By: Jerry Rhoads

Americans are you excited about the prospect of getting free health care?  Sounds like a great idea for a politically driven plan … so I’m thinking a working title of Debunking the free Medicare For All socialism proposal … that converts all Americans to a VA type debacle!  You wait in line to get any medical intervention with a bureaucrat deciding your coverage then denying it based on its not medically necessary then it takes five levels of appeal, using a $500 dollar per hour attorney, to get claims paid.

That’s what a Government administered single payer Medicare program currently does to keep costs down and seniors at their mercy.  Mr. and Ms. American, that’s what you get by forfeiting your current plan for Medicare/Medicaid for All. Then you qualify for Medicaid once you need nursing home care after spending down your assets to a burial fee of $2000 and labeled indigent … a ward of the State of Illinois that is 18 months behind paying the nursing home for your substandard custodial care until you finally expire.  Welcome to socialized medicine VA style.

Democratic Socialists for Medicare for All is a campaign organized and paid for by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). DSA is the largest and fastest growing socialist organization in the United States.

They are a member-funded, member-run, and democratically accountable organization that fights for a political agenda that puts working people at the center. They believe that if we are to take on the enormous power of our political elite and their billionaire donors need an organization that truly represents the needs, aspirations and desires of the working-class majority.

They are organized into over 300 local groups across the country that organize and agitate for social reforms in health insurance, our schools and neighborhoods, at the ballot-box and in our workplaces.  And the majority of the most influential Democratic candidates have bought into this line of thinking to bring the masses to the Government’s freebees trough.

Critics of this impractical approach, also say eliminating private insurance could gut a major sector of the health economy. As of December 2018, private health coverage was directly responsible for almost 540,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists note, though, that predicting how many jobs would go away — versus how many could be absorbed by the new system — is difficult, as is projecting any macroeconomic impact.

CAN YOU IMAGINE ADDING ANOTHER, 540,000 BUREACRATS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS PAYROLL THAT NOW EXCEEDS $500 BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. PLUS, ANOTHER 100,000 STATE EMPLOYEES FOR STATE ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICAID AS THE SAFETY NET.  THAT MEANS ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS WILL EXCEED $1 TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR JUST TO OVERSEE THIS GIANT ALBATROSS.

On top of the administrative costs there is an expected cost of $14,500 per year medical care costs per covered American and aliens (330 million) for physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, dental, mental, eye care, therapies, durable medical equipment, transportation as promised by the  Democratic Socialists.  Take out your calculators and you get an annual cost of $4.8 trillion for fee for services, plus the $1 trillion administrative costs equals in round numbers $6 trillion dollars per year, with no mention of preventive services or the declining health of Americans because of obesity, aging and drug use.

Would the average person and employers pay more? Of course, That’s not hard to know.

Employers would not pay what they currently do for health insurance, an outlay that’s only getting more expensive. Also the employees would also likely get more generous health coverage. And lawmakers are pitching various other bills — see Warren’s wealth tax, Sanders’ estate tax or the 70 percent marginal tax on the wealthy touted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — that backers argue would generate revenue to pay for something like Medicare-for-all.  The added taxes of $6 trillion per year would drive each employed American and employers’ per employee tax up by $10,000 to $15,000 per year.  As usual, those younger employed workers would foot most of the bill.

Perhaps more significant, at least politically, are the implications for health care stakeholders like hospitals, insurers and drug makers. All stand to lose under single-payer, especially if it’s used to bring down health care costs. They’re already working to make their opposition felt. (That said, opposition from the health industry is not universal.)  Why not, currently they’re not held accountable for escalating costs and marginal quality nor are there any requirements to produce an outcome for their income.

The failure in the current, so called Medical/Medicare Model, is directly attributable to the manner of funding and payment to providers for input not outcome.  All providers are accountable for establishing a diagnosis (input) as justification for payment (income) and no proof of output (outcome).  Since there is no requirement to justify price by cost, costs escalate and the Americans’ health continues to deteriorate.  This, in economic terms is a Monopsony (one buyer market) where the State and Federal government is the payer of last resort which kills the competitive forces of Enterprise and externalize the benefits for the covered lives.

Americans, attached are my responses to your questions regarding your employer plan and how it would work under Medicare/Medicaid for All … first of all it can never work as a FREE for services program … even now Medicare as we know it is a FEE for services program with cost sharing from each beneficiary in the form of deductibles and coinsurance… even so, the costs will be prohibitive by the realization that health care is already the biggest uncontrollable cost to government  … and by 2026 it cannot be funded under its current structure as the baby boomers come on board with their chronic diseases … and the young voters will rebel when the realize they have to foot the bill with exorbitant taxation … and by Medicare using the current method of payment of the providers, there will be built in costs since there are incentives for preventive or health preservation services (real outcomes) in the budgets.  That’s where the true savings are, not in more taxes for less care.

(insert table of MFA comparisons to current plans)

Since the conservatives and moderate Republicans don’t seem to have a rebuttal or a workable plan, the only true solution will be to privatize health care  (SHIFT the paradigm from Government funded health care to Self-health  Funded Insurance Trusts) as a way for Americans to internalize the cost of being unhealthy, so they personally can afford their own health care will have the incentive to stay healthy that creates savings on their health care expenditures … they then can hold the providers accountable, since they are paying the bills, for positive outcomes, preventive services and health preservation services for staying healthy.

This makes for a true Enterprise Model where the providers have to compete to stay in business.  All of this is covered in my books, The Boomers Are Coming, Restore Elder Pride, America in the Red Zone and Failing Government Taketh Away. The other alternative is to bankrupt the Government’s ability to afford what Americans already have or take away huge amounts of current Medicare and Medicaid benefits under the guise that the Swamp is being drained.