The destiny of health care: Two remarkable events, as witnessed by using an skilled observer

In the past week, I saw two things that I determined extremely good. The first turned into U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ participation in a Fox News city hall as a part of his campaign for president. Amazing now not due to the fact the Democrats have boycotted Fox News however due to the fact when it turned into asked who in the target market would be willing to transition from enterprise-backed health insurance to a shape of “Medicare for All,” the gang went wild in agreement. As the senator mentioned, there are many issues with enterprise-subsidized medical insurance. You can get fired or laid off; your enterprise can exit of business, or you could honestly have an ERISA plan that is issued to the total manipulate of the business enterprise. The enthusiasm of the gang become surprising, to mention the least.
The 2nd issue I determined tremendous become an editorial citing UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann as saying that the insurer — Minnesota’s biggest employer — “favors frequent coverage through the growth of present personal and public applications.” Wichmann “criticized the chance of a central authority-led single-payer gadget, sometimes referred to as Medicare for All, that could correctly eliminate non-public health insurers like UnitedHealthcare.” (“UnitedHealth sounds alarmed on the single-payer machine,” April 17.)
Does Mr. Wichmann miss out on that Medicare is, in fact, a government-led public application that closely is based on personal coverage and that its growth to coverage for all might create the opportunity for his corporation to promote Medicare Advantage merchandise and supplemental insurance merchandise to the entire USA, which would make his company even extra a success and greater worthwhile? Assuming, of course, that the products met with network adequacy requirements, included a fundamental range of services and have been least expensive. Also, they could be transparent and responsible.
The long way left doesn’t just like the Sanders suggestion as it doesn’t give everybody the entirety without cost. The numbers for that just don’t paintings. UnitedHealth and others don’t want meaningful government involvement in “personal insurance,” which treats fitness care as a commodity and is a free market, Wild-West approach to vital human want. We’ve tried that, and it’s luxurious, unfair and unsustainable.
I don’t begrudge Wichmann his compensation. I’m positive he is a brilliant company chief and, I believe, an innovator. I’m now not a communist or a socialist. I’m simply weary of seeing human beings pay exorbitant insurance rates for the “phantasm of coverage,” and I trust that there’s a probable technique to our fitness care gadget quandary if best we have the willingness to observe the hassle thru a unique lens. Medicare for All, such as numerous age- and income-adjusted products, be they Advantage or supplement types, available to all and competing with other marketplace-primarily based products, would be really worth a look if simplest we have been not so myopic. As Abraham Maslow stated, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”