HOW TO REPAIR OBAMACARE

Donald Trump has promised you that he will see that you have better insurance than that provided by the present version of Obamacare.  In particular, he promised that, under his presidency, a medical insurance program will be installed that will cover everybody, and that it will cover more services, and that it will cost less.

I love this.  Don’t you?  Isn’t this what you want for America?  Inexpensive insurance, covering everyone, and covering most or all of the treatment we need.  What is not to love about this?  I am all in with Donald Trump about installing this insurance in America.

I am also all in with Donald Trump about the fact that Obamacare has failed to achieve this magnificent goal.  It does not cover everybody.  It does not cover everything.  It is not inexpensive.  And the sooner it is repaired, the sooner we have what Donald Trump has promised all of you, the better.  I’ll go farther.  If Donald Trump installs this wonderful insurance program, and if he is still around in 2020, I will vote for him.  You read me right.  I will actually vote for Donald Trump if, during his presidency, our government installs a medical insurance plan that does what Trump has promised.

I will go even farther.  I will tell you how to do it.  That’s right.  Right here in this space, I will, right now, tell you what Trump and the Republican legislature can do to fulfill this magnificent promise.  Obamacare has failed, and here is how you fix it.

Health insurance, like any other insurance, is a vehicle to spread a risk.  If you think about it, this is what we do with the defense of America.  The defense of America is needed by all of us, so all of us pay for it, with our taxes.  The same is true for our roads, and in large part for our schools.  And the same, clearly, is true for health care.  We all need it.  As with roads and schools, we don’t all need it to the same degree, and some of us don’t need it at all, at least for large stretches of our lives.

So Obamacare failed because it wasn’t taken far enough.  The solution, then, is obvious, and the benefits are just as obvious, and they are plentiful.  What the Republican legislature must do to fulfill Trump’s remarkable promise is take Obamacare all the way.  It must provide coverage for all Americans.  It may do that by installing a single provider for all, as, for instance, by extending some version of Medicare for everyone.  It may also do it by allowing private insurers to  administer this much-needed insurance in appropriately divided sections of the country.

Why must the legislature do this?  Well first because Trump has promised insurance for all.  But secondly, there is what everyone will agree is an economy of scale, in many ways.  For one, if we were all covered by the same policy, if we were all joined in a nationwide union of the insured, we could negotiate serious reductions in the cost of such things as medical equipment and in pharmaceuticals.  For another, and this is huge, we could slash the cost of other kinds of insurance — auto insurance and homeowners insurance and worker’s compensation insurance and others.  Why?  Because we could eliminate coverage for medical expense from all these kinds of claims.  Since everyone has insurance for medical expense, we could remove medical expense from liability claims and worker’s compensation claims.  And, we could eliminate all those subrogation departments that spend their time and money going after other insurance companies.  It is, in the parlance of business, the economy of scale.

Now, how are we going to pay for this phenomenal program?  There are two possible ways.  First, we could each be required to pay a premium.  That premium could either be the same for everyone, or it could be gauged to an individual’s adjusted gross income.  I prefer the latter because it would be more fair, i.e., it would spread the cost of this admirable program in accordance with a person’s ability to pay.  Or, we could just add the cost to our taxes.  That would mean raising taxes.  Republicans don’t raise taxes.  So they will probably do the premium thing.

However it is paid for, I look forward to the Republican legislature fulfilling Donald Trump’s promise to provide this desperately needed, incredibly beneficial, and astoundingly money-saving program.  What they do here will show all those who voted against Trump and the Republicans, as well as those who voted for them, just what their word is worth.

Just you wait and see.