Frank Watson: The Cost of Healthcare

The Trump Administration is still trying to fulfill their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare with something better. They are having a rough time of it. Even within their own party there are divisions that seemingly will never compromise. I have listened to the debate and have come to the conclusion that the majority of Americans want free government sponsored health care for everyone. Most Americans don’t care who pays for it as long as they don’t have to.

Government programs have a history of growth far beyond what was originally intended.

The income tax started out as a 6% levy on the very rich.

Social Security was never intended to fully fund anyone’s retirement.

Once started, however, programs can only grow.

The promise of government sponsored medical care began with Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

Those programs experienced the normal step by step growth pattern to include Obamacare in 2010.

The logical conclusion will be government sponsored national health care.

It will come as sure as night follows day.

Instead of trying to hold back the tide, the Trump administration needs to start thinking about the impact of universal health care and how to pay for it.

We are up to our collective eyeballs in national debt. I ardently hope that we don’t try to fund healthcare with borrowed money. We could raise general taxes or establish a special health care tax, but I doubt that either would fly with the voters. I foresee funding through Social Security taxes. Social Security already funds care for seniors and the poor. It wouldn’t be much of a logical jump to add all those not otherwise covered. I also think that savvy politicians could sell the concept to the American taxpayers.

There would be other costs that will probably never be discussed in public.

Presently America is the cutting edge of medical research.

I think we would lose that with a universal health system.

Most of the developed countries of the world have some form of universal health care.

Yet, they look to America for new procedures that extend the limits of what doctors can do.

I remember Bell Laboratories.

As long as AT&T enjoyed an absolute monopoly on the phone system, they could charge a bit more for phone service and fund the finest pure research laboratory in the world.

Bell Labs made our space program possible.

Bell Labs developed microchips that miniaturized televisions, pocket calculators, and wristwatches.

But Bell Labs could not economically stand alone, so it fell by the wayside.

Medical research cannot stand alone either.

Someone has to pay for it.

Today part of every dollar we spend on medical procedures helps pay for research.

The large pharmaceutical companies keep prices high enough to fund research that develops new drugs for AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

When, not if, when the government takes over healthcare, contracts for procedures and medicines will go to the lowest bidder.

No one will announce that the savings on prescription drugs will be at the expense of medical research.

I am a product of government sponsored health care. I have received treatment in military clinics and hospitals since I was 18 years old. I have no complaints with either base facilities or the VA system. They do good work, but they don’t fund research.

(Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and a long time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free lance columnist for over 18 years.)