We can afford it. We can’t afford not to do it. We must figure out how to fund universal healthcare in America.
I’ve thought about this a lot. Insurance is wasteful. Obamacare was awful. Trumpcare is not much better.
Why does healthcare cost so much more in the US than everywhere else?
Insurance and lack of competition. And lack of transparency. Plus, lobbying.
How do we get rid of all that while making healthcare less costly, better and available to everyone?
Single-payer healthcare.
If Medicare were expanded to everyone and they set the prices, there would be no outrageous prices for services being billed to insurance companies.
So, theoretically we should be able to eliminate half of the costs by removing insurance from the equation, increasing competition and transparency.
How do we do that?
Give every US citizen Medicare.
Roll Medicaid into Medicare. And stop all the subsidies. It’s a confusing nightmare.
Have Medicare determine the prices for services. Then it’s up to the practitioners to make that profitable for them.
It’s like running a business: Here’s what you get paid for your service. Figure out a way to smartly reduce costs and provide the best care possible so people continue to choose you instead of your competition to deliver that service.
There’s currently a lot of technology improving our health and we’ll see more each year. It’s time we leverage that tech to fix our healthcare system.
We already spend over $1 Trillion on Medicare and Medicaid combined.
If we cut costs in half, we only need $1.5 Trillion to fund universal healthcare in America.
So we just need to find $500 Billion per year in tax revenue.
There’s $20 Trillion in offshore assets of the wealthiest companies and individuals. Tax them at 40% to bring it back. $8 Trillion would fund the difference mentioned above for 16 years.
Lower the exemption for estate taxes from $5.45Million to $2Million, but exclude the transfer of a business.
Raise the estate tax from 40% to 80% on assets in excess of the exemption. This would more than double estate tax revenue, providing an additional $300Billion over the next decade.
This provides us at least 16 years to reduce costs. What’s one way to do that? Reduce obesity (another post).
Having universal healthcare will increase corporate profits and/or employee wages.
With universal healthcare, employers no longer have to spend $16,000 per employee per year. They can pass those savings along to customers in lower prices or raises for employees. Or both.
But with more automation, it’s more likely they’ll just save the costs entirely and reduce the price of goods, reducing their new tax burden.
So if you thought my 13% tax on corporate revenue would cause a huge rise in prices… it won’t.
Corporations will be saving so much money from not having to pay for employee healthcare, not having minimum wages and minimized costs of tax compliance that their new savings will offset the new tax hike.
It’s time we fund universal healthcare in America.