Hippocrates is credited for writing, in the 4th century B.C., the coda to which medical practitioners around the world subscribe. A passage from the Hippocratic Oath states: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”

Unfortunately, elected representatives, insurance company bean counters, and K-Street lobby firms aren’t held to account for a basic medical precept that has held firm for 2400+ years.

Today, it’s pretty much an article of faith that the healthcare system in America is in crisis. Nearly 50 million of us fly without a net of health insurance, and many millions more are inadequately covered. Everyone knows someone who is barely scraping by (self employed or underemployed) and either has no insurance or costly insurance with ridiculous deductibles.

The Bush regime is hell bent on removing the yoke of health insurance coverage from employers. But instead of working toward a national healthcare plan or some system of universal coverage, the regime is moving in the direction of making everyone responsible for their own healthcare coverage. This is not only a risky play, it will most certainly prove deadly for the healthcare industry and patients who can least afford the costs, particularly in the case of catastrophic illness.

A disturbing report published today on the Health Affairs website underscores the dire straits we’re facing:

Total spending on health care is projected to be $2.1 trillion in 2006 and to reach $4.1 trillion by 2016.

Here’s the takeaway - in the next 10 years, the cost of healthcare will at least double. So, it stands to reason that insurance premiums to employers (and individuals) will most certainly track with that trend.

The system of financing the healthcare system is broken, and broken badly. While the U.S. may be on the cutting edge of medical R&D, we’re quickly on the way to becoming a third world country in terms of how the vast majority of its citizens are treated and can access proper healthcare.

Arch-conservatives like Newt Gingrich, whose health industry think tank is at the forefront of influencing government healthcare policy, are taking almost a Darwinist approach to the provision of healthcare. Only the strong survive - or perhaps more correctly, only the economically strong survive. And that’s just not right.

A month or so back, just prior to George Bush’s State of the Union address, ASZ’s own SpinDentist provided his take on the situation, and it didn’t get much play in the blogosphere. It’s a shame, because his own personal story is almost a road map to what the healthcare conservatives want for all of us. George Bush’s “base” (those in an upper economic bracket) typically don’t have employer provided healthcare.

As Doc noted, in well paying positions (law, medicine, financial markets, for example) the cost of purchasing private healthcare insurance is built into the salary and bonus structure. There’s no shopping for the best rate on group insurance. It’s simply a matter of the employee or partner taking the money provided (again, as part of the salary structure), and buying a “health insurance portfolio” that meets their personal need. Can you start to understand now why the Bush regime wants to provide a nice little tax break for those who purchase their own healthcare insurance? That’s what it’s all about. The extra “salary” that folks in the upper brackets are provided right now to purchase (in Bush’s own words) gold plated health plans is subject to taxation. Yes, the money they spend on healthcare premiums are still deductible, at least to a point. But if part of your compensation package is an extra $15,000 per year to purchase your own health plan, only the amount above a certain percentage of your total income is a tax writeoff. Under Bush’s folly, that’s about to change - and again, the wealthiest among us benefit while the rest of us scramble for healthcare crumbs.

Poll after poll indicates that the healthcare crisis is a winner for the Democratic Party. Regardless of the fact that the GOP demonized Hillary Clinton during the aborted healthcare task force in the early 90’s, the initiatives that Bill Clinton envisioned were headed in the right direction. The vast majority of Americans now understand that some drastic measures have to be taken, and taken soon.

While the Bush regime fiddles and diddles with their proposals (again) for privatizing Social Security, one could believe that their machinations are designed to mask much greater problems with Medicare and healthcare insurance issues in general. For seven years now, the freemarketeers who are advising the regime in this area have continued to chip at the lowest layers of healthcare provision, while really doing nothing to address this exploding crisis.

And, no, GOP leaders demonstrating video diagnosis techniques for braindead patients doesn’t count. Isn’t it interesting that one person’s healthcare occupied months of national dialog, while the system was collapsing (and continues to collapse) around the rest of us?