Political Spinner

A recent study, to be published in the upcoming August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine – a known radical left wing organ – tells us that more than 60% of the people that declare bankruptcy in the US , do it because of medical bills. That means that close to a million Americans will file for bankruptcy in 2009, because they are knee-deep in medical bills that they cannot afford to pay. The rest of us, at least while we have a job, will be frozen solid in our places of employment, scared witless by the prospect of losing our health coverage while in the in-between-job limbo, or by not being able to receive similar coverage for existing medical conditions in a new place of employment. This is called Job Lock, and some researchers see it as one of the major impediments to the recovery of the American economy.

American car manufacturers (and many other vendors as well) complain long and bitter about the added cost of health care, slapped on top of the base price of each of the vehicles they roll off their assembly lines. This is because of the employee-based, private health insurance structure in the US - as opposed, for example to Japanese cars, whose cost structure does not include a penny in health insurance costs, making them more price-competitive (in addition to their other advantages). That’s because the Japanese (as well as the French, Italian, German, British…. Governments) provide their citizens (including car industry employees) with a universal health care.

Want more data? A 2001 study by the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured (ERIU), at the University of Michigan, titled: “Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Job Mobility: A Critical Review of the Literature”, reviewed 50 relevant studies on the subject and concluded that “…while there is some division in the literature, the most convincing evidence suggests that health insurance plays an important role in job mobility decisions. Our general conclusion is that health insurance has important effects on both labor force participation and job choice…”

Another research study, published in 2003, this time by Anna Sanz de Galdeano, from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, concluded that “… after accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity, holding EPHI (Employer-provided health insurance) induces substantial mobility reductions for all demographic groups, ranging from 35% to 60%.

If the data included in these studies, is even remotely correct, it appears that the freedom associated with knowing you will receive health care no matter where and when you work is a liberating boost for other economies, and a debilitating handicap on the American economy. Looking at the healthcare statistics in most European “Socialist” hells teaches us, further, that people in industrialized countries “afflicted” with universal healthcare systems, are generally healthier than their American counterparts, live longer and enjoy a less stressful life. Indeed, a scary prospect.

So why is there such a wide-spread fear amongst the American public from anything that has to do with universal healthcare? It is easy to dismiss this objection as ignorance, or to attach it to the vigorous pushback by the “fair and balanced” coalition headed by the American health insurance industry and Fox News. Indeed, hearing it on Fox, universal healthcare is the first step in a vast conspiracy to enslave all Americans through the horrors of universal healthcare – stifling America’s entrepreneurial spirit in endless lines, in drab, numbing mass clinics.

I think that American’s objections has more to do with the fiercely independent self perception of many in this country. Anything that appears to compromise this perceived independence is frowned at.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to defense, Americans seem to be willing to abdicate much of this fierce independence to the federal government. It’s as if the perception is that the government knows best when it comes to keeping us either dead or alive, but keeping us healthy is too much to ask.

This may be the right place to share with you a sad secret: America already has socialized medicine. About 49% of every healthcare dollar spent in America today comes out of the public purse, in the form of Medicare, and other state and federal healthcare schemes. The only difference is that while the demand side is universal, the supply side is still at the hands of the same greedy bastards that gave us the latest economic disaster. Scaring Americans by telling them that reducing the cost of medicines will sap the funding out of R&D is bull. Pharmas spend very little of their overall budget on R&D (about 15% on the average), and they will just have to be less greedy and more true to their high flying narratives.

The solution, in my opinion, should be that of a combined universal and private healthcare system. The universal part will provide every American citizen with a cradle to grave health basket. Those wanting to provide themselves and their families with extras, will be able to purchase additional health insurance, giving them access to possibly better, faster, more expanded health services. This way, America’s sense of individualism will remain intact, while the health of its citizens will improve immeasurably (currently about 50 million people are without health insurance at all, and many more millions have inadequate coverage). America should join the family of nations that provide its citizens with more expanded universal service beyond capital punishment.