There are many good things you will find in universal healthcare legislation such as HR 676 and California’s SB 562. Things such as a requirement that there be no premiums, co-payments or fees; that essentially all medical conditions are covered, and a declaration of principle that every resident is entitled to health care.
There is one thing you won’t find, nor are you likely to find in any future proposed legislation of the same sort. It’s not tucked away in fine print, and it’s hardly mentioned by the promoters of single-payer, Medicare for All, and/or other universal healthcare schemes, nor is it discussed by pundits.
What is it that is implicitly present but not there?
THERE WOULD BE NO MORE MEDICAL DEBT.
AS IN NO BILLS TO PAY; AND NO MORE MEDICAL DEBT COLLECTORS.
AS IN NO BANKRUPTCIES DUE TO THE COSTS OF TREATMENT FOR ILLNESS or ACCIDENTS.
NO MORE PARENTS REALIZING THEIR NEWBORN WILL STILL DIE AND THEY WILL BE DESTITUTE BECAUSE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO AFFORD A LIFETIME OF CARE FOR A BIRTH CONDITION.
All that anxiety people have about a potentially financially ruinous medical event? Gone.
…when a medical procedure costs more than your house is worth, the idea of being able to pay it back is laughable. And by laughable, I mean it will crush your spirit.
Hospitals and other medical service providers turning over their unpaid billing to debt collectors? Gone.
Will we have to wipe our eyes due to the massive amount of tears shed over debt collectors losing their jobs? Not a chance. For one thing, they will not have to worry about not being able to pay for healthcare if they get sick! For another, they can go get jobs in the booming business of student debt collection. (Just don’t tell them we’re gunning to get rid of that noxious concept next…) Yet I digress.
Medical debt is the most pernicious debt of all. One could at least make a plausible argument that a person who takes on a mortgage or incurs education debt has a choice (and yes, there’s plenty of fraud thereof). Only a Republican could make the implausible argument that taking on medical debt TO SAVE YOUR LIFE OR THE LIFE OF A LOVED ONE is a choice.
If the one thing that a universal health care system did was remove the possibly of medical debt from the equation of our lives it would be worth it, even at cost. But we know that in the long run universal care costs less and is better for society than what we have now, or (shudder) what we are about to get, even BEFORE we consider the issue of medical debt.
It’s win, win, win, win, win. Only Paul Ryan and his sick dreams lose.
What’s not to like?
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