First, some scary statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services:
* 48% of all African-American adults suffer from a chronic disease, compared to 39% of the general population.
*Development of diabetes: 18% of American Indians; 15% of African Americans; 14% of Hispanics; 8% of white Americans
* African Americans are 15% more likely to be obese than whites.
*40% of low-income Americans do not have health insurance. About one-third of the uninsured have a chronic disease, and they are six times less likely to receive care for a health problem than the insured. In contrast, only 6% of high-income Americans lack insurance."
Many Americans are in a health care crisis. What is the solution?
Enlisting the help of supporters and volunteers, President Obama is attempting to jumpstart the conversation on health care reform.
In conversations initiated by grass-roots workers around the country, the administration hopes to get on the road of achieving its health care goals. That is to say, "[the reduction of] health care costs, yet guarantee choice of doctors, hospitals and insurances plans, while making quality health care available and affordable for all," according to the ST. LOUIS AMERICAN.
So Obama troops have organized; making phone calls and knocking on doors, hoping voters will put the pressure on Congress to make health care changes. Another universal health measure, Sen. Ted Kennedy's Affordable Health Choices Act, began making its way around the Capitol last week.
Also on the table is what lawmakers are calling Senate Bill 4, a health care placeholder until a more permanent system is finalized. This option acts as an alternative to private insurance that will keep the industry honest, while providing a mechanism for advancing quality-enhancing and cost-cutting strategies essential to the future viability of our health care system” and “would ensure rural Americans and those facing employment changes the choice to have quality, affordable coverage backed by the strength and reliability of the federal government.”
We know the president is ambition. Is universal health care a logistical feasibility in the United States or is it simply an impossibility?