A lot of the angst between Hillary and Clinton in the early part of this primary focused on the differences between their respective Universal Healthcare plans. In order to unify the almost 1/2 of Democrats who supported Hillary in this primary, I propose a merging of their respective plans. This approach can serve as a sign of respect for Hillary's cause célèbre, Universal Healthcare.
As with most mergers, there will be a need for layoffs and a reduction in overhead for efficiency.
The merger plan after the jump...
The fundamental difference between the plans was the mechanism for achieving the Universality.
HillaryCare
Hillary's Plan specified mandates to ensure that everyone has coverage. Mandates mean that you are legally required to buy health insurance. Those who do not buy it would be penalized in some way.
Pros:
Mandates are a way of ensuring that healthy young people do not get a free ride in the healthcare system.
Mandates ensure that everyone who gets sick will have coverage.
Cons:
Provides an easy point of attack for Republicans with the meme: "Democrats want to force you to buy insurance."
Many people struggle to pay their bills, adding insurance they don't feel they need will seem like a burden to them, another tax which harms them (at least until they get sick).
ObamaCare
Obama's Plan does not specify mandates for adults. It does mandate insurance coverage for children. This means that some adults may elect not to purchase insurance. These people will be automatically enrolled into an insurance program if they get seriously sick.
Pros:
The lack of mandates deprives the opposition of an excellent attack: "Democrats want to force you to buy insurance."
Cons:
Those who don't elect to buy insurance are getting a "free ride" on the backs of those who do.
ObamaCare + HillaryCare = KucinichCare
The plain truth is that neither of these plans is ideal. Both ObamaCare and HilllaryCare are compromises based on the belief that a single-payer system is not politically feasible. I believe that both Hillary and Obama would prefer a single payer system but they did not propose one because they did not think it possible to pass legislation that cuts the insurance companies out of the game.
I believe they are wrong in this. Insurance only makes sense when you are not looking at Universal Healthcare. If everyone is to be covered then the insurance companies will, in effect, only be acting as payment processors. They will process payments from individuals and make them to doctors. Currently their "fee" for this "service" is about 10% to 12% of the cost of HealthCare. Further, overhead associated with processing insurance claims adds and additional 10% to 12% to our Health care making the overhead of insurance about 25% in total. This compares with overhead for a single-payer system which is between 1% and 4%, so the insurance industry costs us 20% or more of each healthcare dollar for a negative benefit. We are paying more to have the hassles of arguing every claim and fighting to get what we pay for.
I believe that a merger of ObamaCare with HillaryCare necessitates a reexamination of the potential for implementing a true single-payer system like Rep. Dennis Kucinich's Plan which he has already proposed in Congress(HR 676). The cost savings of eliminating the insurance companies is too great to ignore. The American people owe nothing to the insurance companies who have been earning profits on the backs of the poor and bankrupting hard-working Americans through the escalations in costs driven by the insurance model.
Many have argued that the Kucinich plan is not politically feasible. I disagree. If Obama were to say that after traveling the entire country he and Hillary have come to realize that the problem is even worse than they originally believed. And subsequently they have looked at coming up with a way of Universal Coverage that didn't have the downside of mandates. He could then say that a single-payer plan is the only way to get Universal coverage without increasing the tax burden on Americans.
He could say that it comes down to a choice:
- Effectively raising taxes on the poor and middle class by requiring insurance coverage which will increase profits for the insurance companies.
or
- Reducing costs enough to cover everyone by eliminating the insurance companies since they create too much additional costs. 25% is far too high an overhead for payment processing.
Obama and Hillary could say that it comes down to a fight between what is right and what is politically expedient. They could say that they each compromised on their ideals here and that they have come to see that this compromise was wrong. They need to look after the people's interest before the interest of corporations.
They could both say that time for true Universal Healthcare is now. That we should aim for the right plan and build the support needed to pass the legislation to implement it. That compromise here is not necessary or beneficial.
Cost Reductions from the Merger
Finally, there is not a big-company CEO alive who would not implement a strategy which could cut costs 20% while improving service, even if this means massive layoffs. So I say, fuck the Insurance companies and the investors who own them and who have benefitted by screwing the poor and sick. They have not served America well. Why should we give them a continued role when they have not earned one?
We should only concern ourselves with the people themselves, the workers whose lives will be harmed by this massive change. We should help them but not the companies they work for. Obama should also outline a plan to retrain insurance industry employees to serve in the healthcare industry as nurses, technicians, and doctors; and offer some of them work in the new government healthcare system. Obama could also offer a plan to increase unemployment benefits to workers since their need will be greater because of this government action.
If Obama is the leader I believe him to be, he can sell the superior idea. American's will rally behind him in this fight for moral healthcare if he leads the way. This isn't the 90s. Everyone in America who is not already rich is tired and worn down from carrying the gigantic profits of our broken healthcare system on our aching backs.