Medicare for All for American Greatness

by Glen Wallace

To the editor:

In the article announcing Angie Craig's plan to run for Congress in 2018, Jason Lewis was quoted as saying: "One candidate already wants to threaten Medicare solvency with a government-run single payer plan...", presumably in reference to DFL Congressional candidate, Jeff Erdmann, and his support for Medicare for All.  I find Lewis's stance to be rather negative and pessimistic.  

I'm sure if Erdmann is elected to the House, he will work with the other members of Congress to find ways to fund Medicare to insure its solvency.  America's greatness is due to a history of big thinkers who had a can-do attitude and envisioned the wonderful possibilities that could be achieved through cooperation, perseverance and a positive attitude.  For instance, it was that positive attitude that Republican President Eisenhower had when he supported building the interstate freeway system -- a government built system that has provided the freedom for Americans to hop on the freeway, without charge, and enjoy a safer, more streamlined route between locations all around the country.  

Imagine what might have happened if Eisenhower had Jason Lewis's negativity and pessimism? Surely then Eisenhower would have then nixed the freeway plan after concluded that building such a highway system would lead to insolvency in whatever government department that took it on.  But fortunately, instead, we had an optimistic visionary in Eisenhower who made possible the single-payer federal government owned and operated interstate highway system that we largely take for granted today.
  
But still, unfortunately, healthcare coverage in America seems to be one area that got overlooked by the visionaries of yesteryear.  As a result we are left with the costly mess that is the private insurance based system -- a system that has been a drain on businesses funding employee coverage and a drain on families struggling to meet monthly dues and who sometimes find themselves mired in a struggle to get insurance companies to cover pharmaceuticals and needed surgeries.

But there is a way out of this mess and it's called Medicare for All.  To get there, all we need is some old-fashioned American can-do spirit.

Debt-Free Fiat to pay for government expenses

The following is my comment regarding this article

by Glen Wallace

A possible solution not mentioned is to begin using the US Treasury as a significant source of new money to fund federal government projects and operations. Currently, federal government and governing costs are paid for by either revenue, mostly tax revenue, or by debt revenue, mostly through the sale of US treasury bonds. However, I'm talking about the third option that very few others are even publicly considering; debt-free fiat dollars computer generated by the US Treasury to pay for much of the US budget that is not debt service. Such large pieces of the budget pie as SNAP (food stamps), defense, medicare, medicaid, highways and a host of earmarks could all be paid for without incurring any debt or dipping into tax revenue.

I believe the generation of debt-free fiat is the ideal situation under circumstances such as the ones we face now. Presumably, as the Fed unwinds all that debt it paid for with new QE dollars, it will be receiving back those QE dollars and proceed to 'shred' most of it, thereby reducing the money supply. Such a huge reduction in the money supply could have a very negative effect on the overall economy. The solution then is to balance out the unwinding of the debt-based quantitative easing rounds with debt-free quantitative easing by way of US Government spending. And unlike the Federal Reserve's QE that directed funds largely at Wall Street, my easing suggestion would be one that would flush mainstreet with a gusher of currency.

And I think concerns about excessive inflation are unwarranted given that the debt-free generated fiat would match with real goods and services being paid for. Excess inflation occurs when the money supply grows much faster than the supply of goods and services paid for with the money in circulation. However, when the new debt-free fiat is used to pay for goods and services at competitive market prices, the ratio between the goods and services and the dollars to pay for them remains largely the same.

Meanwhile, the debt service on all those mountains of public debt would be much easier to service using dollars obtained from usual means of revenue -- but now hopefully without having to again resort to taking on even more public debt.

Open letter to Senator Klobuchar regarding insulin prices

by Glen Wallace

Hi Senator Klobuchar, I just saw a feature on the KSTP news featuring some comments by you about the recent run-up in the price of insulin recently. I believe an ideal solution is one you and your colleagues on capitol hill have not even considered legislatively. The solution to spikes in the price of pharmaceuticals and medical devices would be for the government to take on the production and distribution of those pharmaceuticals and medical devices at cost. Currently there seems to be a habit of thinking among healthcare policy makers that traps them into assuming that the only option to getting a needed healthcare product to the patient is by way of the commercial markets.

But there shouldn't be any barriers to the federal government taking on the role of the production and distribution of at least the medicines and devices that are outside of patent protection. And keep in mind many of the most notorious recent cases of price spikes occurred with products that were already outside of patent protection -- including, but not limited to insulin and the epipen.

Also, there is a long standing precedent of the federal government owning and operating the means of production and distribution of a product -- the US Government Publishing Office, also known as the Government Printing Office, has been around for many decades manufacturing, printing, publishing and selling to individuals and institutions everything from books to pamphlets to posters and just about everything printable in between.

Therefore, there should be nothing stopping the Senate and House from mandating the opening of a Government Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Office to bypass the market and get the needed healthcare products directly to the patients at the mere cost of production.

For years now I have been seeing hearings and statements from representatives such as yourself ranging from scolding to pleading of manufacturers to try and keep their prices down. I ask you; who's in charge here? When I hear only talk from you in the form of scolding and pleading to some Big Pharma executive, it sure looks like it is the Big Pharma companies that are the ones in charge. I thought we were a country of, by and for the people. If they will not bring the prices down, then we the people should engage that American can-do spirit, and make those products ourselves.

And this could be just the beginning -- we could start building a medical system that is entirely patient driven instead of where it is now in being market driven. I think people that go into the medical profession do it first and foremost because they care about people. With a patient driven, patient based system we can have as the primary decision makers, about what medical drug or device goes into production and their prices, be those medical professionals that care about the patients and not some bean counting CEO with only a legal fiduciary responsibility to some distant shareholders.

Referenced news story about insulin prices featuring Klobuchar comments