Affordable Care Act – Repeal, Readjust – Regardless, We Want Universal Healthcare And An End To Obamacare Rationing, Insurance Comp. Bailout
Op-ed by Brandon Turbeville
As Congress now debates the repeal of Obamacare/ACA, it is important to understand what is actually being discussed, the options being put forth, and what we, the American people, actually want. For those of us who want to see a system of Universal Healthcare where every American has access to at least the basic medical available, the current debate has many nuances.
First, it is clear that the ACA must be done away with. Despite what Obama cultists may claim, the ACA is not universal healthcare. Instead, it is a massive bailout for insurance companies, rationing of care, and the implementation of austerity under left cover. It has hurt millions of people by draining money out of their pockets for the crime of being too poor to purchase the rationed insurance from a private company at inflated rates.
For the middle class, it has been a major inconvenience. To working and poor America, it has been a disaster.
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That being said, we cannot simply return to the previous system where only the wealthy and middle class could obtain adequate healthcare and where the insurance companies simply ran a rationing board of their own, albeit at a smaller scale than what the ACA allows.
So what, exactly, should be we be aiming for?
As stated earlier, we must demand a universal healthcare system where healthcare is available to all but one in which patients and Americans in general are not forced to purchase private products at the barrel of a gun. We must demand a system of Medicare For All.
Obviously, one demand must be the elimination of the individual mandate. Logically, there must be a restoration of the money cut from Medicare under the Obama administration and an effort must be made to expand that program to address the needs of the population and ensure that adequate care is provided.
We must demand that a fully funded and restored Medicare be offered to all Americans for a reasonable fee ($100 per person per month) on a sliding scale, growing cheaper as one moves down the income bracket, cheaper for working Americans, even free for the poorest and most vulnerable. This should be offered, but not mandated. This plan will allow for universal coverage but it will not eliminate the private industry since those who can afford a private plan will still have that option available. It will, however, eliminate the private industry’s virtual monopoly when it comes to payment for medical services.
So how will we pay for a system like this?
A 1% Wall Street Sales Tax applied to financial market transactions such as stocks, bonds, flash trading, e-trading, high-frequency trading, debt instruments, and the notional value of derivatives. A reasonable exemption of $1 million per person per year should be enacted in order to prevent the placement of taxes on individuals who shift around personal financial assets or make investments for their 401(k) or other retirement account. The 1% tax should be paid by the seller of the instrument, not the buyer, and the proceeds accrued from the tax should be split evenly between the Federal government and the States.
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The Wall Street Sales Tax at only 1% is estimated to bring anywhere from hundreds of billions to tens of trillions of dollars. The 1% Wall Street Sales Tax is capable of funding the social safety net and the U.S. government as well as effectively eliminating the budget deficit at the Federal and State levels. All of this while discouraging dangerous forms of speculation and derivatives trading.
In addition, the U.S. government, through Medicare, must begin to negotiate prices and the Federal government, via its federal agencies, must begin to crack down on exorbitant prices of drugs, surgeries, etc. by both hospitals and pharmaceutical companies by a variety of means available to them.
We can fund Universal Healthcare and do so at a level where no one in America who needs to see a doctor goes without doing so and we can do it at no cost to the taxpayer or to working people. We can let Wall Street pay only a fraction of the sales tax they should already be rightfully be paying today and, by doing so, ensure that every American has access to the care they need. In the 21st century, no one in the United States should be forced to suffer or die because they do not have enough money to shovel out to massive corporations.
So Repeal, Readjust, but, Regardless – We want universal healthcare and a Wall Street Sales Tax!
This article (Affordable Care Act – Repeal, Readjust – Regardless, We Want Universal Healthcare And An End To Obamacare Rationing, Insurance Comp. Bailout) can be republished under a Creative Commons license with  attribution to Brandon Turbeville, source and Natural Blaze.com, keeping links and bio intact. Image: GM Watch
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Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies,Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria,and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 600 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
