The Question of Health Care

During the recent mid-term elections, Democrats campaigned extensively and at times quite successfully on health care. The specifics covered a wide spectrum. The recurring theme, however, appeared to be cost. Politicians across the board promised cheaper care. Realistically, care can only be cheaper if we reduce the quality or quantity. Twenty-five years ago, my uncle died of prostate cancer. There was nothing that the medicine of the time could do to save him.

Now, however, patients have several treatment options; all of which are expensive. I don’t think Americans really want cheaper care. What I think they do want is the best care money can buy, but they want someone else to pay for it. There aren’t enough philanthropic donors to actually do that, but we can create the illusion with socialized medicine, and more and more Americans are buying into it.

We have come a long way toward universal government sponsored care with Medicare and Medicaid. We add more people to the rolls every day. I don’t think the trend is stoppable. It is time for all of us, conservatives and liberals alike, to accept the reality that universal health care is inevitable. Instead of fighting the tide, we need to begin discussions on how to fund it.

One possible way is to fund the program with increased debt, as have some other countries. The citizens of Argentina are proud of their system, free care for everyone to include tourists and migrants. What they don’t advertise, however, is that health care costs are one of the reasons their country is in a twenty-year cycle of bankruptcy. If we try to do the same, we will follow their example and throw the world into financial chaos. Universal care simply costs too much. We can’t fund it with deficit spending, and we can’t hide it in other appropriations. It must be a separate, fully-funded budget item.

There is always the option to force someone else to pay for it in the form of a special levy on the very rich and big corporations. That would soon lead to disaster.

The very rich are major job generators. There is no law requiring Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to live in America. They could easily move to Monaco, where the tax rate on the rich is zero. Big corporations move when the business climate becomes unfavorable. Boeing didn’t move their headquarters to Chicago on a whim or for emotional reasons. It was a pure business decision. They felt they could no longer stay in Seattle, so they moved to Chicago. They could just as easily have moved to Hong Kong or Chihuahua. We don’t keep track of the number of small businesses that decide to locate elsewhere. Big corporations grow out of small enterprises that are started by innovative entrepreneurs. If we drive them away, they will neither pay for health care nor provide jobs for our children.

Another option would be to extend Medicare to everyone. The common belief that Medicare is free to citizens older than 65 is an illusion. It is actually a government-subsidized insurance program. The premium for Part B will be $135.50 per-month next year. The cost for Part A is hidden in the Social Security tax for most of us. Those who haven’t worked will be assessed another $437.00 per month.

Although these premiums may seem high, they are far below what conventional insurance companies must charge to stay in business. Health care is expensive, regardless of who pays for it. If the government takes over, they will collect premiums either directly or from our tax dollars. Health insurance companies in America will go away. That may or may not be a good thing, but it will happen.

We could adopt true, socialized medicine wherein the federal government owns and operates all hospitals and clinics. This may not be as bad as it sounds. Those of us who have spent time in the military have experience with government-owned hospitals staffed with military doctors. I personally found the care to be pretty good. Additionally, I have very few complaints with the VA system, even though it has recently become a political whipping boy. It could work.

A big hurdle and drawback is incentives for doctors. After spending years and tons of money in medical school, internship and other training, doctors must have some economic reward at the end of the tunnel.

Our national leaders need to be evaluating these options instead of fighting with each other.

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