This columnist will tell you why we need a single-payer system
If you didn’t already believe that our health care system is irretrievably broken and a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system is the way to go, then you need to read this piece by a former Miami Herald columnist who just got laid off.
Robert Steinback starkly outlines what will happen when his insurance runs out at the end of January: “I am scheduled to begin dying on Feb. 1, 2010.”
Because Steinback has diabetes, which is considered a pre-existing condition, he is unable to get insurance while unemployed. He notes that those opposing a government-option health plan because they fear the decisions that would be made by government bureaucrats seem to have no problem with health care being rationed by insurance bureaucrats whose sole aim is to cut costs.
As Steinback says, please contact your senators and tell them to cater to patients, not the insurance industry. For Steinback and so many others, time is running out.