Health-Care Reform: The Simple Truth

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — United States Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

According to a recent study, uninsured children seem to have an increased risk of dying.

The study, published in the October 29, 2009  Journal of Public Health, was conducted by researchers at John Hopkins Children’s Center and included more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005. Researchers claim it is one of the largest studies to examine the impact of health insurance on preventable deaths of children in the United States.

The study compared death rates by underlying disease and found that, other factors being equal, a child in the hospital without health insurance was 60% more likely to die than a child with insurance. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 6.6 million children are without health insurance.

Any child on a playground will tell you that life isn’t fair, but whether a child lives or dies should not be determined by the size of his parents’ bank account or ability to purchase health insurance. Forgive me for being trite, but our children are our future. Sick and dying children cannot play, learn, and grow into the great leaders and workers we as a country need them to be.

Congress is still at it. They are still arguing over health-care reform and finances. I empathize. Health-care reform is a complicated issue involving more than just insurance. I understand that the well-meaning members of Congress are working on correcting a system that has been ailing for a long time. But it’s time to stop arguing and grand-standing and writing legislation that is so long-winded it would require the entire session of Congress just to read it. It is time to cure the health care system.

It’s time to get back to the simple truth. We built this country on the belief that “…all men are created equal.” We have fought  in schools, in courtrooms, and on battlefields at home and abroad for that belief. Until all Americans have equal access to health care, there is no equality.