FRESH IDEAS: Health care reform a matter of life and death

Every month, as many people die from lack of health care as died on 9/11. Every month. According to a recent Harvard Medical School study, nearly 45,000 die each year as a direct result of not having health insurance.

Nevertheless, former President George W. Bush said, "People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room." Perhaps he didn't realize that emergency rooms are not free clinics.

Yes, anyone can receive treatment because hospitals can't legally refuse patients. However, when patients without a primary physician or other options seek treatment at the ER for sore throats, earaches or rashes, they take time and space away from real emergencies. You know - chest pains, broken bones, car accidents. Besides, if you (or your child or grandchild) were suffering with a chronic disease such as diabetes or cancer, the ER would not the best place to receive ongoing, comprehensive care management. And ERs are a very expensive way to treat non-emergencies.

Uninsured patients also wait longer to seek treatment. A cough becomes pneumonia. High cholesterol becomes a stroke or heart attack. A condition that may have been easily treated or totally prevented in its early stages may require a lengthy (and costly) hospitalization or prove fatal. Or both.

When uninsured patients can't pay their medical bills, hospitals must pass on the cost to those with insurance to the tune of approximately $1,000 per person per year. As Steve Benen of Washington Monthly says, the Republicans have essentially "endorsed the most inefficient system of socialized medicine ever devised."

Imagine this scenario: Your educated, middle class and recently uninsured daughter (niece, neighbor) detects a lump in her breast. A biopsy reveals breast cancer. A surgeon removes the lump. Her next step is to consult an oncologist. Without insurance, however, she soon discovers it is nearly impossible to find a doctor who will even see her, let alone treat her. No wonder people die without health insurance. And Republicans still call themselves pro-life.

A public option - or a reasonable facsimile - will offer an affordable, voluntary, sustainable, federally backed plan to everyone. Medicare Part E (for Everyone) will introduce real competition and accountability into the health insurance monopoly that has been exempt from anti-trust legislation since 1945. It would also help contain health care costs and, more importantly, save more than 100 American lives every day.

Forty-five years ago, over the objection of many Republicans, Congress finally passed Medicare, so that our oldest and most vulnerable citizens wouldn't die for lack of health care. Congress realized then it was a matter of life and death.

It still is.

If we truly value human life - over partisan politics, that is - the choice should be simple.

Life.

• Lorie Smith Schaefer has lived in Carson City for more than 30 years. She is retired from teaching.