My Experience with Universal Healthcare

Last month when I was in Paris on holiday, I had a medical emergency and had to go to the emergency room. Here is what happens when you go to a French hospital. You are seen fairly quickly- no hours of waiting, like here in the US. They do not ask for your insurance card or tell you to sign anything about the balance being your responsibility. They don’t ask for a credit card.  Oh- and you don’t NOT go because you fear having a bill you can not pay, deductible or otherwise. Finally… When you leave, you get no bill, you won’t have to fight with your insurance company or pay some gigantic balance later. And your prescription is about 4 euros. This is what free health care looks like. This is democratic socialism. Who wouldn’t want this? Why does anyone fight against this? Because it will come out of our taxes? The American people know very little about where their tax money really goes. How about the Wall Street Bailout?  That cost tax payers 700 billion. (see footnote 1) How about government subsidies- which is basically like welfare for big corporations?  The Cato Institute estimates that the US Federal government spends $100 billion a year on corporate welfare- and estimates that the average American family pays $6000 (at federal, state, city and county levels) a year towards these subsidies.  (See footnotes 2, 3 and 4)

I am just skimming the surface of the ugly truth. We as a whole, the American taxpayer, are just trying to live our lives and trust the government to take care of us.  The second largest amount of our taxes goes towards things like Medicare and Medical and SSI, and its in jeopardy, thanks to the GOP who would like to reduce government assistance programs. That one slice of of our taxes is the “socialist” slice. Let’s go a step further and create a different paradigm about it- since in reality its less about socialism than about social democracy. To give you a definition of social democracy, so we are on the same page-  Traditional Social democrats advocated the creation of socialism through political reforms by operating within the existing political system of capitalism. The Social democratic movement sought to elect socialists to political office to implement reforms. The modern social democratic movement has abandoned the goal of achieving a socialist economy, and instead advocates for social reforms to improve capitalism, such as a welfare state and unemployment benefits. (see footnote 5 for the source of this quote)

What the GOP is trying to do is to take money away from the elderly, the infirm, those in need, those who have been harmed by the economy in ways they can’t recover from and need assistance- so they can funnel more money into the pockets of the 1%, who ultimately, at the end of the day and as a result of all these shenanigans, profit.  (see footnote 6)

 

I have heard people I know, people I know to be kind, recoil at this idea. Good heavens, we OUGHT to pay for our own healthcare and educations, and we OUGHT NOT to pay for anyone else’s besides our own. Why should our tax payer dollars go to help those who refuse to work and pay for their own needs?- They say. I’m serious, people I really like actually say this- because they don’t really know where their tax dollars are going, because they forget they or their grandmothers are on SSI and medicare and medicaid. This is a statement that is made without deep investigation into the mechanics of the machine that chews us up and spits us out, that leaves people without adequate care and adequate educations. In short- that leaves Americans both sick and, well, uneducated. What a perfectly obedient population that would be- not unlike the days of yore, when there was nobility and aristocracy- and the peasants- unable to read, no chance at a decent future, and completely at the whim of those in power. No in between, It worked for them, and it seems there are plenty in power who would like to recreate that scenario. And there are too many willing to vote those people into power, to their own demise.  Those same people argue against social democracy, which seeks to create balance, to offer a fair chance for every American to have their inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Bernie Sanders current proposal, to create a single payer health care system in the US, will actually save $5 trillion over 10 years. Seriously. Its CHEAPER to provide free healthcare for all- by $5 trillion- which can then go to fixing infrastructure to give American’s jobs, or sending kids to college for free, or finally coming up with a solution to the issue of childhood poverty and hunger in America. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want these changes? Who wouldn’t want this for themselves, much less their children and their children’s children?  Bernie Sanders is the game changer we have been waiting for. Its up to us to get him into office. We need to talk about this with our friends and families. We need to challenge (gently, not to alienate but to perhaps inspire) our circle of influence who might still believe that the GOP will deliver a safer future. We need to get behind this man, in every way we personally can.(see footnote 7)

To finish up my story about the French hospital….about a week after we got home, we got something from the hospital in the mail. My fiancé and I both looked at each other- Oh no! Could this be a bill? Could our honeymoon of experiencing social democracy at work be over? We opened it with some trepidation. What was it??? I had left before they had given me a card with my blood type on it, and they had sent it to me. That’s it. That’s all. Not a bill, but a consideration that I carry on my person a card with my blood type should I ever be in an accident. That’s the world I want to live in, that’s the world I want for my kids, and that’s the world Bernie Sanders is trying to give to the American people.  Bernie Sanders makes me proud to be an American.

 

1.       http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104?page=2

 

2.       http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-02-24/remember-that-83-billion-bank-subsidy-we-weren-t-kidding- Bank subisidies

 

3.       http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/24/average-american-family-pays-6k-a-year-in-subsidies-to-big-business/ – $6000 a year on subsidies

 

4.        http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidizingthecorporateonepercent

 

5.        http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/01/28/939592/-Social-Democracy-or-Social-Security-isn-8217-t-Socialism-unless-you-drink-tea#

 

6.        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/a-moral-document-gop-agai_b_6901702.html

7.        https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/09/15/no-bernie-sanders-is-not-going-to-bankrupt-america-to-the-tune-of-18-tr