Universal health coverage essential

My local organization, the Cayuga Community Network, helped sponsor a come-together last week for the discussion titled “Health Care Reform: A Primer for Action.” We heard from our colleagues' stories that reinforced the fact that our health care system is in a shambles. As a (sometimes vocal) member of the audience, listening to what I believed to be “the same old song” for the need for health care reform in the United States, I was pleasantly surprised to hear of more than the rhetoric of previous years. I heard about a grass roots movement from citizens who showed a positive alternative to what we have today. Currently, one third of the American population is uninsured, and insurance costs have increased an annual average of 11 percent in the last five years. Although the exact structure of a new health care system is up for discussion, a universal health care system that is run like most others in the developed world where everyone is included, is the solution to the problem.

It was also presented that the change to a universal system will save millions of dollars and allows us all to have the same high quality of care.

Although the number attending the meeting was small compared to the number of our neighbors and friends caught in a financial and health predicament that is all too universal, it's a start. And it is happening everywhere across the country. After listening, I now believe that it is “different this time.” I hope so. Because the system is definitely broken, much more so than in the past. I also hope that this movement continues to grow to where there is no stopping it.