Universal Health Care Saves Lives, Sign of Civilized Society Dr. Bill Roy - marysvilleonline.net
go to original July 12, 2012

For over a century, many people and their representatives have wanted financial access to medical care for all Americans. They were and are mostly Democrats, but there were Republican presidents and legislators among them, at least in the beginning.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon sent a proposed health care law to Congress (much like Hillary-care,1993-94) that I found to be a good beginning. I introduced it immediately in the U.S. House. But Sen. Ted Kennedy felt Nixon’s bill did not go far enough, and rejected it. Later, Sen. Kennedy characterized his refusal to go forward with the Nixon proposal as his greatest political mistake.

Why do many people want universal health care?

Because it’s the civilized thing to do. It saves lives, avoids disability and prevents personal and family financial disasters.   

Our own well-being and the well-being of our families are probably number one on nearly everyone’s list. But, absent health insurance, many people are denied care, or delay care to their physical and financial detriment. Americans die in the tens of thousands because they don’t seek care in a timely manner. Others are unnecessarily disabled.

It is not unreasonable to suggest every legislator opposed to universal health care should wear a skull and cross-bones in his/her lapel, rather than that gaudy congressional pin. As long as they are responsible for deaths, they should get credit for them.

Of the 30 wealthy nations making up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only three (Chile, Turkey and Mexico), have proportionately more medically uninsured than we have — in our case about 50 million among our 310 million residents.

With the 2008 Obama election sweep, Democrats got enough power (all Republicans voted no) to take another shot at saving lives and civilizing our society. Because they wanted to build on our 70-year tradition of private health insurance, and, in turn avoid insurers’ opposition and continue to harvest their campaign contributions, they stuttered and tripped their way to a law that falls dismally short of meeting our ultimate needs of universal coverage and cost control.

But, Obamacare (which has evolved from a pejorative into a handy handle for the law), in order to require insurance companies to accept all applicants regardless of pre-existing conditions, and to cancel life-time expenditure limits, needed to sweeten the insurance risk pool with more well people.

So, with repeated urging from former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts — which under 2006 Romneycare has achieved 98 percent health insurance coverage — they devised a penalty for those who can afford health insurance and do not purchase it. It is to be administered and collected by the Internal Revenue System.

Here the feathers hit the fan. Does Congress have the power under the Commerce Clause to require people to make certain purchases or pay a penalty, a sweetheart conservative idea of personal responsibility first brought forward by the right-wing Heritage Foundation? Propelled almost entirely by conservatives, the question was off to the Supremes.

In rushed young Lochinvar from the West in the person of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., who declared the penalty a tax, and thereby constitutional under the Congress’ undisputed power to tax. And, thus, the power of the commerce clause was not further defined.

Obamacare takes a few shots at controlling costs. The law demands health insurance companies, depending on size, pay out 80-85 percent of receipts for medical services, and states have insurance exchanges to provide competition. But, the first promises to be an administrative nightmare, and the second, a passing dream.

In the next four months, Republicans will be telling you some amazing things. For example, I caught House Speaker John Boehner telling the world Obamacare will “Europeanize American medicine.”

Oh, if it only would!

We would have universal financial access to care. It would cost conservatively $1.8 trillion annually, two-thirds of $2.7 trillion we are now spending, saving $900 billion annually to be spread among financially pressed families, businesses, and governments. On a per person basis, if our health care system were Europeanized we would be spending just under $6,000 per person, rather than today’s $8,953 per person annually.

And guess what? We would be living healthier and longer lives. All that stands between us and this happy result are for-profit insurance companies and the Republican party.   

Dr. Roy may be reached at wirroy@aol.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!