The publication Current Affairs is also using the pandemic to advocate socialism, more specifically Medicare for All. The title of this article proclaims that our (the USA’s) for-profit healthcare system is failing us.
Firstly, it’s absurd to call the USA’s healthcare system as only for-profit. Government spending is about half of total spending on healthcare. There is also a lot of not-for-profit spending beyond that. Employer spending on health insurance for its employees is a big cost with no financial profit in it. Only 26% of hospitals are for-profit; 74% are nonprofit or public.
The author proclaims “Medicare for All would have solved all these problems.” This is merely a product of his wishful imagination and no reality check. He ignores the fact that the USA already has Medicare-for-all-over-age-65 plus Medicaid. He proclaims it despite the tragic result of Medicare for All in Italy and Spain. His only mention of either country is to smear detractors of Medicare for All. “But then, of course, as detractors point out, there’s Italy—which despite government health insurance found itself battling, for a time, the most serious COVID-19 outbreak in the world. Until, of course, we passed them.”
Duh! Yes, with about 5.5 times Italy’s population, the latest numbers show the USA has passed Italy in the number of cases. However, the USA has not passed Italy in the number of deaths nor the ratios deaths/cases and cases/population. Italy leads the world in deaths/cases with about 12.5%. Its neighbor Switzerland, with more cases/population than Italy and nothing like Medicare for any of its population, has only 3.6%. The USA ratio is even less. I predict the USA ratio will rise but will remain below 1/3rd of Italy’s ratio. Yet the author judges USA healthcare a failure, but doesn't judge Italy's healthcare!
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