Americans spend more on health care than people do elsewhere, but somehow we spend more for less.
Most of us have no clue about the actual cost of our medical care until the bills arrive, because hospitals and doctors don’t publish their charges. The cost of insurance goes up and up, with fewer services covered. Millions of Americans needlessly suffer or die from preventable medical errors and infections.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Costs can come down and quality can improve if we stop letting the insurance companies run the show, make billing clear and simple, and focus on prevention and managing chronic illness better.
You can make a difference by taking our pledge and joining our effort to make health care a top priority for our nation’s leaders, no matter who wins the election.
THE PLEDGE:
I want to join with other Americans to support action, answers and accountability. It is time to:
Give my family security that we will have quality care when we need it at a cost we can afford;
Make hospitals and doctors more transparent about the cost and quality of care they offer;
Elmininate unnecessary bureaucracy between patients and the care they need;
End long waits for care;
Examine all solutions that will ensure all Americans access to quality, affordable care, with input from real people like me.
Sign pledge
We signed the pledge for higher quality, lower cost health care!
# 4,350:
11:32 am PDT, May 19,Stephen Wilcoxon, Minnesota
Health care is not optional and everyone should be provided with adequate health care. The current system is the US is demonstrably about the worst in any developed nation.
# 4,349:
10:59 am PDT, May 19,Harold Self, North Carolina
# 4,348:
10:57 am PDT, May 19,Name not displayed, New Mexico
Every european country has high quality health
care-why can't we?
# 4,347:
10:31 am PDT, May 19,Tori Bush, Florida
# 4,346:
10:15 am PDT, May 19,Shelley Levy, Florida
IT IS TIME FOR THIS COUNTRY TO HELP ALL AMERICANS HAVE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE!!!!!
# 4,345:
9:39 am PDT, May 19,Matthew Pintar, Pennsylvania
# 4,344:
8:52 am PDT, May 19,Lori Sprague-Thietten, Idaho
While I was a nurse's aid, I had to experience a woman who just came out of having a mastectomy for breast cancer and within the hour her insurance company called her and said that they would not cover the cost for her to stay in the hospital over night. Apparently it was a surgery scheduled for in the early part of the day and an emergency happened in the hospital that pushed her surgery back and she didn't have hers completed until after 10pm. To hear her cry about this, not only being worried about her having to go through treatment for cancer but now she konws how her insurance company does not care about her, just about the bottom dollar.
# 4,343:
7:41 am PDT, May 19,Dave Storozuk, Canada
# 4,342:
7:21 am PDT, May 19,Kat Riley, Massachusetts
# 4,341:
7:17 am PDT, May 19,Brian Dunlop, Vermont
# 4,340:
7:06 am PDT, May 19,Name not displayed, New Jersey
# 4,339:
7:05 am PDT, May 19,April Ballard, Maryland
# 4,338:
6:35 am PDT, May 19,Name not displayed, Ohio
# 4,337:
6:24 am PDT, May 19,Nancy Wolfe, New Jersey
Affordable/accessible healthcare is needed in the united states now! Children and adults dying due to lack of care is a travesty in our country. We all need to be involved and be part of the solution to this problem.
# 4,336:
1:17 am PDT, May 19,Name not displayed, California
# 4,335:
1:13 am PDT, May 19,Name not displayed, California
# 4,334:
9:52 pm PDT, May 18,Willow White, Idaho
# 4,333:
9:34 pm PDT, May 18,Tammy Miller, California
I have special needs children
# 4,332:
9:19 pm PDT, May 18,Jeffery Turner, Arizona
Two simple facts;
1. Any time you add a middle-man (insurance) the price goes up.
2. Pharmaceutical companies (and others) don't want you know about simple and inexpensive methods of health care. Witch doctors, quackery and old wives tales are a few scare tactics they play up.
Typical TV ad for a prescription drug "Treats (does not cure) one moderate affliction; possible side effects include 2 minor, 3 moderate and 2 major health problems. In a very small percentage, death occurs. In those cases, it is considered a cure."
Who's really the quack?
# 4,331:
5:57 pm PDT, May 18,Name not displayed, Minnesota
They say "socialized healthcare" will lead to rationing, and waiting months for treatment. Even if this were true, is it really better than not being treated at all because you're uninsured, or because your insurance won't pay for the treatment because they're most worried about their own bottom line?
# 4,330:
7:17 pm PDT, May 16,Beth Landrum, Kansas
# 4,329:
6:55 pm PDT, May 16,Kristi Patterson, Colorado
# 4,328:
6:50 pm PDT, May 16,Nicholas Weiss, Michigan
# 4,327:
5:53 pm PDT, May 16,Debra Thurlo, Minnesota
We need a national health care program like Canada has. We go there all the time, and it is a great system, and Canadians love it!
# 4,326:
5:44 pm PDT, May 16,Grace Vargas, Connecticut
# 4,325:
5:31 pm PDT, May 16,Charmaine Frost, Connecticut
# 4,324:
5:28 pm PDT, May 16,Amelia Haimovitch, California
# 4,323:
5:21 pm PDT, May 16,J Roberts, Oregon
# 4,322:
5:18 pm PDT, May 16,Sandy Rusch, Illinois
# 4,321:
4:29 pm PDT, May 16,Sara Bianchi, Italy
# 4,320:
4:28 pm PDT, May 16,DOLORES BURBULAK, New York
PLEASE, HELP US GET BETTER HEALTH CARE AT A LOWER COST.
# 4,319:
4:14 pm PDT, May 16,Katyann French, Pennsylvania
i'm a single mother and i have medical problems that require money that i don't always have. for me i need something that is for the people not for the insurance companies and dr's to make money on
# 4,318:
3:08 pm PDT, May 16,Mary Donnelly, Australia
There is not much point in spending so much money on health care that does not get through to the poeple who really need it.
# 4,317:
2:47 pm PDT, May 16,Rebekah Eustace, North Carolina
# 4,316:
2:31 pm PDT, May 16,Joy Townsend, Florida
I Don't have health insurance because I can't afford it.
# 4,315:
2:03 pm PDT, May 16,Amy Lawless, North Carolina
# 4,314:
1:40 pm PDT, May 16,Lynn Delsing, New Jersey
# 4,313:
1:20 pm PDT, May 16,Therese Lesher, California
This issue is important to me because I am a student & part-time employee making minimum wage who cannot afford health insurance yet needs it for my peace of mind and for those unexpected illnesses or accidents that seem to happen at the most inopportune times...when I have no health insurance!
# 4,312:
1:04 pm PDT, May 16,Name not displayed, Ohio
# 4,311:
12:48 pm PDT, May 16,Brian Barber, California
# 4,310:
12:14 pm PDT, May 16,Samantha Weldon, Michigan
# 4,309:
11:59 am PDT, May 16,Yaremis Lopez, Florida
# 4,308:
11:55 am PDT, May 16,Name not displayed, California
# 4,307:
11:44 am PDT, May 16,Kay Rossi, Colorado
If we take the enormous business profits from Insurance Companies and use it for the real health care, a major component of reform health care is in place. A second component is to implement support for the chiropractic, naturopathic, and other more natural and preventative branches of healing and health care. The AMA' strength is surgical and emergency medicine. Other modalities are powerful in lowering costs through preventing emergencies, regulating diabetes, heart problems, depression, and addictions omitting pharmaceutical giants huge profit margins and the necessity to use another medicine to overcome the side effects of the first prescription and the second prescription.
# 4,306:
11:41 am PDT, May 16,Emily Taylor, Mississippi
# 4,305:
11:20 am PDT, May 16,Ashley Gibb, California
# 4,304:
10:49 am PDT, May 16,Danny Chazanas, California
# 4,303:
10:47 am PDT, May 16,Kelley Riles, South Carolina
# 4,302:
10:41 am PDT, May 16,Maureen Kiely, California
# 4,301:
10:01 am PDT, May 16,Kristina Bain, Colorado
None of us but the richest are safe from the threat of bankruptcy due to a catastrophic health emergency. More focus on prevention of chronic diseases and medical errors would save the entire system money while providing ordinary people with better health and satisfaction with their coverage.As it stands now we have more of a disease management system than a "health" care system.