Why I Am For A Single-Payer

Why I Am for a Single-Payer National Health Insurance System!

Is it just for myself that I call for single-payer?  NO!  I believe it is a better choice for all citizens. My intentions include the doctor who would, because of a brain injury caused by an accident or illness, lose his own access to a doctor; that he will still be insured, even though he can’t practice and keep up the insurance premium.

I really believe it is the best choice for every American. It means every American has health insurance. It insures the current 47 million uninsured; a number I fear will go up. It eliminates the pre-existing conditions exclusions. It eliminates cost shifting.  I realize many do oppose this because they fear change. The insurance companies don’t want to give up their profiteering and are using many scare tactics.

Conservatives will quickly tell me, “Let’s get rid of the frivolous malpractice lawsuits.” Yes, the frivolous malpractice suits are a serious problem; but not the only thing wrong with American healthcare. Here’s another reason for single-payer:  it will go a long way toward curing the malpractice suit. Currently, if a doctor made a mistake I had probably better sue for future medical bills caused by his
mistake, along with loss of work and pain. If we had a good working
single-payer system, like HR-676, then I would probably sue for pain and loss
of work--but not for future medical bills caused by his mistake, since access
to healthcare is a guarantee.

The biggest reason of all is, I believe, that it is the Christian way. I believe this in spite of much controversy among the Christians. If you would really try to listen to what Jesus is saying, look beyond what you may have heard against a national health insurance system, and be really honest with yourself.  This may
actually start to make sense to you. I like what Michael Moore said in his
movie SiCKO, “Not socialized medicine, but Christianized medicine.”  I don’t
discourage listening to the groups who oppose a conversion to single-payer (or
other types of healthcare reforms); it is important that we look at both sides
of the story. 

I believe conversion to single payer (or some meaningful form of healthcare reforms) will let doctors be doctors, and not slaves to the insurance companies. If a doctor needs to prescribe a medication or a treatment he can do without regard to whether patient can afford it.  Doctors will not longer have to be torn
between the funding and “The Hypocratic Oath.” I have seen on a video obtained
from “Healthcare-Now” a lady studying to be a doctor; really afraid, wondering
how she can keep the oath to do no harm with
our current fragmented healthcare system still in power.

The proper healthcare reform will also reduce crime. Our jails are currently overcrowded by mentally ill people who lacked affordable access to psychiatry. I’m not saying that mental illness is responsible for every crime committed. An incarceration spared will save us taxpayers $40K/year. Furthermore; with so many people owing medical debts I am afraid that I will get ripped off by someone trying to pay what he owes. In my other essay “I DON’T WANT TO PAY FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE” I wrote “It occurred to me, I don’t want to pay for your care either! But, I more don’t want …. to get hurt or killed by mentally ill person because the financial barrier blocked his/her access to the psychiatric treatment.”

My biggest concern over this privatized healthcare is:  if you make it a personal responsibility to obtain the kind of job that lets one afford health insurance, who will be the
first to be unable to obtain or hold that kind of job? My guess would be
the sick. Would you be okay being the one who lost his job and his insurance
due to an illness not yet diagnosed?  Now you have a serious illness and no insurance; is that okay with you? Try applying for Medicaid; is that okay with you?

There is a very serious moral imperative regarding our USA healthcare that everybody, of all religious affiliations, must address. Furthermore, our privatized care is sending a bad message to those who are lucky enough to be able to afford good insurance. So many of the lucky ones are learning to say, “You can’t afford healthcare? That’s not my problem!”  The preamble of the US Constitution begins
with “We The People,” not “They The Rich Folks.”  The lucky need to care about the not-so-lucky; because it could happen that the lucky person’s luck changes and he becomes not so lucky,  needing others to care for him. It is very possible for one person to have it very well, with a job that offers good insurance; then he loses his job and his insurance. What are we in America? A nation of barbarians?  Universal healthcare is in the constitution: …provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare…

It will reduce abortions. Many pro-life people fear that we will have free abortions and abortions will skyrocket. I am pro-life, against abortion; but I believe the very opposite outcome will result from single-payer. If a woman becomes pregnant and has no medical insurance, what will she do? She can’t afford medical care for complications that will occur in her pregnancy, nor for the medical needs of her child. Here is a good example of where a single-payer healthcare (or some level of meaningful healthcare reform, that she can afford) may save the life of her unborn child.  By the way, I say “child,” not “fetus.”

Now, take national security issues: what if there is a national emergency? Suppose the United States needed to draft our young men to fight in a war. The problem is, many of the young people haven’t gotten the healthcare they needed because the parents couldn’t afford to bring them to the doctor when they needed to go. Now we are trying to recruit young men, many of whom are sick and weak and very probably unfit for military service. There is also a concern of this same type related
to the epidemic of obesity.  Not that I am blaming the healthcare crisis for the obesity epidemic (not entirely, anyway). But I will point out that widespread obesity, some other kind of illness, or lack of affordable access to medicine does threaten our national security by imposing limitations on those who would have to fight our wars.

I have learned from experts that through single-payer it costs less to cover every citizen. Single-payer (or some comprehensive form of universal healthcare) would be good for our economy. This makes sense because the private insurance is a very expensive and inefficient way to fund our healthcare system.  The CEOs each make millions of dollars a year; yet  1 in every 6 Americans is unable to afford health insurance. While still employed at Lester Electrical, a battery charger manufacturer, I wrote a song out of concern that the healthcare crisis would eat up our economy, and I may soon not be working there anymore because it knocked production jobs out of international competition:

     A-For-Da-Ble Health’ will save our economy, it is in the best interest of everybody.

   If every job moves out of the country, then (tell me) who’s gonna pay the medical fee?

Here is a very sensible reason for going to a single payer plan.I  It would save money at a time that our national deficit is skyrocketing. It would cut out the middleman. Now we pay insurance company executives huge salaries to determine who is eligible for medical treatments. If everyone was eligible, we could let medical practitioners determine who needs what. This is why Americans pay so much more for health care than any other western nation, and still have inferior health outcomes. Some people fear that someone in the government will be able to decide if they need treatment. Don't they realize that all insurance companies hire people to find ways NOT to pay for expensive treatments?  The health insurance companies are quick to use scare tactics to scare us out of voting
for single-payer.

Single-Payer will let doctors be doctors; and free them from being slaves to the insurance companies. Your doctor decides what treatment you should get; not your insurance company. Currently, many doctors (including mine) are frustrated because they write prescriptions and patients can’t afford to get them filled.

Continuing on the subject of morality; what about the one who loses his job and his insurance? It has been happening a lot in the USA recently.  If a family has a seriously ill member and the breadwinner loses his job and the family insurance; this is very serious business. Are you okay with it happening to you?  Are we about the golden rule or survival of the fittest? I have even written a song:

     Would it be okay if it were you, lost your job and your insurance?

     Would it be okay if it were you, potential new employer seemed to give no chance?

    You may think your care is so great, but for millions of others, can’t afford is their fate.

     I’m not talking about lazy loafers, or those you brand too cheap to buy,

      Many work hard full time or two jobs, some work so hard that they die!

       Healthcare must ‘come a right, for us ALL!

We do have a single-payer that funds our police and fire department. I don’t think too many are upset about that, except for criminals. If I had suggested that we should privatize our police and fire department you would think I’d gone crazy. That would mean that the poor would lose access to the police; except for those who are able to qualify for Medicaid (or “Policeaid” and “Fireaid”). But the working poor would be in serious trouble.   

Our current healthcare is a business.  There are ways to prevent many illnesses; but our system lacks incentives to prevent illness. Furthermore, it rewards the providers for treating illness; but not for preventing illness. You would tell
me “people become doctors to help people;” you would have said right. We have
also reached the place where many doctors start their practices with 6-figure
student loan debts; they would feel the need to compromise their principles in
order to speed up their paying down of the debt; how can they get the student
loan paid down if nobody gets sick? Besides a reform to make healthcare more affordable we must reform medical education in order for people to be able to become doctors without becoming deep in student loan debt.

To conclude, I see single-payer national health insurance as the best choice for everybody.  There is a moral imperative to making healthcare affordable for ALL Americans; I really don’t see our current privatized for-profit healthcare ever doing justice for the American public.  Yes; wonderful things have happened because healthcare was good business; but the business part of our healthcare has become cancer to our healthcare.  But I believe single-payer is good for
doctors; will let doctors be doctors, and not slaves to the insurance
companies. It will also reduce crime by removing the financial barrier to those
needing medical treatment, including psychiatry.  It costs less to cover every citizen than to keep our fragmented, very expensive healthcare. It would eliminate cost shifting and the pre-existing issues.

The Preamble of the Constitution of the USA states:  WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.