There's an explanation for our struggle with universal health care: the big government-small government debate. Those in favor of small government lost the social security debate and they lost the universal-health-care-for-old-people debate (medicare) and they lost the universal-health-care-for-poor-people debate (medicaid) but so far they have won the universal-health-care-for-everyone-else debate. They support their position by throwing out horror stories: death panel juries, government control of your health, year-long waits to see the doctor. Those stories get debunked but they stuck with enough voters to obscure the real issues.
Proponents of insurance believe the market place is a better vehicle for all things monetary. More on this argument in a minute.
Very wealthy proponents of insurance prefer we all pay insurance for health coverage rather than taxes for health coverage, because the very wealthy pay much higher taxes than the rest of us. If you earn $50,000 a year and pay 15% in taxes, your tax bill is $7,500. If you earn $500,000 a year and pay 15% in taxes, your tax bill is $75,000. If you earn $5,000,000 a year and pay 15% in taxes, your tax bill is $750,000. Ignoring the 85% that we all get to keep, one might feel sorry for the poor soul paying more in taxes in a single year than the average Joe earns in 15 years. One might feel sorry. If only we could forget the $4,250,000 the poor soul kept that year. It will take 85 years for our average Joe to earn $4,250,000. One might feel sorry.
Regarding the market place's superiority for business, I don't think health care is a product like a car, a house, a cell phone, or a piece of fruit. Those items can be bought cheaply or extravagantly and you usually get what you pay for. It should be up to the buyer to decide if she wants or can afford a fancy or a simple house, a souped up or basic car or no car at all. Health care, however, shouldn't be a luxury that comes in various qualities according to your income. I mean basic health care. We should all be entitled to equal health care. The wealthy may want fancier rooms, and they can pay for them, but we should all have access to the same drugs, surgeries, and medical advice. As surgical discoveries and new drugs emerge, we should all have equal access. Why? Why you ask.
We should all have equal access to health care because as a society we can afford equal access and as a society we should legislate equal access.
But wait. Why can't every law abiding citizen pay for their own darn health care? We all pay for our own food, our own housing, our own clothes, don't we. Heck, why can't we all pay for our own schooling too? How about our own fire fighters, and cops?
Oh, you want to keep the cops on the public payroll? Maybe the fire fighters too? Why is that? They protect all of us in our hard-earned homes. They enforce the laws that allowed the smartest and luckiest of us to make real good wages. Wages so good that we really don't have to fret much, even during a huge financial crisis. Wages so good that we can have a gosh darn PANDEMIC, and we still won't be worrying about how to pay the mortgage or where the next meal is coming from.
Now I'm sure those of us so well off we can shrug off a PANDEMIC, worked very hard and were very smart to be so fortunate. I'm also one hundred percent certain that we achieved our comfort and security thanks to the laws and structure of our community. We were lucky to be born in these last 100 years. And we owe our community thanks for our success. There is no way the riches we have acquired...the capital gains, the dividends, the interest, the million dollar salaries...there is no way this wealth came to us, impeded only by the taxman...not by swindlers, hit men, corrupt cops, dictators...there is no way this wealth came to us without laws and a powerful community supporting and caring for us.
My point? If the laws and structure of the community work to the advantage of multi-millionaires and billionaires, those laws and that community should also work to the advantage of the average joe. The average joe should be able to walk into a doctor's office or an emergency room, show their ID, and get whatever help they and their doctor say they need. No bill. No debate.
Why are the wealthy against this? Two reasons. One, medical bills paid by taxes will increase taxes for the wealthy. Two, insurance companies will no longer be in the mix, and the wealthy are making big money investing in insurance companies. Doesn't it make you crazy that our health costs are high and investors in insurance companies are profiting from it?
