The Inconvenient Truth

30 Million Uninsured Americans

There is a real and growing crisis in America that affects thirty million people and you could be one of them. The problem is “Healthcare Coverage.” The U.S. Government has deemed these numbers to be alarming requiring immediate action to present a viable solution to address this issue. Lawmakers are reluctant to take action acknowledging the cost to taxpayers for now and in the future. Fear of political suicide drive much of the idle progress of seeking the origin of this problem. Many theories has been projected in an effort to discover the cause of this epidemic while politicians use this fear to deliver propaganda to promote the many speculations conjuring public support in hopes they have the right answer. I have found that there are many explanations that can be attributed to this crisis, but there are three that I have found to be direct. For example, the shift of manufacturing to service jobs, non-union labor, and the rising cost of healthcare.

I can remember just like it was yesterday, in Summit County, Ohio when companies like Goodyear, Firestone, Bridgestone, and Goodrich was pumping out tires, on all three shifts. During the early nineties, these companies started to shift away to find cheaper labor in countries where the labor was cheaper and took the well paying manufacturing jobs with them. This was process called outsourcing was justified to keep these companies from going out of business. Akron, Ohio was not the only U.S. city that witnessed this form of corporate practice. In fact, for the past 25 years Americans and Europeans have seen deindustrialization shrinks their labor force (R. Rowthorn, Economic Issues 10, P. 1). Between 1979 and 1999 Americans have suffered a decline healthcare coverage as well as a decline manufacturing jobs. This decline started to snowball affecting the average American income, and the Labor Unions.

Global changes in economics were taking place before we even realized it was happening. Like the old cliché “Hind Sight is 20/20). Many of the employees of the big rubber manufacturers were educated, at most at the high school level and some not at all. Finding stable employment to match the income and benefits they were receiving proved to be very difficult. The select employees that the companies kept working were working now in a non-union position. Accustomed to a standard of living was a challenge to overcome. The local workforce and the labor unions were not the only ones feeling the loss. After a while, the snowball started to affect the hospitals. The hospitals were also accustomed to the majority of the local citizens carrying adequate medical coverage. Therefore, their investments, in the technology and equipment to provide the quality of care were not being accounted for unless they raised the cost of the paying they would have to decrease the quality of care. This issue snowballed into the rising cost of healthcare.

Doctors and hospitals stood afloat for many of years depending on the Government to supply health coverage to a few while charities account for some of the healthcare costs. They only solutions that medical experts could produce were to raise the cost and that was answer to a short-term problem, but the inevitable was yet to come. From 1967 to 1978 the price of a semi-private hospital room rose as fast as the consumer price index (R. Feldman & R. Sheffler, Vol. 35, No. 2, 1982). The healthcare system has been in a decline for many of years to come. Times have change and so should our politics. There is no one to blame we are just transforming from one revolution into another. When we failed to educate our citizens we failed our children in the new technology revolution we failed our children.

If we keep on the path of change in America we will restore the jobs, the economy, and the healthcare system. We have to focus on education first in order to create a workforce who is competitive in a high tech world. Although there would always be union jobs, just not the way it used to be are going to have to take the matter of health coverage into our own hands. The only way we can do that is by have a system in place that is fair to the consumer. When we are not turned down, because of pre-existing conditions, or fearing the decline in the quality of care we have a chance. The question has already been answered.