Democrat Healthcare Promises are Another Fraud

By Deane Waldman, MD MBA - 12/2/20

On November 3, it was not only CoViD-19 but ongoing failure of our entire healthcare system that was foremost in voters' minds. Close to 80 million Americans apparently believed Democrat promises they would produce a healthcare system we all want.

Whether implementing Medicare-for-All (favored by Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders), the Biden Healthcare Plan or some combination, Democrats promise they will accomplish the following.

1.All Americans, including more than 10 million undocumented immigrants, will have government-provided health insurance: everyone will have coverage.
2.Patients can choose their provider and their care per Section 103, Freedom of choice, in H.R. 1384, the Medicare-for-All bill.
3. Care will be free at point of service.
4. Only the wealthy, those making more than $400,000 per year, will see increased taxes.

Before considering the evidence for or against future Democrat promises, one should consider the fate of past promises, their track record. Otherwise, to quote philosopher Jorge Santana, those who do not study history [accept past reality] are doomed to repeat it [live in fantasy].

In 2009, then-President Obama assured us his namesake law would bend down the unsustainable healthcare spending curve. In fact, Obamacare added $1.76 trillion to healthcare spending. The promised family savings of $2500 per year turned out to be smoke and mirrors. The ACA more than doubled healthcare costs for the average American family according to both Heritage Foundation and Health and Human Services.

Another false healthcare promise was, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Millions of Americans lost their chosen doctor or preferred insurance coveragedue to Obamacare.
But maybe this time, Democrats will do what they say. Can the federal government give free health insurance to every man, woman, and child in the country., legally here or otherwise? Of course, it can. They just have to pay the insurance companies enough money and there will be no more uninsured Americans. Everyone will have a health policy. It will be a worthless piece of paper.

Worthless because insurance only has value if it leads the timely care of the patients choosing. This firm Democrat promise is errant nonsense. To acquire the volume of funds necessary to pay the insurance companies and to create all the new bureaucracy, Washington will have to reduce payments to providers by at least 40 percent. This will undoubtedly exacerbate the shortage of providers and lengthen wait times for care from currently unconscionable months to literally fatal years-long waits. Death-by-queueing will become the norm as it is now in single payer systems, including our own VA system.

Universal coverage, Section 102 of the Medicare-for-All bill most definitely does not produce timely or adequate care.

Care will indeed be free at point of service. Of course, you are likely to die waiting forever in line for that care. Worse, if the care you need is deemed Not Cost Effective by Washington, you cant get it ... ever.
Democrats might follow the example of the British National Health Service and declare kidney dialysis, at $10,000 per month, Not Cost Effective in those over age 55 years. In that situation, the brilliant 57-year old physician-ethicist (MD, JD) with whom I shared a podium several years ago would simply have to die despite having kidney failure, a treatable condition.

Finally, there is the promise of no new taxes on the middle class. This is intentional deception. and everyone knows it except the gullible voters who fervently believe in wish-fulfillment.

Consider these cost calculations. Less than one percent of Americans make more than $400,000 per year, say 3.3 million persons. They already pay a tax rate of 35 percent. Suppose Biden increases that rate to 50 percent. That will generate 198 billion additional tax dollars. Bernie Sanders estimates the cost of Medical-for-All at up to $40 trillionover ten years. Increasing the taxes on the extremely wealthy will only produce $198 billion, which barely covers five percent of the $4 trillion per year price tag for Democrats favored healthcare plan. Who do you think will pay the other 95 percent ($3.802 trillion)? You and I will.

An ironic side note is Bidens not well-publicized February 2020 dispute with Sanders over the cost of Medicare-for-All. Sanders claimed it would cost $30-40 trillion over ten years. Then-candidate Biden said that Sanders single payer plan would cost more than the entire federal budget that we spend now.

Based on both past history and scientific evidence, Democrats promises on healthcare are fraudulent. Those who believe them are willfully deluding themselves.