Why Single-Payer Universal Health Care Rox0rs My Sox0rs

The American health care system is a fucking joke. People make noises about it being the best in the world, and it is, but only if you can afford it. If you’re one of the millions of Americans with no health insurance, or who have lousy health insurance, or who think you have good health insurance but are proved wrong as soon as you try to use it, then having the best health care in the world doesn’t matter, cause you can’t access it. The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is health care costs. People lose their homes because of medical expenses. That’s not good. Not good at all.

So we all know the system is horribly broken. If you have any doubt, watch the movie Sicko, and read my review of it. The movie presents a simple, elegant solution, and one I entirely agree with.

Single-payer universal heatlh care.

Now, what is that, exactly? It means that everyone in this country, from newborn babies to old people on their deathbeds, gets cradle-to-grave coverage for all health care matters. It means that when it comes time to pay, there’s a single payer (the government), who covers everyone’s expenses. People in single-payer programs never see a bill, or if they do, it’s a very small one. There’s no denial for pre-existing conditions, no deductables, no co-payments, nothing. Just medical care to make you better.

Needless to say, this is a little different from what we have here, but it’s what we need.

Now, setting up such a program won’t be cheap. According to an article on Slate.com, which, to be fair, is against the idea, we would need about $200 billion a year, in addition to what we already spend, for such a program. Sound expensive? Well, it is, but not as much as you might think.

Consider: we have about 300 million people in this country. That kind of money breaks down to about $667 per person per year. Now, not all those people are workers. I haven’t been able to find out how many people in this country are workers, but let’s assume it’s 1/3. That’s 100 million people. That would mean a total of about $2001 per worker in additional health care expenses. I currently pay $100 a month for my coverage, so I would be paying a total of $3201 a year for my medical care. On the surface, I end up paying more, by quite a bit, than I do now.

But it’s important to remember that the extra $200 billion a year, as well as your current medical expenses, would, in fact, be paid through taxes. I’m on the lower-end of the tax bracket, so I likely would wind up paying very little. Probably I’d end up paying a lot less than I pay right now. I certainly don’t see that I’d wind up paying more.

Of course, like with all taxes, the more you earn, the more you have to pay. I would expect that the richest among us would be having to pay quite a bit more to help keep us all healthy, which is a fine thing and benefits them as much as it does us (how? Well, most new and nasty illnesses break out first among the poor, since they can’t afford medical care. Get rid of the money issue and that isn’t a problem anymore). We can also get more money for the program by cutting other budget items, and there would likely be a certain savings by consolidating Medicare, Medicaid and the VA medical programs into one big program. The administration cost savings alone would liklely be substantial.

But let’s ignore that possibility. Let’s say that somehow, the rich don’t end up toeing the line and we all just end up paying extra taxes. Let’s assume that we all just wind up paying an extra $2001 on our taxes, and that’s for medical coverage. Well, in my case that’s about an extra 7.5% I’d lose from my paycheck. Not great, but considering what I’d get in return, not bad.

I mean, ask yourself: what would you be willing to pay for medical coverage that you would have from birth to death, where you can’t be rejected for pre-existing conditions, you pay no deductable, you have no co-payment, you never get a bill, it goes with you when you move to a new job, and you pay only a negligable fee, if any, for medication. How much would you be willing to pay, both as raw numbers and as a percentage of your income? Hell, I’d be happy to pay an extra 10% of my paycheck to get that.

The entire rest of the civilized world has universal health care, and most of it is single-payer. I don’t see the economy of western Europe collapsing under the burden. The Canadian dollar is at parity with the US dollar. Japan appears to be doing ok. Sure, there’s some problems with the systems in these countries, but I was under the impression the USA was the country that could do things better than everyone else does. Surely we can learn from the mistakes made by other single-payer systems when we impliment our own.

Ultimately we’re being held hostage by the health care industry. This needs to change. Hillary and Obama both have good ideas for health care, but those sitll use insurance. What we need is what the rest of the civilized world has.

After all, why do we deserve any less?