This week, all eyes are on the Senate as Republicans craft their version of the American Health Care Act. The reality is that no matter what the final language is, the US will continue to leave tens of millions of people uninsured and tens of millions of people under-insured, meaning that they cannot afford necessary health care.

The fundamental problem is that private health insurance in the US, unlike in other countries, was not designed to pay for health care. In a revealing act, Senator Joe Manchin told constituents recently that some Senators are considering Medicare for people with a pre-existing condition. Read the article here.

There is a solution to the healthcare crisis around which bi-partisans in Washington could unite. Retired family practice doctor Jay Brock sums it up in the Seven Conservative Values of Single Payer.

The Seven CONSERVATIVE VALUES of a Single Payer Healthcare System:

1.   Single payer bends the COST curve due to its large purchasing power.

2.   Single payer covers everyone, but everyone CONTRIBUTES (i.e. personal responsibility) thereby creating one large and efficient risk pool that doesn’t punish patients for getting sick or penalize people for getting old.

3.   COMPETITION among health professionals is encouraged because the patient’s choice of physician or hospital is no longer restricted to limited networks of providers.

4.   There is less government CONTROL, especially compared to the current system, because the bottom line will be paying for health care and the system can be run as a semiautonomous utility.

5.   Single payer is CHEAPER to run compared to the present system: much lower administrative costs.

6.   Health insurance is no longer tied to your job, so it is great for COMMERCE/business. (Including, especially, rural hospitals and physicians: and there is no more uncompensated care.)7.    When health insurance companies are no longer an integral part of the system, and efficiencies ensue, this is CREATIVE destruction working. (This allows the $1/2 Trillion wasted every year accommodating health insurance companies to be spent instead on covering all current US residents).

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