U.S. Healthcare Isn’t a Failure, It’s a Horrific Success
Our system is designed to make money, not to offer universal, equitable care
Whether something is deemed a success or a failure depends on its ability to reach a goal. When discussing the American healthcare system many people—myself included—often reference the various “failures” therein. The problem is, they’re not failures at all. The system is functioning precisely as it is designed to function. It is not designed to provide equitable care to everyone in the country—or even an overwhelming majority. It is designed to make money. And by that metric, it’s a roaring success.
Insurers made $35.7 billion last year, and are primed to absolutely crush that total this year. Healthcare stocks have surged during the pandemic, and consequently, healthcare billionaires saw their wealth increase by $150 billion. Yes, there are healthcare billionaires. Here a list of 14 of them who made the Forbes list of American’s richest people.
We have a for-profit system, it exists, get ready for this, for profit—and business is booming.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that an estimated 26k people die each year due to lack of health insurance, or that 32% of Americans reported not seeking medical care due to the cost, or that 28.9 million people do not have health insurance at all, and millions more are underinsured, or that at least 12 million people lost their employer-sponsored insurance during the pandemic. Healthcare isn’t a right in America, it is a privilege, a luxury granted to those who are fortunate enough to receive coverage through their employer, or have enough money to pay for coverage on their own.
This is a system better designed to exploit a crisis than adequately handle one. We pay more for healthcare than any other nation because our system demands it. The problem isn’t the failures within the system. The problem is the system.
If we want to ensure healthcare as a right, we need to lower the price of healthcare. Here’s a chart from the Commonwealth Fund comparing healthcare spending of OECD nations:
As you can see, we spend far more than all the other nations listed. And it just so happens that all the other nations of the list have government-funded, universal healthcare systems. This is where people tend to chime in and say, “Well OK, but we have the best healthcare in the world.”
No, we don’t. Not even close.
Here’s the same countries listed by life expectancy:
We’re the best at spending, and the worst at sustaining life, which, I think everyone would agree, is the primary function of a healthcare system.
Here’s some data on infant mortality:
We have to lower the price of care to get everyone covered. And we’re not going to be able to lower the price within a for-profit system with rampant abuse at every level, and an insane, labyrinthian billing structure that requires thousands of paid personnel and is still wildly inefficient.
If people really believe that healthcare is a right, we need to remove the profit motive entirely. And since our system is literally built on turning a profit, this becomes impossible. We cannot continue to subsidize this catastrophe. We will never get to universal coverage within this framework.
To get to universal coverage we need to remove the profit motive by removing the system. We need a system that prioritizes care over capital. And fortunately for us, that system exists. In fact most of our peer countries already have it, it's functioning quite well and has been for decades, and we even use it. It’s called a single payer system, and while it certainly isn’t perfect—no system is—it would be an enormous improvement over what we have now. Medicare and Medicaid are single payer systems.
In a single payer system the government pays for the healthcare of its people through taxes, and one body controls the pricing, so people aren’t being charged $10k for a cat scan, or going deep into medical debt—and there would be no more healthcare billionaires.
The government does not control the hospitals in this system, it is not a nationalized healthcare, they just take care of the payments—again, like Medicare and Medicaid. And it will be much much cheaper for the public as well. According to a study by the Lancet, Medicare for All—the single-payer system championed by Bernie Sanders and supported by progressive lawmakers, and approved by a majority of the public—this system would save $450 billion a year, and could save an estimated 68 thousand lives.
The U.S. healthcare system is a disaster. Don’t fall for the same old red scare, socialism fear-mongering that have been employed for decades. Actor, and later president, Ronald Reagan recorded this insane, bullshit, 10 minute LP in 1961 warning people how socialized medicine (Medicare) and social security would mean the end of the country.
It’s the same old refrain. This was brought up over and over again with Medicare and Medicaid.
We need a single payer system, just like the ones that exist all over the world. We need Medicare for All and we need it decades ago, like when Harry Truman first proposed it in the 1940s.
So if you want to push for health care to be a right, and you should, don’t push for some weak-ass middle ground that keeps our for-profit system intact. Forget that tepid nonsense.
How many go fund me campaigns have you seen over the last few years to help people pay medical bills?
I bet it’s a lot.
They shouldn’t exist.
Medical debt, like healthcare billionaires, also shouldn’t exist.
We see it all the time: Someone gets in a car accident and they need surgery, and it costs tens of thousands of dollars, often even if they have private healthcare coverage. Someone needs a tumor removed and to pay for it they’re in danger of losing their home. So they need to decide between surgery or a place to live.
How is this the best we can do?
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Some Other Stuff
I was a guest on LATV’s The Recap with Dramos.
We chatted about the insurrection at the capital, income inequality, white privilege, healthcare, and Cardi B.
Full interview below and on Instagram.
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A Few Words on the Insurrection
I put out a video with some thoughts about the white supremacist insurrection at the capital on Wednesday. Below are links to the video on IG and Twitter.