...And I'll Keep Repeating it Till You Understand it Or Your Head Explodes

If I hear, "Providing health care for everyone is a warm, fuzzy idea and a worthy goal, but we're drowning in debt- how EVER would we pay for it?" too many more times, I will (I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be pretty).

Once more.

And I'll try to use little words.

Right now in order to have health insurance in this country you can be a veteran, disabled, old, or a government employee and receive government health care.

OR

You must purchase health insurance from a private provider.

If you choose (and by "choose" I mean "can't afford private insurance and don't qualify for government coverage") to be un-insured in this country when (not if) you get sick or injured, you need to pay to use the medical system. You can always go to an emergency room, where by law they are required to keep you from dying- nothing more, in spite of "everyone" knowing that "those goddamn Mexicans just waltz into the emergency room and get whatever they need".

Right now, we're facing an "insurance mandate"- the scary part of the healthcare bill that the Supreme Court just voted on (and decided it was constitutional. I know you know that, I just like repeating it...)

That means everyone needs to get insurance. If you can't afford insurance, there are things in place to help you. If you really, absolutely, positively know in your heart of hearts that you'll never get sick or hurt and you really, truly don't WANT health insurance, you'll be imprisoned and put to death.

*just kidding*

Refusal to acquire health insurance will result in a PENALTY. A PENALTY of...under a Ben Franklin per year. OOOOOOOOH- SCARY! That penalty money will come in handy to help pay for the emergency room staff when your dumb ass does get sick or hurt.

So what do the crazy, treehugging liberals and progressives suggest?

What we suggest is Medicare for All- a Medicare part E- for Everyone.

I could go to the social security office and say, "I'd like Medicare E, please". I'd fill out the forms and for the cost of what Ward, Edna and Joe pay ('round about $100 per month), I'd have insurance.

Read it again. Medicare recipients are NOT getting "FREE healthcare"- their Medicare premiums are deducted from their checks every month. We also have a supplemental policy to cover what Medicare doesn't for Ward (another $150 per month, but in the FREE Market he's completely un-insurable for any cost).

Medicare E- Medicare for everyone, would be what is known as a "Single Payer Option".

That's the really important part that got left out of the original ACA (aka Obamacare, which is really just a way to remind people that no matter how many good things it does for millions of people, it's the bastard baby of that black man who sits in the Oval Office even though he's a Muslim Kenyan).

Single Payer Option.

It'd be run by the government, like Medicare, Medicaid and the VA- all run with extreme leanness and efficiency.

That's the "single payer" part.

It would also be Optional. As in, "Yes, I'd like it" or, "No thanks, I'll keep my Blue Cross". That's what "option" means. You don't HAVE to do it.

Medicare Part E would NOT be the end of the Free world and the beginning of the Mark of the Beast. It's an option. A choice. Like free people have. Choices.

Of course, the most dreamy-eyed of us Lefties would prefer Universal Health Care- paid for by TAXES. Yes, TAXES.

"But if I don't get sick or hurt, why should *I* pay for someone else?"

How about because it's the right thing to do- like we pay school taxes happily even though we home school. We pay school taxes, property taxes (that pay for things like roads and firemen and policemen and libraries and parks and whatnot), taxes that say, in effect, "HERE- we value the things that make a civilized society- good roads, safe schools, access to books and trees and HEALTH CARE".

I added up how much we pay JUST in premiums every year- $9,600 for the 3 of us.
We make just under $60,000 per year.
We pay 15% of our income to insurance premiums (not even counting the co-pays and deductibles).
PLEEEEEZE shut down every stinking for-profit insurance company, install a Universal Health Care program that covers everyone no matter what, and instead of paying 15% of our income to the insurance companies who are businesses and try very hard to DENY our usage of those policies, tax us 10% and cover everyone.

"It'll never work".

Yes. Yes, it will. It's up and working in every single civilized country in the world and it works magnificently.

For half a decade I've been preaching all of the above, and people listen to me, nod their heads, smile and ask, "Yes, dear- but how will we PAY for it?" even after I explain step by step and dollar for dollar EXACTLY HOW THE FUCK WE CAN PAY FOR IT.

Makes me just a little irritable, it does.

And yes, we are a country in debt. Wanna fix it?

-cut back on the military

-remove all corporate and finance loopholes

-tax the churches

*voila*