COMMENTARY: “Well, we’re all going to die!”
Jay Brock on the recently-passed Republican House budget.
By Jay Brock
GUEST WRITER
With that memorable, almost throwaway line in response to complaints that the just-passed Republican House Budget would separate millions of Americans from their Medicaid health insurance, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, said the quiet part out loud: your healthcare—your life—might not be that important to her. Or, apparently, to every Republican in the House of Representatives who also supported this bill.
What IS important to them is throwing millions of what they consider to be undeserving people off their government-paid-for health insurance simply because by receiving health insurance benefits from the government, they might be committing “waste, fraud and abuse”.
Of course, people in every other advanced nation receive such benefits as a human right.
(Like it or not, the United States is the only advanced nation where affordable healthcare is not considered a human right.)
And if, as a result of losing their Medicaid, these poor people cannot obtain lifesaving medical care and die as a result, “Well, we’re all going to die!”
The Republican Party goal here? By separating millions of Americans from their healthcare, the Federal government can save hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars over the next decade…in order to provide huge tax cuts to the gazillionaires already at the very apex of our financial food chain, who, you know, are deserving of even more American wealth, power, and prestige than they already think they are entitled to.
And if poor people have to pay for tax cuts for gazillionaires with their their lives,”Well, we’re all going to die!”
The optics of such a callous political attitude are appalling: the American people are already enraged at a health insurance system where 3/4 of them worry about being able to afford to pay their medical bills if they get sick. And when people put off unaffordable healthcare, they die prematurely: each year, that happens to some 70,000 Americans.
“Well, we’re all going to die!”
What is wrong with our health insurance system? It simply has failed to do the two things any good system should do: cover everyone, and do it affordably. Instead we have a dysfunctional mishmash of government (public) entities and a largely for-profit (private) health insurance industry that is about as popular as the American telemarketing industry. The for-profit health insurance company business model is to rake in as many of our healthcare dollars as possible, then spend as few of those dollars on our healthcare as it can get away with. This is in keeping with the fiduciary duty of a for-profit investor-owned business: increase profits for shareholders. Patient healthcare suffers. When it comes to your healthcare, that’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest, and it’s deeply embedded in our current health insurance system.
That’s why we need a new system: one where your healthcare comes first. It’s why so many healthcare experts, physicians, and everyday Americans support switching to Single Payer Medicare for All, a government-funded health insurance system that would pay 100% of the cost of all medically necessary care for everyone, and where an individual’s contributions are based mostly on their income, so it’s truly affordable.
But here’s where things get murky: when it comes to fixing what’s wrong with our health insurance system, there’s widespread agreement among BOTH political parties that the best course here….is to do nothing. Or at least nothing major.
You read that right.
Where not a single Washington Republican wants to eliminate our current failed system and replace it with one that actually works, neither do the majority of Democrats in our nation’s capital. Yes, you’ve got the “progressives” on the Left, like Bernie Sanders, and some moderate Democrats such as Senator Adam Schiff, from California, who support switching to Single Payer healthcare, but the majority, representing the Democratic Party Establishment, are right up there with every Washington Republican who resist any meaningful change.
Two examples: One well known Democratic US Senator opposes changing our health insurance system because so many of his constituents really like their health insurance—a claim hard to believe, given that most Americans worry about being able to afford to pay their medical bills if they got sick. Another Democratic US Senator says he supports only minor, incremental change because people are afraid of change, and they don’t like the government telling them what to do. More likely, these people are even more frightened of unaffordable healthcare costs, or are part of the more than 6/10 Americans who, in a recent poll, say that it was the responsibility of the Federal government to ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage.
So we can criticize appalling remarks from Republicans like “Well, we’re all going to die,” but what really counts is what our politicians actually do— and when it comes to affordable healthcare, the results are dismal: while Republicans might be much worse than Democrats, the failure here, sadly, is bipartisan.
Support the Advance with an Annual Subscription or Make a One-time Donation
The Advance has developed a reputation for fearless journalism. Our team delivers well-researched local stories, detailed analysis of the events that are shaping our region, and a forum for robust, informed discussion about current issues.
We need your help to do this work, and there are two ways you can support this work.
Sign up for annual, renewable subscription.
Make a one-time donation of any amount.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”
Very good commentary, Dr. Brock!