We need Universal Healthcare

Posted: Jun 11, 2017

Quoting Ellis Winningham, economist.
"...the fact is, the issue of universal healthcare doesn’t come down to compassion; it comes down to macroeconomic necessity (see fourth paragraph for an explanation). Canada is the same as the US with regard to how Canadian dollars work – ...tax dollars do not fund Canadian healthcare.  The US would be the same. 
Then secondly, what the federal tax is itself. The Obamacare tax (fine) highlights one of the main purposes of federal taxation: To modify behavior. In this case, government demands that you get insurance, and if you do not comply, it will tax (fine) you. So, everyone, including you, went out and obtained bullshit insurance that you couldn’t afford and mostly didn’t use to avoid being fined. This is precisely why we use the US dollar. Government taxes, then threatens us with punishment for not paying the tax, and we demand dollars to pay it. Tax (fines) is/are the means that governments use to force compliance in a civilized manner, rather than bopping people with clubs or other forms of impressment. There are proper, necessary and decent uses for federal tax, such as getting a nation’s currency accepted, curbing behavior which burdens the healthcare system needlessly (cigarette tax), suspending a tax to lift the burden on people’s savings so they can afford to spend for things that they need, etc. Then there are bullshit uses for federal tax, such as the Obamacare fine, which is nothing more than forcing people to accept free market solutions and buy something that has been proven time and again to be ineffective – health insurance. 
The result? High premiums, unused insurance, and profit, profit, profit for the insurance companies. In other words, government forced you to help insurance companies profit. Many people discovered that what little money they had before to buy things and save a little was eaten up in premiums and deductibles, and in the end, healthcare became even more expensive. So, here is an example of a bad use of federal tax (fines).
As to leaving the rest alone, we simply can’t because the economy itself cannot handle private healthcare. The costs are far too high, from overburdening the healthcare system with advanced illnesses and emergencies because people refuse doctor visits and checkups due to high prices which would have prevented these major issues to begin with, to lost output and productivity from injury and illness. “Medicare USA” wouldn’t be socialism (as people in Canada, the UK and Australia can attest) nor would it be the government “meddling” in healthcare; it’s government doing its job as a currency-issuer, taking the affordability question off of the table for both people and businesses alike. Neither citizens or business will have to pay for it. And, yes, universal healthcare is quite efficient. When you see people like Ted Cruz pointing to the UK and the NHS saying, “See? Long waiting lists for treatment. People being left to die on gurneys. That’s what happens when government runs healthcare. Government is inefficient and can’t do anything right.”, is extremely disingenuous. The reason why this is happening in the UK is precisely because the government is defunding and privatizing it. It is literally tearing it down, so yeah, there’s going to be major problems. 
This is no different than when a business is going under because its running out of money. Consider Walmart. Let customers stop shopping there and effectively begin defunding Walmart. Soon, it will start to run low on money resulting in empty shelves, there will be poor customer service, and each store will be horribly inefficient. Shall we claim then that the private sector is inefficient and can’t do anything right? Of course not. Yet, these politicians do just that when it comes to things which benefit you and I, but not their insurance company donors. They want to look for ways to scare everyone away from things which both citizens and the economy desperately need."

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