Universal Healthcare isn't Socialism, it's sensible

45,000 Americans die per year due to Washington politicians. This is not because of terrorism or war, it is because of the American healthcare policy. The price for all Americans is sky high healthcare insurance, caused not by Obamacare or over-regulation, but the pharmaceutical corporations. The solution for cheaper healthcare for everyone is to switch to a universal healthcare system. The Average American could save $4800 per year with the reform.

Donald Trump was elected on the promise of repealing ACA and replacing it with a plan to lower healthcare costs for all Americans and broaden access.

The answer to Donald’s promise is a universal healthcare system, with a single payer system. The only problem is, the Republicans would do anything to prevent this from occurring. When the GOP plan to repeal ACA, 24 million people will be forced to go without health insurance. If Americans want to pay less they must switch to a Universal System, the most efficient option would be a single payer government run system like the NHS in the UK.

The major criticism of ACA was the increase in costs to consumers. Health insurance costs are a major stumbling block for the average American. Moving to a single payer system would reduce healthcare costs by nearly $5000, and increase coverage to 100%

Americans spend nearly twice what Europeans do on healthcare. Check the data for yourself. Here is the healthcare spending of the OCED nations.

When comparing the average spending per capita the USA lead the way by a significant margin. However, when we look at the top 5 spenders a clear pattern emerges. The nations who spend the most are USA, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway and Netherlands, out of those nations only Norway has a state run system. Luxembourg has a composite service, while Switzerland and Netherlands have systems like the USA. This evidence shows that having a state run single payer system reduces the costs for the consumer average Brit pays less than half the average American does.

The reason most American’s think that the Universal Healthcare System is unwise is because they believe it will lead to a massive increase in tax and bankrupt the nation. The mistrust in government still runs strong in the US and tax is seen more as theft than a moral duty. In short, they think paying for those who can’t afford healthcare will raise their costs. The opposite is true. Once again if we look at the UK, we find that the UK’s top earners tax rates are 45%, only 5% more than the federal tax on the USA’s top earners. If America switched to the Canadian system every citizen would save on average $4,842 per annum on healthcare costs, a truly amazing saving. This shows that there will be no bankrupt nation, only richer citizens. By allowing the government to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies, prices can be lowered. Moving wealth from multimillion corporations to working class Americans.

The American system must reform to take insurance companies out of the process. The health care industry spends more on lobbying than the oil and gas industries, defence industries and aerospace industries combined. The corruption on the hill doesn’t only affect the GOP, it’s rife in the Democrats. America cannot make the mistake Obama made of allowing the corporations limitless power in pricing drugs and surgeries. Single payer is the route to take.

There are 2 major reasons the American system creates higher prices. The first is the mathematics of insurance. Insurance brings down costs for everyone by using risk pools. The larger the pool the lesser the risk for each individual. Expanding the pool to be Universal therefore reduces the price. Another reason is collective bargaining. In the US each individual must bargain themselves with the pharmaceutical companies for low prices. In the UK it’s the government who negotiates on mass. In the UK the consumer is therefore in a stronger position, allowing the prices to be negotiated down, it's a similar principle to Workers Unions.

Most Americans would think they have the highest quality of healthcare on the planet. The fact is Most European nations rank higher. In the recent report from the Commonwealth fund assessing healthcare systems it was the UK that finished on top. The USA also has a lower life expectancy than most European countries. It also has higher infant mortality and maternal mortality. It does have some areas where it does better, cancer survival rates for example. However there is no evidence that the US citizens gets twice the healthcare of their European counterparts. Their healthcare is mostly at the same standard.

State run systems are Universal, free at the point of service, for example Britain’s NHS. This gives them a coverage of 100% of the population. In the USA, according to the National Health Interview Survey 10.5% of non-elderly Americans remain without any health insurance. This is down from 16.8% percent when Obama took office, due to ACA. This means 28 million do not have health insurance. This has disastrous results. Its knock on effects in Americans being unable to afford care, especially preventative care, causes 45,000 Americans die every year due to having no healthcare. Most people simply can’t afford it.

Do we really believe in America the richest nation on the planet that we should let citizens die for being poor?

The American system is so broken it would be difficult not to improve it. Expensive with poor results and poor coverage. Universal care with a single payer system would provide accessible, inexpensive care for all.

#Politics #AmericanPolitics #Democrats #Healthcare