Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard, a lobbyist who lives in Manchester.
By Gawd I ain’t goin’ for none of the socialized medicine; that Obamacare, Single Payer business. No sir, this will lead to Socialism and I ain’t gonna have none of that.
How many times have you heard this from some folks? It’s nearly a mantra of conservatives in this country. They feel very much threatened by having the government run healthcare or paying money for someone else’s healthcare. The last thing in the world they seem to want to do is to change from having free enterprise hold on tightly to the reins of our health care system and the costs associated with it.
I was at a party the other night and a good friend of mine asked me this question: “What happens if someone is sick or injured and doesn’t have health insurance? Don’t they just go to the emergency room at a hospital?”
“Pretty much”, was my answer.
“So if the 43 million Americans without healthcare can just go to an emergency room aren’t those who pay for insurance paying for those who don’t through increased premiums?” my friend asked.
“That’s about righ,t, I said.
He asked, “Well, then doesn’t it seem a little bit reasonable to expect everyone to pay something instead of some people paying nothing and others paying a lot?”
Now my friend is a businessman. He owns a couple of stores and although I can’t say for certain what his political persuasion might be I can say that he’s a fairly conservative man. Thinking I might have some fun I said, “Well, if you mandate that everyone pay for health care then are you going down the road of socialism?”
His reply was, “I don’t know what road we’d be going down. What I care about is fairness.”
And therein is the story of health care in America today. My friend is way too busy to spend a lot of his limited time trying to figure out a health care law, but I can assure you that he’s a very bright guy and can see what all Americans witness every day. We think our health care system is working great for those who can afford it; a population that is shrinking more and more each day, but in reality it is not. Those who can afford health care subsidize those who can’t.
Now you might hear someone say, “Yeah, well, the hell with that. The emergency should just not take anyone who doesn’t have health insurance. No reason why I should have to pay for that deadbeat.”
OK, so you have a lady who can’t afford to pay $1,000 per month for health insurance. She’s pregnant and goes into labor. Do you really want to be the one to look her in the eye and tell her to go have her baby out in the street? Is that the America that our forefathers envisioned? Is that your idea of America?
You might also hear someone say, “Yeah, well, I don’t want no government run, socialized healthcare. Government never runs anything right.”
OK, but when your parents or grandparents get sick it’s a safe bet that they will rely on Medicare to help with their expenses. Medicare is a government run health care program that is more cost efficient than privately run, for profit providers. The Medicare prescription drug program would be even less expensive than it is currently had former President George Bush allowed the government to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies.
Right, you might have forgotten about that by now, but a few years back when the prescription drug bill was winding its way through Congress, our then president was emphatic that the government not be allowed to negotiate a better deal on prescription drugs. ice going, eh? I guess the theory was that left to their own device the pharmaceutical companies would treat us fairly. How’s that working out?
The fact is that we have socialized health care in this country and have for generations. Medicare works well, because we all participate. My friend was right; health care for the rest of us is not working, because not everyone is participating. If all Americans paid a little more into a not-for-profit system the costs would be spread out and it would be less expensive for everyone. The benefit would be that we would not run the risk of bankrupting a family, because a loved one has taken ill.
Why don’t we just do this? The answer should be obvious. There are billions of dollars at stake. The companies behind the ridiculous TV commercials that you see night after night advertising some unknown drug that you just have to have, even though it takes longer to read the dangerous side effects than it does to describe the drug, would lose big time.
For profit health care corporations are concerned about one and only one thing: profits. A government run health care system would actually be concerned about delivering quality service at the most affordable price possible. A civilized society is one that finds a way to take care of its people. Right now we are not doing so. It’s time that we did.
