Hello! How’s your day going? Before we get started I wanted to preface this blog with something. It’s something small I promise, but I think it’s of the utmost importance in conveying this case. I, as the author of this here piece, want to challenge you to keep an open mind going into this. Now, I am fully aware that many of you that are reading this are doing so because you already have a left leaning bias. I doubt those who lean the opposite came across this blog title in their timeline, on my website, in google search results or wherever & were like, “yup, that’s it, that’s what’ll change my mind on this commie b.s.!” But if you are here under that belief system, welcome. This blog, if it’s headed the direction I believe it to be, will be more fact driven, not opinion. I will be doing my research as I go along, as well as fact checking everything I’m posting. I would advise you to do the same, lord knows how many opinions people are taking as fact these days. That being said I will also be using quite a bit of allegory for two reasons. One, it makes this a lot more interesting. I know none of you are here to read my research paper. Two, stories & outside examples are proven to latch onto people’s brains a lot better than facts served straight up. You feel me? Alright, that’s out of the way, shall we begin?
I don’t want to just jump into the concept of socialized medicine without first addressing the package in which it’s being shipped to the states. Democratic Socialism. I know that pairing of words just made a lot of you hiss & retreat like vampires from the sun, especially the “socialism” part, but I promise it’s not that scary. Let’s look at this in depth shall we? Well, not like Mariana Trench depth, more like snorkeling in Hawaii depth, because this is just going to be a basic outline. A lot of right leaning Americans are firm believers in Capitalism, a system that relies on trickle down economics to finance the masses. Think of it like a champagne fountain with the top glass being fed first followed by the next layer from the spillage of the one above it & so on & so forth. The problem that has arisen with this is that the top cup in this here allegory just keeps getting bigger & bigger & bigger catching all of the champagne & keeping it from the lower levels. On top of that, this top glass keeps telling the glasses underneath it that it isn’t taking their champagne, the glasses below it & the glasses that are coming over from the other tables are doing that. And the sad part is, the middle glasses are believing it despite the lowest glasses being the ones supporting the whole tower. This is where democratic socialism comes in, the goal of which it to return the glasses to an equal size & thus allowing the trickle down to actually happen.
But Charlie, you say, socialism is just another word for communism. Cue the Family Feud giant “X” on the board. Allow me to explain, if we have a line in which far right, big business capitalism is the left end of the spectrum & far left, everyone is equal despite the work they put in communism is on the right end of the spectrum, where do you think socialism fits in? Is it butted up against communism? Is it about a fourth of the way down the economic line towards capitalism? The answer may surprise you because socialism, straight up socialism, sits right smack dab in the middle. So if that’s the case, where does democratic socialism sit? Right in the middle of capitalism & true socialism, three fourths of the way towards capitalism. Which means, by proxy, it is a more capitalist idea than a communist one. Surprise.
Now, let’s talk medicine, specifically socialized medicine. Did you know that the United States is one of the only major country in the entire world that doesn’t have a form of universal healthcare? Let me show you. The map below shows the healthcare status of every country in the world. The dark green countries are those with free, universal healthcare. The bright green are those that have universal healthcare but it isn’t free. The blue countries have a base level free healthcare system in place but it’s not universal. And of course the red countries are those without free or universal healthcare.
So how does it work? How do you integrate socialized medicine into a country’s economy? Well let’s look at it a bit like streaming. Say you’ve cut the cord & are no longer using cable & instead you have your Netflix subscription, your Hulu subscription, your Sling subscription, your HBO subscription, your Disney+, your ShowTime, whatever. Let’s say in this scenario that HBO represents your taxes & Hulu represents your health insurance/general healthcare costs. You’re paying each of these subscriptions separately, a Hulu subscription costs $12 a month, HBO $15, but someone comes to you & says “why not just bundle your services? Bundle your HBO into Hulu.” To which you say “why would I pay more for something I already pay for?” When in reality bundling the service drops your Hulu down to $8 a month when you add the $15 HBO subscription to it. Instead of paying the lump sum of $27 you end up paying $23 & never have to worry about going broke from having to go to the hospital ever again. You’re not paying more because you’re outright getting rid of your stand alone subscription.
But I don’t want to pay for other people’s problems, you may say. Well, I hate to break it to you, but you already are. No, I’m not talking about Obamacare, which I will admit, has it's kinks but which, without I myself wouldn’t be able to afford health insurance. I’m referring to debt, specifically in the healthcare world. You see when someone who can’t afford health insurance has to go to the hospital they get charged for that & if they can’t afford health insurance what makes you think they can afford that medical bill? They can’t is the answer we’re looking for here. So they get sent to collections. They’re forced to declare bankruptcy. They’re sent into further financial ruin. So who pays that bill? Why, your taxes of course. You’re already paying the bills, so wouldn’t you rather not worsen someone’s life in the process?
We as a country have a long way to go in minimizing the ever growing gaps in quality of life between the classes. I mean wealth inequality is a completely different topic than the one at hand but I firmly believe a universal healthcare system would start to tip the balance back in the right direction. We have to change something, people are dying. A lot of Americans would rather risk death or permanent injury than go broke trying to cover their medical costs. The system in place right now isn’t working, it’s time we try something new, & the system being proposed it’s not even something that drastic a change! Majority of the happiest, most successful countries in the world have democratic socialist institutions in place. In fact 8 out of 10 of the top ranked countries in the world are democratic socialist countries. The US isn’t a part of that list by the way, but we could be! You want to “Make America Great” start by helping the least of these.