Charity won't solve our medical debt crisis
The capitalist's dream is that the world will be solved by sending money to charities each month...but does that help?
My Dad is a lifelong conservative. The only thing he is even remotely liberal on is gun control- because he thinks that people should have assault weapons (duh). He has done his American duty: worked long and hard, lots of overtime. He even became a top leader in his industry, then semi-retired by stepping down. He was tired of the hustle and bustle, and just wanted to relax in our old town.
So it may surprise you to know that he works two jobs. Specifically- hes a bus driver. The reason for this is simple: he couldn’t afford to have out-of-pocket health insurance.
One day, my Mom opened a letter to the news that our health insurance (for the 3 of us) was going up to a whopping $1700 a month. That is a cool $20,000 a year. We are doing well, sure, but not that well. So he got a job in government where he would be provided health insurance- and he will have to stay there in order to keep it.
The second half of that story is sadly far too familiar for American families: you have to stay at your work, buy non-employer insurance, or go without it. That means that no matter what you do- you’re in trouble.
I used my Dad because it’s important to understand that even the ones against universal healthcare would benefit- and that it is important to remind yourself that
Let me do a thought experiment: you’re scrolling through twitter- when you see a picture of a hospitalized child. Turns out from the caption that the child has a condition, one easily solved by modern medicine. Below it you see a GoFundMe link asking for donations for medical bills in order to keep their kid alive. The goal? 20, 50, sometimes $100,000 is the amount needed to keep a human life from losing it’s spark.
The next thing you’ll notice is the location of all these GoFundMe’s: The United States of America. The country that spends $12,555 per person on healthcare annually, compared to the ~$6500 spent by comparable nations. The interesting part is that all of those countries have single-payer, universal healthcare minus the US.
So in order to pay these horrifically high bills, you must resort to begging or risk bankruptcy for medical treatment. That is why since 2010, GoFundMe has reported $30 BILLION DOLLARS in crowdfunding for individuals. Did I mention this is a for-profit company?
It doesn’t take much to convince somebody that if you’re paying the most for healthcare, and everybody else gets it universally, that maybe you should as well! What point is there for humanity to allow big pharma to dictate whether you get to live or die other than for the sake of their profit?
The point is that when we can go into the doctor without a copay, we will do it earlier. When we need a lifesaving surgery, we won’t have to worry about paying rent in the upcoming months. However, that surgery may never have to happen under a system like this: since you’re more likely to find the cause earlier since you’ll not have a financial burden from going for a checkup.