The current, largely Republican-inspired brouhaha over the Affordable Care Act makes the best possible case for universal care, but few if any are connecting the dots — at least not out loud. Each time Republicans vow to overturn the ACA, Democrats charge that the GOP doesn’t have a better plan, and Republicans are silent. Why? It’s not because they don’t think there’s a better plan — it’s because the better plan would be an anathema to them.
The better plan, of course, is universal health insurance, single payer, expanded Medicare, whatever you want to call it. The better plan covers everyone for everything at an affordable price determined by a sliding scale, with rates for families calculated in the same way. The better plan would issue every American the same card, which would give every American the same access to the same benefits regardless of social status. The better plan would be non-profit and leave insurance companies out of the picture altogether. The better plan would encourage the establishment of more clinics modeled after the Mayo, Cleveland, and even the VA. The better plan would allow vets to find health care wherever they chose — including VA medical centers if they wished. The better plan would cover the well and the sick, and provide the kind of peace of mind never before experienced in this country.
The industrialized world has had one form or another of a better plan for decades. Only the United States holds out. In most of the world’s democracies, health care is a right. In the US, it’s seen as a privilege. You can be healthy if you’re well off. If not, well too bad. You can be financially secure if you’re well off. If not, well you can go bankrupt.
As long as insurance companies have so much power over our elected officials, we will never enjoy a better plan in the US — and as long as both sides continue to take big money from corporations, we can’t pin the blame on just one party.
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