Brandon Turbeville
January 25, 2018
After decades of suffering under a private “market-based” healthcare economy, Americans who were also suffering under high unemployment rates, lower living standards, and high stress, found themselves burdened by a private health insurance industry that charged exorbitant rates while denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions and refused to pay out for needed medical care for many whom it did cover.
For years, many Conservatives suggested even more de-regulation of the insurance markets and the elimination of any government involvement in the health industry. This, they argued, would create competition and bring about cheaper prices. Many on the left, however, aware that the Conservative argument was based on faulty principles and that it would, in fact, do the opposite of what well-meaning-Conservatives desired, argued for a “single payer” or “universal” program. However, these well-meaning liberals fail to define what they mean by “single payer” and typically rely on even more burdensome methods of funding for such a program; i.e. raising taxes, cutting care.
Ironically, however, Democrats and Republicans, despite years of hurling insults and launching political campaigns against one another, can actually agree upon the ideal healthcare system – forcing Americans to buy private insurance at the barrel of a gun, allowing those companies to raise premiums, and cutting costs by cutting care for the healthcare customer. This was an insurance companies’ dream as well as the dream of Big Pharma and Wall Street. For the American people, it was and already has been a nightmare.
After decades of suffering under a private “market-based” healthcare economy, Americans who were also suffering under high unemployment rates, lower living standards, and high stress, found themselves burdened by a private health insurance industry that charged exorbitant rates while denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions and refused to pay out for needed medical care for many whom it did cover.
For years, many Conservatives suggested even more de-regulation of the insurance markets and the elimination of any government involvement in the health industry. This, they argued, would create competition and bring about cheaper prices. Many on the left, however, aware that the Conservative argument was based on faulty principles and that it would, in fact, do the opposite of what well-meaning-Conservatives desired, argued for a “single payer” or “universal” program. However, these well-meaning liberals fail to define what they mean by “single payer” and typically rely on even more burdensome methods of funding for such a program; i.e. raising taxes, cutting care.
Ironically, however, Democrats and Republicans, despite years of hurling insults and launching political campaigns against one another, can actually agree upon the ideal healthcare system – forcing Americans to buy private insurance at the barrel of a gun, allowing those companies to raise premiums, and cutting costs by cutting care for the healthcare customer. This was an insurance companies’ dream as well as the dream of Big Pharma and Wall Street. For the American people, it was and already has been a nightmare.
