Month: July 2017
Common Sense Health Care
It’s time for a common sense tough love approach to health care. Even Barack Obama recognized that his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) needed an overhaul. The American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) proposed by President Trump and GOP congressional leaders is not the overhaul that is needed. It will not provide health care and it will not be affordable. It will take insurance coverage away from an estimated 22 million Americans. Drastic cuts in safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid are being proposed. And it looks like all of the savings will be plowed into tax cuts.
The AHCA or Trumpcare will not deny access to medicine or services. It will just make those things too expensive for a very large segment of our society. It will also guarantee that health care costs continue to rise. Insurance is the problem. Health Insurance is the engine that is driving up the cost of health care. Any insurance program including both Obamacare and Trumpcare will push the cost of health care up.
The opponents of Trumpcare who say that getting rid of Obamacare is a murderous assault on Americans are mistaken. Failures and diseases kill people. Healthcare may prolong life in some cases but in the end death always wins out. Replacing the ACA with the AHCA will not kill Americans. It will just make their lives more miserable.
As the song said, “There’s battle lines bein’ drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” (For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield.)
We need service. We need government provided health care not insurance that promotes pricey solutions. We need to get back to the concept that every American owes her/his country a debt of service. We should re-instate mandatory universal service. This time everyone would be required to report for duty of some kind. Such a service requirement could provide a labor pool for government health care clinics and services.
The proposal does sound foreign and outlandish. But it works in other countries. There are only two ways to control health care cost. The cost of labor must be capped and the cost of treatment has to be controlled. Our government will be able to do both of these things if it is the health care provider.
My father was a career navy enlisted man. He served for 20 years in the US Navy. I was born in a naval hospital and I received medical care through naval clinics until I was 18. I am ready to go back to the good old days.
If everybody is wrong, it is time to take a fresh approach to the problem.