As you may or may not know, I've taken a job with Health Care for America Now, an issue advocacy groups dedicated to winning real health care reform in 2009. Jerome has been kind enough to allow me to continue to post here on weekends on the topic of health care reform in America. Here's my pitch for the importance of this campaign.

$217 million per hour.

That's how much Americans spend on health care according to testimony in front of Congress' Joint Economic Committee by experts from the American Human Development Project.

24 hours a day. 365 days a year. For a total of almost $2 trillion spent every year, 16% of our GDP - more than any other nation on earth. And for what?

According to the World Health Organization, America ranks 37th in the world for best health care systems, behind countries we'd expect like France, Japan, and Norway, and also countries that might surprise you, like Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Chile. And it's not just our health care. According to the American Human Development Project:

Despite the second-highest income in the world, despite being the the world's No. 1 economy, and despite spending $5.2 billion a day on healthcare -- more than any other nation -- America landed behind 11 other countries in overall human development [encompassing health, education, and income rankings].

One of the main problems was that one in six Americans don't have health insurance. That limitation is connected to such factors as lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality. The U.S. also has the highest percentage of children living in poverty of the 30 richest countries. The top 20% of income earners in the U.S. make 15 times more than the bottom 20%. And 14% of Americans lack the literary skills to understand newspaper articles or navigate instruction manuals. Those measures -- education, poverty, poor health and shorter lifespan -- have all been shown to be interconnected.

Health care is integral to our success as a country. Healthy children learn more. Healthy adults work more. A healthy population creates more prosperity for itself. And yet, while America spends more money on health care than everyone else, we get less. Over the years, as health insurance profits have risen (along with costs), Americans get less for their money. The ranks of not only the uninsured, but the underinsured are growing.

$217 million per hour, every day of every year.

Without adequate health insurance because premiums are rising much more quickly than both inflation and earnings, the number one cause of bankruptcy in America is health care costs.

Why do we put up with this? Why do we allow private insurance companies to reap ever-higher profits while fulfilling less and less of their obligations to cover our medical bills? Why do Americans continue to finance an industry that admits it puts profits before people, and is so is full of waste? As Ezra Klein puts it:

And of course, there's administration, where we pay $98 billion more than anyone else, $84 billion of it in oh-so-efficient private sector.  64% of those costs come from insurer underwriting and advertising -- in other words, we're paying more than $50 billion dollars so insurers can convince us we need care and then figure out how to deny those of us who'll actually use it.  That's some added value.

This system is broken. We deserve something better.

What if insurance companies were required to provide a standard level of care for a standard price? What if insurance companies couldn't drop you from their plans if you got sick? What if they couldn't deny you coverage if you had pre-existing conditions? And most importantly, what if there was a public health insurance plan anybody could opt into no matter what?

The distinguishing feature of America's health insurance system is its extreme privatization. While countries with public health insurance plans get more and pay less, America is forced to use its considerable wealth to pay for sub-par services.

$217 million per hour, day in and day out.

With America's education system in need of an overhaul, our roads and bridges crumbling, and the gap between our rich and poor widening, there are better things our government can be spending money on than padding pharmaceutical corporation's bottom lines, as they are doing with the advent of the new Medicare Part D laws. And with gas prices getting higher, electricity costs rising, and the dollar falling, there are better things the American people can be spending their money on than overpriced, under-performing private health care.

America was once known as a land of thrift. At the very least, let's try to be known as a land of smart consumers. We need a change. We need health care for America now!

We're going to get in in 2009, but we need your help. Please, join us!