OP-ED: Health Coverage Is Kitchen-Table Issue ...
... but despite overwhelming support for universal health care, the amount of waste in our health care system, and a shocking number of deaths because people cannot afford timely care, little changes.
By Jay Brock
GUEST WRITER
“If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
—Unattributed
Most Americans appreciate that there is much that is wrong with the country—especially those “kitchen table” issues most of us worry about—and wonder why nothing much is being done to fix it.
A case in point is our health insurance system, a top kitchen-table issue given that across the country three in four Americans worry about being able to afford paying their medical bills if they get sick.
When it comes to healthcare, most Americans understand the health insurance system just isn’t working for them. Though we spend an enormous number of dollars on healthcare, we stand alone among the world’s developed nations in lacking coverage that is universal and affordable.
The numbers are revealing, and compelling:
Nearly 100 million of us has either no health insurance or insurance we cannot afford to use.
A stunning 78% of Virginians worry about how they can afford to pay their medical bills if they get sick.
Healthcare experts see a failed—but highly profitable—health insurance system that each year wastes more than $800 billion on costs that have nothing to do with actual healthcare; and worst of all, where each year in the wealthiest nation in history, 75,000 Americans die prematurely because they cannot afford timely health care.
It’s telling that despite 70% of Americans supporting single payer Medicare for All—real insurance reform that would provide affordable healthcare to everyone—70% of Washington politicians reject it.
Voter pessimism that what they want doesn’t really matter to our elected officials is well-founded. Legislation that 90% of voters favor has the same chance of passing as bills that have 20% support.
Many voters feel that when the system is stacked so unfavorably against them, their vote doesn’t make a difference.
They may have a point.
Why is our political system—so inept at fixing real kitchen-table problems—so dysfunctional?
Let’s look at three places for answers.
FIRST is the corrupt influence of all that money in politics.
Pundits call it the “Golden Rule”; whoever has the gold makes the rules. There is a huge and growing disparity of wealth in America: the top 1% have about as much wealth as the bottom 90%, while 60% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. The country is top-heavy with a relatively few ultra-rich individuals who are more than eager to use their wealth to influence elections and public policy, as well as protect their interests at the expense of the American people.
And in a country with some very powerful industries flush with cash, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that corporations are people and, like individuals, when it comes to politics, they can spend whatever they want to get the outcomes they want—to protect their interests at the expense of the American people.
In a political system where cash is king, many (but certainly not all) Washington politicians get the large monetary handouts they need to fuel their political ambitions from wealthy individuals and powerful industries. Easier than reaching out to us regular folks for a $25 contribution. Those big dollars buy a lot more political influence with those politicians than we would get.
SECOND is our system of checks and balances. Designed to protect the interests of the minority (even, and perhaps especially, when the minority is the wealthy and powerful top 1%) from the interests of the majority. Such a system makes change very difficult and real change almost impossible. It took a Civil War to abolish slavery, another six decades to give women the right to vote, and until 1965 to enshrine the rights of Blacks to vote.
There’s a THIRD factor that prevents needed change. How convenient it is for the politically powerful when the rest of us are fighting with each other rather than confronting them and their entrenched interests.
Rather than fixing the big kitchen-table issues most Americans worry about, we’re too busy being distracted by hot-button cultural issues like abortion, guns, immigration, wokeness, critical race theory, and banning books.
So when it comes to healthcare, our health insurance system might be a failure, but as long as it’s this profitable, it’s politically untouchable.
Meanwhile, the top 1%, and the politicians of both major parties that do their bidding are laughing, arm-in-arm, all the way to the proverbial bank. Most Washington politicians still oppose the best path to affordable universal healthcare; and our failed health insurance system still wastes staggering numbers of dollars—and lives.
Those politicians must level with their voters about how many wasted healthcare dollars, and unnecessary deaths, they are okay with.
Not that it would make any difference politically.
For More Information, Visit the Following Sources
The State of U.S. Health Insurance in 2022
Number of Americans without health insurance rises in 2024, breaking streak of record-low figures
69 Percent of Americans Want Medicare for All, Including 46 Percent of Republicans, New Poll Says
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Overall true. Only one major point of objection. Or rather, ommission.
This ongoing idea from those of the left that both parties are the same. They are not.
Overall, the Democratic party is doing the best they can with what they've got. The reason they don't do more is because - we, the voters, hold them back.
Obamacare was originally a Republican idea, when Mitt Romney instituted it in Massachusetts. Dems accepted it as a compromise, when they wanted to push for Mcare for All. And then voters punished them for enacting it.
Likewise the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Pushed through by a Democrat, gutted by Republicans.
On and on for kitchen table issues. Accepts Republican ideas to fix the border, Republicans refuse to enact it to make sure their base stays energized. Deficit spending for infrastructure and to address an ongoing risk to not only the nation, but the world versus mailing bankrupting checks at election time to buy votes. Ruining our credit rating with their financial antics.
Again, on and on. Theocracies, wealth inequality, insurrection.
They are most certainly NOT all the same. There is a clear choice. Particularly this year, all the way up and down the ballot. Decency and democracy versus fraud and felons.
Choose wisely. We do have the power.
They haven't taken it yet, though damned if they ain't trying.
Vote, and vote Democrat.
A local example of the dominance of money in health services is the process MW Healthcare is using to reduce or eliminate its public services such as the Moss Free Clinic which MWH's nonprofit status, meaning it pays no taxes, obliges them. The IRS by law is supposed to audit them every three years to make sure their public service matches what they do not pay in taxes. All this so its directors and doctors can enjoy enormous salaries and benefits. Why do our local and state politicians not inquire?