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QUESTION: Why is it that people in the U.S. pay more
in health care costs (an average of $4,178 per person) and yet
rank 37th in the world in overall health?
ANSWER: Approximately 43 million Americans have no
health insurance and almost the same number are under-insured.
They lack access to preventive or even basic healthcare which
leads to more costly emergency hospitalizations, premature disability
and death. Medical/health insurance companies, pharmaceutical
corporations and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are
some of the most profitable corporations in the U.S. They deny
care that patients' need and make exorbitant profits. Americans
spend $1.4 trillion per year on health care and get less for
their money than other countries. We don't just pay far more
for prescription medications than people in other countries.
We pay more for everything in the health care system!
QUESTION: Why are administrative costs of health care
so much more in the United States (30%, except for Medicare,
which is less than 5%) than in Canada, Europe and Japan?
ANSWER: For profit health insurance corporations in
New York State are allowed by law to spend less on medical treatment
and more on administrative costs than not-for-profit insurance
corporations. They also pay exorbitant salaries and benefits
to their corporate executives. See the chart listing corporate
executive salaries below.
QUESTION: Who was reducing insurance coverage for people,
raising the cost of insurance coverage and getting multi-million
dollar salaries?
ANSWER:
| Aetna |
paid $12,650,393
and another $19 million |
to William Donaldson
to 6 other executives |
| Allstate |
paid $5,564,525
and another $36 million |
to Robert Pike
to 17 other executives |
| A.I.G. |
paid $33 million
and another $147,614,688 |
to Eli Broad
to 15 other executives |
| Chubb |
paid $1,994,237
and another$1,563,577 |
to Dean O'Hare
to Sylvester Green |
| CIGNA |
paid $5,423,700
and another $21,402,442 |
to H. Edward Hanway
to 11 other executives |
| Citigroup (Travelers) |
paid $28,628,118
and another $97,328,866 |
to Sanford Weill
to 29 other executives |
| Conseco |
paid $77,065,286
and $70,295,919 |
to Stephen Hilbert
to Gary Wendt |
| Hartford |
paid $5,452,002
and another $25,730,908 |
to Ramani Ayer
to 11 other executives |
| ING Group |
paid $24,352,215
and another$76,487,290 |
to Robert Stallings
to 19 other executives |
| Liberty Mutual |
paid $3 million
and another $6 million |
to Gary Countryman
to 4 other executives |
| Lumbermens Mutual Casualty |
paid $2,204,889
and $1,680,247 |
to William D. Smith
to David Mathis |
| SAFECO |
$4,648,501 |
to Roger Eigsti |
| St. Paul Cos. |
paid $5,378,531
and $12,887,267 |
to Paul Liska
to 4 other executives |
| State Farm |
paid $2,807,476
and $6,477,717 |
to Edward B. Rust, Jr.
to 4 other executives |
| Swiss Re Group |
paid $12,213,766
and $31,731902 |
to Jacques Dubois, Jr.
to 7 other executives |
| Zurich |
paid $4,390,962
and $7,732,773 |
to John Hannigan
to 7 other executives |
(Year 2000 data)
QUESTION: How many people do you know who can't choose
their own doctor?
ANSWER: Whatever the number, wasn't the boogyman of
"socialized medicine" supposed to mean health care
for all, but we weren't going to be able to choose our own doctor?
Now many of us can't choose our own doctor but without the universal
coverage. We got the worst of both deals. In the 1990s we got
HMOs (health maintenance organizations) instead of universal
health care. Now HMOs tell us what doctors we see and what medications
the doctor can prescribe. Doctors hate it as much as patients
do.
QUESTION: Why is life expectancy lower in the U.S.
than other developed countries? Why does this statistic change
when Americans live past 65 years of age?
ANSWER: Because at age 65 Americans get Medicare, our
limited form of health care for all. Americans life expectancy
increases if they live long enough to qualify for Medicare. People
in all the other industrial countries have health care for all
from birth, not just beginning at age 65. Other industrialized
countries have universal health care as a human right.
QUESTION: Why do corporate executive salaries keep
going up while corporate contributions to worker health plans
keep going down?
ANSWER: We let them get away with this. If health care
was provided through a single payer system (the way our education
is provided through a single payer), the executives will still
be well paid for their work without robbing us.
QUESTION: How do we get the kind of health care that
other industrial countries have?
ANSWER: Stop listening to corporate propaganda and
vote for the Green Party.
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