Healthcare is a human right!?
That is what essentially every other industrialized nation on earth believes and provides. But the U.S.? Not so much. Universal healthcare, however, is gaining momentum in our country. Latest evidence is widespread viewing of a National Town Hall on Medicare for All, held in Washington, D.C., on January 23 and hosted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Three online media outlets—Young Turks, Now This, and Attention—provided the coverage and streaming of the two-hour event. Many of us who believe in “Improved Medicare for All” contend that you will not see this type of coverage through our corporate-run TV stations because of their financial conflicts of interest. Major media outlets owe their financial well-being to companies in the insurance, pharmaceutical and even healthcare system arenas, companies that do not want to see “Improved Medicare For All” succeed in our nation.
In this piece, I would like to share with readers highlights of this event. To view it in its entirety, do a Google Search for “Medicare for All National Town Hall—YouTube.”
The Town Hall is organized into three sets of panelists. The first panelist interviewed is Dr. Sam Brock of Remote Area Medical, a non-profit organization that has provided free medical and dental care in over 800 free clinics across the U.S. spanning the last 34 years. Their patients are those among us who cannot afford medical or dental care. Brock’s experiences suggest that similar numbers of Americans suffer due to lack of affordable healthcare as do residents of third world countries.
Dr. Claudia Feagan of Cook County Hospital in Chicago states that 30,000 people died unnecessarily in 2017 due to inability to afford the medical care they needed. These patients arrive in ERs across our nation with far-advanced diseases because they put off care at a much earlier phase due to unaffordable co-pays or deductibles, even if they have insurance.
Debra Watell, a primary care nurse practitioner from Burlington, Vermont, discusses the major problem of high-cost prescriptions and the painful and expensive amount of time spent with insurance company representatives to appeal denials of prescriptions written. Providers, doctors and physician extenders would save significant sums of money and time if our system had one set of rules based on quality of care, not hundreds of different rules to enlarge the profit margin of insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers. They gain when they deny prescribed care.
Concluding this segment, Bernie Sanders states that our present healthcare system is now designed to maximize profit for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. We presently pay nearly twice as much per capita as any other nation on earth for healthcare.
The second segment of the town hall centers on economic questions about our healthcare system.
Panelist Richard Masters is founder and CEO of MCS Industries, an Easton, Pa. company of 180 employees with revenues of $200 million/year and health insurance costs of $2.5 million/year. This represents 18 percent of payroll. He knows that under a Medicare for All system, his healthcare costs would drop to about 10 percent of payroll. This tremendous savings for businesses across the U.S. would allow American companies to compete more fairly with companies from other nations. Masters mentions that in the past year, average healthcare costs for a family of four was $27,000.
Masters is involved with other business owners in two organizations, Business Initiative for Health Policy and Business Leaders Transforming Healthcare. He hopes to educate business leaders throughout America that Medicare for All could be a tremendous asset to their competitive edge.
Panelist Jen Kemick owns Alchemist Brewery with her husband. Their business employs 50 people, and they provide them with health insurance. This has become more and more challenging for the owners and their employees, as the co-pays and deductibles continue to climb. Kemick believes that everyone should be able to access and afford healthcare. This would provide better morale for all employees. A Medicare for All system would level the playing field for American businesses. Currently, businesses that do not provide employee health insurance have a cost advantage over their competitors who do provide it.
Dr. Don Berwick, the final panelist in this segment, is a trained pediatrician who headed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Obama administration. He notes that the administrative cost of Medicare is 1-2 percent. Private health insurance administrative costs range from 15 to 18 percent. What is the difference? Berwick mentions billboards (advertising) and massive CEO salaries as the tip of the healthcare cost-iceberg. He continues, “Private health insurance is complex, Medicare is simple.” When asked, he responds there is no good reason that we do not have “Medicare for All” now. It is purely a matter of will, the will of the American people.
The third panel included Daniel Raza, a primary care physician and professor at the University of Toronto, Natalie Kikad of Norway, and Jill, an American who experienced healthcare in France as a legal French citizen and was employed there for several years.
Dr. Raza states that in Canada a patient’s access to care is based on need, not on whether they can pay for the needed care. There are no co-pays or deductibles for outpatient visits or in-patient care. There are no medical bankruptcies. Each province handles prescriptions slightly differently, but the country negotiates with the pharmaceutical industry for the best price on an annual basis.
Natalie Kikad informs the audience that Norwegians are proud of their healthcare system. They believe strongly that all Norwegians should receive healthcare, as it is a human right. She mentions that their national health program has strong cross-party political support and that it would be political suicide to implement a U.S. system based on ability to afford private insurance.
Jill, an American who moved to France for work, paid $200 euros ($248 US) for one year of healthcare in France. She kept her healthcare when she was unemployed. When Jill returned to the U.S., she was bewildered by the complexities of enrolling in Obamacare, trying to understand the nuances of deductibles, co-pays, premiums, bronze versus silver versus gold versus platinum plans from multiple companies. She ended up with premiums of $100 per month and a deductible of $2,000 that year. She further observes that we Americans are subjected to the “emotional cost” of fear. “Millions of Americans are scared to death that illness will cause them financial bankruptcy.”
We need to ask ourselves, why, in the richest nation on earth, we do not enact healthcare as a human right? I believe healthcare should be considered a human right in our nation. A growing number of Americans believe this basic tenet as well. As Sanders concluded, we are gaining momentum but we will not win this battle unless we all become actively involved, unless we all stand up to the forces, the power and money that oppose this idea. We need to help every American recognize that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Dwight Michael, M.D., is a local family physician who practices with his partners at Gettysburg Family Practice. He is a member of Gettysburg Area Democracy for America's healthcare task force, and he is a board member of Healthcare4AllPa.