Gary Whittenberger

My View

The first version of Ryan-Trump Care failed to get off the ground. Let’s take a deep breath and notice the good replacement for ObamaCare that is right in front of our eyes – Medicare for All.

Medicare for All is a program in which every U.S. citizen and legal resident would receive proper medical care from any provider he or she chooses any time he or she needs it without any out-of-pocket expense. The program would be paid for by tax revenues. Everyone would get medical care and everyone would pay for it. What could be more simple, reliable, effective and cheaper?

Medicare for All would be similar to Military for All. In our country everyone needs protection from outside invasion. Our president commands a huge military force to provide this protection. All citizens pay for this through taxes, mostly progressive federal income taxes.

This system works pretty well. We don’t have a system of competing private insurance companies that sell us policies to cover “protection from outside invasion” which then pay off competing private military companies under contracts to fight off foreign aggressors. That wouldn’t work well, just as a similar system doesn’t work well now in the medical area.

Most medical problems are just the result of bad luck. Who chooses to get infections, broken legs, gunshot wounds, cancer, mental illness or heart attacks? Most people who suffer from these maladies are just victims of chance.

Why should victims themselves bear the total burden of the costs of treatment? We should all chip in to a grand pool of money that covers these costs for any of us when we need treatment.

All citizens and other legal residents of the U.S. comprise the largest possible group for funding of a comprehensive health care system. The splintered private medical insurance companies we now have can’t come close to this. They waste our money because they have high record keeping costs and seek profits.

I know the devil is in the details. We need to develop some new policies and procedures for running Medicare for All, but we already have a good model in the Medicare for seniors program. And it works quite well.

Other developed countries of the world have already learned that universal single-payer health care programs are they way to go. A majority of citizens and medical professionals in our country now favors a system like this.

Bernie Sanders is preparing to introduce a Medicare for All bill in the U.S. Senate soon. Although I might quibble with a few of its details, still it provides an excellent foundation for what we need.

Let’s face it: Some goods and services should be provided through the private sector through regulated capitalism, but some should be provided through the public sector, like the protections from invasion, crime, fire and medical problems. It is time that we embrace Medicare for All just like we have embraced Military for All.

Gary Whittenberger, a retired psychologist living in Tallahassee, may be reached at whittfamily76@gmail.com