Ban group health in US insurance now | News, Sports, Jobs – Warren Tribune Chronicle

DEAR EDITOR:

CNN journalist and neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Skeggs talk and the interlocutor’s questions afterward at Stambaugh Auditorium avoided mention of a glaringly obvious fact. The United States has done worse than Mexico in COVID deaths per million population, and far worse than Canada.

The extent to which the U.S. has done worse is astounding. If we had Mexico’s COVID deaths per million, we’d have about 820,000 COVID deaths. If we had Canada’s COVID deaths per million, we’d have 330,000 COVID deaths. Our actual deaths from COVID in the United States are nearing 1 million. Worldwide, America ranks among the 20 worst-performing nations during the pandemic.

One important reason for those awful statistics is that the entirety of the pandemic debate was premised on the notion that America’s existing distribution of health care is somehow right and legitimate. Only tweaking would be needed to address the higher demand for health care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those very few of us who’ve studied America’s unique cult of group health insurance were confident something bad would happen when the first cases of COVID in the United States were reported. We knew the unusual workings of group health through other discretely identifiable populations had completely upended common-sensical ideas of right and wrong, good and evil, and basic human decency. We’d also come to understand group health insurance as a terrible 80-year mistake delivering awful consequences for America and Americans. That’s why in January 2020 I volunteered to speak to several local organizations about the coming catastrophe.

Ban group health insurance — now. “Now” won’t happen, of course. Assignment editors and academic department chairs ought to immediately green-light journalists and academics with the gumption to assemble the observations and marshal the arguments needed to bring this noxious product to full public awareness so that Congress can act on its abolition.

What happens after group health’s abolition? That’s when we can hold an honest debate on creating a grown-up American health care system that can rival Mexico and Canada when the next pandemic hits us hard.

JACK LaBUSCH

Niles

Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox