I picked five drugs. Lipitor 20mg is a cholesterol lowering medication. Canada Drugs listed 30 pills costing 60.78. CVS listed the same drug as costing $134.99. That is a savings of $74.21

     The second medication I picked was Zyprexa 10 mg. Zyprexa is a drug that treats schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Canada Drugs sells the drug for $ 222.92 for 28 pills. CVS listed the same drug for 30 tablets costing $414.99. That is a $191.28 difference.

      Premarin 12.5 is for menopause symptoms. Canada Drugs listed 84 tablets at $48.93. Costco listed the same drug at $74.04 for 59 tablets. The difference between the pills is 98 cents per pill.

     Celebrex 100mg is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) painkiller. Canada Drugs listed 60 tablets for $52.00. CVS.com listed 30 tablets for $75.99. The difference between the two pills is $2.53.

     Finally, for giggles I compared prices for Viagra 25mg to treat erectile dysfunction. CanadaDrugs listed the price of 4 tablets at $49.20 or $12.30 for each pill. Costco listed 20 tablets at $260.67 at $13.03 for the same drug. The difference between the two pills is 73 cents a pill.

     The evidence suggests that prescription drugs are cheaper in Canada than in the U.S. By negotiating drug prices by the government, drugs are cheaper under universal health care.

       Pharmaceutical companies are more concern with marketing than research. Most early research of prescription drugs is also funded by the government. “Drug companies are invited in for the later stages of “product development,” the formulation and marketing of new drugs. AZT for HIV patients is one example. After the drug was found to be effective, marketing rights went to the drug company.”

      AZT was synthesized in a lab by Dr. Richard Beltz at the National Cancer Institute in 1961. It was developed as a treatment for cancer but, Dr. Beltz found it didn’t destroy cancer cells. March 20, 1987, AZT was license as an AIDS drug. It was produced later by Burroughs-Wellcome Company (now Glazo) and sold at a high price.

      For Profit health insurance in the U.S. has a consequence for medical research. ” It is also important to note that studies show that, in the U.S., the number of clinical research grants declines in areas of high HMO penetration.” Reducing cost must be more important than medical research to save people lives.

      Furthermore, many important discoveries occur in countries where there is universal health coverage. For example, The treatment for juvenile diabetes by transplanting pancreatic cells was developed in Canada. Universal health care would not hurt research and development of new medical technologies in the U.S.

     I would argue that there are waiting times in the U.S..  I had a  double ear infection last year. It didn’t hurt too much but, it itched really badly. I couldn’t hear very well in either ear. I called my family doctor for an appointment. I had to wait three months to get into her office for an appointment. She sent me to a specialist for the infection. I had to wait another three months to get that appointment. So, I spent six months waiting for a pretty bad ear infection in both my ears.

     According to the chief medical officer at AETNA in the “U.S. waiting times average about 70 days to see a provider. People diagnosed with cancer are waiting over a month is untolerable.” The recession is also adding to waiting times. In Greensboro, North Carolina, Health Serve temporary stop accepting new patients in January and almost immediately 380 people were on a waiting list for health care services.

      Rationing already occurs in the United States. If you can afford medicine, you have medical care. If you can not afford it, you do not have medical care. That’s rationing. Similiarly, if insurers do not cover pre-existing conditions, rationing also occurs.

      Rationing and waiting times occurs in the United States’s emergency rooms. Emergency rooms are the safety net for the uninsured. Hospitals have to take care of the sick. However, the over use of the emergency rooms are caused by another circumstance. The insured are over using emergency rooms because they can’t get into their primary care doctors (Barlett and Steel 43). The solution to rationing and waiting times is simple. Covering everyone by universal health care can stop both waiting times and rationing.

Ambulance Diversion occurs when a hospital emergency department (ED) cannot care for additional emergency patients and sends the ambulance elsewhere. Ambulance diversion poses a threat for both the insured and the 47 million uninsured. Ambulance diversion occurs with an understaffed hospital system and overcrowding in the ED.

According to Barlett and Steele (46) Ambulance diversion was investigated by the U.S. House Government Reform Committee. They found that as many as six Boston Hospitals have diverted ambulance at the same time. Two more deaths occurred from these diversions.

According to the New America Foundation every minute in the U.S., an ambulance in turned away. Ambulance diversion is a symptom of a broken the U.S. health care system. A broken health care system that could be cured by universal health care.

     Celebrity cases bring more attention to medical mistakes. For example, March 17,2008 Dennis Quaid’s infant twins almost died because they were given an adult dose of blood thinner. The nurse misread the labels and gave the twins a massive overdose of the drug. The twins survived the overdose and Dennis Quaid speaks out against medical errors.

      Institute of Medicine estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors. According to Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s website about healthcare “about 100,000 Americans die from medical errors in hospitals every year”. Medical errors are the 8^th leading cause of death of Americans.

     While most mistakes highlight for a good reason, the people who died by medical mistakes. The other casualty is the health professional themselves. The Day Joy Died is written by Dr. Gary Brandeland. He was the doctor who had in his care a pregnant woman name Joy. She was going to have a C-section done. The anesthetist made a mistake and it left both Joy and her baby brain dead. Even though it wasn’t Dr. Brandeland’s fault, he was deeply affected by Joy’s death. On that day, part of Dr. Brandeland died as well as Joy. He had to tell Joy’s family alone and the rest of the health care staff treated him as a leper. He suffered from depression and even affected his relationship at home, he divorced his wife. He is now a ER Physician in Minnesota. One of the reasons the article mentioned that common mistakes occurred from overworked and understaffed nurses. Health insurance agencies try to trim costs and cutback on quality.

     Putting a price on human life has other consequences. For- profit hospitals have higher medical errors than non-profit and teaching hospitals. One-third of patients with health problems in the United States report experiencing medical, medication, or test errors, the highest rate of any nation in a new Commonwealth Fund international survey.

     The number of mistakes could be higher because most mistakes are not reported. While medical malpractice doesn’t add much to cost of health care, less than ½ of 1 percent of health care spending, it is still a symptom of our broken health care system.

     First, medical mistakes would be investigated by creating an independent review board. Secondly, universal health care would make the health care system publically accountable. Everyone would receive a report about medical care in the United States.

The Kaiser Commission listed issues of women’s health.   Among workers, women (39%) are less likely to be eligible than men (49%) for and participate in their employer’s health insurance policy. Women (38%) also are more likely to be covered as a dependent than men (25%). Women are more likely to work part-time jobs, have lower income brackets, and rely more on their spouse’s coverage. Women are also more vulnerable to losing their insurance, should they become divorced or widowed, because they are more likely to be covered as dependents. More than 15 million low-income women (ages 19-64) were enrolled in Medicaid. Three-quarters of adult Medicaid population are women. Women who enrolled in Medicaid were the poorest and the sickest of the population.

The U.S. health care system is costly. Even when covered by a private insurance company, cost is still a major factor. In 2004, one is six privately insured women reported she postponed or went without needed care because she couldn’t afford it, up from 2001.

Out of the 47 million uninsured there are 16.7 million women that are uninsured. They postpone necessary preventive care like mammograms, and pap tests that can detect crucial health problems that can be easily treated if caught early. Having insurance improves health overall and reduce mortality rates for the uninsured by 25%.

Women who are young and low incomes are at risk of being uninsured, as are women of color, especially Latinas. There is a state variation of the uninsured. Twenty-eight percent of the uninsured are in New Mexico and Texas. The lowest rate is 8% in Massassachuetes.

According to the second Kaiser Commission report there are crucial differences between men and women in the health care system. Women (56%) are more likely than men (42%) to use prescription drugs on a regular basis and more likely to report difficulties affording medications. Nearly four in10 women have a chronic condition versus men. Whether this was because women go to the doctor more often than men were not reported.

One out of every four women (23%) reports diagnosis and treatment for depression and anxiety twice the rate of men. Women are more likely to develop symptoms that coincide to keeping feeling inside. Men are more likely to be diagnosed with aggression disorders because they express their feelings outward.

Racism and sexism are apparent when looking at health care indices of women of color compared to white women.  The following is from a report from the United Nations on racism in the U.S. health care system. 

Latina women are least likely to have a doctor. One in three reports delaying or going without care in the past year because of costs. Latinas are more likely to have an unplanned pregnancy two times the national average. Latinas are more likely to contract HPV that leads to cervical cancer.

African American women are at an elevated risk of health problems. Over one-third of African-American women age 45 or an older report fair to poor health, 57% have arthritis, and 29% have diabetes, significantly higher rates than white women. African American women are 4x as likely to die in childbirth than white women. African-American women are 23x more likely to contract AIDS/HIV and 14x more likely to die of AIDS.

American-Indian/Alaska Native females are 5x more likely to have a chlamydia and more than seven times more likely to contract syphilis.

It is obvious that the U.S. health care system has gender and racial inequalities. The cure is simple. Enacting universal health care would create an even playing field for all.

The U.S. health care system is broken. There are 47 million people who don’t have insurance and millions more without adequate coverage from their health insurance policies. Medical Bankruptcy is a reality in the United States. Businesses are finding it hard to compete internationally with countries who guarantee health care for their citizens. If the U.S. continues to spend twice the amount in health care, it will break the economy. Barack Obama said, “Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.” Universal Health Care will solve the crisis in health care.

His mother didn’t have a chance to save him. She was trying to find a specialist for her other son, Dashawn. The frantic mother waited three months for a specialist to take Medicaid, for emergency care. “By the time Deamonte’s own aching tooth got any attention, the bacterium from the abscess has spread to his brain,” doctors said.

How could this happen in the United States? Don’t we have the greatest health system in the world? The United States health care system needs to be fixed by universal health care. Financed by the greatest government in the world, but delivered by the greatest health care professionals in the world. True choice. There are two significant lessons we can learn from Deamonte Driver’s death. One is the problem that both children and non-elderly adults have with Medicaid. The second is the 46 million Americans’ uninsured.

First, the boys were covered by Medicaid, but did not receive adequate access to care. Medicaid is the safety net for very low income people, poor children and pregnant mothers, for health care. The state of Maryland has tried to fix coverage holes by enacting legislation. But, it is not enough.

According to the Center for Disease Control, despite fluoride, tooth decay is the most common chronic infectious disease among U.S.children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human services claims only one in five Medicaid-enrolled children receives any dental service annually. Does the stigma of Medicaid hurt real patients? Low-income children have twice as much untreated decay as children in families with higher income. Should a family be punished because they are poor? Should health care be about profit?  Should there be a choice between Cadillac Health Care or Pinto Health Care?

Dentists’ deserve to get paid. But by withholding necessary procedures based on income? So, the Drivers were covered by a form of government insurance but, couldn’t find proper preventive and emergency care for her children.

Second, each State has different problems with Medicaid. In the state of Maine, the family was poor and lived in a rural area. During the waiting time for primary care, the frantic mother lost Medicaid because the paperwork went to a previous address. I don’t want to put a price on life, but an $80 dollar bill for a simple extraction turned into a total of $200,000 to $250,000 at Children’s Hospital for two operations and six weeks of hospital care.

What are the other costs? What are the psychological costs to the child’s life–pain and poor appearance—problems that affect universal education of children? Is that a level playing field for life, liberty or pursuit of happiness? How about Adults on Medicaid? I was on medicaid and even though I lived in Michigan City, I had to travel to Laporte (30 minutes away) for dental care because it was the only place that would handle the paperwork for partials.

The next significant lesson from Deamonte Driver’s life is about the uninsured in current U.S. health care system. There are nine million children among the 46 million uninsured. Many children live in families where they have jobs but do not offer the fringe benefit of health insurance. So, even though Alyce Driver worked at various jobs- at a bakery, construction worker, and at home healthcare job-each of these jobs did not offer health insurance.

There were several factors that led to the Clinton’s defeat. First, both houses of the government were Republicans. Besides Conservatives, the health care industry was against the Clinton’s plan. The Harry and Louise ads were a series aired on T.V. by the Health Insurance Association of America. (HIAA). The ads stated that “change is coming, and not for the better”. I found the ads on You Tube and you just need to click here to view them.

In 2007, Hillary Clinton ran for president against Barack Obama. Hillary Plan 2.0 was different than it was in 1993. She would run a mandate making sure large employers offer health insurance or contribute to a government run insurance pool. Low income people would have tax credits to prevent paying more than a set percentage. Unfortunately for Hillary, she didn’t win. Our 44^th President of the United States, Barack Obama, is also for universal health care. The major difference between Clinton’s plan and Obama’s plan is that Obama doesn’t mandate that all adults have health insurance. Obama also has the benefit that both Houses are Democratic. In his budget, that is trying to be pass, Obama allocated $634 Billion dollars for health care reform. Only time will tell if it passes guarenteeing Universal Health Care.