|
Why I Oppose a 'Single-Payer' or 'Public Option' Medical Plan
by James Arthur, vice chair Knoxville Tea Party September 13, 2018 |
|
Because it's not optional. Because it's based on bogus facts and phony science. Because I want a system that's actually better and more affordable for everyone, one that lets people shop and choose what they like best by voting with their dollars, not another free-money debt-financed pass-the-buck scam where everyone tries to use the government to pawn their over-priced bills onto everyone else. And because it's a dangerous expansion of power to give any government the power of life and death over its citizens.
Progressives, if your ideas work, if your programs are good, why would you have to force people?
Progressives, instead of tearing down and taking what other people have built and like, why not create something, something new and beautiful, instead? Build your more compassionate, more affordable, non-profit, extra-wonderful system. Show us. No one's stopping you.
And if you built it and it really were all you promise, you wouldn't have to force anyone--America would flock to it.
But it's your vision not mine, so please do it with your own money. Please. Like we did.
--o--
Progressives, if your ideas work, if your programs are good, why would you have to force people?
Progressives, instead of tearing down and taking what other people have built and like, why not create something, something new and beautiful, instead? Build your more compassionate, more affordable, non-profit, extra-wonderful system. Show us. No one's stopping you.
And if you built it and it really were all you promise, you wouldn't have to force anyone--America would flock to it.
But it's your vision not mine, so please do it with your own money. Please. Like we did.
--o--
Fast Facts – Medicare For All (M4A)
- A Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken this March found that 59 percent of Americans now support a single-payer government health care system.
- A recent study by the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank at George Mason University, has concluded that the tab would total $32 trillion dollars over ten years, or possibly “substantially” more.
The authors note “even doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes would be insufficient to fully fund” Medicare For All.
“It is likely that the actual cost of M4A would be substantially greater than these estimates…,” since Sen. Sanders assumes that health providers would accept an immediate 40% reduction in payments, and also assumes dramatic reductions in drug and administrative costs, assumptions that the author believes may be unrealistic.
- Left-wing Vox: “Before you question the source (like Sanders did), you should know the left-leaning Urban Institute came up with the exact same number in 2016.”
Selected Single-Payer Myths
Myth
Going to a government system would eliminate wasteful insurance company overhead, and save administration costs.
Reality
FALSE
Administration is necessary in any system (government or private) where a third party pays the bills. It is irrational (but popular) to think that replacing private insurance administrative personnel with government workers earning twice as much, saves money.
Government care simply replaces private workers with higher-paid, unionized government bureaucrats.
Myth
America should switch to government medical care because government health control is cheaper. Canada, for example, only spends $3,500 per enrollee per year for universal coverage.2
Reality
1. If government care were the answer, Medicare should already be as cheap as Canada. Instead, Medicare spends $12,200 per enrollee annually.2
2. Tennessee spends $8,570 annually per enrollee on TennCare, our federal poverty care program.3
U.S. government care is expensive, not cheaper.
3. If we cut Medicare's per-person spending by 3/4's, to Canadian levels, what would that do to quality?
Myth
Health care is a right.
Reality
Health care is a product people buy.
You cannot have a right to something that someone else has to provide. Otherwise, that would mean you having a 'right' to someone else's labor. That's called 'slavery.' We had that once in the United States. It was evil.
Myth
Going to a government system would eliminate wasteful insurance company overhead, and save administration costs.
Reality
FALSE
Administration is necessary in any system (government or private) where a third party pays the bills. It is irrational (but popular) to think that replacing private insurance administrative personnel with government workers earning twice as much, saves money.
Government care simply replaces private workers with higher-paid, unionized government bureaucrats.
Myth
America should switch to government medical care because government health control is cheaper. Canada, for example, only spends $3,500 per enrollee per year for universal coverage.2
Reality
1. If government care were the answer, Medicare should already be as cheap as Canada. Instead, Medicare spends $12,200 per enrollee annually.2
2. Tennessee spends $8,570 annually per enrollee on TennCare, our federal poverty care program.3
U.S. government care is expensive, not cheaper.
3. If we cut Medicare's per-person spending by 3/4's, to Canadian levels, what would that do to quality?
Myth
Health care is a right.
Reality
Health care is a product people buy.
You cannot have a right to something that someone else has to provide. Otherwise, that would mean you having a 'right' to someone else's labor. That's called 'slavery.' We had that once in the United States. It was evil.
______________________________
1 “In 2017, total health expenditure in Canada is expected to reach $242 billion, or $ 6,604 per person.”
Public spending is 70%, 0.7 x $6,604 = CAN$4,622.80, or US$ 3,510 per enrollee.
https://www.cihi.ca/en/health-spending
https://www.cihi.ca/en/how-does-canadas-health-spending-compare-internationally
2 $710 billion in outlays and 58.2 million enrollees (2017) = $710 billion / 58.2 million enrollees = $12,200 per enrollee.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cms/medicare/index.html
3 $12 billion a year / 1.4 million enrolled = $8,570 annually per enrollee. https://www.tn.gov/tenncare/information-statistics/tenncare-overview.html
1 “In 2017, total health expenditure in Canada is expected to reach $242 billion, or $ 6,604 per person.”
Public spending is 70%, 0.7 x $6,604 = CAN$4,622.80, or US$ 3,510 per enrollee.
https://www.cihi.ca/en/health-spending
https://www.cihi.ca/en/how-does-canadas-health-spending-compare-internationally
2 $710 billion in outlays and 58.2 million enrollees (2017) = $710 billion / 58.2 million enrollees = $12,200 per enrollee.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cms/medicare/index.html
3 $12 billion a year / 1.4 million enrolled = $8,570 annually per enrollee. https://www.tn.gov/tenncare/information-statistics/tenncare-overview.html