About the only point I can find in this entire diatribe of pollution that smells much like the city streets of San Francisco that makes any sense at all is the elimination of the OCO military funding programs. I’ve long been a firm believer that there should be no consolidated budget or omnibus spending bills to fund federal expenses. Each agency, each program within each agency, should have a separate budget, examined and debated by the appropriate congressional committees and subcommittees, and then brought to the floor of each house for documented individual votes by Representatives and Senators so that each of them can be held accountable by their constitutents for what expenditures they approve. As would the President when he/she signs each of those budgeted expenditures. No budget could ever be signed without an accompanying spending bill for that agency. This one change to the way Congress does business would bring about a quickly balanced budget.
As for the war spending….. go back to selling of War Bonds and Liberty Bonds. Just like in WWII and WWI we put the burden of supporting overseas conflicts on the backs of the individuals and their personal patriotism as well as that of corporations. That takes care of the OCO funding.
Now, for the Good Senator’s Medicare for All funding program — — I’m not so sure that after spending nearly an hour trying to follow all of her twists and turns, checking out her links to the statements and analyses conducted by the same people who turned the ACA (Obamacare) into a business destroying, family bankrupting insurance scam for personal friends of Michelle, I’ve pretty much figured out that it cannot be countered. Not because it isn’t incorrect or horribly corrupted by partisan political analysis, but that in doing such a direct, point by point analysis and counter discussion I would just be wasting my time and available computer bytes. In other words, it would be a waste of digital energy.
Allow me to first offer a caveat: I am a a100% disabled veteran and I use the medical and dental services provided to me through the Department of Veterans Affairs and their associated medical care facilities. I also live a long way from any VA care facility so I can use the VA MISSION Act benefits of getting outsourced to just about any doctor in the area, including the best speciality care. So, after over 100 years of fighting for and working for the benefits afforded to those who signed a blank check, up to and including their lives, in service to the country, we are finally getting some sort of stable and quality care from the citizens whose taxes fund the VA. Thank you.
Now imagine this. Medicare was created under President Johnson as part of his Great Society initiatives in the mid-1960s. It didn’t exist at all before that. In fact, it is the schedule of payments approved by the government for care provided to Medicare recipients that drove insurance companies to match those cost payments for non-Medicare patients, and ultimately create the situation we have today. If it has taken over 100 years, at least 4 wars, plus the unending War on Terror, to get to this point for a group of people who amount to less that 1/10th of 1% of the entire adult U.S. population — how in the hell is Ms. Warren going to pull off her bag of tricks in her 4 years as President? No plan proposed by her would withstand the lobbyists and existing business and legislative structure.
More importantly, every state has their own insurance boards and rules. Their own legislation on competition and restrictions on who can do business and what can be charged. No national plan is going to change what the states are doing individually.
Senator Warren says, “I spent my career studying why so many hard-working middle class families were going broke.” As an academic myself I can tell you that outside of hard sciences and mathematics — there is no truth in the “studies” conducted by academics. It is all subjective and biased.
She goes on to say,”No for-profit insurance company should be able to stop anyone from seeing the expert or getting the treatment they need.” Heck, I’m already under Government Socialized Medical care and I can tell you that the bureaucrats regularly tell me what care or treatment or expert I can or cannot receive or see. Do you really think Medicare is going to be any different.
Warren writes, “Under Medicare for All, everyone gets the care they need, when they need it, and nobody goes broke.” My daughter lives in London, England, and is covered by their National Health Insurance program. Guess what — that is Medicare for All. And she has a community committee deciding if and when she is eligible for anything requireing any type of advanced or speciality treatment. She even has to wait for the committee to determine if she is allowed to go to a private provider and pay out of pocket for any speciality treatment.
The Senator also writes, “My plan will cover every single person in the U.S.” Does that include diplomats from other countries and their families? No?!? So right from the start there will be exceptions. What about Active Duty Military and their families? No?!? That’s what the military health care systems are doing. What about foreign exchange students who are insured by their native countries? What about persons serving time in local, state, and federal prisons? Hasn’t the U.S. Supreme Court already determined that their health care is the responsibility of the incarcerating facility/state? So, we already have millions of exceptions to the Every Single Person in the U.S. rule. Hmmmmmmmmmm………. starting to sound like the law making nightmare has just become.
Finally, the good Senator says health care is a human right. I disagree. She isn’t that good of an academic and her field of study is particularly lacking in the necessary background to make such a statement. The Declaration of Independence stated that we all the three unalienable rights, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I don’t see any mention of health care anywhere in those unalienable rights. Maslow determined long ago that the fundamental basis of all human existence was access to food (nobody said lobster thermadore or caviar) essential to sustain life, clean water, and protection from the elements (clothing and some could say a comfortable cave). Everything beyond those three items are essentially earned by the individual or cooperative. Everything beyond those items isn’t guaranteed, it is worked for, fought for, and defended.
The answer isn’t Medicare for All. It is Medicare and Medicade for NONE! Socialized medicine only increases costs and decreases access. I know. I’m part of a socialized medical care system and totally dependent upon what it provides. So too is my daughter in a socialist democracy. Cancel the entire wasted program. Drive the doctors, medical schools, and insurers back to where they earned their income as my personal doctor does, by treating patients and even making house calls. By offering shelf medicines at his cost to his patients without markups. By getting people to invest in health care cooperatives and pharmacy plans. Take the employers out of the mix entirely and tell the Unions that applying some of those Union Dues towards a cooperative health care program for their members and their families is what they were designed to do.
That will bring down costs, improve access and affordability, and drive families and individuals to forego that new Bass Boat and invest something into a cooperative health care plan.