A guest reminded me yesterday of an article I wrote 15 years ago during the Clinton’s failure at this same process. Deja Vu all over again…
Single Payer
A recent poll showed that 85% of Canadians were “happy” with the Canadian single payer system. The same poll showed that only 30% of Americans were “happy” with whatever the Hell it is we got here.
A single payer health care system is the simplest of choices, it is the most easily enforceable, it is administratively less costly by far, it will cost the nation less, it will cost individuals less, it will cost employers less, it will cover everyone with the same level of care most of us enjoy today, and it will never happen. And easy to write, just change one word in the the Medicare law, from "65" to "Everyone". And then adjust it down the road…
Believe it or not, competition in health care drives up the cost, the more hi-tech it becomes the more profit is made. Even with cartels and monopolies we have choices. With oil companies we can choose gas or coal or bicycles. With banks we can choose not to deposit or not to borrow, we can even live without the various utilities with a bit of self reliance, but health care is something we must have and often have immediately.
With the various success of single payer National Health Care plans around the world, which the great majority of the people in those countries accept, and enjoy as a right, one comes to wonder why it is such anathema to us here in America. The plans are in place and work well in Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Australia, Japan, the Scandinavian countries, and literally everywhere on Earth accept the United States. In fact, these systems work as well, and in some cases better than ours with less overall cost. Why not here? Why is it political suicide to mention single payer national health care in this country?
Those nations, which enjoy national health care plans, are content taking care of each other. They are willing to pay more taxes to give everyone equal access while reducing the overall cost to the nation. The reason is that they are more homogeneous societies than we; of those previously mentioned Australia has the most Blacks at 1.5% compared to our 13%. These countries perceive themselves as paying in for themselves and not some other differently colored culture they didn’t like then and like no better now.
When Andrew Hacker, author of Two Nations, Separate and Unequal is asked what to do to alleviate the racism in America, the noted expert in the field has very little to suggest. But most certainly there are things that do not help. Conservative talk show hosts who denigrate and insult one Black leader after another day in and day out, conservatives who ignore or defend racists and racist organizations, and neither do the endless attacks on Political Correctness help race relations where the gist of it has come to mean conservatives whose speech and writings reek of prejudice and bigotry are the victims, while those few who have the moral fortitude to call them on it have become fascist communist Demons from Hell. It’s all disgusting semantic drool a ten year old can see through, but then again most ten year olds are quite a bit smarter than most conservative talk show audiences.
The health care issue is used here because it is a topic of national discussion in the here and now, but this same mentality can be substituted to most any social program with the same results. The unsaid, “I hate my tax money going to blacks” is the sad American bottom line. Though many politicians and individuals understand and wish to help through government intervention, democracy being what it is, the majority is not going to allow it until every Black in America follows the lead of Uncle Clarence Thomas and dresses, speaks, and thinks like Ron and Nancy Reagan. So though in it’s pragmatism it somehow sounds conservative, African Americans are going to have to do their best to do what they can for themselves by themselves, because with our recent run to the Right, this racist nation of ours is going to be just kicking them in the head harder as time goes on.