Universal Health Care

Don't fix blame. Fix the problem.

   Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to extend the Medicare health care program to cover every American.
   Republicans immediately came out against it, claiming that similar programs in other nations have problems, so the U.S. should not go there. One big problem, they note, is that people needing surgery sometimes have to wait a long time before a facility is available to do the operation. Consequently, some folks go elsewhere rather than wait. For example, a Canadian resident may seek the necessary surgery in Idaho.
   Therefore, the reasoning goes, don't adopt universal health care because of such problems. Yes, there  are problems in the systems of other countries, and there are problems with the Affordable Care Act system now in place in America. But how about we fix the problems rather than spend so much time and effort fixing blame?
  But similar problems exist in other countries that already have universal health care. Folks with money are able to buy additional health care and to seek help privately, beyond the help offered by a government-sponsored universal health care program.
   In support of his Medicare For All proposal, Sen. Sanders noted in an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today that the U.S. remains "the only major country on earth that allows chief executives and stockholders in the health care industry to get incredibly rich, while tens of millions of people suffer because they can't get the health care they need."
   The current system in America, Sanders wrote, "is enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic, and designed to maximize profits for big insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, Wall Street and medical equipment suppliers."
   Other major nations, he added, spend less than half what the U.S. spends per person for health care, even as they guarantee health care for all.
   Republicans, however, seem more focused on problems that systems in other countries face, using that as a warning that the U.S. should not go down that road.
   It's a similar tactic used in their opposition to the current Affordable Care Act. There are problems, so let's trash the system, repeal it and replace it later. Perhaps. Eventually. After a while. When the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies agree to forgo profits and act solely in the interest of public welfare.
   Don't hold your breath until that happens.