Fixing America In 500 Words Or Less Chapter 37 WHO IS REALLY SCAMMING WHO? Lifting the Health Care Veil        Claims by politicians that raising taxes on the wealthy will cause job losses and hurt small business are historically false.  During the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, when upper-income tax brackets reached as high as 91%, the majority of working and middle-class American families enjoyed a quality lifestyle on a single wage-earner income.  Virtually no child lacked health care and homelessness was essentially unheard of.        Anyone who has owned a small business knows that the entire "Joe the Plumber" charade is just one great big lie.  Few plumbers or owners of small privately-held companies in America earn a net taxable income over $250,000 per year.  Most small business owners re-invest excess profits to grow their business and otherwise, avoid paying taxes.        The higher people are taxed on excess income, whether or not they own a business, the more incentive they have to invest that income back into what will grow the economy and increase jobs.  Raising taxes on net taxable income above $250,000, as President Obama proposed, would serve to increase jobs and stimulate the economy, the opposite of what bought-and-paid-for politicians and right-wing media hacks pretend is true.        If Medicare was expanded into a single-payer universal system, health care could be paid for by taxing all income above the poverty level the same percentage.  This would lower health care costs and retail prices considerably and, greatly stimulate our economy by removing a huge financial burden off many employers, eliminating the significant cost of employer-provided health coverage.        Because income up to the poverty level would be exempt, it would cost the poor almost nothing to have quality health care.  And, it would cost the working and middle-classes far less than they pay now, when lower costs for goods and services are factored in, along with the elimination of the mega-bite of at least 25 cents that insurance companies and other unnecessary industry components take from every health care dollar.        There is no rational argument when weighing the current U.S. patchwork health care fiasco against the universal health systems of France, Germany, Japan and Sweden.  Middle and working class citizens in these nations receive much better care and, the cost to insure all citizens is 10% or less of total GNP. The cost to Americans is a staggering 15% of GNP, while this much greater cost still leaves almost half of us with inadequate care and one out of six with no health care at all.        When taxes are lowered on the wealthy, as they have consistently been from President Reagan forward, everybody eventually loses, including the wealthy.  The poor, working and middle classes reach a point where they can no longer afford to purchase goods and services.  This is underscored by the growing gap between the wealthy and poor, millions of mortgages defaulting, rows of houses sitting empty, auto dealerships and retail centers closing down and high unemployment rates.        Is “Joe the Plumber” just a scam?  Is the entire Demo/Publican corporate-party system just a scam?  Who is really scamming who?  You decide. ¹ NOTES: 1. See Should We Care if Everyone Has Health Care? for documentation, health care statistics and more infromation. Bonus Chapter WHO IS REALLY LYING ABOUT HEALTH CARE? Statements in bold below come from Republican Party literature handed out at a health care rally in Nashville on August 13, 2009, prior to passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, commonly called the Affordable Care Act and more commonly known as "Obamacare".  Due to the extensive overt lies contained in this Republican propaganda, this particular chapter does not adhere to the 500 word limit. Numbered items in bold are various Republican Party approved points, followed by brief responses in non-bold normal font. A) REPUBLICANS SAY:  “We need to reform health care because it costs too much.” Republicans under Junior Bush passed a so-called Medicare “reform” bill highly favorable to pharmaceutical companies and the health care industry. Legislation passed prohibits the federal government from negotiating discounts with drug companies, which would serve to greatly reduce the cost of medicine for seniors and all American taxpayers.  Other legislation first passed in 1987 under President Reagan, often ignored by American citizens desperate for affordable medications, prohibits Americans from purchasing far less expensive often exact same medicine from outside of our borders. This type of draconian legislation makes purchasing drugs from foreign sources far less regulated and more dangerous than it otherwise would be.  Thus, such current Republican cries for health care reform ring particularly hollow, reeking of partisan political charades and complete and total dishonesty.  It should be noted that what eventually became known as "Obamacare" was originally proposed by Republicans.  Universal health care, rather than either Obamacare or our current broken piecemeal fiasco of a system, is a far, far, far better, far, far, far easier and far, far, far less expensive option for every American citizen. In particular, Americans who care about their own health and the health of their own children, which is greatly jeopardized when people within our borders lack necessary care to help minimize common communicable diseases. B) REPUBLICANS SAY:  “Make health insurance portable so Americans can keep their coverage when they change jobs.” Making health care insurance portable does nothing to reduce dramatically rising health care costs, eliminate high deductibles and co-payments, help the uninsured or people with pre-existing conditions or, prevent insurers from refusing to cover the sickest among us.  As already noted, it would be very far less expensive, simpler and easier if we had universal health care, like every half-way sane nation on earth already has. The United States ranks 37th in quality of health care, while France, which insures all of her citizens for 2/3rds the cost, consistently ranks in the top three and usually number one in health care quality.  All other nations with universal health care pay less than France—every nation with universal health care pays far less than the United States for typically better care along with at or close to 100% coverage. ¹ It is quite literally insane for a modern nation to not have universal health care for everyone living within it's borders, if for no other reason than to prevent communicable diseases, which can lead to national and global pandemic disaster. C) REPUBLICANS SAY:  “Provide tax credits to make health care more affordable and accessible.” Doing this would solve none of the problems noted previously.  Republicans in Congress under Junior Bush pushed to reduce federal funding for health care, including opposing helping uninsured children.  This reeks of the worst kind of partisan political charades and complete and total dishonesty.  As always, universal health care is a far, far, far better, far, far, far easier and far, far, far less expensive option for every American citizen. D) REPUBLICANS SAY:  “President Obama and Democrats are con- ducting a dangerous 1.6 trillion dollar experiment with our health care.” According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare will cost the federal government less than 150 billion annually for the next ten years. ²  This does not consider the significant gain in lost productivity noted above or the fact that many thousands of American deaths from lack of health care will be prevented.  Compare this to the 3 trillion plus dollars the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated by Junior Bush cost American taxpayers, allegedly initiated because of the deaths of 3,000 American citizens, a number ten times less than the minimum estimated number of Americans who die annually from lack of health care. Or, compare the hundreds of billions of dollars Republicans continue to allocate for various planes and other war machines that even the Pentagon admits are totally unnecessary and quite frankly, an expensive training, storage and upkeep ongoing nuisance to the U.S. military.  Apparently, Republicans believe pretending to protect us from harmful dictators in foreign lands, who coincidentally, just happen to be sitting on significant stockpiles of oil, is more important than protecting American citizens against contagious diseases and death from lack of health care here at home. It is estimated at least 30,000 Americans die from lack of health care every year.  Tax cuts for the wealthy under Bush alone would cover the cost for Obamacare and, provide a home for every homeless veteran as well.  Annual losses in national productivity, due to the spread of common contagious diseases preventable if everyone had access to health care, costs Americans trillions of dollars in lost productivity, as well as many days suffering through far from pleasant easily preventable common colds, flues and other communicable diseases, a cost far, far, far higher than it would cost to insure everyone living within our borders.  As always, universal health care is a far, far, far better, far, far, far easier and far, far, far less expensive option for every American citizen. E) REPUBLICANS SAY:  [Obamacare] “would raise taxes by 800 billion, mostly on small business.” President Obama proposed raising taxes on personal net income over $250,000 annually to help pay for health care reform.  Republican opposition is a continuation of the ongoing "Joe the Plumber" lie as noted in the previous chapter above and, never dissected properly by the corporate-controlled media. Almost no plumbers or owners of small independently-owned companies earn over 250K net income annually after deductions.  Also, businesses employing less than 50 people are not required to pay for health care under Obamacare. As always, it would be very far less expensive, simpler and easier to have universal health care, like every half-way sane nation on earth already has. F) REPUBLICANS SAY:  [Obamacare] “would create a national set of one-size-fits-all regulations, making health care more expensive for everyone.” This is not at all what Obamacare does but even if it did, it would serve to greatly reduce the cost for everyone, if the health care industry was forced to bid against the entire U.S. population base.  As always, universal health care is a far, far, far better, far, far, far easier and far, far, far less expensive option for every American citizen. G) REPUBLICANS SAY:  [Obamacare] “would impose new regulations for existing plans that would make your employer drop your plan or make your current insurance carrier stop offering your plan.” Proposed regulations would actually have the opposite effect than what is pretended in this Republican propaganda.  They include requiring employers to insure employees or else, pay a penalty to offset the costs of a government option.  New regulations force insurers to accept all people, regardless of pre-existing conditions and, require them to cease dropping patients who are deemed "too expensive" for profit margins.  As always, it would be very far less expensive, simpler and easier to have universal health care, like every half-way sane nation on our planet already has. H) REPUBLICANS SAY: [Obamacare] “would create a government run insurance option that would unfairly drive out competitors to become a monopoly.” Since deregulation began under Ronald Reagan, major insurance corporations have essentially become a monopoly, unfairly driving out smaller competitors and, insurers who attempted to provide honest coverage.  Predominately supported by Republicans, deregulation initiated from President Reagan forward eliminated rules that once prevented the industry from refusing to pay for expensive treatments and, prevented once protected poor and elderly patients from being literally dumped out the backs of ambulances onto Skid Row, as was famously video taped and revealed on national television. Unlike Theodore Roosevelt and from President Reagan forward, Republicans have done everything in their power to encourage private business monopoly, while doing everything in their power to reduce anything worthwhile our government engages in domestically to help our citizens.  Such as, refusing to fund much needed public highway, electrical, sewer, dam and other necessary repair and construction, cutting back on funding for public education and in particular at higher levels, cutting back funding for police, fire, library, national parks and other necessities for a quality life of liberty and pursuit of happiness. As always, universal health care is a far, far, far better, far, far, far easier and far, far, far less expensive option for every American citizen. It is true the Democrats are grossly in error regarding health care, bowing to corporate pressure and pretending that we can expect to survive as a modern nation, while leaving insurance industry profits in the way of achieving quality affordable health care for us all.  The historical facts have over and over again demonstrated this to be a complete and total lie.  But, which party is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really lying about health care?  You decide. NOTES: 1. See Should We Care if Everyone Has Health Care? for statistics and more information. 2. According to a Congressional Budget Office report released in April of 2014:  :“Relative to their previous projections made in February 2014, CBO and JCT now estimate that the ACA’s coverage provisions will result in lower net costs to the federal government: The agencies currently project a net cost of $36 billion for 2014, $5 billion less than the previous projection for the year; and $1,383 billion for the 2015–2024 period, $104 billion less than the previous projections. . .Health insurance premiums are lower than CBO originally projected, saving the government $190 billion. . .The projection made originally in 2012 that the ACA would reduce the deficit is still valid, and deficit reduction is greater than anticipated two years ago.” See Article Linked Here for more information. Click Here to Go Back to Contents Click Here to eMail the Author Copyright © December 10th, 2019 by Richard Aberdeen. Copyright © December 10th, 2019 by Freedom Tracks Records. 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