This will not be a lengthy diary but it will give you a few salient facts you have probably covered in well researched diaries posted here on DK previously. There is a link(provided here) that is the source for most of the facts and figures I quote along with some more facts and figures. Finally in a previous diary I had suggested a novel way to pay for a national health care plan for all of us that would cover most of the costs,insure that all Americans had health insurance, and would return money to every tax payer so there would not be an economic bite in the behind.
Follow along after the fold for the promised information:
Of all the favorite scare tactics used by the wingnuts and health industry (I intentionally omit the word "care" when discussing this group) one of the most ridicules is the "cost" argument. Lets' consider that argument for a moment as everyone says we get "better" health care under the current system, provided you can pay for it, which increasingly more and more Americans can not. According to the National Coalition on Health Care the cost for diminishing levels of care is rising 4.5 times the rate of annual income. Consider a few of these facts:
Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 5.0 percent in 2008. In 2007, small employers saw their premiums, on average, increase 5.5 percent. Firms with less than 24 workers, experienced an increase of 6.8 percent.2
The annual premium that a health insurer charges an employer for a health plan covering a family of four averaged $12,700 in 2008. Workers contributed nearly $3,400, or 12 percent more than they did in 2007.2 The annual premiums for family coverage significantly eclipsed the gross earnings for a full-time, minimum-wage worker ($10,712).
Workers are now paying $1,600 more in premiums annually for family coverage than they did in 1999.2
Since 1999, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 120 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 44 percent and cumulative wage growth of 29 percent during the same period.2
Health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits by the end of 2008.5
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 1999.2
The average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 120 percent since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period.6
The percentage of Americans under age 65 whose family-level, out-of-pocket spending for health care, including health insurance, that exceeds $2,000 a year, rose from 37.3 percent in 1996 to 43.1 percent in 2003 – a 16 percent increase.7
As a result many in Congress argue we cannot afford any form of single payer health care for this country. Another argument is that insurance companies wouldn't be able to compete. Who cares? Health care is about providing care for the populace, not keeping insurance companies in business. In order to effect a workable system we would have to impose a tax and every working American young or old and there would not be an opt out so both healthy and unhealthy are covered. The average cost for family coverage is $12,700.00 annually. Businesses pay half or more of these cost which in effect is a tax on them. The present Democratic bill which would cover 97% of Americans by 2015 would cost between 1 to 1.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years according to the Congressional Budget Office. So conservatives argue this would add to the cost for Americans and of course their favorite puppy that needs to be guarded, "small businesses".
This is pure nonsense. Suppose we were to take fifty percent of the annual costs to families cited earlier say around $1,500 annually multiply that amount by 100 million (this is a very conservative estimate) we would end up with a total of $150 billion annually. Make that a tax on all adult workers. The end figure you would then have over a ten year period would more then cover the costs cited by the CBO, and no one would be without insurance. What do you lose? Nothing. In fact all businesses would lose the expense of employee health care plans and the average American would see an annual increase of $1,800.00 annually to their income. That's amazing! A tax that gives you money instead of taking it.
If you then combine that with the provision that allow the government to negotiate prices from pharmacies, stop the practices of hospitals charging you $9.00 for two Tylenol, maybe toss in some tort reform to protect private practitioners imagine the decrease in overall health care costs? As to the scare argument about having "government bureaucrat" making health care choices for us, I say hell yes, bring em on! Imagine someone making health care decisions based on a universally accepted medical standard of care as opposed to an individual making decisions based on corporate bonuses, profit and share holder interests! We might actually put back the word "care" in the health industry.
There are those that in Congress who would grouse that we are taking away the option of freedom of choice from young healthy people who would have to pay for the sick and elderly. Well guess what who is the only producer of the sick and elderly? That's right, young healthy people. As for the issue of freedom of choice to have health insurance it is the young healthy folks that go out and say engage in extreme sports and end up in the hospitals with broken necks, etc you get the picture. Oh and don't forget if you wish to drive in this country you don't have the freedom of choice to not get a drivers license which entails fees and those long dreaded DMV lines.
This is a plan no one has yet to bring up and I am wondering why not. There are no losers unless you count the insurance companies and Congressional folks who would lose health industry bribes dollars. Many of the lost jobs in the insurance industry would be reborn in a government plan, but with the loss of a profit motive, executive bonuses again you would have a saving rather then a huge projected increase in cost.
Finally one of the biggest winners would be business and manufacturing (does the auto industry ring any bells?). The cost to open a new business or factory would be dramatically reduced, as well as the price of the manufactured item making American products cheaper and more competitive in the world market thereby decreasing our deficit and trade balances and...... Ok so that is long term thinking, something sorely lacking in Washington DC. One still can dream can't they?