Medical care continues to dominate our attention in this nation. I hope we don’t have millions of people without healthcare in the next year or so. However, in reality, we already do.
A 50-year-old woman told my wife and me that she seriously needs a knee replacement, but she can’t pay her deductible and twenty percent. Together they would be several thousand dollars, and on her waitress salary, she can’t afford the surgery. She has medical care but she can’t afford to have a very needed surgery.
If she falls over with a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital, then her insurance will, of course, pick up a major part of her treatment, but she will still be stuck with a big medical bill. That would be another crisis. I wonder if her heart would be able to withstand the shock of her medical bill?
The answer to medical care in America is to put everyone sixty-five and over on Medicare. We pay for it so we should receive it when the time comes. Make Medicare pay for everything and get rid of the supplemental insurance.
We pay into Medicare all of our lives and then have to worry about supplemental insurance at sixty-five. Congress should eliminate that hassle. Medicare should cover everyone over sixty-five. Many will go throughout life and pay very little if any into it.
Obviously, our country has significant debt. Therefore, we should use some of our foreign aid to cover anyone who might be left out. The very poor in America should be on Medicaid.
Doctors and hospitals must be required to accept Medicaid patients. I realize they have to make money, but a 10-15 percent load of Medicaid patients is not asking too much for a doctor. People with pre-existing conditions should also be able to buy into Medicare. Allow working Americans to buy medical insurance across state lines so we can shop for affordable insurance that fits our budgets.
Open up pharmacies in Canada so that we can shop for cheaper medicines. Find a cure for cancer. Give Americans a serious tax break if they keep their body mass index at twenty-six or below. There is a further question as to whether we should keep poor senior Americans on Medicaid or as I previously said move them into Medicare as well.
If Medicaid covers all medical treatment, then it won’t matter. However, if Medicaid is not accepted by all of the medical society then we still have major issues.
Funding Medicaid and Medicare is the major part of this battle. It’s time we start using Casino taxes, marijuana taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, fast food taxes, obesity taxes and soft drink tax money to fund Medicare and Medicaid. We could raise a lot of money and probably eliminate having two different systems, thus going to one system, which would be a national medical card for seniors over 65, those with preexisting conditions and the very poor.
Finally, make Congress shop and buy their healthcare. Limit Congress to five terms and Senators to two terms. Eliminate insider stock trading information, which is illegal for average Americans yet Congress racks up millions over the course of their tenures. Many of our problems would be solved if Congress had to live like average Americans.
Another problem would be solved if insurance company and drug manufacturing company lobbyists are barred from Capital Hill. Congress should be barred from receiving money in any way, shape or form from these people. Maybe then they might make some decisions for the American people instead of what is in the best interests of their financial supporters.
Dr. Glen Mollette is a syndicated columnist and author of 11 books.
