You nailed the health care issue

In our latest e-newsletter, we asked readers for your thoughts on our health care system. We are planning our fall 2006 issue on how to fix this broken system.

Our readers had lots to say. You can read the responses yourself, but here's what I found especially striking. We asked this question: "Please tell us what changes would contribute to your own health and well being." But almost every single response included a variation on this theme: It's not about me. It's about we.

Health care is not something that can be solved by individuals each struggling to get some sort of coverage, each trying to get the most for themselves out of a system that is focused on making money. We need a system that excludes no one; it has to be universal health care.

There was a lot of other wisdom, also, about prevention, holistic medicine, cleaning up our environment and so on.

I'm excited about what we're finding already in the way of solutions (here's one -- just for fun). I think the system we have now is so dysfunctional that there may actually be the political will to fix it.

But we'll have to make sure the health care system that unifies a system divided into health care-haves and have-nots. And we'll have to address the ideology that insists on supporting a bloated bureaucracy of corporate insurance, drug companies, and HMOs, although the evidence shows this system is far more expensive and leads to worse health outcomes.

If you have ideas for stories and authors we should know about, please write us at editors (AT) yesmagazine.org. Include the word "health" in the subject line.

And while you're at it, sign up for our e-mail newsletter. It comes out about once a month, and it's a great way to keep up with what's happening at YES!

P.S. If you're a YES! subscriber, you'll soon be getting the summer 2006 issue in the mail. The title: 5000 Years of Empire: Are you ready for a change? If you're not a subscriber, you can sign up now at our special on-line rate, and receive the summer issue as the first of your new subscription.