U.S. Must ‘Talk Openly’ To Fix Health Care System
It is "unconscionable that [the U.S. has] a health care system where people are denied the treatment they need because they can't afford it," but "unless we talk openly" about the problem, "we will never find a remedy," former U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.) writes in a Newsweek opinion piece.
Ferraro, who was diagnosed in November 1998 with multiple myeloma, writes, "I've seen firsthand just how broken our nation's health care system is," adding, "People who have insurance and money get the treatment they need to live, and those who don't -- well it's a crapshoot."
She notes that "many other countries regulate the price of drugs," while "in the United States, consumers and insurers are subsidizing those cheap drugs by paying high prices to the pharmaceutical companies. That's not fair." Ferraro writes, "I'm glad the drug companies are making a profit" because that is "the American way." However, "I do want them to understand that the way they are doing it is killing our health care system, and lots of Americans are dying prematurely and unnecessarily," she continues.
Ferraro adds, "If there's one thing I'd like to be able to do as a result of my having cancer, it's to use it as a springboard to help fix our health care system" (Ferraro, Newsweek, 10/29).