AOM 4--Insurance Blog!

Charlie McGill
Mr. Roddy
GPHC
4/29/2020
Coronavirus and Medicare for All

As you all know, I am a proponent of Medicare for All in the United States. This is for many reasons, which I will briefly explain now. First, and most importantly, Medicare for All saves lives. Yale researchers published a study in The Lancet on February 15 which stated that Medicare for All would save around 68,000 lives per year if enacted. The second reason I support Medicare for All is because it would cover the 37 million Americans who have no health insurance and provide better and more thorough insurance to the 41 million Americans who are underinsured. The third reason is Medicare for All's cost effectiveness. Conservative estimates state that the average American family pays $12,000 for health insurance annually; under Medicare for All, that cost would be eliminated and the increase in taxes to cover single-payer health insurance would average at around $500. Along with that, our current healthcare system costs $52 trillion over ten years while Medicare for All costs $47 trillion over ten years. The final reason I will explain (there are many more, I just don't want to spend too much time on this paragraph) is that Medicare for All will greatly reduce the costs of prescription drugs. This is because if the government determines the price of a drug is too high, and the pharmaceutical company refuses to lower that price, the government can decide that literally nobody will buy the drug. This means that drug companies will have no choice but to lower their prices to government standards. This is called a consumer monopoly, and they are very effective and beneficial for consumers.

Coronavirus has only strengthened the case for single-payer health insurance. As of now, around 25 million people have lost their jobs since the pandemic, therefore, a sizable percentage of them lost their employer-issued health insurance. This is one of the many reasons health insurance shouldn't be tied to an employer, the others being that it traps people from switching jobs (since they don't want to lose their insurance) and forces unions to negotiate for health insurance, rather than better working conditions or higher pay. Along with that, during a pandemic or any other national health emergency, private health insurance corporations will try and use any excuse not to pay an individuals bills reduce the damage to their bottom line, which we saw in Katrina with the home insurance industry.

It was obvious we needed Medicare for All before coronavirus. The fiscal cost of private health insurance and the cost of American lives are too high. Coronavirus has only exacerbated and emphasized the issues that already exited in our current system.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 Blog

As the coronavirus rages on, an important question arises: should western countries aid the so-called "third world," particularly Africa, in combating the pandemic? I believe the answer is no, for two main reasons. My first objection is rather obvious: the United States currently has more confirmed COVID cases than all of Africa combined, and it isn't close. There are several possible explanations, including the warmer weather, but the exact reason isn't necessarily relevant. After a domestic coronavirus response which can only be described as a disaster of earth-shattering proportions, who are we to go on an international health crusade? There are millions of vulnerable Americans who are currently unable to receive adequate care. Our resources need to be going to them first, not abroad, and most certainly not to parasitic, too-big-to-fail corporations. My second objection: when was America's last successful large-scale international intervention, viole...
Read more

SARS CoV-2, COVID-19, and The World

It's no secret that right now the SARS CoV-2 is wreaking havoc across the world. As of today, the United States has surpassed China as the nation with the most cases of the novel coronavirus, with over 86,000 cases in our country to date. This is all pretty crazy, especially considering that this is all because of a pathogen that supposedly started with either bats or pangolins (the only mammal in the world known to have scales) in a small localized region of China. Of course, it's not only the health effects that are wide-reaching; the social effects are also just as prevalent. One of the ways in which the world is rapidly changing in regards to social effects is through panic buying of goods at places such as supermarkets and hypermarkets such as Walmart. However, the good news is that food in general is not going to run out; there may be shortages of certain particular items, nevertheless, as certain nations have curtailed exports. What is bound to change, possibly permanent...
Read more

COVID-19 Blog

As the spread of COVID-19 becomes greater many opinions on how to respond to this global pandemic have surfaced. Just a few months ago much of the population in the United States felt unthreatened by the virus as it spread through China, being concentrated in Wuhan, and later spreading in Europe. It was not until the virus quickly erupted in the United States that we each understood the true severity of this pandemic. Now we are seeing how individuals are being greatly impacted by this virus as we are all being asked to stay home and the everyday parts of our lives have been flipped upside down. In the opinion piece about what responsibility developed countries have for helping less developed countries I both agreed and disagreed. My initial response is that if places, like the United States, are struggling with medical resources how can we even begin to be helpful in less developed countries. Hospitals all throughout the United States are beginning to have to make life or death decisi...
Read more