Universal Healthcare Is Not Possible in the United States

Healthcare programs have been all over the place in the past few years. Medicare and Obamacare are sort of hybrid universal healthcare plans currently in the US.

Many businesses offer some sort of healthcare for their employees but no one system is universal.

In the real-world universal healthcare in the US is virtually impossible.

One reason is the level of healthcare.

No Profit — No Universal Healthcare

Like it or not without profit healthcare would slowly decline over time.

Every aspect of healthcare delivered to a human being must be done for profit.

The person who manufactures the tongue depressor to the MRI machine deserves to make a profit for providing that medical instrument.

Doctors and nurses train for years but not to administer healthcare for free. Many do pro bono work and that’s commendable, but they still have to have housing and food.

If there’s no profit in improving diagnostic equipment or medical procedures who’s going to do it?

Where’s the incentive to invest millions if you can’t recoup that investment?

Do you really want to go back to leeches?

Medicare/Medicaid

Medicare covers 80 percent of the cost for most medical issues for seniors but not all.

In addition, a supplemental insurance policy is needed to cover the remaining 20 percent.

If you haven’t paid into Medicare, you don’t get it.

The 2022 monthly premium for Part A coverage can be up to $499 per month. The monthly premium for Medicare Part B coverage is typically $170.10, but you may have to pay a higher Part B premium if you have a higher income level.

On top of that you’ll also have to have a supplemental plan to cover the 20 percent Medicare doesn’t cover.

You could be looking at $1,000 a month for healthcare.

The US government hates stay at home moms. Not going to pay for that.

What Do We Spend and on What?

The US has three areas of Mandatory Spending.

Not etched in stone but three things that should be funded before anything else is paid if you want to be reelected.

Medicare and Medicaid ($1.2 trillion), Social Security ($1.1 trillion), and interest on the debt ($430 billion) is normally paid by congress before anything else.

Social Security is supposedly going broke but not much on Medicare/Medicaid or food stamps having any problems.

Many politicians have been touting Medicare for all. What would that look like?

Medicare for All

The current cost for Medicare and Medicaid is $1.2 trillion dollars (Trillion with a “T”)

That $1.2 trillion pays 80 percent of the healthcare costs for those 65 and over.

Or to put it another way 16.5 percent of the current population of the US over 65.

My lowly calculator won’t go high enough for me to compute the cost to cover the other 83.5 percent “Medicare for All” would have to cover.

Obamacare — The Poor Pay More

Obamacare has five tiers Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

Under Obamacare the lowest income plan participants pay the least in premiums and the most in out-of-pocket cost for their healthcare.

While the highest premium plans pay the most and have the lowest out of pocket cost.

“Catastrophic” plans are also available to some people.

Under the Obama Bronze plan you’d be on the hook for 40 percent of the healthcare cost, 30 percent out of pocket for the Silver plan, 20 percent out of pocket for the Gold and 10 percent out of pocket for the Platinum plan.

The poorer you are the worse off you are under Obamacare if you develop a health issue.

Healthcare in Canada and Other Countries

Other countries have universal healthcare why not the United States?

My radio co-host is in Canada and is very familiar with their plans. Each Canadian province has their own healthcare plans.

Costs are based on population. Canada has a population that’s ten percent of the US and it can take months to see a doctor.

No call-in prescriptions in Canada. If you need a refill, you must see your doctor in person.

Switzerland comes in as the best healthcare but most expensive in Europe. Switzerland has mandatory private health insurance with limited government help. (Source)

The Netherlands are another apples and oranges comparison many universal healthcare proponents trot out.

In the Netherlands the Dutch are required to purchase basic health insurance or they can be fined if they don’t.

Undocumented immigrants cannot purchase health insurance and have to pay for most treatments out-of-pocket (excluding acute care, obstetric services, and long-term care).(Source)

No matter where in the world healthcare is administered a bill eventually shows up on someone’s desk because healthcare is a service with a cost.

If there’s a successful universal plan anywhere in the world that works for a population of 320 million people, please send me the link.

I will champion that cause all day long.

Comparisons Don’t Work

Comparing smaller countries health plans to the US is inaccurate and doesn’t work.

If you need a real-world example, I’ll give you one.

California where I used to live has a population of 39 million people. Montana where I live now has just over one million.

By comparison Montana has less diabetics, less heart disease, less cancer deaths, less intensive care beds, fewer hospitalizations, fewer surgeries and fewer doctor or hospital visits.

By those definitions Montana’s healthcare must be superior to California’s in every respect. Facts don’t lie – People do.

My Plan for Universal Healthcare in the US

Start with what we already know — Medicare. Over time we slowly reduce the age limit to qualify.

At the same time the additional costs are computed and a combination of taxes we already pay would be diverted to Medicare for All.

For example — payroll taxes would have a slight increase each time the age limit would lower.

The advantage — any worker who is in that age category could go off the company’s healthcare plan, and that savings could be passed on to all workers.

We have 126 poverty programs in America.

I’m sure there’s not a dime’s worth of waste in any of those but why don’t we at least take a look just to be safe.

How much welfare fraud, Covid fraud, Medicare fraud, investment fraud, tax fraud is there?

How much pork is included in every 2,500 page bill no congress person ever reads? There might be a buck or two there.

Some Final Thoughts

Do you really want the federal government administering your healthcare based on their track record?

Other than the Small Business Administration which gives loans to people to start new businesses I can’t think of a single government program that raises the bar for the American people.

Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.

Dependency on government is not a healthy way to live. There should be more incentives to help people get off welfare than get on it.

Maybe Universal Healthcare is possible but not until Americans are ready to shoulder the pain to pay for it.

Until then eat healthy and exercise. You’re gonna need it.

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