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| Whether you support him or not, whether you're ok with people left out of our healthcare system or not, Bernie has to be acknowledged as our Moses leading the way out of our broken healthcare system. |
I am for universal healthcare. It is my most rock bed central position. It is the closest I come to being a single-issue voter.
The system that has been most talked about is Medicare For All. I like the name. Medicare is a popular program, and it makes the idea instantly recognizable to almost every American.
But I am not wedded to the name. I am wedded to the concept. Everyone must be covered. Everyone must have access. People should not go broke trying to get the healthcare and medical procedures they need for the well-being of themselves and their families. Access should not be determined by wealth or whether your employer has (FOR NOW, EXISTING ONLY AT THE COMPANY'S WHIM) a gold-plated deluxe healthcare policy.
I posted this recently:
Imagine if I pay rent of $800 a month. I pay for my utilities. I pay for any repairs or maintenance. I pay the property tax and insurance. This costs me, on average, another $800 a month. That's a total of $1600, maybe more if things go badly. Now I have an offer to pay rent of $1000 a month, BUT my utilities are included, and the landlord covers repairs, property tax, and insurance. Should I change to the $1.000 a month rent plan?
Note that I am comparing one rental plan to another. This is not a commentary on homeownership vs. renting.
Given the facts presented, a rational person would select the slightly higher rent that covers more of the other costs.
Unfortunately, when it comes to healthcare, the American people have shown little rationality. It's not all their fault. There are significant forces in the country (private insurance, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, etc.) that have a vested interest in ginning you up to hate universal healthcare. So they spend beaucoups of time and money (often filling the campaign coffers of politicians) to get you to stress more about taxes than total cost.
The bonus of a universal system is that not only is it morally right, it is also the most cost-effective system. Administration costs shrink considerably (no multi-million dollar CEOs to keep afloat). Private insurance is not trying to increase profits by denying care or setting up bureaucratic roadblocks. Hospitals and doctors don't have to deal with tons of paperwork by multiple insurance companies.
We now have the most expensive per person medical system in the world, almost twice as much as our closest rivals. Going to Medicare For All is going to close that gap, not increase it.
People have been fussing at Elizabeth Warren for not giving a more decisive answer on how she would fund Medicare For All. She talks about total costs when the media and other candidates want her to say something about increasing taxes so they can go GOTCHA!
Yesterday, she came out with a plan that structures it so that the Medicare For All program is funded without raising middle-class taxes. I have not read the details, but she is a very meticulous, well-thought person, so I am sure there is a method and rationale behind how she wants to fund it.
Me? I'm not running, so I don't know why we can't do the common sense thing- if it's Medicare For All, why not increase the payroll tax percentage that comes out for Medicare? Don't cap it, and extend it to unearned income as well. Worried about the effect on middle-class taxpayers? Reduce the amount of income tax they pay - maybe even extend a tax credit to taxpayers with low to moderate-income.
With no premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays, most Americans will come out way, way, ahead.
Some want to stay gripped to the plan that comes from their employer. You know - the plan you will lose if you are fired, laid off, or just try to get another job. The plan that the employer can change form year to year. The plan that leaves most of us fighting to get our bills covered, having to be lawyers/advocates/accountants/Type A personalities just to get things covered. How exhausting.
I try not to say too much about the Democratic candidates that is negative. The truth is all of them, even the most conservative and cautious, will be light years ahead of the Republicans.
Nevertheless, I am sick of the moderate Democrats trashing the progressive Democrats over healthcare issues, handing the Republicans talking points on a silver platter. If they want to say universal healthcare is difficult, fine. To say that it is impossible and a pipedream, angers me and breaks my heart.
I am an Independent Progressive who votes Democratic because I believe that is the quickest route to covering everybody. I will always vote in the primaries for the candidate that will most quickly bring us to that.
Do I want to beat Trump or whomever the Republicans nominate? Hell, yes. Do I want to abandon my healthcare position to do that?
No, I won't do that. And I believe it has the extra bonus of being the strategically correct thing to do. The working class has to once again see the Democrats fighting for them, and things that benefit them, and not as Republican Lite, just as beholden to their high dollar donors as the Republicans.
Unless we become an authoritarian, fascist country (a path many have undeniably started on), we will one day have universal healthcare. It is inevitable. Like other great social movements in our country, it looks impossible until it isn't.
It's just a matter of whether it happens slowly or quickly, incrementally or all at once.
I vote for quick.
No more canisters in convenience stores.
No more Go Fund Me healthcare.
No more medical bankruptcies.
No more people dying for lack of access to decent healthcare.
Please join me in supporting candidates who will move our healthcare system into the 21st century, and bring us into the rest of the civilized world that already has universal healthcare.
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