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As we greet the New Year, there is little cause for rejoicing. The economy is still limping along and the state and federal budgets are mired in huge deficits. As we survey the forecasts for government funding of essential public health programs for next year and the years ahead in this, the wealthiest state in the world, we have to wonder "what's gone wrong?".

The health care system - or more correctly, the health care non-system in these United States - is rapidly gaining the attention of the public, as daily horror stories appear in the media about:

• employers who are unable to afford health insurance for their workers or even for their own families,
• HMOs dumping Medicare patients and leaving them to fend for themselves in the "marketplace,"
• the rapidly increasing cost of health care overall, which is costing us more than double the per-capita cost of health care in any other country, while all other industrialized nations have universal health insurance, and not one leaves between forty and fifty million people without coverage,
• people who are so convinced that "government programs can't work" and that universal health insurance is "socialistic" although more than fifty percent of health expenditures are already paid by government programs,
• politicians who are well aware of the problems of their constituents whose health needs are not being met, but who are afraid to act,
• pharmaceutical companies charging higher and higher prices for medications, while many older adults have to choose between paying for food or prescriptions, chronically-ill persons seek to fill their prescriptions in Canada or Mexico or go without, and others rely on unlicensed back-street "practitioners,"
• uninsured and under-insured people who lack access to health care, long waiting periods in overcrowded emergency rooms, and many failing to seek care until their illness becomes acute, life-threatening, and more costly to treat,
• frustrated physicians giving up their practices, or refusing to accept new patients on Medicare,
• huge conglomerates gobbling up hospitals and Medicare dollars, while hospitals and clinics are forced to close for lack of funds, and
• overworked and underpaid nurses striking, and the alarming shortage of qualified health professionals.

In this economy, with increasing unemployment and belt-tightening state and federal budgets, it is high time we looked closely at the profiteering and waste which characterize our health care non-system. Where are the health care dollars going? Is it reasonable that more than fifty cents of every dollar spent on health care in this country goes for paperwork, profits, insurance and fraud? Is it acceptable that less than half of every health care dollar is actually spent on health care? Is there any other country in the world that would tolerate insurance companies and drug manufacturers continuing to post huge profits while hospitals and clinics are forced to close?

Nor is the proposal to reform health care delivery necessarily costly. In fact, the California Health Options Study has demonstrated that all Californians could be covered with comprehensive health care benefits, including prescription drugs, dental care and long-term care, at less cost than we are presently paying. A single-payer system in just this state would save billions of dollars per year, money which could help to offset the deficit - which resulted from deregulation of energy - brought to you by the same folks who rant about "Socialized Medicine."

As Moses said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" -- and as we say to our elected representatives, let the people of California, and eventually all Americans, go - to the same kind of excellent health care our tax dollars now provide for our members of congress and senators. The "Socialized Medicine" that paid for inserting a pacemaker in our Vice President's chest, the same system that provides health care for our military and their families, should be available for all.

Please Note: Editorial opinions are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all Health Care Council Members.

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