Home Town Proof That We Need Universal Healthcare NOW!

Since earlier this year, as stories about the Milwaukee Health Department’s mismanagement and issues with not following up with lead poisoning issues, growing issues with STDs, and now woman not getting cancer screenings and mammograms, it’s obvious that the health department is a hot mess. I am not going to get into all of that now…but the latest issue supports moving to universal single-payer healthcare now.

Here are the issues in a nutshell:

More than 100 women were left waiting for breast and cervical cancer screenings after the City of Milwaukee stopped providing those crucial services earlier this year.

Some of those women had symptoms such as lumps in their breasts, or reported pain or burning sensations, according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel through an open records request.

The Well Woman program provides cancer screenings and other services to women with little or no health insurance coverage. The program pays for mammograms, pap tests and cervical cancer screenings for high-risk women as well as other tests.

Many of those left waiting were low-income women, he (Alderman Michael Murphy) said.

The drop-off in crucial cancer-screening services was linked to a contract with provider Healthfirst, which ended in January. As the Journal Sentinel reported last week, that contract ending also disrupted the city’s family planning services.

(emphasis mine in both cases)

The city shouldn’t have to supply low income residents with health services. Milwaukee residents should never be without health insurance. The mess at the Milwaukee Health Department is shocking and unacceptable…but in a preferred world it shouldn’t even need to exist in its present form.

All of these woman should have universal health insurance. They should all have their own primary care physicians, their own ob-gyn specialists. They shouldn’t be waiting for vital healthcare services while bureaucrats get their shit together in Milwaukee.

What the fuck is wrong with this country that we can’t even take care of our own?

Editor’s Note 7/14/2018:
I am calling for the establishment of a national universal single payer healthcare plan. I would expect the federal government or assigned federal agency to be the banker…collect taxes/fees/premiums as required to make it work and pay healthcare providers. Similar to its role today with Medicare.

The Milwaukee Health Department is acting as the actual service provider albeit via a subcontractor, but the actual supplier nonetheless. Not a good thing.

If you want to see more backstory on the issues at the health department, follow these links:

Health officials scaled back family planning services despite Milwaukee spike in sexually transmitted diseases

Protecting Milwaukee’s children: What we know about the latest problems with the city’s lead poisoning prevention efforts

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5 thoughts on “Home Town Proof That We Need Universal Healthcare NOW!

  1. Yeah, let’s have the Bevan Bakers of the world running our health care system. That’ll work out well.

  2. While I agree that the current system has it’s flaws (!), does anyone really think that the Federal Government can do a better job?

  3. I am going to add a statement to provide a bit of clarity here. There is another post coming sometime in the next week around healthcare and the Dems and Bernie Sanders.

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