Nickolas Dreyer

Minot

My letter is in response to Tony Bender’s Opinion page on the government taking over our health care system. I really wonder if people know what “Single-Payer” or “Medicare for All” really mean.

It sounds nice, but in reality it will be disastrous and scary. These ideas mean that the government makes all decisions on your health care, you are at their mercy and our elderly are most at risk.

There will have to be a cap as to how much Congress will spend per year on the health care needs of 330 million people. There will also have to be built-in markers under that cap as to when certain drugs, procedures and rehabilitation will be given to certain people. For example, if you get a dangerous disease at 30 years old you may be fine, but that same disease with expensive treatments contracted by someone who is 75? The “care” may be different for grandma.

In a Single-Payer system, you are no longer making decisions about yourself, you’re making decisions as long as it’s OK with the government.

It’s quite laughable that Mr. Bender actually believes a system like this will save us $5.1 trillion over a decade. If Single-Payer is ever implemented people will assume everything is free. There will be a mad rush for health care services. Any minor thing will mean a trip to the ER, because, “who cares, it’s free!”

Well, as my father used to tell me, “there are no free lunches in life.” I took about an hour one day to try to figure out if we could actually afford Medicare for All, for example, being pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. I’ll give you the abbreviated version. Using Sen. Sanders’ own estimates of this new system costing $3.3 trillion per year on top of the $1.3 trillion we spend already on Medicare and Medicaid, total government spending would increase to $7.3 trillion per year.

Most Democrats say we can accomplish all things by taxing the rich. OK, so let’s double the taxes on the top 10% of Americans (those greedy rich people making more than $115,000 a year need to pay their fair share). Even with those wild increases there would be a $1.4 trillion shortfall. Those who push these policies are either liars, fools and/or math deficient.

Mr. Bender is wrong, more taxation would create less capital from individuals and businesses. Add in the fact that some Single-Payer plans pay doctors much less when we have a shortage of medical doctors already is a recipe for disaster. As always, we are made big promises by Progressives that turn out empty (see Obamacare). Big government programs like Social Security can not pay its promised liabilities because it’s unable of moving with modern needs, just like a gigantic government health care system would be. Medicare for All and Single-Payer is actually anti-Progressive when you think about it.

It amuses me when Progressives like Mr. Bender spout out things like “inevitable excesses of capitalism” as if speaking the word “profit” is the equivalent of getting your mouth washed out with soap. Is greed only a factor when it comes to capitalism and not government?