The Grand Illusion
What do you think about this issue raised in a recent Salon article: https://www.salon.com/2023/08/05/why-america-is-going-backward-being-the-richest-nation-in-history-isnt-enough? https://www.salon.com/2023/08/05/why-america-is-going-backward-being-the-richest-nation-in-history-isnt-enough
The article makes some good points, and there’s no doubt that, for the average person, our so-called health system is an expensive nightmare, partly because it’s run by accountants for the benefit of health care executives and the profit maximization of medical supply companies and the pharmaceutical industry.
But the article misses the one critical point. What improves longevity statistics the most is improving the health and health care of the poorest segments of society. Our system improves the health of the wealthiest in society while making healthcare increasingly expensive and hard to get for the poorest segments of society, as well as for the working families. Add to that the fact that the right-wing anti-abortionists have enacted in a great number of states measures that effectively limit care for poor women who are pregnant (willingly or not) by making medical practitioners criminally liable for providing care that could save women with problematical pregnancies. Then add to that the unwanted children who seldom get adequate food and medical care, which increases the death rate and shortens their life spans, not to mention the years they can work productively.
By making healthcare a government responsibility, the European and other countries have lifted a huge financial burden off companies and individuals, and also removed the “need” for healthcare to be “profitable.” The result is that a greater percentage of the population gets “basic” health care, and wide-spread basic healthcare improves overall longevity more than does high-tech healthcare limited by cost to the upper-middle-class and upper class.
It is my observation, perhaps a simply subjective one, that any time something is done to help the masses as opposed to the 1%-ers, there is almost always a far greater benefit to all. Including the 1%-ers! As opposed to actions which impact only primarily the 1%-ers.
When I think of these things, I reflect on improved tax cuts which help only the wealthy, primarily. Socializing healthcare to allow for free general care for the majority of the population would improve the quality of life of so many more people while making things cheaper on the companies and reducing the burden on the average person. Improving wages for the poorest paid people in the country would be a bigger boom for the economy than squirrelling away more money in the hands of the wealthy, and would result in the wealthy still making plenty more money.
There are other things I could point out, but it seems that the powerful and wealthy are so busy collecting power and money that they are willfully blind to how they too could gain while everyone else does too.
WHY stop with healthcare? Gov could provide free shelter, food , clothing and misc for all?