Health care reform done right way
Republicans in Congress and the health insurance CEOs who own them are lying to the American people and committing fraud with their so-called replacement for Obamacare.
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy is right in the thick of it, with his middle-of-the-night committee approval of American Health Care Act. The result is tens of millions will lose their health care coverage and those who need care the most will pay thousands more for their insurance. That kind of result would lead to a failing grade on the first week’s quiz in Business 101, let alone meet the test of a system that President Trump is just now finding too “complex.” We now know that Republicans don’t care if their constituents die, become disabled or go bankrupt as long as they do so in a free-market system.
Every other advanced nation in the world figured out how to provide health care for all of their citizens and guest workers decades ago. They do it far cheaper than we do, and many of them have far better outcomes in critical areas like infant mortality and life expectancy. Virtually every one of them focus on prevention. The leaders of these countries aren’t do-gooders. They simply recognize a healthy workforce is necessary to compete in the technology-driven global economy of the 21st century.
There are also more than a dozen emerging nations that are implementing universal health care with help from some of our country’s finest universities. All these countries know free-market health care delivery has failed. All of them have a base of single-payer insurance, many with options for additional coverage as needed. What Ryan calls a “nanny state” program, many others in the world call “common sense.”
With universal health care systems to look at to and the top scholars in the field right in our backyard, we have an opportunity to make a great leap forward. It’s time to stop the rhetoric and shut down the Republican con job. Our representatives need to throw out the partisan politics and bring together politicians and professionals who care about the health of the American people to implement a system that will bring us up to the level of competing nations.
And those of us in the 18th Congressional District need to find a replacement for Murphy – someone who will be responsive to his constituents.
Ron Christman
Washington