While I think the current legislation is an incredibly misguided approach, I think health care should be universal. So I am not sure. Is it better to have universal health care that is implemented poorly and will cost more than it’s worth, or is it better to pass on this, until we can find someone who will do it right.
Universal Health Care:
My republican friends are probably screaming. "Oh my god, how can you even think about backing this socialist crap?!" Well, in my opinion, health is at least as important as education to society. We don't seem to have a problem with socialized education. Social programs are certainly not a foreign idea to our American Society and some of them work (arguably) quite well. Others, of course, are hopelessly broken.
I think everyone should have access to health care, just like everyone has access to education. I don’t think anyone should have to decide between getting treatment for a medical condition and eating or having a place to live. I think it’s sad and very telling that people, who live in places that do have universal healthcare, live longer healthier lives than Americans.
The main problem with the current legislation is that the primary concern does not seem to be providing healthcare, but rather protecting the business models of the AMA, the big insurance companies and the big drug companies. We can either have universal health coverage or we can continue to profit off of peoples health problems. We cannot do both.
The Free Market people are probably going nuts about this. “Private Enterprise will do a better job than the government. There will be no incentives for medical innovation. The government makes everything more complex and more expensive. What about my ability to control my medical care?” You may be right but I doubt it.
Private enterprise can do a better job for fewer people, but the government can do an adequate job for everyone. You see this in the education system. The government does OK with education. If you want more than the standard, you have to pay out of your pocket.
The government could create incentives, just like they have for military contractors. Private organizations (colleges, drug companies) could compete for money to experiment. Innovations that come from this would belong to the government. They could be managed for the benefit of everyone. If a company chooses to go it alone, and they have a huge success, the government could choose to reimburse them for their R&D and they would be guaranteed a reasonable profit. This would get rid of the $1000 a month prescriptions and the $25K test because someone owns a patent for a gene.
Everything will be different if the government were to run it. There would be growing pains. But think of all the problems it would solve and all the money it would save. That’s right I said save. Medicaid and Medicare would go away. The prisoner healthcare problem would be gone. Healthcare for Veterans would be exactly the same as everyone else. These things would no longer be part of anyone’s budget problem.
You control your medical care? Really? So you must be really, really rich. My medical care is controlled by my insurance company. I am not sure how this is any different than it being controlled by the government.
How do we pay for it?
Well part of it would be paid for by cost savings. If you remove the profit margins from healthcare a huge amount of the cost disappears. With a single payer plan, the government is able to take advantage of huge economies of scale. Throw in the money from Medicare, Medicaid, Veteran healthcare, and prisoner healthcare, we get a bit farther toward paying the bill. The rest would have to be made up in either taxes or employer contributions. Between healthcare premiums, deductibles, co-pays and out of pocket expenses, I will end up spending more than $12k in healthcare costs. My job is probably putting in another $6k. That is $4500/person in my house. That is obscene and I am sure that there are people putting out a lot more than me.
How would it work?
There are lots of good ideas out there. I think the government should provide two levels of coverage.
Standard HMO type care - This would be what most people need. It would take care of broken arms, colds, stitches, well care, vaccines and such.
Major Care – This would cover expensive trauma, cancer and basically anything you would need to go to the hospital for.
Just like the education system, if you want anything more than the government provides, you can pay for it or maybe here, there is room here for some type of medical insurance. Yes some people would get treated better than others. That’s just the way the world works. Things are easier if you have money. That’s how it is today and that would not change if there were government healthcare.
What are your thought?