The largest bloc of conservative Republicans in the House proposed a budget framework that includes raising the retirement age to 69 from the current 67 and “the document also proposes a “premium support” plan that would subsidize private insurance options that compete with traditional Medicare. That would be similar to budget plans proposed by Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., during his tenure in Congress that were panned by Democrats and some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump.”1
Let’s think about this proposal to essentially privatize Medicare. The people proposing this are the same people who are constantly railing against ‘government regulations’ and want to let businesses do their thing with minimal government oversight. They are against allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to help lower the cost of drugs in this country which, in many cases, far exceed the cost in other countries. Who do you think will benefit from privatizing Medicare in this environment? The average every-day American? Hell no! The people who will make out in this deal are the companies and the executives of those companies who oversee the billions of dollars that will get pumped through these private entities.
Let’s be clear, this proposal is NOT about improving healthcare for all Americans. This effort is ultimately about putting billions of dollars into the hands of corporations and the management of those corporations. Period. I am willing to bet huge sums of money that it will not improve healthcare in this country but, in fact, will likely have the opposite effect.
Remember, these are the same people who were adamantly opposed to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and tried multiple times to get rid of it but when they controlled both houses in Congress could not come up with any kind of reasonable alternative. With all its flaws, the ACA has allowed millions more Americans to obtain at least some level of health insurance.
The United States continually lags our industrialized peers in world healthcare rankings. We generally don’t even crack the top 10 or 20. For example, according to the CEOWorld Magazine’s Health Care Index where they rate healthcare systems across several dimensions, the countries with the best healthcare systems are: Korea, Taiwan, Denmark, Austria, Japan, Australia, France, Spain, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The United States is no where to be found, although we spend more on healthcare than anyone else. Why?
Countries around the world have various systems for their healthcare. These include: Universal government-funded healthcare; Universal public insurance systems; Universal public-private insurance systems; Universal private health insurance; Non-universal insurance systems. Most countries, including almost all our peers, fall into the first two categories. There are only four countries listed in the category of “Universal private health insurance.” Those include Israel, Lichtenstein, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The United States belongs to the last category “non-universal insurance systems” and is joined by countries like Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, and a few others. Really? It seems like the rest of the world has figured out how to deliver at least some level of health care to all their citizens but the United States, one of the most technologically and economically advantaged countries on the planet cannot seem to figure it out. There is one very simple reason – greed!!
It has been shown over the years that the ‘slash taxes’ mentality ushered in by Reaganomics just does not work to drive the economy like the Republicans would like you to believe. It serves to increase the wealth disparity gap but does very little to benefit everyday Americans. Until the Republicans figure out that raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to be more in line with other countries in the world, and allowing government to invest in the American infrastructure and her citizens is a sound long-term economic investment for all concerned, we will continue to be unable to solve these problems that the rest of the world has addressed.
If you want our healthcare system to continue to resemble that of Bangladesh and Burundi, vote Republican. If you are interested in affordable world-class healthcare that most of our peer countries deliver, you might want to carefully consider who you vote into office the next time. Just saying!!
