MEA Votes

Guest post by JoAnn Bird, MEA-Retired (Muskegon)

With 47,000,000 Americans uninsured and the cost of health care constantly rising, it is obvious that families cannot afford to purchase their own health care coverage, or they would!

As the debates have raged on, candidates have expressed their plans for health care for Americans. One plan would tax employer provided health care insurance in the hope that families would seek coverage on their own. However, the annual cost of health care coverage could be up to $12,000 or more, according to a report by the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “The Partisan Divide-the McCain and Obama Plans for U.S. Health Care Reform” from August 21, 2008.

What family can afford that cost, even with a tax credit?

Under such a plan, workers would leave their employer based system to find another one. According to an October 13, 2008, Newsweek article which estimates that 20 million workers would leave the system, not always voluntarily. What does this mean? More families would be uninsured and underinsured than currently are.

The right direction for health care in this country is to insure more Americans! Another plan creates opportunities to help middle class families obtain medical coverage they need. This plan is structured like many other modern industrialized countries in the world, in that it would help to insure our citizens.

Health care is a right! It is all about priorities.

The question is simple: how far should the United States go to ensure that all its citizens and children have health care insurance?

Is it a right of every citizen to be insured?

JoAnn Bird, MEA Retired Cadre
Muskegon, MI