Universal Heathcare> 5 Big Ideas

Like approximately 45 million other Americans, I have no health insurance. Unlike most of those people I can afford to buy it, but won’t because I don’t fit into the system as it exists. When I graduated University in 2000 my parents told me I would have to pay for my own insurance. I got the least expensive plan available in New Jersey, from what I remember it was $175 a month plus a $30 co-pay every time I saw a doctor. Those were lean years and insurance payments swallowed up a good deal of my income. By the time I canceled my insurance at the end of 2002 my monthly payments were nearly $300 a month. The cost is now $530 a month for that same plan, their least expensive. Also, if I were to sign on I would only be able to see Doctors in NJ. I live in Europe so those trans-Atlantic check ups would add up. The only way the insurance would be beneficial is for something major, like cancer, getting hit by a bus or God forbid, a terrorist attack! But you may be asking, “Why don’t you just get catastrophic insurance which covers events like cancer and bomb shrapnel related injuries.” Well I would, but NJ is doesn’t allow insurance companies to sell this. Why? I have no fucking clue. I digress.

My point is the Democratic Party should bring this issue front and center. Many people detest our current system like I do. When Clinton tried to bring in a multi-payer (Like they have in Germany) national healthcare system he was defeated by a Republican controlled Congress. I am sure the Republicans haven’t changed their mind, but the country has. There are many more people without insurance since Clinton’s effort. Also those that do have insurance (or their employers) are paying roughly three times as much as they were paying in 2000. Single-payer Universal health care is now the stated preference of a majority of Americans (as well as Doctors). Politically, it would help to illustrate the differences in priorities between to the two parties. As a side benefit it would make Americans healthier.

I may not be a big city lawyer, but I do know this. Americans are ready for Universal healthcare. I know it will be a difficult issue to explain and even more difficult to get past entrenched interests, (Insurance companies, Pharmaceutical companies…) but it is simply the right thing to do. Other people actually did research on this so take a look at this, this, this and this if you want proof.