Repeal and Replace Obamacare with Public Health Care
If our houses catch fire, then our taxes pay for firefighters to come right away. But if we get sick, most of us have to prove that we can pay before doctors can help. Emergency Medicaid saved my dear friend’s life recently. He’s a hard-working contractor who’s never had employer-based health insurance. This petition for universal health coverage is dedicated to him and every sacred life in America. Loyalty to family, community, and country includes helping each other stay alive and publicly supporting the health care providers, police, and firefighters who keep us safe.
Congress and President Trump can keep their promises to the American people if the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is repealed and a public system to cover necessary health care for all Americans is put in its place. Candidate Trump supported single-payer: washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/05/trumps-forbidden-love-singe-payer-health-care
Congress has already tried and failed to pass other repeal options. Please provide every American with the option for medical coverage under the existing public systems, Medicaid and Medicare.
Three good reasons why conservatives and liberals can both support publicly available medical care for all Americans:
1. Health care is not really optional.
Illness is universal but access to care is not. Regardless of whether the law says you are required to have insurance, everyone needs health care. There is a 100% chance that all of us will get sick or injured. Health insurance isn’t like car insurance. Of course people who don’t drive shouldn’t buy car insurance. What if you knew that you’d need at least $300,000 in repairs if you opt out of insurance? Insurance companies know that we will each have to pay at least $300,000 for health care over our lifetimes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361028/
Young people may be cavalier and to want to opt out of insurance because they don't believe they'll get sick or they think it will be easy to find $300,000 lying around, but the rest of us know better. With universal coverage, we’ll have more choices not fewer. We’ll choose whether or not to see a doctor and none of them will be “out of network.”
2. Universal coverage is good for the economy.
In the short term, it may be expensive to cover us all, but this investment will reduce costs later. Healthier people in the workforce means more productivity. We work in teams, and together we make everything in this country work. But we can only do that if we’re all healthy. Medicaid and Medicare already have quality measures--and financial incentives to meet them. Negotiating the costs of care needs to be centralized so none of us are forced to agree to an unreasonable price to stay alive.
With health care for all Americans, fewer people will get sick in the first place. When everyone has access to screenings and treatment, then infectious diseases won’t spread as easily. Complicated cases of various conditions will be caught at earlier, simpler stages with fewer costs. An article comparing access to cancer screenings under the Australian system and the U.S. system highlights this point: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/a3gwa4/americas-health-care-system-kills-peoplebut-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way
Reducing the need for health care lowers costs in the best possible way. It’s true that people with insurance get more health care, but in the long term, we’ll have a larger and healthier American work force. Good health is good business: http://www.ehstoday.com/safety-leadership/true-cost-poor-worker-health-c-suite-issue
3. Sick people shouldn’t work.
There are more sick people working than there are healthy people not working. Two of my former bosses fought cancer and continued to work and lead with grace and good humor until they couldn’t get out of bed anymore and passed away. People don’t have to be blackmailed into working to get health insurance. We all need to be healthy enough to work. People with physical or mental illness will not perform well at their work and could make it harder for others to be productive. Just listening to a sick person cough all day is disruptive and distracting, but spreading colds and flu through offices, schools, stores, and clinics endangers all of us. Many people are sick, and often infectious, but keep going to work anyway. They put off going to the doctor until they feel they have no choice. More than half of food workers still go to work when they are sick: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/working-sick-employees/411472/
The death panels are made up of people who believe everyone should pay unaffordable insurance and medical costs to stay alive. They blame sick people for their illnesses and think some people don’t deserve necessary care. Even people with excellent eating, exercise, and other lifestyle habits get seriously ill sooner or later--we all know them. There are plenty of indulgences that raise our risk for a variety of ugly deaths and chronic conditions, but there’s also the bad luck necessary to lose the health lottery and get cancer, diabetes, TB, or HIV. Good health shouldn’t depend on luck. Together, with universal health care, we’ll be able to defend ourselves and our neighbors from attack by forces mostly outside of our control.
Congress and President Trump can keep their promises to the American people if the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is repealed and a public system to cover necessary health care for all Americans is put in its place. Candidate Trump supported single-payer: washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/05/trumps-forbidden-love-singe-payer-health-care
Congress has already tried and failed to pass other repeal options. Please provide every American with the option for medical coverage under the existing public systems, Medicaid and Medicare.
Three good reasons why conservatives and liberals can both support publicly available medical care for all Americans:
1. Health care is not really optional.
Illness is universal but access to care is not. Regardless of whether the law says you are required to have insurance, everyone needs health care. There is a 100% chance that all of us will get sick or injured. Health insurance isn’t like car insurance. Of course people who don’t drive shouldn’t buy car insurance. What if you knew that you’d need at least $300,000 in repairs if you opt out of insurance? Insurance companies know that we will each have to pay at least $300,000 for health care over our lifetimes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361028/
Young people may be cavalier and to want to opt out of insurance because they don't believe they'll get sick or they think it will be easy to find $300,000 lying around, but the rest of us know better. With universal coverage, we’ll have more choices not fewer. We’ll choose whether or not to see a doctor and none of them will be “out of network.”
2. Universal coverage is good for the economy.
In the short term, it may be expensive to cover us all, but this investment will reduce costs later. Healthier people in the workforce means more productivity. We work in teams, and together we make everything in this country work. But we can only do that if we’re all healthy. Medicaid and Medicare already have quality measures--and financial incentives to meet them. Negotiating the costs of care needs to be centralized so none of us are forced to agree to an unreasonable price to stay alive.
With health care for all Americans, fewer people will get sick in the first place. When everyone has access to screenings and treatment, then infectious diseases won’t spread as easily. Complicated cases of various conditions will be caught at earlier, simpler stages with fewer costs. An article comparing access to cancer screenings under the Australian system and the U.S. system highlights this point: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/a3gwa4/americas-health-care-system-kills-peoplebut-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way
Reducing the need for health care lowers costs in the best possible way. It’s true that people with insurance get more health care, but in the long term, we’ll have a larger and healthier American work force. Good health is good business: http://www.ehstoday.com/safety-leadership/true-cost-poor-worker-health-c-suite-issue
3. Sick people shouldn’t work.
There are more sick people working than there are healthy people not working. Two of my former bosses fought cancer and continued to work and lead with grace and good humor until they couldn’t get out of bed anymore and passed away. People don’t have to be blackmailed into working to get health insurance. We all need to be healthy enough to work. People with physical or mental illness will not perform well at their work and could make it harder for others to be productive. Just listening to a sick person cough all day is disruptive and distracting, but spreading colds and flu through offices, schools, stores, and clinics endangers all of us. Many people are sick, and often infectious, but keep going to work anyway. They put off going to the doctor until they feel they have no choice. More than half of food workers still go to work when they are sick: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/working-sick-employees/411472/
The death panels are made up of people who believe everyone should pay unaffordable insurance and medical costs to stay alive. They blame sick people for their illnesses and think some people don’t deserve necessary care. Even people with excellent eating, exercise, and other lifestyle habits get seriously ill sooner or later--we all know them. There are plenty of indulgences that raise our risk for a variety of ugly deaths and chronic conditions, but there’s also the bad luck necessary to lose the health lottery and get cancer, diabetes, TB, or HIV. Good health shouldn’t depend on luck. Together, with universal health care, we’ll be able to defend ourselves and our neighbors from attack by forces mostly outside of our control.
View Comments