by Patsy Writesman
The future of our nation hangs in the balance and the direction of our healthcare system is one of the main differences at stake in the 2020 Presidential election this week. In the final Presidential debate, the distinctions between President Trump’s vision vs. former Vice President Biden’s vision for our nation could not be clearer. This truly is America vs. Socialism.
To understand that difference watch President Trump and former Vice President Biden’s responses on how they view healthcare and the proper role of the federal government.
President Trump and Republicans in Congress already eliminated the individual mandate and continue to move away from Obamacare and instead implement free market reforms that put individual Americans back in control of their healthcare, as it should be in a free society.
Joe Biden’s own words in the debate were, “What I’m going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option – to become BidenCare…providing competition for insurance companies.” You can call it a public option, Medicare for All, single payer or BidenCare – but they all lead to the same place – a total and complete government takeover of your healthcare.
Joe Biden claims he doesn’t want to eliminate private insurance – but his policies will do just that. The BidenCare public option is an accelerated onramp to socialized single payer healthcare. Under Biden’s plan he’s going to have taxpayer subsidized government-run plans that unfairly undercut private health insurance – further destabilizing the market and actually forcing Americans to shift to government plans as their prices are artificially low through government subsidies. And remember, who pays for those subsidies? American taxpayers.
Democrats in Congress support BidenCare because they want to destabilize the private market and drive private insurance under – further forcing Americans onto a government-run plan. Their goal is to make the government option so heavily subsidized that they force businesses to stop offering health insurance and incentivize Americans off their private insurance. Private industry cannot compete with massive taxpayer subsided government plans that don’t have to operate in the real marketplace. And, we all know that the private sector left to compete in the free market always creates a better product, move efficiently and at a better price. The government should not be in the business of competing with the private sector.
And, how can we trust the former Vice President when he says no one will lose their insurance? How did that work out when he and President Obama promised all Americans – if we like our doctor, we can keep our doctor? It didn’t. The government-run health insurance public option takes us down the same old road to a government-run socialized healthcare system.
As President Trump points out there are currently 180 million Americans on private health insurance and many Americans like their private health insurance and do not want a government-run system.
Single payer Medicare for All as pushed by socialists including Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others will terminate all private insurance – kicking 180 million Americans off their health insurance.
We also need to examine the math. Lanhee Chen at the Hoover Institution estimates that the public option would require massive tax hikes on most Americans including the middle class – upwards of $2,000 a year in inflation adjusted dollars. BidenCare is going to cost $750 billion over the next 10 years and the eventual single payer Medicare for All healthcare system is going to cost whopping $32 trillion over the next 10 years.
President Trump is spot on when he says, “When he [Biden] says public option, he’s talking about socialized medicine and healthcare. When he talks about a public option, he’s talking about destroying your Medicare and your Social Security and this whole country will come down.”
President Trump also pointed out that Bernie Sanders’ home state of Vermont took socialized medicine for a spin and couldn’t do it because they discovered that it would bankrupt them.
President Trump couldn’t be more right when he says Medicare for All will harm seniors as it will have younger and healthier Americans directly competing for access for the same limited healthcare resources. If you are a senior your chances of survival will plummet under socialized healthcare. Just look at seniors in Great Britain and how their access to care is limited because of their age and the costs associated with their care. Spending will shift to those younger patients and those deemed more worthy of care vs. seniors in their later years. And, it’s not just seniors whose healthcare is struggling in Great Britain. According to Sally Pipes at the Pacific Research Institute – British patients are waiting six to nine months for care, have long wait lines, horrible survival rates for cancer compared to the U.S. and many patients are routinely denied treatment due to the lack of resources or as they call it, “limited clinical value.”
Medicare for All and its younger cousin BidenCare will lead to lower quality outcomes and rationing of care – just like every other socialized healthcare system. It simply doesn’t work. All Americans need to do is look to Great Britain and Canada. BidenCare and Medicare for All or whatever you want to call it, will be a total disaster with long lines, rationed care and poorer quality outcomes. With the election next week – we will find out if Americans vote for President Trump’s vision of continued free-market reforms for healthcare or if they foolishly embrace total government takeover of healthcare and the end of the free market system that has given us the best healthcare in the world.
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Patsy Writesman is a nationally recognized health care speaker, consultant and owner of ManageHealthCareCosts.com.
Background Photo “Health Care” by agilemktg1.
