SSN/주민등록번호/MasterCard.
Let us know. We're open to suggestions. Over the next few weeks, we'll be testing other authentication methods.
The FBI/CIA/TSA/CoS/Emmert is out to get me! I need to stay anonymous!
We're working on a way to allow this. If you have any ideas, email us.
I think this website is ugly.
It's going to be a work in progress all summer, so it may look and act differently from week to week. If you want to influence this process, email us. We read every email, and respond to most of them.