A friend asked why when so many countries can
afford universal healthcare but it seemingly would bankrupt us. Chew on
that for a moment. While you’re chewing, allow me to suggest some answers.
First, let’s consider why other countries have
universal health care and we don’t.
That one's pretty easy to answer: because it never occurred
to those countries not to have it.
The price and distribution of healthcare in this country are
complicated. And there are too many hands taking a cut. But that's
a fairly recent development.
Our combination of drug companies, insurance companies,
mega-hospital systems, supposedly non-profit, and/or teaching hospitals vacuum
a lot of money out of their customers.
This creature wasn't born full-grown. No one seemed to be
watching it until it blossomed into Godzilla. And now, there are so many
interdependent moving parts that changing it means killing the monster.
We're not good at that. Probably for good reasons.
Let's look at England. Until Thatcher, most medical
people worked for a single employer/payer. Now, their system is almost as
complicated as ours. But until then, the costs were built into the
national budget. People were used to that. They knew their tax
money was divided among various government departments. It was a working system
that included medical care, armed forces, highway construction and the various
other things most governments do.
We have had a fine role model in this country: the public school
system. Yes, there always have been private schools. But even those
who attend have to pay into the public system, which is now under siege by
private and for-profit schools, a federal secretary of education who opposes
public education, and by charter schools that sap money from districts while
failing to fulfill the part of their mission that is to take the pressure off
the district structure.
So... missed opportunity.
The so-called American Dream has a dark side which I summarize in
four words: You're on your own. We have a national obsession with The
Lone Ranger, the Captain of Industry, the family farmer, the mass producer,
etc. That works against universal health care because no one gets rich
with that system.
We have taken the worst elements from our history and the
histories of countries from where most Americans have history and we have
discarded the parts that truly benefit the average Joe and Jane. Or Jamal
and Kalifa, Jose and Maria, etc.
When you have to build something from the ground up, and the only
space available is occupied, everything on site has to stop. In some
cases that just can't be done.
So while we have a bunch of money and history invested in a
system, we can't change that overnight because almost everyone becomes
collateral damage. The cost of becoming a doctor has become as overpriced and
over demanding as the cost of being treated. Pharmaceuticals cost too
much and discounts, such as they are, are too complicated puny and temporary.
Yes, we spend too much and too unwisely on defense, on the cost of
government on all kinds of things. We have thus made it impractical if
not impossible to tear things down and start over.
Impractical? Or too tough? Or too complicated? Or messy?
UPVOTES OF THE DAY:
--Washington postal workers who defied orders from the Postmaster
General and are restoring decommissioned high-speed sorting machines.
--The “president’s” older sister, Maryanne trump Barry for her
scathing evaluation of him.
--The “president’s” niece Mary for secretly but legally recording
that evaluation.
--The Washington Post’s decision to print the story.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to
them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment