More Lies Our Politicians Tell Us! Health Care.

We cannot afford Universal or Single Payer Health Care. This is a big one. During the health care debates, Republicans hit on this one very hard. Why do I consider this to be untrue? What happens when someone without health care insurance goes to a hospital. Care is given. The cost is then written off  by the hospital and we indirectly pay the cost through our taxes. We also pay indirectly through higher insurance costs, when we pay our premiums. My point is this. I already pay for health insurance. When I go to the doctor's office or the hospital, I pay a deductible. When I get a prescription filled I pay a co-payment. All along the way I pay my fair share of the cost. The person who pays nothing, then goes to the hospital and gets service for free. No premium, no deductible and no co-payment. I then pay higher premium costs and taxes to offset this. Again if we all pay our fair share, through premiums, the cost for everyone would go down. Medicare and Medicaid have an administration cost of around 5%, while insurance companies have administration costs around 15% to 25%. Their costs have a profit built into it. You pay your premium and if or when you need it, they determine, not you and your doctor, what they will pay or if they will pay. We have to control costs in other ways, such as getting the best price for prescription, through negotiations. Start preventive care at birth and continue through out our lives. Help children, through parents, schools and doctors to learn and develop healthy lifestyles, that will cost us less. Look at end of life care and when to help a patient and family, again with their doctor, to make a good decision, both medically and financially. This is some of the ways to control costs and make health care affordable. When we all pay a premium to a single payer system, we build funds to the point that it covers everyone. This could be done at a state and local level, through exchanges, to offset the argument of federal involvement. However there has to be minimal oversight and a nationwide standard, so states could not water down the system. The end decisions would be left to the patient and their families, with direction from their physicians. We are always and I mean always able to afford a war. We are always able to afford foreign aid. We are always able to afford everything except what is in the best interest of our population. It will cost us in the beginning, but in a relatively short time the costs savings will add up to huge savings. This is maybe the most egregious lie that the various politicians have fed to the average American. We could all have the best medical care in the world. We just have to have the vision and will to make it this way.