Today, near the end of my workday I ran into a Healthcare Reform troll on Twitter. He replied to one of my twitter posts and it wasn’t conciliatory or an invitation to a fair and balanced argument. It did however get me thinking about healthcare reform.
As far as I can see, the idea of healthcare reform has been beaten around the bush so many times as to be a bill-in-name-only, most of the really profound reforms were jettisoned in committee. True, there are some reforms present but whenever the meat of the matter comes up it instantly polarizes everyone who comes into contact with it. The meat that I consider to be a central pillar of true healthcare reform is the establishment of a National Health Service, NHS, which is universal socialized government-run taxpayer-funded health insurance for every citizen of the United States of America. I am a huge proponent of NHS, and while it would be expensive to run in the short-term, there are things that can be done to help control the costs and get it started. Of course, it wouldn’t be an idea of mine unless it was draconian, sweeping, and world-altering. One thing I’ve noticed about all the arguments is that they lack a plan, actual concrete suggestions that could easily be turned into law. I’ve got some ideas, not a complete package, but some things that could help.
First, the government nationalizes and socializes all the current health insurance companies. If you have any clients in the USA, your ass is grass and we own it – consumption by fiat, call it whatever you like – the will of the people, a socialist revolution, or even eminent domain. We establish in it’s place the NHS, we insure every man woman and child, your health card is your Social Security Insurance Card – a nine digit number that is your password to access NHS. If you are a citizen of the United States, you will be covered. The shareholders in big health insurance companies will be told that their sacrifice for the good of us all is greatly appreciated and we can engrave their names on the bricks that make up the home office of the NHS.
You can’t just expect lazy greedy Americans to take charge of their health on their own, they need an enticement. I suggest a $2000 income tax credit that anyone who is working can claim on their 1040A form. This credit is a sliding scale, from zero to $2000. Your credit is calculated based on your proximity to your ideal height and weight ratio. If you are 6’3” and male, your ideal weight is 200 pounds. If you are that tall and weigh that much, and have a doctor or nurse notarize the fact, you can claim your credit. Keeping your weight under control prevents heart disease, obesity, and a host of other long-term illnesses. If you can’t reach that full credit, you can get a $400 tax credit if you are in good standing at any kind of exercise venue, whether at work or in private. If you can prove that you are exercising, you’ll get a small credit.
Once everyone can take part in the NHS, anyone who abuses emergency rooms or claims that it is prohibitively expensive to be screened for any health-related issues simply loses their basis of complaint. Because everyone will have insurance there will be no risk to citizens going bankrupt, losing their homes, their jobs, or their credit. For everyone there will be coverage, irrespective of their current health conditions and while it may be rather expensive at first, once people who would have otherwise been unable to have basic medical services rendered now will know if they have to quit smoking or lose weight or stop drinking. If you make a small change in the beginning, it leads to massive changes later on.
What would we do if we did not enact these sweeping reforms that lead to an NHS? We’ll have a further spreading of class distinctions in our country, the high class never even pays any thought to health care, the middle class will continue to eke out whatever they can get from their employers or spouses, and the poor and homeless and otherwise disabled citizens will be left at the mercy of our current social medical programs which demand that you live an impoverished life in order to qualify for public assistance. The rich will pay no attention to anything, the middle class will care and fret, but will do nothing because they are afraid of losing what little they already have and the poor, they’ll continue to do as they do now, flood into free clinics and hit the ER when something bad happens.
It’s my fervent belief that some things are best done socially. The cost of keeping ourselves healthy is immense and cannot be shouldered by just a select few, say, the middle class, but it should be shouldered by everyone. A huge expense can be rendered manageable if you have enough people sharing the burden. In order for any one of us to not fall through the cracks, we must all agree to work together. If we work together in this fashion, we can rest easy knowing that children will get whatever immunizations they need, that they’ll always be able to see a general practitioner, and that with a relief of stress from the bleakness and fear of falling through the cracks, a newly developing seed of hope can be planted.
This is not only good for The People, it’s good for Corporate America as well. Large companies, like General Motors can simply purge their need for private health insurance since NHS sweeps in and gathers every employee. Not only will it help current employees but also the retired. General Motors can stop having to pay health insurance premiums on their retired workers, they’ll rely instead on NHS. With this relief, all our companies, even the small ones and new ones can better compete when they no longer have to concentrate some of their attention on the health and well-being of their employees.
The only people who will be unhappy with this plan are people who run the big health insurance companies now, and Big Pharma. Their time came and went, they can’t provide for us all, and they can’t do it as well as the government can. Their time will come to an end and we can move on knowing that we have secured our fellow citizens against the bleakness.
This isn’t a fully fleshed out plan, but these are some great ideas to get started with. If we don’t take healthcare reform seriously then we’re going to have a lot of blood on our collective hands. It is inhuman to allow your fellow man fall into the dirt and do nothing about it when you clearly can. Everything demands that we act sooner rather than later – basic human decency, even many popular religions all support an idea like this one, that even the lowliest member of our society does not go without care. Anything less and we do not deserve to look at ourselves in the mirror.
