Some services are best done by the government, some private, and some as a partnership. There are characteristics of the service that make one or another better. Health is probably best done jointly.
Universal health care is not "socialism." It is ethical government practice. Moral government practice. Practical, common-sense, fair government practice.
Medicare works well. VA Medical care works well. The Affordable Care Act took some mean hits during the Trump years and my friend, a pharmacist, says it costs her family $3,000 a month now. Yikes!
Read this U.S. News and World Report article.
It reflects my family's personal experience. My husband worked in information technology management for 43 years, working for 5 different companies, but except for 1980-89 when he was a VP of a company with a "Cadillac" plan for execs he never had better healthcare than he did with the Veterans Administration. With heart disease, prostate cancer, and insulin dependent diabetes, I shudder to think what his health care expenses would be--even with Medicare. I say this because I have seen friends on Medicare getting insulin from Walgreens and being billed hundreds of dollars--unsustainable. Some use Canadian mail order when they hit the donut hole (just shows whose health care is better.) A few go on cruises in the beginning of the year and pick up their drugs in Mexico (they say everyone does it...to survive.)
I have Medicare, a Medicare supplement with dental and vision, and a prescription plan. Don't listen to Joe Namath, or JJ--I hate to see them trying to mislead senior citizens. Yes, I have premiums--about $325 for Part B, the supplement, and prescriptions--but I never have deductibles or copays, I can see whatever doctors I want, and I have a free fitness center membership I use daily.
He retired in 2013. My daughter and I were on his health plan. It cost him about $8000 a year and it was terrible compared to what we have today (and he was already using the VA most of the time.) When he turned 65 I had to get my own insurance through my small employer. It cost me $600 a month just for me and it was no better than my husband's.
Yeah, we live in one of the least expensive states in the country. My sister pays a lot more for her Medicare supplement and prescriptions in Florida.
I shudder when I see what younger people pay for insurance.
I think about my husband's aunt, whose husband owned a small cemetery florist all his life. No insurance. They caught her cancer too late. She was only 60. Is that how people who probably worked 100 hours a week over the holidays to decorate graves should be treated?
Read this article for the truth about our costly inferior health care system.
Why the U.S. Needs Universal Health Care | For Better | US News
