National Healthcare
Today, Republican representatives in the Senate are meeting
to discuss and develop the upper chamber’s version of a plan for the future healthcare
of our people that might be accepted by a majority of the Congress and final
approval by our President. Let there be no doubt in your mind about one thing.
There will be no knowledge presented that is new. Everything said will have
been said before—every argument argued time and time again. We know the history
of healthcare over and over again, here and around the world. Political ideology,
greed, avarice, corruption, and personal gain notwithstanding, the only
issue—the only issue—at hand should be the overall good and wellbeing of our
country and our people. Again, I submit to you, everything to be known relative
to this subject, is known (or available to all who care to know) as well as the
results of whichever direction to be determined. The only real question
remaining is whether or not our elected representatives in the Congress will
truly represent the best interests of our people and our country, politics and
all else notwithstanding.
We can put all the arguing and bickering, all the legal
confrontations and cases, and all the massive spending associated with such
inefficiencies aside as well as to taking a giant step forward toward the
reduction of our horrendous national deficit and, eventually, our debt by
adopting a single payer universal healthcare system for all. Let’s get this
over with. Let’s give relief to our people from their fear. Let’s give relief
to business from the burdens of healthcare that they may focus on the management
of their businesses.
To those who argue the merits of free markets, I say to you
as I have said before: The only free markets that exist in these days and times
are to be found on a blackboard in a classroom. Today, they are called
chalkboards, but I digress. The closest we have ever come to really free
markets was in the eighteen hundreds; and, most certainly, healthcare is not
adaptable to such. Are you able to analyze and evaluate drug prices? Are you
able to compare prices when you choose a doctor? How much choice do you have in
choosing a hospital or evaluating their charges to you or your insurance
company? If you are honest with yourself, you know, for the most part, you are
at their mercy—there is no free market in healthcare. It’s a myth.
The only question remaining, a question I am confident our
representatives in Congress wish to avoid is how to finance such a system. You
know as well as I that nothing is free—no argument there. I have discussed this
before in my past writing, but I think it appropriate to address this matter
again. Healthcare is such a significant portion of our national budget, much if
not most of which significantly contributes to our national deficit and,
therefore, debt that I believe it is imperative that the financing should be
self-funding annually and excluded from the national budget. By this I mean
that income to the fund in a given year must be sufficient to pay the expenses
of that year—no deficit. The healthcare fund should be a stand-alone fund in
the same manner as our Social Security. It is, also, imperative to say that its
accounting system be auditable with an integrated data base.
I recommend that a single tax, ear-marked for the purpose,
should be levied on “taxable wages” on a progressive basis determined by
ability to pay. To this end, I think it fair that healthcare benefits currently
paid by employers be incorporated into employee gross income to facilitate
employee ability to pay. I also suggest an increase in minimum wage rates to facilitate
incorporation of the plan for small business employees.
There are those who believe our nation cannot afford such
safety nets as Social Security, Universal Healthcare, public education,
unemployment insurance, etc. I don’t believe that. Given that we the people of
the United States of America take back our country from the Shadow Government of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite now reigning over us, retain our democracy and sovereignty with equal
opportunity for all, a fair and more equal distribution of income and wealth,
and a system of progressive income taxation levied according to one’s ability
to pay, I believe our annual Gross Domestic Product will enable us to prosper
once again as we did in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, the most
prosperous period in the history of civilization. Also, to this end, it is imperative that we treat our neighbors throughout the world fairly, and seek
peace rather than war and dominance. Quoting
Noam Chomsky, “Violence is a powerful instrument of control, as history
demonstrates. But the dilemmas of dominance are not slight” (Ref:
Interventions, pg.48, by Noam Chomsky). To this end, you only have to look at our
present status in the world and our National Debt.
In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller
