NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9580

Text File | 1992-12-23 | 2.4 KB | 50 lines

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: Healthcare NOW
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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 20:49:42 GMT
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                           HEALTH CARE
    Even in the 1880s, under the conservative Junker, Bismarck,
in part as an act of feudal noblesse oblige, and in part as an
attempt to steal the thunder from a rising socialist movement,
sickness insurance came to Germany....and then to the UK in 1911;
yet IT HAS NOT YET COME TO THE UNITED STATES.
    Industrial accident insurance became law in Germany in 1884,
in the UK in 1887; but not until 1930 did it become law in the
U.S. A pension system was adopted in Germany in 1889, in the U.K.
in 1908, but not until 1935 in the U.S. Health insurance was
introduced in Germany in 1880, in the U.K in 1948 and never in
the U.S. (except for the elderly and disabled---and it is
difficult to get and inadequate for the disabled) Now every
industrial nation has it, except for the U.S. and South Africa.
If this country is so advanced, why are we always last, and if we
are so great, why do our citizens have the fewest economic and
social rights? What does that say about the ethos of America?
    Poverty is not the fault of the poor, but a condition imposed
upon them by this society and economy. We overproduce and then
put people out to pasture without any safety net. That is the way
the system works and it is unfair, unjust, and immoral.
    Forty million people cannot afford any health insurance at
all. No one can afford the cost of health care without it. Many
more who have insurance have basic insurance and are inadquately
covered. There is a moral obligation to provide affordable and
equitable access to health care. Socialized, national health
insurance and health care is the only option, and we must have
it.
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