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.

Why hasn't Congresswoman Betty McCollum yet cosponsored H.R. 676 Medicare for all single payer act?

I just discovered that Democratic Party congresswoman Betty McCollum has not yet signed on as a co-sponsor of  H.R. 676 Medicare for All bill that has already garnered 112 cosponsors.  Here is the official listing of the co-sponsors.  I thought about this after watching a Jimmy Dore youtube video where he interviews a guy who is primarying against Nancy Pelosi -- Pelosi also not yet a cosponsor and has said words to the effect that she is against single payer.  This makes me wonder if maybe I should primary against McCollum, even though she doesn't represent my residential district.  That would be a little ironic because Represents congressman Jason Lewis 'represents' my district, but resides in McCollum's district.

Democratic constituents, in these congressional districts that lean so heavily Democratic that the Dem candidate is all but guaranteed to get elected, should see the primaries as brass ring opportunities to get the most progressive candidate possible.  By that I mean there isn’t much of a need in those districts for a candidate to compromise in order to acquire the moderate fence sitters that might get put off by the far left progressive positions of a candidate.  But instead, it seems more so that the opposite has occurred, whereby the constituents of perennial House Democrats settle for progressive mediocrity in electing very conventional neoliberal, corporate friendly candidates.

Single payer government health care as an incentive to bold entrepreneurship

by Glen Wallace

From the perspective of what I like to call 'applied social political philosophy', I prefer to bypass the whole debate about whether health care is a privilege or a right that the state is obligated to provide.  Instead, I ask the question, is a society that provides universal health care coverage achieving an ideal compared to a society that doesn't?  Can that ideal be practically achieved using a reasonable level of human and material resources?  If the answer to those two questions is 'yes', then proceed with taking steps towards the state providing universal coverage.  If there isn't yet sufficient support from the constituents for such coverage, then proceed with arguments and facts to sway them otherwise.

Regarding any counter arguments about government coverage leading to complacency, I think the facts and reasons point in the opposite direction.  If memory serves me correctly, I believe I read a statistic that European nations are greatly outpacing the U.S. in rates of business startups.  And given that universal single payer coverage is much more common in Europe, it would stand to reason that that difference is a fundamental reason for Europe besting the U.S. in such bootstrapping.  That's because here in America, the worker is much too dependent on their employer for health care coverage and thus discouraged from even dipping their feet into the business startup waters.  

Compare the American worker with dreams of starting their own business but are wary of leaving their employer with its comfortable health insurance coverage with the Scandinavian worker who knows they and their family would be assured of health care coverage whether their business startup idea works or not.  Our system of private insurance, generally provided through employment, acts as a disincentive to bold entrepreneurship.  Conversely, a single payer universal coverage system, by limiting risk, would act as an incentive to the sorts of bold bootstrapping that built the United States business empire -- an empire that is now showing signs of flagging compared with the rest of the developed word that wisely provides universal healthcare coverage.

VA problems are no reason to abandon single payer idea

by Glen Wallace

While some may like to point out how the VA has supposedly done such a bad job, as a reason why the government shouldn't take over health care, they are ignoring some important counter arguments or reasons supporting government takeover.  For one, the negative accounts about the VA that people tend to refer to, are to a large extent brought to you by private, for profit, news media that gets a substantial portion of ad revenue from private insurers that have a vested interest in retaining the private health insurance system.  As a result I believe the private news programs are highlighting, focusing and magnifying the VA's problems, while largely ignoring similar issues and problems that plague the private health insurance system.  One need only look at the online reviews of private insurers to find a plethora of examples that make those insurer's look even worse than the VA.  And if a single payer system were implemented, then it would be more of an expansion of Medicare than an expansion of the the VA.

Before Obamacare was implemented, while listening to an NPR feature about individuals having problems with private insurers, if I remember correctly, I believe they quoted a statistic that two thirds of all individuals that declare medical bankruptcy, already had health insurance at the time of their bankruptcy.  And the reasons for such bankruptcies wasn't just due to high deductibles, many were the result of disagreements between insurers and providers about what procedures are, or should have been covered.  As a result, a patient ends up being responsible for for medical bills they thought were covered.  Sometimes the patients can end up getting such bills lowered or covered by the insurer, but getting to that point often turns into a full time job for the patient in the form of phone calls, and negotiations with a hospital and insurer.  Hearing such stories one has to wonder "There has to be a better way!"  Well there is a better way and there also is no need to reinvent the wheel -- that better way is already being used successfully in most of Europe in the form of a government run single payer health care system.

Let's Take Back the Democratic Party

by Glen Wallace

The recent election of Trump should be a clarion call and rallying cry not just to revive the Democratic Party but to bring it back to its original progressive values.  Too many progressive commentators act as apologists for the non progressive actions of Democratic Party members in and out of office.  A prime example is the time period soon after Obama took office when the Democrats had the brass ring of the Presidency and both houses of Congress but dropped the progressive ball of opportunity.  Instead of using that opportunity to enact a single payer program like Medicare for everyone, they enact a healthcare program, Obamacare, that, Thom Hartmann rightly pointed out, is nearly identical to the program proposed by President Nixon and enacted by then Governor Romney.  Let's call it like it is -- Obamacare is a Republican Party designed gift to health insurance companies and Big Pharma.  And don't try to tell me that during that 'brass ring' period any serious effort was made to institute a single payer program.  I remember that period when the Democrats could have 'run the tables' and I don't recall any speeches before congress or interviews on the Networks where members of congress and the President championed a single payer program.  That's because no effort was made -- no effort was made because the Democratic Party has been taken over by neoliberals  that value regressive laissez faire economic values over the progressive socialist values that the Democratic Party is supposed to be founded on.

Before the 2018 elections, coming up in two short years, we progressives need to make some decisions.  First, we need to boldly attempt to gain Democratic nominations for both local and national offices.  Second, we need to run for those nominations under a boldly socialist progressive platform that meets and even surpasses the progressive platform that nearly got Sanders the Democratic nominations for President.  Third, we need to decide, if, like in the 2016 Presidential Democratic nomination race, the neoliberal candidate still wins the nominations, will it be warranted for the progressive socialist candidate to turn around and run as a third party candidate.  The 2018 race will be coming before we know it and we shouldn't be delaying in at least thinking over what race will we be running for, what our platform will be and what to do if we don't get the nomination.

I'm already thinking about running for U.S. Congress in the District where I live and plan to be living in 2018.  I voted for the Democrat, Angie Craig, in the 2016 election, even though I consider her a neoliberal.  I think she has too close ties to the medical device industry being a former executive for a medical device manufacturer.  I'm not sure I'd have much better luck pitching my idea to her than the winner of the 2016 election, right wing regressive former talk radio host Jason Lewis, of the Government taking over the manufacture and distribution of drugs and medical devices in cases of price gouging such is the case with the Epipen.  Actually, I think the Government should take over the research, manufacture and distribution of medical devices and pharmaceuticals in any case where a need exists and the market is not meeting the need.  Such a plan is very socialist, some would say communist, but I say so be it, and I think the electorate would support the idea -- health is very important to the people.  Health is a value that transcends party politics and the electorate knows political labels are useless when facing a health crisis.  Even so, I don't see much hope for the government owning the means of production for medicine and medical devices so long as either Republicans or neoliberal Democrats are in charge of this country.    

Obamacare is Not Socialized Medicine, But I Wish it Were

By Glen Wallace

While I have no doubt that they have the best of intentions, I think it is unfortunate that the progressive set has now seen it as their duty to rally in support and defend Obamacare as thought it were this great compassionate improvement in the current state of affairs.  I think the only solution that progressive minded folk should see as acceptable is a single payer government run universal plan that is modeled after the best run plans of northern Europe.

The Hillarycare plan would have been much more like the European single payer model, and therefore I really wish it would have succeeded.   With hindsight they should have been able to come up with a better way to sell the plan to the public.  What they could do now is have their own 'there's got to be a better way' commercial like the insurance companies put out against the plan, but this time the government could put out their own commercials supporting the plan using real people recounting their health insurance horror stories from dealing with medical debt they incurred from either high deductibles or cases where the insurance company has weaseled out of paying for hospital bills.  At the end of the commercial they would say "there's got to be a better way..... but wait, there is, and they're already doing it over in Europe and Canada."

I heard on public radio that two thirds of all American's with medical debt had health insurance when they incurred the debt.  One person that they had featured on the radio program with medical debt, who had health insurance, was battling with the billing hospital and health insurance company because the insurance company claimed some of the billed care he received from the hospital was not covered.  Trying to get either the hospital to remove the charges or get the insurance company to pay for them, had become a full time job for this guy who was still recovering from the motorcycle accident that caused the very costly hospital stay where the bills got run up in the first place.  Not only would all these problems go away for the individual with a universal single payer plan, but implementing such a plan would remove a huge costly burden from employers that would likely free up some money to hire more employees and expand a business.  It seems like the single payer plan is such a win-win that it should practically sell itself.  Perhaps we as a country need to get over our aversion to particular terms such as 'socialism' and become more pragmatic and simply choose the ideal solution regardless of what label applies to it.