What Are We Really Arguing About When it Comes to Healthcare in America?
We all have an opinion about healthcare in America, but do we really understand the issue? I don’t think most of us really do. Let me give you the 50,000 foot view on the debate over American Healthcare. Right now, we have a capitalist health care system in the united states run by private, for profit companies. That means if a company can find ways to charge double or triple for care you need, they will. It’s just that simple. Healthcare providers have an inherent conflict of interest. While they claim to be looking out for your well being, their real obligation is to shareholders who want to see their stock price increase and those two obligations are mutually exclusive. You can have better care, or your can have more profits, but you can’t really have both. As quality of care goes down, profits go up.
This is the simple truth of having a privatized, for profit, healthcare system. While there are reforms we have passed into law like Obamacare to limit the worst business practices of the healthcare giants, there’s no solution to this problem as long as we have a for profit system. You or your family members could be denied critical and necessary care because of profits.
Now, American corporations work tirelessly to protect this system for obvious reasons. They spend millions each year on what basically amounts to propaganda designed to convince you to vote for people and policies that preserve the status quo. Meanwhile, the list of countries that have moved to a non profit, Government-Run Healthcare Systems reads like a who’s who of the developed world. England, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, and many others all have Universal, Government-Run Healthcare Systems. America is just behind the curve when it comes to healthcare.
Now, in this debate, Democrats are the group that basically wants to change the system, arguing that nearly all developed countries no longer do things this way, and American healthcare costs are the highest in the world. Barack Obama wanted a government run, single payer, option in the Obamacare bill, but the long reach of corporate interests and the money that comes with it won the day and single payer, as they call it, was removed from the bill.
Republicans, meanwhile, want to preserve the current system, arguing that changing the system would stifle innovation and the quality of care. They warn against the concept of ‘socialized medicine’ and they have tried many times to undo the Obamacare law to make it easier for insurance companies to deny care to more people. While they have said many times an Obamacare replacement was right around the corner, Trump said during his presidential debate with Kamala Harris, he had only a ‘concept of a plan’ 10 years after saying it was a month away from completion. They have no plan for healthcare reform. Their only real plan is scrap the Obamacare and keep the big companies happy.
Now, I’m not going to tell you how to think, but it’s important to understand the basics of the healthcare debate and now you do. At least now you know what you’re voting for.