Time for Conservatives to Re-Evaluate Health Care

I believe it is time for conservatives to support a modified single payer health system. It is coming whether we like it or not.  We can do it better than they do.  

What happened in Washington last week was political theater at its worst.  It sounds all so complicated.  But the fact of the matter is that it is not complicated at all.  There two, and only two, big issues that must be resolved to solve the health care problem:

1)            Any health care insurance system must maintain a certain level of healthy participants in order to sustain payments to those who are sick.  Obamacare tried to resolve the problem by mandating participation of all citizens.  If you don’t participate, you get taxed (fined).  The problem is it didn’t work. People opted to pay the fine because the coverage that was offered was too expensive, and if you bought it the deductible was so high you couldn’t use it.  Ryancare attempted to flip it.  You were "sort-of" not required to buy the insurance, but the government would give tax credits (ie: send you a check) if they were used specifically to buy health insurance.  But it didn’t effect insurance companies not being able to sell insurance across state lines.  The mandate "sort of" still remained…because you were mandated to use the credits you were given to buy insurance.  Like that is going to work.  People are people.  If you are under 35, you are on your parents health care until you are 26.  People are marrying later so there is no familial compulsion to cover you family.  And people that age feel they are invincible. It won't work either.  

2)            Then there is the issue of the uninsured who are all of a sudden stricken with a serious illness.  Now they want to buy insurance.  We are a compassionate nation.  These folks will receive treatment notwithstanding their lack of insurance.  Somebody has to pay for it.  Under Obamacare, that is done through subsidies to the insurance companies.  What a great idea!!!!!  And the Ryan plan chose to simply not address the issue.  Another great idea!!!!

It is impossible to achieve what is needed to get a private insurance approach to health care to work.  The conservative wing of the Republican party has stated outright it is their way or the highway.  That leaves the country with two choices…the current Obamacare which is collapsing in front of our eyes.  Or going back to the way it used to be which is untenable.  What sad choices we are being offered. 

On the other hand, Medicare…with all of its faults…works.  So my question is, why not just extend it down to everybody??   Establish a $5,000.00 per person deductible per year.  That could be covered by supplemental insurance like I have for my Medicare plan.  Add a tax credit to establish health savings accounts so those who choose not to purchase a supplemental plan can be given the opportunity to squirrel some money away for when they need it.

How do you pay for it?  Through a combination of a national sales tax and an increase in income taxes for those earning over $2 million / year.  I can hear my conservative friends grabbing their chests and screaming out loud.  Blasphemy. 

Here is the hard truth.  Health care is going to cost what it costs.  You can squeeze it this or that way, but the cost remains the same no matter what the system of delivery.  Better to spread it over the country as a whole than to force segments of the country to bear more than their fair share.

I believe that a single payer system is coming to this country within the next ten years whether we like it or not.  So Republicans should grab the bull by the horns…because I can guarantee you that a Republican crafted single payer system would work better than a Democratic crafted single payer system.  If you want to know what that looks like…look at Hillarycare.

Donald Trump should lead the nation to a sensible, market oriented single payer system minimizing government involvement as much as possible. 

A single payer system relieves the burden of insurance from employers that is a remnant from World War II.  A single payer system allows families to budget within realistic constraints.  It allows doctors and hospitals to negotiate directly with the government for payment.  The difference between a Republican plan and a Democratic plan would be the Republican plan would treat the private provider fairly.  And that is important.

Change is tough.  Ideological shifts are tough.  But now is the time to resolve the health care issue once and for all.  If you believe like I do that a single payer system is inevitable, then Republicans should bit the bullet and lead the charge.  Nixon opened the door to China and established the EPA.  Trump should be willing to break through the divide to get it done. 

If Republicans don’t do this, they will lose the House and the Senate and the Presidency over the next eight years.  And what we get from the Democrats would resemble something closer to the dysfunctional VA than a functional Medicare.   

Think about it.