How to encourage Universal Healthcare in America

I saw Sicko by Michael Moore the other night. I don't want to talk about the movie, either go see it or don't. But, for me, the movie just confirmed a bunch things I already knew, even if I assume everything was cast in the most convenient light and blown out of proportion, it still makes us look like we are in the dark ages. First I have to get some things off my chest, but I will get to the solution. There have been some very big challenges with having conversations about UH. First, there seems to be this ridiculous belief that by creating UH we are somehow letting the Communists win? Communism is dead, has been since the 90's. That of course is beside the fact that Communism is not actually some horrible invention of the devil. Communism has all the best intentions, but just like Democracy, when you throw a bunch of overly corrupt politicians into the system, they both fail. If you truly believe that by a government providing health care to all of its citizens (and even visitors) that somehow it will be the crack in the Democratic armor which will allow the evil seed of Communism to be planted, I don't really know how to respond, other than this. If you had to work out payment with the police department before they came to your house to protect you, would you be less Communist? If your house was on fire, and when the fire department showed up, the first question they ask is, "how will you be paying for this?", would that make you less Communist? You get an enormous amount of services in this country without paying for how much you use it. You don't pay a higher tax rate because you have really bad luck and your house keeps burning down. I guess if you are THAT afraid of Communism, you should probably put a sign in your front yard that says "I don't want any free, state provided, services to assist me in an manner, including police and fire". BTW, you're gonna find it hard driving as well, those roads are free. Second, is a overwhelming concern for all the people who currently work in the health care system and that if we create a Universal Health system, all those people will suddenly become unemployed. Seems a bit hypocritical to me, when you show concern for the well being of these people who are employed and could frankly get jobs in other industries, yet, so willingly sweep those without health care under the rug. Oh, but they don't currently have health care, so they won't miss it, right? That would be your argument? Whereas the people that lose their jobs will suffer a sudden hardship that they are not used to? Thats ridiculous. Any of those employees could be fired tomorrow for far less noble reasons, such as, needing to raise the stock value by one tenth of a point. The fact is that if we went to a Universal Health system, some companies would die off. But many would spring forth to fill the new needs of the industry. It's not like the new system won't need a boatload of employees to manage it. Third, is the doctors, and their pay. Most private practice doctors probably wouldn't even notice a change in their net income, since they spend so much money on staff and equipment and insurance. Most staff doctors at hospitals wouldn't either. The most realistic result would be many doctors actually making more money, sooner in their careers, or at the very least, not being overworked and making deadly mistakes. There is no reason a doctor should be paid enough to have multiple million dollar homes, multiple 100k+ cars and diamonds the size of my fist on rings. Should they be paid well, of course. Should they get lots of vacation, of course. Should they not have to worry about a huge debt from education for the rest of their life, yes. Should they not have to worry about turning away someone because they are poor, of course. Most doctors start out as good people, but because so jaded and bitter with the system, that they actually become as deluded as what they once thought of the system themselves. The reduced stress of no longer having to worry about payment from patients, or insurance battles alone might be worth it to many. Forth, is a belief that care quality will diminish, which is possibly the most ludicrous fear of all. Currently care quality is this, "do you have insurance?" whereas Universal Health quality of care is this, "How can i help you?" Universal Health can allow doctors to focus on the reason they should have become doctors in the first place, which is to help people live better and healthier lives, in case you didn't realize that on your own. For the doctors out there who got into medicine to make the most money they can? Good riddance. Anyone who actually believes the propaganda that you have been fed about Universal Health in other countries, needs to actually speak with someone from those countries. You don't have to wait months for life saving treatment. That is absurd. You do have to wait months for a new kidney, but then again, you do here as well, assuming you have insurance of course, but thats because we can't just clone a new kidney for you, yet. A health care system that is not restricted by profit margins can focus on preventative medicine, whereas a private health insurance system, like we have, is solely interested in profit, and as such, will treat you just enough to make you go away. Care will improve, because care will be given freely whenever needed. And on top of that, the ignorants in this country seem to forget that we do not have the best health in the world. We are ranked 37th based on the World Health Organization's study. For being a "leader", shouldn't that number be higher? Fifth, is that with all the unemployed people as a result of the massive layoffs because of companies such as insurance companies no longer being needed, the economy will crash. Would seem like that at first wouldn't it. But the fact economy would boom, and more jobs would open, in other sectors mind you, but still. There are a few reasons for this. The biggest one is out of pocket costs to get health care. If you no longer had that monthly premium, or lets even say that your taxes increase to cover the health care, you would still not pay nearly as much. The rich would be paying a bit more, the poor would pay alot less, and middle would pay probably half (details below). Considering about half of the cost of health care today comes from the insurance wrangling, if you eliminate that cost, you cut the health costs in half, if not more. So, what do you do with that extra cash you have in your pocket? You don't have to save it for that day you might get cancer so instead you go buy a TV, or a bike, or a car, or go on a trip to disney land. The fact is that people spend more, when they have more. But even if you have the same amount you had before, you would still spend more because, the less you have to worry about, the more you are willing to spend. I do have a solution. I think. Let me preface this with some disclaimers and information. I am not a communist. I am an American. I am a democrat by default, though I currently thing both the democrat and republican party are completely corrupt at this point. I believe in less government, but not in an anarchistic sense. I believe the federal government should organize massive programs and infrastructure. I am not an economist. I am not a politician. I am just a guy, with a shitload of opinions, a good bit of world experience, and some brains. I welcome comments and even argument. So that said, here is my thought. Currently, we cannot get Universal Health passed because the medical lobbies aggressively push for laws and mandates that encourage the current system, and discourage any thought of Universal Health. The reason that no progress is made on Universal Health is because the battle is fought on a "personal" level. The proponents of Universal Health try to convince us, the people, that it is a good idea, but that is a difficult avenue. The reason is, that it would need to be an overwhelming majority of Americans who want Universal Health, and are vocal enough with their government to make their opinions clear. While the virtues of UH are being pushed, the anti-UH propaganda machine is in full swing denying the virtues of UH. Generally speaking, the power is where the money is. Medicine and Big Pharma have the money, and don't want UH. So how do you fight that? You fight it by convincing another big group, which has money, that it is worth if for them to not only want UH, but also to aggressively request it. That group is ALL of corporate America. Most major employers provide health insurance for their employees, paying between 50% and 100% of the cost. On average, corporations pay $11,500 per year for an employee with an average family size of 4, with the employee contributing $3000 per year. So lets do some math. Thats alot. Companies to get a tax break on benefits that they pay, such as insurance, but that only means they do not pay taxes on that money. If you assume a company of 10k employees, and those employees average a family size of 4, your talking $115 Million a year. That still is $115 million in cash out of the pocket of the corporation. Sure after tax deductions its actually less out of pocket, but really, its still probably close to $100 million out of pocket. That also is assuming the the average employee is paying $3000 per year in premiums, totaling $30 million. So imagine if you told a company that they could spend half of what they spend now, their employees could spend nothing, and everyone gets health coverage. Now start also adding in the fact that employees will be sick less, because many employees can't really even afford the co-pays in the current system, or just don't want to flush $20-30 down the drain to be told they have a head cold. Since in a UH system, employees are free to get the health care they need the minute they start feeling ill, which now means they don't come to work getting everyone else sick for a few days prior to getting treatment. How much is that now worth? Unfortunately, it is really surprising how difficult it is to find information about how much large companies pay for health insurance, or at least difficult for me it seems. But imagine if my premise works out. Large companies could reduce their yearly expenses, therefor raising their bottom lines, employees would have more money to spend on non-essentials, and health of the nation will improve. The biggest realization for me is that the change needs to be advantageous to big business. As a group, they have a lot more political muscle than big pharma and the AMA have. As a group, big business can effect change, and in this case the change can even make them more money. What company would say no to that? The casualties of change would be all the people who work in the money machine of big pharma and insurance. But those casualties will only be for a short period of time, until everyone adjusts. I know that there are some firm numbers out there, but yet no matter how I try to find them, I can't. It's actually kind of weird. I am a very good researcher. So i ask myself, why is information like this so hard to find? How much do the fortune 500 spend on health insurance? What percentage of premium actually makes it back into the medical system? I'm going to guess not even half, since we pay more than 2 times what other countries pay per capita. If the system is designed with a very simple premise, like the UK system, which is, all health is free, period, then there is no bureaucracy anymore that would need to support it. The majority of cost in medicine currently is the paperwork. Eliminate the paperwork, and you eliminate a lot of the cost. This country needs to move forward. We are one of the last industrialized countries to not provide its citizens with health care. So please, can an expert actually figure out the value that a UH system could have to "big business" in America. Put it in actual dollars for them. Make it a "duh". I know it would work out to being a more profitable health care choice, but I just am not succeeding at finding the numbers. I do know these things. Nuke Medicare, it would no longer be needed obviously, or convert it to the management branch of the UH system. The social security and medicare systems would now cost less, because you don't need to worry about medical benefits and who is entitled. The biggest load of shit which bugs me about this argument is that people and the government are convinced that we as a nation cannot pay for UH, that we cannot afford it as a country. LOL. If the US government cannot afford health care for all its citizens, how can its citizens be able to afford to pay for their own health care? Its ludicrous. On top of that the fact that we can fight a war which costs over $100 billion a year, and that is more important than the health of this country. I don't want to get into a war right/wrong argument, but where does this magic money come from? the day before we got into the war, money was spent however it was. The day the war started, money started being spent differently. Why can we just suddenly start spending $100 billion on a war, but can't even consider that for a Universal Health plan. If we assume the next worst per capita cost in the world, which is germany at $3,204/year, then the US would cost $961,200,000,000 (300million people). That number seems freakin high right?!?! Well that is before you start cutting programs that are no longer needed, like medicare, which is $277 billion. That brings the new cost down to $684 billion. "other" health spending in the government budget is about $180 billion. Simplification of the system would easily reduce costs by a few percent in SocSec, so lets just assume that gets us down to an increased cost of $500 billion, but lets just assume that cost is not recoverable mostly, so I will even go with $600 billion. I cannot seem to find how much american companies pay currently in health insurance premiums for their employees, but I would be willing to bet it is WAY more than $600 billion even after adjustment for tax deductions. It is silly to say we cannot pay for it. The problem would be a system that requires paperwork or qualifications i think. So, that would mean to create a system that does not care about what your illness is, does not care where you live, does not care how much health care you have used so far. It should literally be, "hi there, what seems to be bothering you and how can I help?" There should be no question of how you are going to pay for it, since its free. There should be no co-pay. There should be no paperwork. The system shouldn't even require my name be recorded anywhere, if I don't want to. There obviously should be some tracking so that the quality of the system can be monitored, but that should not be anything to determine how much care you get. Take what you need, no cost to you. I can't stand these complicated systems I have been reading about where you get a certain number of vouchers a year, WTF happens when I get sick 11 times but only have 10 vouchers? Fully free, except for a small Co-Pay would maybe be acceptable since it would at least maybe reduce abuse. But once people know they have health care and no longer need to worry about it, they will no longer feel the need to abuse it. I fully welcome comments, opinions, suggestions, and even derision. sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/march/universal_health_for.php