I saw this clip online, then I saw it blow up all over Facebook. It is of Sen Bernie Sanders telling Trump’s nominee for HHS Secretary, Tom Price, that America is not a compassionate society.
Price’s response was pathetically weak tea.
This is my response. Consider it my official application for a speechwriter for Team Trump.
“Senator Sanders, you compared Canada’s healthcare system to that of the US. Here are some numbers for you to consider. The population of Canada is about 36 million people. The population of California is almost 39 million people. The population of the US as a whole is over 320 million people. By comparison, our most populous state is larger than their entire country and our country is almost 10 times their size.
The GDP/GNI of the US is about $17 Trillion. According to Forbes, the average healthcare consumed per person in the US is about $10,000 per year.
Doing the math, that means that healthcare costs in the US are about $3.2 Trillion. That puts the total cost of healthcare in the US at nearly one fifth of the US economy.
My question for you is: where do we get the $3.2 trillion minimum, necessary to cover America’s healthcare costs?
It is true that 47% of the American people to not pay Federal Income Tax. I acknowledge that these people pay other Federal taxes in one way or another, Social Security Tax, Payroll Tax, fuel excise tax, etc. But every one of those taxes goes to a specific use, Social Security, Federal unemployment, highways, etc. It does not contribute to the general fund.
Your are in essence proposing that half of America cover the healthcare costs of themselves and the other half of America. If they don’t, they get their door kicked in by a SWAT team and go to prison for tax evasion.
I’m sorry, but I do not consider that to be the definition of compassion.
The nominal Tax Rate in Canada is 42%. Liberals will say that Canada has low taxes, only by focusing on the income tax.
To cover the additional cost of healthcare, if you raised my tax rate to equivalent to that of my Canadian counterpart, my tax burden would go up by almost $15,000. That is more than four times my current deductible. The trade off for me as a working American making above the median household income but below $250,000, is a loss of $11,000 per year. I would pay $15,000 more in taxes to avoid a $4,000 deductible. That will make it harder for me to make ends meet.
I understand compassion, but why does your definition of compassion mean that it is harder for me to buy a car or put a roof over my head or pay off my student loans or anything else I can do with $11,000 of my hard earned money?
Does our healthcare system need improvement? Of course. I am not going to deny that. Adding $3.2 trillion to the budget is not the way to fix that.
You can say that I lack compassion because of my belief. But under your plan, forcing me to be compassionate means that I lose my house.”
Perhaps Senator Sanders would be willing to share one of his houses with you?
You forgot to mention how the bureaucracy basically acts as a protection racket for the entire health care industry, stifling competition and inflating prices. Food is also a necessity of life, but no one really has a problem with that being a for profit industry, because fierce competition and plentiful options drive prices down to the point that even beggars can buy their own food. Even food stamps (at roughly 75 billion dollars a year) are not a hugely significant percentage of the 5.3 trillion dollar a year food industry. The government will not allow the health care industry to implement similar methodologies, however, since it would require a huge restructuring of the laws governing the industry. We would have to tear it all down and start again, and there is just too much political capital involved to allow that to happen. But to me the answer is pretty damn clear, reduce bureaucracy, increase competition and drive prices down. Then let people sort out their own health care, be it insurance, cash out of pocket, of straight up barter. Cutting out the government middle man can only make the entire process more efficient, and therefor cheaper.
Canadian Healthcare is sooo great, that thousands of Canucks come to the US to have their hips and knees replaced because they don’t want to be an immobilized cripple for years waiting for them to reach the top of the waiting lists for their “free” healthcare.
Way back when, and CAT Scan machines were the latest diagnostic tool, one of my friends pointed out that at that point in time, there were more CAT Scan machines in Minnesota than in all of Canada. Because the evil money grubbing Minnesota hospitals were willing to pay for them, unlike the kind caring Socialist Canadians.
I live 45 minutes from the Canadian border, and the numbers of Canadians that enter the U.S. to seek healthcare is astounding. For example, there are a few local MRI clinics which are given insane amounts of business by Canadians. Sure, you can get an MRI in Canada, but you’ll have to wait 10 months until a spot opens up. So instead, they pay out of their own pocket, come to America, and get their MRI almost immediately. Sanders and the rest of his “Democratic Socialist” ilk are blithering idiots.