Universal Health Care Educational Resources - categorized conceptually to facilitate learning

[exchange77]

http://www.amsa.org/uhc/uhcres.cfm

The issue of universal health care is inarguably quite complex. AMSA has developed a wide range of reader-friendly materials to help educate you about universal health care. The educational materials are categorized conceptually to facilitate your learning process


WHY UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IS IMPORTANTOverview of the American Health Care System
Start here with an overview of the American health care system. The overview covers the basics of employer-based insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP. You can also download a Powerpoint presentation about the American health care system here.

The Case for Universal Health Care
Why should we even care about this issue? Why is universal health care arguably the most important domestic issue for American citizens and policy makers? Find out the moral, economic, and cultural case for universal health care in this primer.

LEARN ABOUT THE UNINSUREDThe problems of the health care system affect every American regardless of their insurance status. Nevertheless, it is important to understand some basic information about the group of Americans that are most hurt by our health care system: the uninsured.

AMSA's Primer on the Uninsured
This short, highly readable ten-page primer presents the basic data on the demographics of the uninsured and the effects of being uninsured.

Myths about the Uninsured
The Kaiser Family Foundation has compiled a list of ten common myths about the uninsured. Do the uninsured really get all the care they need? Can the uninsured afford health insurance but choose not to? Find out here.

The Uninsured: A Primer
This EXCELLENT Kaiser Family Foundation primer gives a complete overview of the uninsured, including data and citations. It's extremely concise considering its breadth.

STRATEGIES TO INCREASE HEALTH CARE ACCESSMost people agree that all Americans should be able to access health care, but there is currently not consensus in the general public about the best option to achieve this goal.

Strategies to Increase Health Care Access
This primer provides an objective overview of the advantages and disadvantages of various options for increasing health care access - single payer, expansion of public programs, the federal-state partnership, tax credits, individual mandates, employer mandates, and state-based approaches.

Theoretical Approaches for Delivering Health Care
This is an older but useful primer that complements the strategies to increase health care access primer. Topics covered include a single-payer system, multi-payer system, tax credits, medical savings accounts, and managed competition.

Single Payer 101
Of the many options that exist for providing health care for all, AMSA most strongly supports a single-payer system. This primer explains what a single payer system is and discusses both the advantages and potential disadvantages of this solution.

Health Savings Accounts and High-Deductible Health Plans
A major alternative vision for reform in the health care system is the market-based, consumer-driven health care approach that combines health savings accounts and high-deductible health plans. AMSA does not support this approach, but it is still important to know about this approach.

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEMSUniversal health care may seem like an abstract concept to Americans, but it is a basic fact of life in every other industrialized country.

International Health Care Systems Primer
This is a detailed yet concise primer on the health care systems of Sweden, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the U.K. For an outline version of this primer, click here.

The Canadian Health Care System: Fact Sheet
Although the Canadian health care system is the most familiar foreign health care system to Americans, it is also one of the most widely misunderstood. This two-page fact sheet outlines the basics of the system.

Canadian Waiting Times Primer
The waiting times in Canada's system are the topic of much heated debate on both sides of the border. Yet, the actual extent of the problem is far from understood. This primer analyze the little data that exists on the problem, compares the problem to waiting times in the United States, and addresses the question of whether Canadians are coming to the United States for medical care.

International Health Care Systems Links
Click here for a number of links to resources that provide a more detailed look at international health care systems.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARECountering Arguments Against Universal Health Care
This page takes the most common arguments against universal health care and addresses them, point by point.

THE CONCEPT OF FRAMINGOverview of Framing
Frames are conceptual structures that represent a way of understanding the world - they are a story about how the world works. Framing has become an essential tool for activists who are interested in changing how people think.

Framing Universal Health Care
The way in which universal health care is framed plays a pivotal role in its appeal to the general public. This primer covers how to frame universal health care - and how not to frame universal health care.

KEEP UP WITH CURRENT EVENTSChanges in the health care system happen almost daily. If you want to stay current without spending hours each day reading journals, newspapers, and websites, sign up for these two listservs. You will get just one e-mail a day:

Kaisernetwork's Daily Health Policy Report
Kaiser's Daily Health Policy Report provides a completely objective listing of the major health policy developments of the day. It includes reports from Congress, editorials from newspapers, and the most recent studies in health policy.


Dr. Don McCanne's Quote of the Day
Dr. McCanne is a California physician who runs a one-man think thank on single payer health care. His e-mails address health policy studies and newspaper articles in the context of a single payer system.

http://www.amsa.org/uhc/uhcres.cfm

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. Universal SINGLE PAYER healthcare is the answer

I don't need a bunch of primers on healthcare and the perils of being uninsured, thank you very much. I need the people who support Clinton's mandates to understand that I will never consider what she is trying to do to be universal healthcare. She is trying to forcibly take the money from working Americans and hand it to greedy insurance companies. And I'm really tired of the specious comparisons to other government programs like Social Security.

Pay attention:

We don't pay private insurance companies for police protection.

We don't pay private insurance companies for fire protection.

We don't pay private insurance companies for K-12 public education.

I could go on. You get the point.


And no, I don't believe for one minute that we'll be able to choose between government and private plans. The insurance lobby will never let that happen. Never. The government plan will be for the poor and the "uninsurable". Everyone else will have to buy private insurance. I want universal health care that is paid for by tax dollars and directly pays for my healthcare, not the salaries of CEOs and dividends to shareholders.

[exchange77]

2. You should really do some reading before pushing out your claims..

!

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. You should stop confusing mandatory insurance with universal healthcare. nt

[Nickster]

3. Good stuff, thanks for sharing.