By John Bebow - December 21, 2007
Based on the early petition activity, voters could have plenty of variety on the November 2008 ballot.
A coalition of retirees, labor, religious and other groups with Democratic support is launching a petition drive to put universal health care on next November's ballot. The plan is long on vision and short on details other than calling on the Michigan Legislature to find ways to provide coverage for Michigan's roughly one million uninsured residents.
Here are three pieces of context to help understand what will surely be a complex and charged debate:
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In the "Health Care For All" article, do I read it correctly that a significant portion of Ma health care program is funded by "matching funds" from the federal government? And thus everyone in the US?
Government programs are extremely inefficient, and citizens pay for them. Government-run health care is not free. It would require a tax increase. Medicare is a fiscal disaster. State-run health care would be the same. The Connecticut proposal would almost double the state budget. The Canadian and English models are two examples among many of the failures of state-run health care. Canada has surgery waiting lists up to a year. 42% of English patients wait 30 weeks to a year. Survival rates for various cancers are higher in the U.S. than in many state-run countries. State-run advocates use the 46 million uninsured to scare us into believing the current system is broke. 14 million of those already qualify for existing government health care programs. Over 20 million were only uninsured for 4 months or less, due to being between jobs. Citizens already consider government to be bloated, and wasteful. When thinking about state-run health care, consider the IRS joke that's always told. "Hello, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
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