Repeal Obamacare... and replace it with universal health care

I'm going to go ahead and agree with conservative Republicans that Obamacare should be repealed. But, then I would replace the current system with "no fine print" universal health care. The intense struggle to get any kind of health care "reform" through Congress really just reaffirms what Michael Moore already knew years ago: the fundamental basis for our current health care system simply sucks and can't be "fixed" other than by going with a proven system that is known to work: universal health care. And I'd add my own twist: "No fine print", meaning no oddball exceptions and limitations or exclusions or anything that would require that anybody read or understand any fine print. All you need to do is simply show up at a clinic and ask for care.

 

How do we get there? Ohhhh... who knows. It will take some time and maybe we'll have to muddle through a few more iterations of "reform" of the current system before we get there, but the way I see things the writing is on the wall and universal health care is inevitable. If for no other reason than that eventually corporations will get tired of having to divert management attention and budgets to dealing with the proverbial endlessly rising health care costs. Ditto for federal, state, and local budgets. And military health care. And Medicare. An Medicaid. We simply have too much complexity and too much bureaucracy and too much paperwork today.

 

How to fund it? I propose that we simply have a national sales tax dedicated to health care.

 

Who would run it? I would have a national "standards" commission to set and monitor health care standards and then leave it to each state to run their own health care system according to those standards coupled with "local sensibilities." Budget based on state population, with some adjustment for the smallest states. Or maybe allow states to form regional health care consortiums. And maybe some of the larger states might want to have multiple regions and possible separate urban and non-urban areas to retain the principle of "local sensibilities."

 

Meanwhile, let's continue soldiering on with Obamacare for the indefinite future, tweaking it every year or two as we get more experience with it.

-- Jack Krupansky