The 2022 elections for Senate are upon us. The Senate is split 50-50, which makes the Warnock-Walker (assuming Herschel Walker, a Trump acolyte, is the GOP nominee) race so important to all of us regarding our own health care, as well as other issues.
Many conservative politicians incorrectly state that the USA has the “best” health care in the world. But we obviously have done a horrendous job of coping with the pandemic, worse than most democracies. And our mortality-morbidity rates are higher than other developed nations. Reports by the respected Commonwealth Fund consistently rate us last or next to last on health care quality, access and cost criteria.
Plus, our costs are escalating dramatically, via higher premiums and deductibles. Much of it is being passed on by employers to employees. Further, in 1980, healthcare was 9 percent of GNP. It is more than double that now, taking money that could be used for other vital areas like education.
But the GOP has a radical health care agenda, motivated solely by federal budget concerns and lobbying by big business versus quality or financial access. Enactment of the Republican plans would make the situation much worse, not better.
The Republicans’ strategy of Medicare and Medicaid quasi abandonment is not supported by the majority of Americans in either party, as various surveys show. Why do I say abandonment? Well, it is abandonment if you privatize Medicare via vouchers, destroying the finances of seniors. And cut funding for Medicaid via state block grants, thus denying care to our poorest citizens.
The bill the Trump administration originally proposed as a replacement for the ACA cut financial support for millions (85 percent of Health Exchange enrollees) who are now receiving a high level of governmental assistance to purchase insurance. The average cost of a family’s health-care insurance policy is over $18,000 annually. How many lower-income families can afford to buy health care insurance with a stipend of only $3,000 as detailed in the original Trump administration healthcare legislation (under Sec. Price)? We should assume that Herschel Walker, if elected Senator, would go along with radical proposals of this sort in that he is 100% behind Trump and strongly supported by him.
So, if the radical privatization schemes and confusing, elusive block grants proposed by the GOP won’t work, what will? Where should we go with Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA (Obamacare)? Is the bi-partisan tinkering proposed by moderates the solution? Or is more fundamental change needed?
The situation becomes clearer when we look at the health care costs in other developed nations. At a per capita cost of nearly $12,000 in the USA, we are over double the per capita cost of other similar nations (https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries-2/). For example, Australia is $4,919 per capita and Canada $5,370.
How do countries like Canada and Australia do it? The answer may surprise you: single payer (Medicare for All) or something like it (utility-type models). And that equates to more government involvement, not less.
Through cutting out marketing and overhead expenses, substantial savings are achieved. Medicare has only a 2 percent overhead versus 12 percent for private insurance. And price escalation by Big Pharma would be severely limited under Medicare for all, as it is in other nations. Instead of spending money on health insurance company marketing and overhead expenses, dollars would go to direct patient care. And centralized budgeting combined with leveraging of governmental purchasing power makes sure that costs are contained.
The primary impediment to Medicare for All, proposed in bills by Senator Bernie Sanders and co-sponsored by numerous senators, is clear: big business lobbying. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies would lose business and profits. Their executives would not be getting those seven/eight figure salaries. So, out of self-interest and nothing else, they buy influence via lobbying and donations to both parties. Notably, Senate Majority leader Schumer gets more money from Big Pharma than anyone else in Congress.
This situation can only be corrected by you, the American taxpayer, by knowing the issues and voting Medicare for All supporters into the Senate and House. Eventually, I hope that Senator Warnock will be one of those supporters (he currently supports expansion but not single payer). But in the meantime, remember that voting for change for the sake of change (i.e., for someone like Herschel Walker) will only make our national and personal healthcare situation much worse.
Jack Bernard is the former Director of Health Planning for Georgia. He has served 4 terms on two Georgia Boards of Health.
