Causecast

by JAMES ROCCHIO, Causecast Editor

1. Universal health care is health care coverage for all eligible residents of a political region (citizens, plainly).

2. Among countries with the highest GDP, the United States stands out as the only industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system.

3. America spends a higher percentage of its GDP on health care than any other country, while trailing in quality of care, efficiency of care, access to care, safe care, and wait times.

4. We’re not the healthiest either. Americans have a lower average life expectancy than other industrialized nations with universal health care. Infant mortality rates are also higher in the U.S.

5. Universal health care is already taking shape in the United States. For the last 35+ years, Hawaii has required that employers provide employees that work at least 20 hours per week with full benefits, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires all citizens to have health insurance.

6. We’re closer than you might think. About 59% of the U.S. health care system is already publicly funded with federal taxes, state taxes, property taxes and tax subsidies. A universal system would simply replace the private and employer spendings with taxes, and individual spending would go down. The tax burden would primarily fall to the wealthiest Americans (i.e. not you…ok, maybe you).

7. The plan being proposed by President Obama is not universal health care. The Obama administration has a website, HealthReform.gov, to answer questions from skeptical families. Under Obama’s proposed plan, people would have the option of switching to a public plan, but no business or individual would be forced to drop a private plan. Health care would not be required, nor would non-citizens be covered (as they would be with a universal system). It would, however, be readily available and more affordable.

8. Obama’s plan would extend coverage to adults and children that may forgo treatment because they can’t afford the costs. It would also stop people, who fear they may lose their job, from overusing benefits. Because most people can’t afford to be insured when they are not employed, the risk of losing their job means a last-minute frenzy to get medical care before they become unemployed(similar to taking a car into the factory shop before the warranty expired). PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that the anticipated 9% increase in next year’s employer health care costs is due in part to this kind of behavior.

9. The current coverage system isn’t reaching enough people. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau almost 46 million Americans are uninsured, and another 25 million are underinsured. The challenge, then, is not how to improve the health care system, but how to actually make it one.

10. If you receive high quality care from an employer or private party, nothing will change under the new system. It would simply provide you with a cheap, government-backed option. This would cost less than a single-payer universal health care system, as insurers drive down rates to stay competitive with the government’s plan. Two-thirds of what President Obama’s plan would cost can be paid for in taxes U.S. citizens already pay towards Federal health care programs. Adding the last third, even if in taxes on high income families (Obama’s unapproved recommendation), will make health care in the long run cheaper. Doctors will no longer be under pressure from insurance companies to provide the most expensive care, and can revert to preventative treatment. A public option is in jeopardy of being removed from the bill due to criticism from Republicans and even some Democrats.

Photo by ProgressOhio, flickr.