Universal Healthcare or Universal Healthinsurance?

I just entered my opinion into the discussion on Health Care that's being conducted by President-elect Obama's transition team. As promised Mr. Obama is opening the many processes that go into a presidential transition up to the light of day and the eyes of an interested electorate. It's up to us to share our opinions, to add our unique points-of-view and find common ground from which to start reforming the way we do business in the USA. It's time for our ideals to match up with our actions. Join the Healthcare Discussion HERE. Or just share where you think the country should be going and in what ways it should be changing HERE.

Here's a discussion starter I posted on the Healthcare discussion:

One of the challenges we face with this issue is the vocabulary which we use to talk about it. I respect Senator Daschle and Ms. Erinson but even in this video we see part of the problem. We have come to use the phrase "Health Care" improperly. It has unfortunately become synonymous with "Health Insurance." Health care is what we get when we go to the doctor. He or She checks us out, makes a diagnosis and prescribes a treatment. In other words doctors cares for our health.

In this video we hear about a CEO of a small non-profit that is providing "health care" to her full-time employees. This usage means something entirely different. Her company is not providing its employees "health care" in the way a doctor does. The company is providing access to "health insurance." It may sound like splitting hairs, but I think it's a hair worth splitting. This is why:

In the current discussion, when we talk about providing "Universal Health Care," are we saying that people should have universal access to doctors that will care for their health? Probably not. More likely we mean universal access to health insurance.

The proposals I hear from most elected officials (including President-elect Obama) include expanding Health Insurance to those that don't already have it through a system of mandates and subsidies, covering everybody with insurance through Medicare, Medicaid and/or Private Insurance (both employer based and federally subsidized). Are we really getting any closer to true Universal Health Care? I would argue "No." Anyone that's ever dealt with a Health Insurance company knows that they don't really Care about your Health. The bottom line is always the bottom line. It makes no sense to support the broken system that is Health Insurance by expanding it to everybody with Tax Payer money.

If we are striving for Universal Health Care, why are we still talking about Universal Health Insurance?