This essay was written by Deacon Arthur C. Donart, Ph.D.
Pope Leo XIV stated, “Universal health coverage is not a luxury, but a social imperative.” (Vatican News) Currently in the United States approximately 34,000,000 Americans are without access to health care, either because they do not have the money to afford health insurance, or enough money to pay for the care they need. As a result, they might put off seeing a doctor until things get so bad, that they end up in the ER. The hospital and its doctors end up absorbing the cost. In our non-universal health care system, what should have been a little cost and a little suffering, becomes a major cost and a lot of suffering for patients. In our system without universal health care, what becomes a small outbreak becomes a major outbreak. What becomes a small financial setback now, becomes a bankruptcy. In short, we have the dumbest health care system of all!
Congress could have changed this years ago. President Harry S. Truman tried, but our Congress failed to pass the legislation. Even President Richard M. Nixon tried and failed. President Lyndon B. Johnson fought a fierce battle to get Medicare passed in 1965.
Why all these decades of resistance and failure to guarantee American citizens health care? That has a simple answer (hint: $.) Medicare Advantage costs 20% more than plain Medicare. However, Medicare Advantage’s money comes out of the Medicare pot thus, making Medicare more expensive. This give insurance companies an incentive to deny treatment, bargain down hospitals, and delay payment to the care providers or, in some cases, not pay them at all.
In the meantime, people who have opted for Medicare Advantage think they have Medicare, but they do not. They have a private, for-profit insurance company. It’s a crime they are allowed to use “Medicare” in their products’ names; especially since Medicare is a not-for-profit Government program, which these companies fought against. These are the same companies that would drop your health insurance plan if you came down with a serious illness like sugar diabetes. For them, healthcare is a “commodity” to sell and an opportunity to make a fortune.
Pope Leo XIV said, “[Universal Health Care] is primarily a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves ‘just,’ and also to prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict.” (Vatican News) To say our Nation cannot afford “Medicare for All” is worse than just laughable; especially when you consider that the U. S. A. (Union of South Africa), one of the poorest Countries in the world, has universal health care!
Our poor are charged ten times what an insured patient is charged. Look at your bill: provider charges $1000; insurance discount $900; insurance pays $80; you owe $20. The uninsured patient owes $1000.
Do you think something is not right? You are right–it isn’t.
And Pope Leo is right. We need universal health care for All Americans.