I watched President Obama's address to Congress this evening regarding proposed health care reform. For the record, I greatly admire Obama and believe that he's a man with great vision and a courageous drive to improve the lives of all Americans. I understand that not everybody may agree with all of his proposals for the Health Care Reform bill, but surely there was much in his speech tonight that made so much sense that I don't get why a certain segment of the American people are so determined to trip him up and see him fail. As President Obama maintains, to do nothing will only result in health care costs continuing to spiral out of control, demanding an ever expanding slice of the national budget, mostly due to wastage within the system and turning a blind eye to the greed of the insurance companies. (America currently spends about 13% of the budget on health care, compared to about 9% which is average for other developed countries, Canada included). Yet there are those on the far right who would rather live in denial than to confront the problem and work in a bipartisan manner to bring about new policy that will help to bring down wastage in the system and instead put that money directly towards universal health coverage.
I've written of my admiration for activist and filmmaker, Michael Moore in the past as well. In fact, years before he brought us the documentary, Sicko, which focused on the problems within the American health system, he had done this powerful segment condemning the health insurer, Humana, for ignoring the pleas of a man in desperate need of a kidney and pancreas transplant. Regardless of how you personally feel about Michael Moore, I would ask that you watch this entire clip I've linked to on Youtube. If this proof of bureaucracy and greed at one of America's big corporate private insurers doesn't make you angry enough to join in the fight for health care reform, I don't know what will:
