The media and politicians are pushing a “single payer” medical system since the “repeal and replace” of Obamacare failed in Congress.
“Single payer” healthcare would be a disaster for you and your family.
And a “single payer” system will be destructive for America, our economy and for medical innovations.
Sure, on the surface universal healthcare through “single payer” sounds like a grand idea … until you crunch the numbers and understand what it really is.
Then it just doesn’t work.
A “single payer” healthcare system, “Medicare for All,” is disturbing for several reasons:
- First, it puts the government in charge of your health. This same bureaucratic, slow-moving, over-spending waste machine will oversee your doctors, your hospitals and your health costs.
Remember Ronald Reagan’s famous quote: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
- “Single payer” is to the left of socialism. It is a ploy. It is a disguised system of “sharing the wealth.” It will be Obamacare on steroids. It will burden you and your family by taking your hard-earned money and giving it to others. It will burden families and businesses with huge tax increases. It will increase a monstrously big bureaucratic government to galactic size.
- Doctors will inevitable refuse to participate. Those who liked their doctor would not necessarily be able to keep their doctor. This is already happening under Medicare. It would be worse with “single payer.”
- The death of hospitals. Some hospitals simply couldn’t survive if all services were billed at the typical payment rates for government programs.
- If you have private insurance, you’ll lose it! Every single person who currently gets private insurance would be thrust into an entirely new government-run plan. Every single healthcare provider in the U.S. that does business with private insurers would have to reorganize their billing and financing structures. Everyone who works for a private health insurance company would be out of a job, or would have to work for the government, either as a contractor (usually, no benefits) or an employee.
Forget about you and your doctor choosing drugs, surgeries, treatments. All will be codified and rationed.
‘SINGLE PAYER’ JUST DOESN’T WORK
Vermont tried single payer and abandoned it after realizing it couldn’t come up with “a couple of billions of dollars” more it needed through taxing businesses, working families and the state’s economic resources.
Vermont’s plan would have required a 160% tax increase. That’s a fiscal train wreck.
California, a demonstratively left-leaning state, has been kicking around the idea of single payer.
But it would come with a $400 billion annual price tag, TWICE the state’s entire budget. You can guess who would be squeezed for the money … businesses and working families.
It is an economic engine killer!
Financially, it is unsustainable.
This is why repealing and replacing Obamacare with competition and a medical free market is absolutely urgent.
Yes, it is disappointing that after seven years of posturing about repealing Obamacare, the GOP has shown itself to be impotent to the point of embarrassment.
Republicans control the presidency, the House and the Senate. And they still can’t get anything done.
Some of the politicians – such as Sen. John McCain – outright lied to the voters.
How did this epic failure happen?
- Lack of clear and powerful messaging. They failed to communicate the necessity of getting rid of a failed system that hurts people with one that would improve their quality of life.
- Lack of vision. The Republicans failed to articulate a vision of what repeal and replace would mean. What the country witnessed was this: when the party finally gained power and it was time to legislate, debate, craft and vote on a plan, Republicans had no shared vision and no workable plan.
- Lack of mobilization. The Republicans’ failed in their ability to mobilize the populace to support their plan by using the media, digital and social media and organization.
Because the GOP fell flat on its political promise to advance the nation’s healthcare in meaningful ways, the money-gobbling monster that is single payer is staring us in the face.
And it’s hungry.
Still, it’s not too late for the GOP to repeal and replace. Write your congressman and tell them you want Obamacare repealed and replaced with a free market solution.
What do you think? Write me at [email protected]