Money in Politics, Healthcare Top Nation's Worries
The path to reigning in healthcare costs may very well run through controlling money in politics.
By Jay Brock
COLUMNIST
According to a Pew Research poll in February the top two national problems for Americans are the role of money in politics (72%) and unaffordable healthcare (67%). These two inextricably linked issues (more on that later) beat inflation (at 63%, the third most important issue), and even illegal immigration (at 48%, tied for ninth). There was no mention of the price of eggs.
You’d never know it from the mainstream media—or from most politicians—that money in politics and unaffordable healthcare are so important to so many people. Unaffordable healthcare was second only to inflation when it came to issues most voters wanted the presidential candidates to discuss last year. Didn’t happen. Politicians and pundits are too busy chasing cultural issues (woke, anyone?) that, while important, simply distract us from the kitchen table issues that most folks are most worried about.
The worry regarding unaffordable healthcare is understandable. Our current health insurance system is neither affordable nor universal. Three-quarters of Americans worry about being able to afford to pay their medical bills if they get sick.
Expensive premiums? Increasing copays? Skyrocketing out of pocket costs—especially deductibles? Delay and even denying care your physician recommends? It’s easy to blame the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, but for-profit entities have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders: profit is more important to them than your healthcare. Those are the rules that they must play by.
Who sets those rules? Washington politicians—the ones who are supposed to put the interests of the voters first. They have the responsibility—and the power—to change the healthcare rules that enrich stockholders at the expense of patients.
The majority of Americans want real health insurance change. A 2020 poll showed support for switching to a Canadian-style, government-run single payer system called Medicare for All was 69%. A poll late last year noted 62% of Americans believe it’s the responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure everyone has affordable healthcare, possibly with a government-run system.
Yet only a minority of Washington politicians (exclusively Democrats) support the only practical solution that has actually been introduced in Congress—Medicare for All. What’s going on?
Maybe the American people, with their major concern being money in politics, are on to something here: could money in politics be standing in the way of, among other needed changes, universal affordable healthcare?
Here are the optics: the very top 0.1% of all Americans want laws that will help them maintain and increase their financial status. So they contribute vast sums of money to various politicians to pass laws that help them rather than the kitchen table worries of everyday Americans. As long as politicians play the political game by the rules as set by those with the most money—i.e., they keep passing laws that help the richest among us—they’ll keep getting those high dollar contributions. Doesn’t matter which political party these politicians belong to, win or lose they’ll keep getting those contributions as long as they play by those rules.
Why would any politician want to perpetuate a health insurance system that causes so much harm to so many Americans?
Getting rid of it might harm the interests of those at the top.
For starters, consider the large profits the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and their shareholders currently enjoy.
But there’s more to it than that. About half the population depends on an employer for their health insurance. Losing a job means losing your healthcare. Changing employers might mean changing insurance plans and because of the way our current health insurance system is structured (those “rules” again) that might mean giving up a favorite provider; starting one’s own business—possibly in competition with a current employer—is difficult because health insurance costs for employees is based not on payroll (as it is for government-run insurance) but on a likely less affordable set premium that is the same for each covered employee regardless of salary.
A universal, affordable plan such as Medicare for All would erase all these problems, thus eliminating the hold employers have over their employees—and creating problems for the folks who own and run business in America.
In other words, though a program like Medicare for All might be great for the vast majority of Americans, it won’t work as well for those already on top, who won’t allow such a program to become law.
Removing money from politics would level the playing field, putting voters on an equal footing with the lobbyists. When the politicians are more afraid of the voters than the lobbyists, they’ll make changes that work for all of us, not just the few on top—and universal affordable healthcare becomes a reality.
The voters are right: control money in politics and you might just end up with real change that help the most folks, especially when it comes to healthcare.
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