First, we have to decide that we must. It’s a moral imperative. We can find the money if we:
applied the $1.82 trillion that the government is currently spending on its various numerous programs to a single, new equitable, and less-costly system
stopped subsidizing wealthy corporations who make generous campaign contributions and heavily lobby Congress.
streamlined our health care administration.
beefed up our anti-fraud activities. We get back $8 for every dollar spent.
stopped paying for needless services. All sources estimate waste to be in the range from 25% to 35% of the total costs, or $875 to $1.225 billion per year. That alone would be enough to cover all costs.
rewrote our patent laws to limit Big Pharma’s monopolistic power to set prices.
stopped overpaying Medicare Advantage plans above traditional Medicare costs per beneficiary.
Reduced payments to hospitals for readmissions with 15 days of discharge.
motivated Individuals to take more responsibility for their health.
enacted appropriate public health measures like creating a sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) tax.
Scrapped the employer-based system and redirectd the employer’s contribution towards higher taxable wages. That would add approximately $300 billion per year in tax revenue.
I’m just getting started but you can get the idea. If we remove the fat in the system, and invest more muscle into our chronic disease preventive and fraud detection programs., we’ll have more than enough to go around.
We can afford universal care but first we must make it a priority.