Obama tax and universal medicare.

I am not impressed by the label switch from Obama Care to Obama Tax. The label is meaningless to me even though it is meaningful to its constitutionality. The rhetoric on both sides of the issue still fail to address the central issue. How do we keep the cost of  medical care under control and within the means of all Americans? ObamaCareTax does not address this issue and that is why a majority of physicians and nurses who are at the center of the real health care delivery issues reject Obama's program. Disagree? Ask 5 physicians their opinion.

Regardless of the label, I am in favor of providing health care for all Americans paid for by all Americans. It is the cheapest option for each of us. The economic argument in favor of this approach is simply that spreading the  cost of health care over the largest population group, rationally reduces the cost to each of us. I know that many of my readers will reject this notion on the basis of suspected health medical-care quality concerns, but I support this notion on the basis of economics. Other countries provide national health care, and their citizens live just as long as we do and on average, often longer.

Insurance companies have argued persuasively and successfully that the larger the group, the less expensive the individual insurance premiums. Insurance companies have based their premiums on this actuarial principle for years. It makes sense to me. The largest group possible in America is all Americans. Ergo, this group would have the lowest premiums for each of us. That's right healthy people would pay the same premium as their sickly neighbor, but guess what? if their neighbor recovered and they became sick, their insurance premiums would stay the same.  And vice versa for all of us. And no, that does not mean we reject private care physicians and private care hospitals. Public and private institutions have lived side by side for centuries.

The arguments against universal health care are fading into oblivion.  Hopefully, my grandchildren shall be relieved of reading obscure statements from their insurance companies and trying to understand the rational of a 10-day hospital stay that cost $234,000.  The only remaining significant institutional opponent to universal health care is the insurance companies that increase health care cost by an estimated 30% because they are the intermediary that would be disintermediated under universal health care.

Watch the news and look for a resurgence of support for Universal Medicare. The solution to the problem of health care costs has always been available, it just needs a new label. Here is an idea. I am on Medicare. I pay for it. Make Medicare available to all Americans with no restrictions.

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