Lacking the ability to earmark how my share of the tax pool is spent here's a thought:
Since 2000, employer-based health insurance premiums have shot up 100 percent. Wage growth has hardly represented one-fifth of that. About 10 million more Americans have joined the ranks of the 30+ million uninsured. According to at least one estimate, more than 100,000 Americans have died (Nolte and McKee Health Affairs.2008; 27: 58-71) because they lacked access to quality care, it's just one estimate but even a fraction of that's a shameful thought in the wealthiest nation on earth.
Health costs have continued their double-time march, and economists now estimate that, if left unchecked, government health spending will be about 37 percent of the GDP by 2050 (last year's number was 19% of GDP). Add in private health spending, and the Brookings Institution's Henry Aron estimates that "the income that's left over for everything else in the economy, other than taxes and private health care spending, stops growing and … actually declines."
Health reform is meaningless if it isn't actually universal, if it doesn't make the system more seamless and integrated, and if it doesn't reform the insurance industry so it can begin competing on price and quality rather than risk-shifting and denials of coverage. Even better, well planned reform will also break the link between employers and health insurance and create a public plan that can compete with private plans, so consumers can choose between health insurance that seeks profit and health insurance that seeks health.
Hey, it's the 21st Century, why not?
