Debunking Every Myth You Hear Against Universal Healthcare
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Whether you are politically left or right, you should want Universal Healthcare as a human right—here are the receipts on why
On May 20, 1962, JFK delivered an impassioned speech at Madison Square Garden in favor of universal healthcare. Then, decades later in 2006 nearly 7 in 10 Americans believed the government should fund healthcare. And now, a new Gallop Poll reports that 62% of Americans believe in guaranteed universal healthcare. And despite this decades of support, not a single Presidential candidate this cycle had the courage to run on this wildly popular platform. Over the last week I’ve written in detail about America’s Violent Health System, and likewise, shared a deeply personal story about When Insurance Rejects Life Saving Care about our daughter Hannah Noor.
In response, I’ve received overwhelming empathy and compassion from conservatives and liberals alike, Republicans and Democrats, from those who self-identify as “Ultra MAGA” to those who label themselves as “Bernie Social Democrats.” Americans get it. Healthcare needs to be a human right.
Sadly, politicians, Republicans and too many Democrats alike, don’t get it. They worship at the altar of corporate donations. The health insurance industry annually spends a harrowing $700,000,000 on lobbying politicians to do their bidding. And that doesn’t even include what they spend on SuperPACs to block out candidates who dare run on a platform of guaranteed universal healthcare. Those same healthcare corporations then engage in a mass media blitz of misinformation and disinformation to convince people to vote against their own self-interests. In reality, guaranteed universal healthcare is a proven model adopted by every single developed nation on Earth (and many lower income developing nations). And while I do not have $700,000,000 to counter the lobbying propaganda health insurance corporations infuse into our politics, I do have access to the facts that health insurance corporations hope the American people don’t realize.
Below I address five of the main arguments against universal healthcare in the United States, debunk them with facts, and hope you feel compelled to share this far and wide with your networks. We can achieve healthcare as a human right in this country, but it requires us activating, organizing, and educating ourselves to successfully achieve that needed transformational change. Let’s Address This.
Myth 1: We Can’t Afford Universal Healthcare
Fact: The opposite is true. Dozens of studies prove that universal healthcare will save Americans billions of dollars annually. In fact, 22 studies reviewed all concluded that universal healthcare would save approximately $450 billion a year. And this is a universal conclusion. For example, “Even the Mercatus Center, a right-wing think tank, recently found about $2 trillion in net savings over 10 years from a single-payer Medicare for All system. Most importantly, everyone in America would have high-quality health care coverage.”
Moreover, we cannot forget that right now approximately 73 million Americans are on Medicaid, 68 million Americans are on Medicare, and 10 million Americans are on Tricare. That means that of our nation’s 335 million people, approximately 151 million are already on a universal (or near universal) healthcare model. And guess what? These programs each cost significantly less than the exploitative for-profit healthcare model. The overhead on these programs is 2-3%, while the overhead on for profit healthcare is 20%, plus a near unlimited mark up on prescription drugs. In this we have a side by side comparison of access to the exact same doctors and medications, except one has a nominal mark up and the other has a 10X markup. It doesn’t take an MBA in finance to understand that the same product or service without the massive markup is the smarter path to take. The only thing we cannot afford is for the current exploitative for profit model to continue.
Myth 2: If Costs Go Down, So Does Quality of Care
Fact: This is simply not true. It is important to understand why costs decrease, because contrary to the myth, every single one of the above studies found that quality of care would not decrease with universal healthcare. Costs under a universal healthcare model decrease instead because we stop wasteful spending. As consumer rights activist and scholar Diane Archer further explains in a point I reference above:
Under a universal healthcare model the doctors that exist now would still exist. The medicine that exists now would still exist. The only thing that wouldn’t exist are the ridiculous and pointless administrative costs from for profit insurance corporations. Universal healthcare does not cut out healthcare itself, it cuts out the pointless middle man insurance corporation, and that is what save costs. In fact, speaking of high quality of care, a Yale study found that if we had universal healthcare during the pandemic, we would have saved more than 335,000 lives.
Myth 3: Universal Healthcare Puts Millions Out of Work
Fact: What would happen to the roughly 1.8 million Americans who work in medical billing? This is a great question and has a robust answer that I break down in three parts.
First, remember that about 40% of these jobs are already in the Medicaid and Medicare and Tricare industries—which is essentially universal healthcare for a portion of society. Therefore, we’re talk about roughly 1 million jobs, which admittedly is still a large number. What to do with those?
Well, hence the second point. Expanding Medicare to accommodate another 175 million people will necessarily require medical billing professionals and administrators to do those jobs. Therefore, the question is not about eliminating jobs, but about transitioning workers from the for profit exploitative system, to a non for profit system that prioritizes access to healthcare. Likewise, remember that ending the for profit system saves us at least $450 billion annually. These resources give us options. For example, these are excellent resources that could be spent on a lengthy 2-year salary severance to those in medical billing who do lose their jobs, plus adequate funding and training to allow them to become proficient in a new job. Indeed, at $70 billion annually, four-year-public college costs a fraction of what would be saved by shifting from an exploitative for profit model, to a universal healthcare model. We cannot afford not to make the shift.
Finally, let us agree that maintaining an industry despite the harm an industry is causing is not a great argument. As The Lancet documents, the current for profit exploitative model enables 68,000 annual preventable deaths. The current for profit exploitative model results in the lowest life expectancy in the developed world, and declining, the highest infant mortality in the developed world, and increasing, and the highest maternal mortality in the developed world, and increasing. The current for profit exploitative model results in 500,000 medical bankruptcies every single year. Are 680,000 preventable deaths and 5 million medical bankruptcies over the past decade, and the daunting reality of another 680,000 preventable deaths and 500,000 medical bankruptcies over the next decade, really worth maintaining an industry that enables these atrocities—especially when better alternatives exist?
Myth 4: Universal Healthcare Means Tax Hikes
Fact: Universal healthcare means more money in your pocket. Insurance corporations want working people to pretend the exorbitant fees they charge for limited coverage does not come out of the same paycheck from which our taxes are withdrawn.
Studies show that Americans spend at least 18.7% of their income on healthcare costs. But even this is not a true picture because those who are lower income pay a disproportionately higher amount of their income to cover their healthcare costs. The Rand study on this subject reports:
Here’s why these numbers matter. There does not exist a universal healthcare model that increases taxes by 33.9%, or 23.2%, or even 18.7%. It simply does not exist. Even if income taxes dramatically increase from 24% to 34%, that is still a net savings of 8.7%-23.9% on overall take home pay. University of California, Berkeley professors of economics Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman illustrate this well:
And moreover, this new model would ensure she pays no more deductibles, co-pays, or additional out of pocket costs. Why? Because the universal healthcare model is designed to maximize access to healthcare, not maximize profits for billion dollar corporations.