Obviously it’s been the goal of too
few Americans since the “Teddy” Roosevelt era to craft a universal healthcare (UHC)
system that will guarantee health care for all US citizens. The failed argument
that “every other major industrialized
nation on earth has already done so” has yet to prove effective.
During the Progressive Era (1890
to 1920), Republican President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was in the White
House (1901 — 1909); as the 26th President he supported health insurance;
quite simply, he reasoned that no country could be strong whose people were
sick and poor and few will argue that he envisioned a weak America. Still, it’s
needless to say, that his many accomplishments while President, did not include
universal health care, yet America, perhaps by virtue of her many natural resources,
continues to remain strong.
America turns 241 years old come
July 4, 2017 but the rest of the world rightfully view us as being arrogant, greedy, violent, and intolerant — little wonder universal
health care has failed to date — while simultaneously,
folks from afar think Americans have a strong
work ethic and harbor a good bit of optimism.
So why do you suppose UHC for every
American continues to be a major road block? Americans may project the image of being
optimistic but considering the massive US Military Budget, it’s easy to
understand why a violent persona is among the leading descriptive terms used by
others to describe us. Throw in arrogance and greed of the typical
health insurance carrier and or any given pharmaceutical company and you have
the perfect formula for obstructing universal health care!
For
the American that cannot seek simple preventative health care because it’s well
beyond his or her financial reach or for the American who realizes his or her health
coverage premium is ridiculously or unreasonably high, you are reminded that as
for Discretionary Spending the US Government in 2015 spent a whopping 5% on Health Care, yet we paid enough
taxes to somehow justify the government’s spending of 54% of the Discretionary Budget (1.11
Trillion Dollars) on the US Military. Yet, the US does not make it onto the world's “10
safest countries list”, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in
2016, hell; we don’t even make the top 20!
To no ones surprise , 2017 is worse:
Oh, in case you’re wondering, the
top 5 “Big Military Spenders” in 2016 was the United States at $597.5 Billion; #2. China
at $145.8 Billion; #3. Saudi Arabia at $81.9 Billion; #4. Russia at $65.6 Billion and #5. The United
Kingdom at $56.2 Billion. And guess
what, not even one of them is on this list:
It’s a well-known fact that the
US routinely spends at least four times as much on Defense as any other country
on earth, while continuing to make-believe all is well with America’s Health
Care System . . . little wonder we’re not also described as the Great “Pretenders”
in conjunction with arrogant, greedy,
violent, and intolerant. Sorry, “Hard
Working” and “Optimistic” hardly
outweighs the former negative connotations.
Hopefully, a little Basic Math may prevent you from viewing
the Defense Spending Outline displayed
below with latent complacency: Thousand: 1,000 (3
zeros) . . . Ten thousand 10,000 (4 zeros) .
. . Hundred thousand 100,000 (5 zeros) . . .
Million 1,000,000 (6 zeros) . . . Billion
1,000,000,000 (9 zeros) . . . Trillion
1,000,000,000,000 (12 zeros):
The Affordable Care Act (aka Obama Care)
is, or was, an important step toward Universal Health Care . . . dose it meet all
of our health care goals? Not even
close, not by a long shot, not by any stretch of the imagination, or a long
held favorite: Hell, no!
For Americans, because we’re greedy,
among other things, the biggest hold-up to UHC is “cost” so one of the other descriptive adjectives folks from afar
often use — “intolerant” — can come-in pretty handy while striving to gain
universal health care . . . a large dose of intolerance will need to be applied
first to the 35 or so health insurance providers in the US because your health
care is far too important to be burdened with “middle-man” mark-ups.
Second,
outlandish Pharmaceutical profits must be reined in, even if an “act of
Congress” is required; after all, Americans pay anywhere from 2 to 6 times more
than the rest of the world for brand name prescription medications. In truth, most Americans already feel that
drug companies are putting profits ahead of everything else. Imagine that! This fact, unchecked, may eventually invoke
another classic American trait: “Violence”!
Actually it may not require an
act of Congress . . . In countries that have Universal Health Care it’s a lot simpler:
Not as many organizations buy medications, so those “groups” enjoy “bulk”
purchasing power, thus lowering costs. For example, the United Kingdom’s
National Health Service, purchases medications for the entire country’s supply,
known as a formulary — in other words, buying in bulk, lowers prices. But in
the United States, we have hospitals, insurance groups, and other
entities that buy for their individual consumers. Such groups negotiate their
own prices with the pharmaceuticals, resulting in an unregulated variety of high
costs.
Third, the high cost of medical
procedures must be addressed . . . For example, when comparing the price for a
standard MRI scan, the average cost in the U.S. is $1,119; compared to
$811 in New Zealand, $215 in Australia and $181 in Spain. Worse, the 95th percentile (reminder—the average is the 50th percentile:
the point in the data where 50% of the data falls below that point, and 50%
fall above it) price of this procedure in the U.S. is $3,031, meaning
some Americans pay nearly $3,000 more for a standard MRI scan than the average
person in Australia and Spain.
Want another example? Compare the
procedure of a standard hip-replacement. The average cost in the U.S.
is $29,067.00 . . . that’s $10,000 more than the next highest “cost country”,
Australia. Plus, data shows that the 95th percentile cost in the
U.S. surpasses $57,000.00. In other
words, your neighbor might pay as little as $19,000 for a hip-replacement at
Hospital X but your uncle Bob paid over $57,000.00 for the same operation or
procedure at Hospital Y.
The bottom line: There is no
justifiable reason why identical procedures and products should fluctuate in
price so dramatically from one country to another and for costs to vary so
radically from hospital to hospital within the United States is ludicrous. This assuredly illustrates the damning
effects of a poorly regulated healthcare system in America.
The issue of Universal Health
Care was brought to the forefront with Senator Bernie Sanders’ unsuccessful bid
for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination. According to the “Sanders Plan” cost
projections of Single-payer UHC would not exceed 1.4 Trillion Dollars, but did you realize that Federal and State
Governments already spend in the neighborhood of 1.3 Trillion Dollars on healthcare coverage for “select” Americans —including
but not limited to Medicare, Medicate, Military Veteran’s health care, Children's
Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and supplementary costs associated with “Obama
Care” / the Affordable Care Act.
Assume for a brief moment that the
2014 US Congress & President Obama went “wild” and enacted the equivalent
of the Sanders version of Universal Health Care — effective date: Jan. 1, 2015
and amazingly cost settled at 1.4
Trillion Dollars . . . Assume both Federal and State Governments combined (in 2015) had planned
to earmarked a minimum of 1.3 Trillion
Dollars for healthcare for 2015 and for years to-come . . .
. . . Rudimentary arithmetic
dictates that a 100 Billion Dollar
deficiency would have resulted by 2015 year’s end and said deficiency in all likelihood
would have held true each year thereafter. Now, keep in mind that because
Americans are not just arrogant, greedy, intolerant,
optimistic, violent, and work hard;
we’re also just plain stingy,
especially so, with our tax Dollars!
Now have another “look-see” at the
Outline
for Defense Spending visual aide displayed above and take note that in
2015, 49.60 Billion Dollars was spent
on Foreign Aide and a colossal 589
Billion Dollars was spent on Defense.
Now for the rest of the imaginary
story: The 2014 US Congress, led by KY’s Junior Senator, Rand Paul slashed Foreign
Aide by 100% and narrowly convinced, a reluctant Republican Congressional majority,
to cut Defense spending by 8.56% . . . Result — no new taxes!
There is a never-ending list describing how Americans would
benefit from Universal Healthcare . . . here’s but a few:
Security
comes with separating health insurance from employment; such freedom would not
only help the American people to live happier, healthier and have more fulfilling
lives, but it would also promote a revolution in entrepreneurship in every segment
of the economy. Further, Americans would
be able to develop new businesses, leave jobs they dislike knowing that they
would still have health care coverage for their families and themselves or even
stay home with their children.
Employers
could focus on running their business in the stead of spending hours and hours trying
to figure out how to provide health insurance to their employees.
Working
Americans wouldn’t have to choose between negotiating for higher wages or health
insurance coverage.
Parents
wouldn’t have to worry about how to provide health care for their children.
Americans
wouldn’t fear losing their health insurance if they lost their job, changed
employment, or decided “going part-time” better fit their situation.
Anyone
with serious or chronic illnesses could afford the medications required to keep
them healthy without fear of financial devastation.
Millions
of people would not have to continuing to choose between good health care and
other little necessities like food, clothing, and adequate shelter.
Americans
would have access to basic things, like preventive health care, dental care,
eye care, or long-term care.
Universal Health Care coverage
naturally should have limits, for example countries seldom pay 100% of medical
costs, in large part because governments don’t usually pay for things like
plastic surgery or other “elective” medical procedures that are not considered
as being necessary or life threatening.
It’s long past time for the US
Congress & the 45th President to fulfill the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and yes, even Teddy,
among other great Americans, by drafting a Universal Health Care plan that will
finally level the health care playing field for all Americans, even the working
middle class.
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