Health Care
The Need for Reform

I believe that our economy, the strongest in the world, can and should provide comprehensive health care for all Americans. 

Our United states, with only 4.6% of the world's population, currently brings home 24 cents out of every dollar earned throughout the world.

Our domestic economy is on its biggest roll ever,  9+ years of continuous expansion. In terms of overall U.S. economic growth, things have never been better. 

Yet we all know that our economy does not distribute these dollars equally. Our earning power and  wealth is heavily concentrated in just a small percentage of our citizens.  We have  the widest span of any industrialized country between those at the top of the economic distribution and the rest of our citizens. 

Furthermore, with all these economic benefits, our United States does less than all other industrialized countries to provide basic services for all its citizens. Among all of the world's industrialized countries, only the United States and South Africa do NOT provide comprehensive health care for ALL their citizens.

Today 44 MILLION Americans, one in six, including 12 million children, do not have medical coverage. 

On June 21st the World Health Organization issued its year 2000 analysis of health systems in 191 countries. Our United States overall health care performance ranks only 37th. Yet no other country spends as high a percentage of its Gross Domestic Product for health care as the U.S., at 14%.  France, which has the best health care system in the world, only spends 9.7%; Italy, with the second best, spends only 7.6%; the United Kingdom, in 18th place, spends only 6.9% and Canada (in 39th place) spends only 9.2% of its GDP on health care.

With the strongest economy in the world, our United States can do better than to leave 1 in 6 Americans without health care coverage, rank only 37th in the world in health care performance, yet spend more resources on health care than any other nation.  It's time to provide comprehensive health care for all Americans.