Health Care under the Democratic/Republican Uniparty

We pay more than any other industrialized country but have the least to show for it both in terms of health and coverage. (U.S. ranks 28th in life expectancy, both general and infant mortality, cardiovascular mortality rates, cancer mortality rates, longevity, teen age pregnancy, etc.) (39) The largest single cause of bankruptcies is healthcare expenses. Employers pay an average of 3,000 dollars per full time worker (one of the fastest growing costs) which discourages job creation. We need to change this to remain competitive. Consider the ties of the auto industry to health costs. Even in the 1970s General Motors said they paid more for health care costs than steel. After a century of most cars made in the United States being made in Michigan, Michigan was replaced by Ontario, Canada. Why? The health care costs went from 6,500 dollars to 800 dollars per worker. (1)

Controlling costs is the key to offering quality care for all. Since we already pay more than any other industrialized country in the world for health care, this would not involve an increase in expenses. It would in fact save money for both the individual and the government. Taxpayers and individuals cannot afford double digit premium increases year after year.

Overhead and administrative costs for private health insurance run 25% or more vs. 3% for single payer Medicare. A University of California (San Francisco) study found that the United States could save over 161 billion dollars every year in paperwork alone if it switched to a single payer Medicare for all system as Canada has had for over thirty years. (Australia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Taiwan have single payer Medicare of all systems. All industrialized countries offer more coverage for less cost than the United States. One documented result of the Medicare for all approach is those countries increase their competiveness by relieving businesses and individuals of health care burdens.)

"In fact, there are numerous "public options" in American life, with many of them rooted deep in the nation's history. In the area of education, there are public schools; in recreation, public parks; in travel, public roads; in fire-fighting, public fire departments; in law enforcement, public police forces; in culture, public libraries; in transportation, public bus and train lines; in mail delivery, the post office; in sanitation, public water supply plumbing, and sewers; in energy, public power; in old-age security, Social Security; in nutrition, public school lunch programs. Where did the notion ever come from that public programs were somehow "un-American"? Even in the disputed area of health care, there exist public hospitals, Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health." (above paragraph by: Lawrence S. Wittner, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Thursday 03 September 2009)

We are paying a heavy price for standing alone as the only major industrialized country in the world that leaves basic health care entirely to private interests and does not even require the private interests to compete openly in a free market system. Changing does not have to be difficult.
-This could be phased in gradually starting with those aged 55 and older and lowering the age as cost savings add up .
-There are many way to introduce price controls. Medicare for all is the best; a public option would also work.
-To control costs, at the very least medicine should be subject to the Sherman anti-trust Act and health insurance should be made available across state lines like any other industry.

Footnote
1- Fareed Zakaria, “The Post-American World Release 2.0,” (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011), 225.
References
2-By the Numbers: 'Medicare for All' Could Fund Prosperous Future
3-Medicare for All!
4-Single Payer Reality: Vermont Approves Universal Health Care Program
5-Two-thirds of Americans Support Medicare-for-All
6-Single-Payer Health Care
7-France Best, U.S. Worst in Preventable Death Ranking
8-What we're Not Being Told about Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan
9-Republican and Democratic Plans for Medicare and Medicaid Misguided: Push for Privatization Will Accelerate Costs and Deaths
10-Doctors group Greets Single-payer Health Bill in Senate
11-Obama Health Law Unlikely to Stem Medical Bankruptcies
12-Study: 44 million Could Lose Medicaid Coverage under GOP Plan
13-Obama Denies Vermont Healthcare
14-Funding a National Single-Payer System
15-The Cost Of Health Insurance Around The World
16-John Breaux Sees Democrats Embracing Paul Ryan's Plan To 'End Medicare'
17-Administrative Waste Consumes 31 Percent of Health Spending
18-Family Makes Millions Taking in Federal Funds for Failed Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
19-Income Inequality & Educational ‘Performance’
20-Income Inequality: Physical Health and Life Expectancy
21-Obamacare and SCOTUS: Why are Progressives Celebrating a 54 Billion Dollar Tax Hike on Low-Income Families?
22-Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
23-Health Care Comparisons
24-Deadly Fallout: How Obama’s Healthcare Law Provides Unaffordable Access to Health Insurance and Fosters Preventable Deaths
25-The Problem With Obama’s Attack on Vouchercare
26-Neoliberalism Kills
27-Per Capita Health Care Spending for One Company in Massachusetts vs. All of Canada
28-Comparative Health Care Costs in Other Countries
29-HMO Overhead vs. Medicare, 2011
30-Obamacare Architect Heads to Big Pharma
31-‘We won’t sell our healthcare’: Madrid rallies against privatized medical
32-Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits
33-Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
34-The true price of Obama's sell out of the public option is starting to be felt.
35-Health Care Hoax
36-Obama cribs from anti-choice playbook to deny patients medicine
37-Obamacare: The cheapest healthcare plan will be $20,000 per year for a family plan
38-Payroll taxes would fund universal health care proposal
39-What's killing America? U.S. ranks 28th in life expectancy (lower than Chile and Greece) while it pays the MOST for health care
40-Where do America’s Most Uninsured States Stand on the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion?
41-Only 2% of individual plans meet "essential health benefit" requirements
42-Universal Neglect: A Failure to Protect Americans’ Health
43-Who Spends The Most Dollars Lobbying Washington, DC?
44-Little hope seen for millions priced out of health overhaul
45-'Obamacare' to drive up health-care premiums? Report sets off firestorm
46-Consumer-directed enrollees do not shop prices
47-While Cutting Medicare Benefits, Obama Bails Out Private Insurance for Seniors
48-White House Trial-Balloons Medicare Cost Increases
49-A Superior System: Single Payer Legislation vs. Affordable Care Act
50-ObamaCare Clusterfuck: Feds to use "consumer reporting agencies" to determine eligibility despite penalty for perjury
51-Redistributive function of Canada's single payer: Publicly Financed Health Care in Canada: Who Pays and Who Benefits Over a Lifetime?
52-Why Are People with Health Insurance Going Bankrupt? - Dr. Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese: Obama care will not put an end to medical bankruptcies - 80% of people going bankrupt due to healthcare costs had insurance
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