Don’t Be Fooled
The new right-wing meme is:
LIBERALS WANT TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT’S HEALTH CARE, BUT NOT FOR VETERANS!!!!!
To this meme I quote the Parkland kids – “I call BS!!!”
Let’s take a careful look at healthcare for everyone in the United States. We start out with the premise that no one, liberal, conservative, Trumper, Squad member; wants people to die. The whole United States is against people dying in the streets. And it’s the law: if you go to an emergency room with a condition, they have to treat you. Insurance or no, government funds or no, you are going to be treated.
Counting the Cost
So every American can access medical care if they can get to an emergency room. The problem with that is, it is the absolute most expensive form of medical care there is. Going to the family practice doctor for the flu costs around $150 from somewhere: insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, or out of pocket. Going to the Emergency Room for the same problem: $500 or more.
So who pays the $500 bill for a non-insured patient? Well, the hospital will do everything they can to collect from the patient. They are relentless, but after a couple of months of billing and dunning; it’s onto collection agencies. Ignore them, and it’s onto the really bad collection agencies, the ones that will only pay pennies on the dollars they collect. They will threaten and badger by letter and on the phone, at home and at work, demanding “their” money.
But in the meantime the hospital still needs to cover the cost, so they charge everyone else using the hospital. Insured coverage in the hospital includes part of the cost of all of those folks that the hospital is required to treat, but who cannot pay. You, and me, and the 240,000,000 plus Americans with health insurance are paying for the rest who don’t.
No One Gets to Die
Don’t want to pay? You going to let people die in the ER waiting room because they don’t have insurance? Let’s assume the answer to that question is no, because we are human beings, not unfeeling money counting machines. If you’re answer is, yes let them die, then stop reading here and move onto something else. There’s no hope for you.
So the question then isn’t are we going to pay; the question is how can we most efficiently pay for medical care for everyone. Right now we are paying for it, in the most ineffective, inefficient, and expensive way we can.
Illegal Immigrants
A group of people who definitely don’t have health insurance are illegal immigrants. Like it or not, they are here, eleven million or more: they get sick, they get injured, they need medical care. We are already paying for them. So it would make sense to find a way to more efficiently take care of their medical costs, to allow them to use clinics, urgent cares, and family physicians rather than force them into the most expensive options. It would be an efficient, appropriate, and humane way for all of us to save money to provide for their medical care. If you don’t want to be humane, then look in your own wallet, and think about saving some money.
Veterans
And what about the veterans? Who’s paying for their costs? We are already, through the Veterans Administration. There are entire hospitals and clinics, large-scale medical care dedicated to veterans. There are problems with the VA, delays and wasteful spending, but if you ask most veterans using the VA health system, they want to keep using it. We should fix whatever needs to be fixed, but it isn’t necessarily an issue of money with the VA. It’s a huge bureaucracy that needs to be streamlined and improved. Money will help, but it will take greater efforts of administrators to make it right.
A False Choice
So to say we most choose between illegal immigrants and veterans is simply a false choice. We are paying for both already. The question that needs to be solved: how can we most efficiently pay for the medical care WE ARE ALREADY PROVIDING for illegal immigrants, and how can improve the care veterans should and deserve to get.
We are all “liberals” when it comes to saving lives. We are all “conservatives” when we try to spend money efficiently. There is no reason why we all can’t be rational about the way to do both, even in this age of polarization. It makes sense for everyone.
