The costs of keeping this system in place are unbearable now and will only rise. Read on to discover:
US Health System Dysfunction
1) For-Profit Health Insurance Companies have investors who demand returns on their investment. Their continuous quest for profits pushes up health insurance prices.
2) Prescription drug costs are 2-20 times higher than in most other developed countries.
3) 900 health insurance companies who pay their CEOs million-dollar salaries, while charging consumers 20% of their intake for “administration” costs. Canadian consumers pay about 4%.
4) Costs for services that are not revealed until consumers are billed for them.
5) Charges that continuously rise faster than the national rate of inflation.
6) Denying health insurance consumers the advantages of a single insurance pool that includes all citizens and bargains with providers and prescription drug manufacturers to lower costs.
7) Keeping healthcare consumers anxious about the rising costs of health care and medical bankruptcies, which means keeping them controlled.
8) Employer-funded health insurance plans keep employees dependent. How many people have you heard say “I’d love to quit my job, but I’m afraid to lose my health insurance?” This dependence on whatever their employer decides to provide and feeling forced to stay with a company just to keep their health insurance is actually unfounded. Employers can change plans and even cancel the employee health insurance benefit of health insurance whenever their bottom line demands it. More and more are doing so as health insurance increase premiums, co-pays and deductibles, and employers are unable to pay. Medicare for All once passed will eliminate all these concerns.
9) Those in control of the US health insurance system now are reaping a gravy train of profits and want to keep it that way. They are supported by national government legislators and lobbyists who benefit from the status quo financially. Changing this requires electing a new slate of legislators.
10. Democratic action is suppressed by misinformation campaigns such as “Medicare for All will cost $33 trillion over 10 years.” Such speculation is unfounded. Passing Medicare for All will reduce the overall costs of health care once it is implemented. This figure may be based on the profits health insurers think they’d lose when Medicare for All is passed. A comprehensive review of costs and benefits of adopting Medicare for All for the entire US population are considered below.
The lack of available healthcare for all paid for by the US government is a source of anxiety and ill health. Health worries are a major cause of stress, especially in lower income families. Currently, the US healthcare consumer must deal with a level of complexity that wastes energy and money and is, therefore, a source of mental, physical and emotional illness. This has resulted in a lowered life expectancy for all Americans. Getting all US citizens covered by Medicare for All health insurance will save money and produce increased population health by providing health care to all when it is needed rather than when it is affordable.
When a person with no resources reaches a hospital emergency room in a life-threatening emergency, the hospital will pick up the tab with help from government grants. But if you have resources and no insurance, you’ll be charged enormous costs because you have no insurance. Even if you have insurance, hospital costs and physician costs may overwhelm your resources. Many have had to go bankrupt because of such costs. This creates a downward spiral in both quality of life and length of life in the US, unlike countries with Medicare for All.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that at least 80% of the revenues of the 900 US health insurance companies must be expended in paying for actual health care. That leaves an enormous amount of slush money for health insurance company’s “overhead,” such as millions of dollars for executive pay. Because Medicare is much more efficient than both private and non-profit health insurance companies, their payout in providing actual health care for US citizens’ over 65 is 98% of Medicare’s income. That saving allows more funding for the greater costs of health care for those over 65. Passing Medicare for all in the US would save a minimum of 18% of what US health insurance companies now spend. The ACA now requires that all “pre-existing conditions” must be covered. When the ACA is finally defeated by Republicans, that benefit will go away, increasing the costs of health care for many.
In 2019, the private health insurance industry made $100 billion in profits, according to the Lancet. That’s $1 trillion in 10 years. When that burdensome expense is taken off the shoulders of all US citizens, everyone will breathe easier.
I encourage everyone to Google S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019, submitted by Sen. Bernie Sanders and 14 co-sponsors in the Senate, and the companion bill, HR 1384, submitted by Rep. Pramila Jayapal in the House.
These bills will die in December if no action is taken on them. Medicare for All bills have been introduced in Congress since 2003. Medicare for All will pass when a groundswell of new elected progressive legislators and citizen support reaches Washington, D.C. The PLOS Medicine Journal found that 19 out of 22 studies done over the past 30 years found that moving to a Medicare for All health care system would cost less than our current system in the first year.
The bills now being considered schedule full implementation after a four-year phase-in period.
When you read Sanders’ bill, you’ll find that it includes more than the present Medicare benefits by including inpatient and outpatient hospital care; emergency services; primary and preventive services; prescription drugs; mental health and substance abuse treatment; maternity and newborn care; pediatrics; home and community-based long-term care services and supports; dental, audiology, and vision services. Employers would benefit because they would no longer need to pay for health insurance for employees. Instead, they would pay a payroll tax, similar to what they pay now for Medicare.
The strategy here, from my perspective, is to clearly state the most comprehensive plan for Medicare for All benefits and put it forward. Then, during the bargaining to get the bill passed, some of the benefits may change or be phased in at a later time. The four-year phase-in would expand Medicare eligibility 10 years downward each year for 4 years, as explained by Sanders in a video. So, the first year, all those 55 and older would be eligible, the second year, 45 and older, third, 35 and older, fourth, 25 and older. All children up to age 25 would be covered immediately. This would supply a smooth transition for all sectors of the US health system.
Tom Johnston, M.U.P., M.Ed., has dealt with multiple health insurance companies as a healthcare practitioner since 1980. An experienced political analyst, he graduated from the University of Michigan in political science and international relations, founded & directed a state-licensed vocational school, was the urban planner for the Pike Place Market in Seattle, served as a US Naval officer and the Director of Support Programs for the King County Office of Agriculture.
From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2020
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