During last week’s debate, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump failed to mention a key issue that has not been highlighted in the battle for the White House: the rising cost of health care.
This is not the first time such an opportunity has been missed.
Early in his first term, Trump was sincere. Expressed confidence He said Congress would offer a “great,” “phenomenal,” and “amazing” alternative to Obamacare. But former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Mike Pence, who did not support Trump, Simply pierce deeply bill in 2010. Instead of designing winning policies to beat Democrats at the game, these players “stoked fire on the problem,” according to a Trump speechwriter. Frank Buckley.
If Trump is re-elected, he cannot afford to repeat the fiasco of 2017. He needs a game-changing “utility capitalism” solution that doesn’t rely on the mistaken belief that there is no problem in the health sector that can’t be fixed with free market reforms.
This urgent issue could not be more pressing. The economic prospects and access to health care of the majority of people without a college education are Dramatic decline since the early 1990sMany of these Americans 65 percent of the workforce, They don’t feel that governments or markets are working for them.
After documenting the precarious lives of people who “fight,” “float,” and “rise,”The Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working ClassJournalist Batya Unger Sargon admitted that she was “surprised by how many of the conservative working-class Americans I interviewed support universal health care or Medicare for All, or at least some sort of disastrous government plan.”
Trumpcare (as the new plan might be called) could resonate with working-class anxieties by adopting 20th century policies. The American Model of Practical Capitalism He targeted thoughtful regulations to strengthen energy, transportation, and communications. Specifically, his American Healthcare Mabel would make the medical industry great again. Bell System, The undisputed communications leader of the 20th century, the company offered universal service at affordable rates.
This “beautiful” plan would charter Blue Cross Blue Shield as a regulated monopoly, a national public utility providing Ford (not Cadillac) insurance to every civilian in America (except retirees) with no premiums or deductibles. It would charge only modest copayments for services, including dental, vision, and catastrophe insurance. And Congress would give Blue Cross Blue Shield a key authority missing from the Affordable Care Act: the power to impose payer fee schedules on providers of routine care and services, like Medicare does.
Only such a complete reboot of the insurance payment system could end the bureaucratic nightmare and skyrocketing premiums of Obamacare. Trumpcare would capture enormous economies of control and an unprecedented insurance pool by automatically enrolling every working-age U.S. citizen and their dependents with little or no paperwork.
And by putting insurance at the center of citizenship rather than employment or public welfare, Trumpcare Billions of dollars in federal funding By denying insurance to tens of millions of foreigners who are living in the United States illegally and unfairly competing with working-class Americans for jobs, housing, and health care, Americans would have no incentive to remain in the country illegally, and no incentive for millions of illegal immigrants to join them.
Public-private partnerships that override state regulation would generate additional savings by not paying for consumer choices that are unrelated to physical health, such as aromatherapy, hair transplants, Viagra, gender reassignment surgery, puberty suppressants, abortions, contraceptive pills and devices, etc. Nothing would prevent other insurers from selling, at an after-tax rate, add-on insurance beyond medical necessities purchased by individuals and employers.
Once the transition is complete, Trumpcare will replace all non-supplemental health insurance, as well as Obamacare, state insurance exchanges and state Children’s Health Insurance Plans. Medicare and Medicaid for the severely disabled and nursing home care will remain in place, as will Tricare, the military health care system.
Funding for new, budget-proof working benefits, public and private, would come from: (1) a 2.9% payroll tax on employers and employees, at the same rate as Medicare; and (2) a corporate income tax surcharge on the “capital-light” sectors of the economy, such as big tech and big finance companies, which have amassed trillions of dollars in reserves through globalist policies, from mass immigration to the outsourcing of manufacturing and other “capital-intensive” industries, and college endowments, which have enjoyed windfalls while the working and middle classes have been squeezed.
The Republican Party is Captivated Donor-class economy They will resist the concept of a Mabel health care system. Think tanks vying for an audience for Trump’s policies Candidates for a second term have yet to unveil health care reforms that would rival Donald’s superlatives. Sounding like Koch Foundation operatives, these conservatives believe health care should function as a competitive market in which families can negotiate with insurance companies, big hospitals, big pharmaceutical companies, and medical professionals.
Retirees, meanwhile, are less enthusiastic about Medicare reform. “Premium Support” These are the kinds of programs fiscal hawks have been pushing since Paul Ryan was chairman of the House Budget Committee. Average workers don’t crave health savings accounts or high-deductible plans, either.
Americans, retired or active, prefer that third parties like Medicare and employers mediate the complexities and technicalities of health care. Self-employed people and employers with limited or no health insurance need Trumpcare, not some liberal buffoon.
Of course, Trump must deliver on his other promises, especially rebuilding America’s industrial capacity and giving workers like Unger Sargon a best chance at achieving the American Dream. But unlike 2017, Trump will need to be quick to outline his priorities and not let Republicans undermine his agenda. Trumpcare would remove any doubt that the Party of Lincoln is a stronghold of the working and middle classes.
Robert Patterson served as Deputy Director for Communications at the Social Security Administration from 2017 to 2019. He also served as a senior speechwriter for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration under President George W. Bush.
