The Healthcare Paradox

05/19/2008

Paul Munnis


It is rather a paradox -- this matter of healthcare in America. American businesses and Labor are in total agreement: The cost of providing corporate healthcare has placed American businesses at a competitive disadvantage in a global economy. Other nations’ business units do not have this as a drag on their pricing structures but American companies do.

It hurts us competitively in international trade. So much so that the Auto Workers Union agreed to let GM transfer the cost of the program over to the Labor Union and GM has provided them the start-up costs as an endowment to get the program transferred over to Labor. Now GM is competitive again with their cost margins. The other Auto Manufacturers are following suit.

Geez, all these Labor Unions are Democrat and here they are helping out a business. Why is that? Because they want jobs to stay in America and like most Democrats they are working to see that the playing field is kept level.

In an odd manner the American Insurance companies are making the case for the Democrats. By dumping sick people out of the insurance pool, plus with double digit policy increases each year for the last seven years the cost of insurance has become so high that the people not covered are growing from 44 million in 2006 to 48 million in 2008. As the insurance companies keep on raising rates then the case for Democratic Health insurance reform is also growing. Soon the demand will cross-over and the public will demand Universal health care. There is growing evidence that this will happen by November of 2008.

Democrats call for "affordable and quality health care," and many advocate an expansion of government intervention in this area. Many Democrats favor national health insurance or universal health care in a variety of forms to address the rising costs of modern health insurance. Some Democrats, such as Representative John Dingell and Senator Edward Kennedy, have called for a program of "Medicare for All."

Some Democratic governors have supported purchasing Canadian drugs, citing lower costs and budget restrictions as a primary incentive. Recognizing that unpaid insurance bills increase costs to the service provider who then passes the cost on to health-care consumers, many Democrats advocate expansion of health insurance coverage.

Democratic Party belief is that the health of families and the strength of the economy depend on Universal health care being available to all Americans.

The GOP fancies itself the champion of American Business interests yet they consistently vote to oppose taking this insurance cost monkey off the back of American business. No wonder businessmen are quitting the GOP at record rates and coming over to the Democratic Party. Democrats are giving them better support than the GOP is.

Democrats who are supposed to be anti-business have championed relief for health care costs for our American businesses and we advocate transferring the costs to a public health care system that is similar to what most other nations have. SO much for Party stereotypes. The best health care system in the world is France's and that is what we should aspire to - a system at least as good as France has.

Businessmen benefit from the Democratic Party position but some of them do not see it that way. The GOP tells them it’s a bad thing and so some still support the GOP. People like Rudy Giuliani call it “Socialized Medicine,” and hardly understand what they are talking about. If it were socialized medicine there would be no charge for the insurance. All of the plans advanced by Democrats call for people to pay for their insurance unless they are poor.

Professionals, those who have a college education and whose work revolves around the conceptualization of ideas, have supported the Democratic Party by a slight majority since 2000. Between 1988 and 2000, professionals favored Democrats by a 12 percentage point margin. While the professional class was once a stronghold of the Republican Party it has become increasingly split between the two parties, leaning in favor of the Democratic Party. The increasing support for Democratic candidates among professionals may be traced to the prevalence of social liberal values among this group.

According to The American Prospect, professionals, who are, roughly speaking, college-educated producers of services and ideas, used to be the most staunchly Republican of all occupational groups... now chiefly working for large corporations and bureaucracies rather than on their own, and heavily influenced by the environmental, civil-rights, and feminist movements -- began to vote Democratic. In the four elections from 1988 to 2000, they backed Democrats by an average of 52 percent to 40 percent.

A study on the political attitudes of medical students, for example, found that "U.S. medical students are considerably more likely to be liberal than conservative and are more likely to be liberal than are other young U.S. adults. Future U.S. physicians may be more receptive to liberal messages than conservative ones, and their political orientation may profoundly affect their health system attitudes." Similar results are found for professors and economists, who are more strongly inclined towards liberalism and the Democratic Party than other occupational groups.

American economists strongly support the Democratic Party, with their views on policy being largely in accordance with the Democratic platform. The vast majority, 63%, identify as progressive and less than 20% as conservative or libertarian. In a 2004 survey of 1,000 American economists, registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans by a 2.5 to 1 ratio. The majority of economists favored "safety regulations, gun control, redistribution, public schooling, and anti-discrimination laws," while opposing "tighter immigration controls, government ownership of enterprise and tariffs." Other surveys have found Democrats to outnumber Republicans 2.8 to 1 among members of the profession. A study in the Southern Economic Journal found that "71 percent of American economists believe the distribution of income in the United States should be more equal, and 81 percent feel that the redistribution of income is a legitimate role for government."

You would think the GOP would be voting in their own enlightened self interest on this matter and be making the Democratic Public and Universal health care plans into a “must have” mandate for government. John Maynard Keynes tells us that’s how economics is supposed to work.

Why doesn’t the GOP support public universal health care?

In a perverse manner they think it is because taxes will go up. Actually they will not go up, they will more likely go down because these health care programs are not free and government is giving a lot of subsidy to businesses for health care as an expense item that they deduct from taxes. The GOP tells them that these health care options are welfare gifts to unemployed bums.

These are not gifts -- the insured have to pay monthly premiums. “Oh,” says the GOP “but just look at all those people on welfare -- they will have to be carried by government.” Duh, please my friends look real close now – ah, they already are. The program is called Medicaid and it’s been around a long-long time and it is not bankrupting America at all and it is not projected to get worse because of Universal healthcare programs supported by Democrats.

But what about Medicare – “the program is going broke!” Really it’s not – Medicare is generating a surplus that is loaned to the government every year. The government now owes Medicare a lot of money and the GOP wants to default on the loan. No way – they are going to have to repay the program loans, with interest. If they do Medicare and Social Security are here to stay.

In fact the very GOP people who insist that public health care cannot work are flying in the face of demonstrated successes from our Medicare program to what is found in every other industrialized western nation – Universal health care.

Well this is an unenlightened position by the GOP and it is costing them dearly. Most Americans see through it clearly too. Most Americans do not support the GOP in this matter. Most think we would have a national universal healthcare system by now if it wasn’t for the terrible drag on our deficit from the Iraq War.

Most are with Democrats – let’s end this war in Iraq, let’s rebuild America. Businessmen are coming on board in record numbers.

We’ll get it done pretty soon because John Maynard Keynes is right – it is in our own enlightened self-interest to do so; but first, we need regime change in Washington.

Help us get it this November.