Most Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that we cannot afford Medicare for All. The truth is, it is the only way we can afford to cover all of our citizens, as the rest of the industrialized world does. Let me explain.
In America, 37% of every healthcare dollar goes to cover our elderly citizens on Medicare. This is not only because the elderly need more care, it is because the drugs they use cost on average 5 times more than the rest of the world pays.The reason for the exorbitant cost of these drugs, is because it was written into law under the George W. Bush administration that the cost of the drugs could not be negotiated with the drug companies. Do you think there might have been a little collusion going on there? Do you think this law could be changed with the current crop of republicans in congress? The only way to change this is to remove them form office in the 2018 midterms.
After that, maybe we can get around to using the real numbers to decide if America can afford to do what the rest of the world is doing. As I said before, 37% of every healthcare dollar goes to cover elderly Americans on Medicare. That is 125 million people.The cost per year is 1.2 trillion dollars, which is exactly 37% of the cost of healthcare in the US. The other 63% of Americans cost about 2 trillion dollars per year, which per capita is the same as it cost to treat the elderly on medicare.Also, the insurance companies are actually only covering 43%, because 20% of Americans have no coverage at all. I ask myself, how could it be that it cost more to treat the young and healthy than it costs to treat the the old and sickly? After crunching the numbers over and over, it finally came to me. The difference is what the insurance companies are profiting from healthcare. We are paying the insurance companies to do what Medicare does for us at a lower cost. No wonder they spend billions a year on lobbyist to keep this scam going.
There is another bonus to putting everyone on Medicare.The company you are working for is probably not an insurance company. So why are they stuck providing you with health coverage?If everyone was on medicare, they could just add to the amount they are already taking out for Medicare, plus take out a little more from you, and they could get out of working for the insurance companies. In most cases, you are probably already paying a portion of your insurance, so it could actually cost you less out of your paycheck.
I have heard the argument that it would be a huge fiasco to get everyone enrolled on Medicare. More baloney. The system is already set up. You could just add a portion of the population every year, until everyone was enrolled. For instance, the first year you could add everyone under 12 years of age, and everyone over 60. The following year everyone under 17, and everyone over 55. In about 5 years everyone would be covered. Until a persons age group was covered, they would just remain under the program they are already on. It is not that difficult. The only difficulty is the entrenched insurance companies and their political cohorts.
Some people might say, in another four years, the republicans might be in, and they would just change it back. It seems to me that I heard that the 1.5 trillion dollar tax break given to the wealthiest of our citizens cannot be rolled back. If they can make a travesty of that magnitude sacrosanct, then how could they not protect something like guaranteed healthcare for all our citizens.
There is just one more thing though. Do not let this become a single issue point to run on in the election, any more than race issues, sexual orientation, the economy or anything else. We must run on all the issues, but primarily on saving our democracy. When we have settled that issue, we can work on all the other stuff. Our forefathers did not foresee that we would solve all of the problems associated with making our system fair and equitable overnight, or even in several hundred years. However, I think they believed that in time we would overcome most of the evolutionary shortcomings of human nature. Though at times it seems that we are making very little progress to that end, if you look back, we have actually came a long way. We must get this ship back on course, and that can be done by wresting control from those who have proved by their actions that they have no right to govern a free people. To donate https://secure.actblue.com/donate/citizens-united-to-repeal-citizens-united-1
A strong case for medicare for All americansA strong case for medicare for All Americans
No comments:
Post a Comment