As we wait for more Iranian and American shoes to drop on our way to another war of choice in the Middle East, I am not going to spend these few words trying to suss out what our idiot leader is thinking. Let's talk about healthcare and food availability instead.
A new study shows our country on average spends about $8,000 per person more than the next most expensive healthcare system, Switzerland. That adds up to more than a trillion per year. As Kevin Drum points out, most of that extra cost is money being paid to doctors, nurses, drug companies and device makers. Even if you are feeling the Bern, you know even Medicare for all is not going to lower healthcare costs in the short term. Even if all the profits of all the insurance companies, drug makers and device makers were confiscated, the elevated salaries of everyone in the system would make covering every American with the benefits Mr. Sanders envisions wildly expensive. The cost curve would bend over time, but short term, the fallout would make the fight over Obamacare look like a playground scuffle.
Food and diet is part of the health care puzzle also. While it is true many people eat absolutely horrible food choices and live to 100 and others eat all the right stuff and drop dead at 50, for most of us, eating well is the key to a long and healthy life. Yet our country is in the midst of an obesity crisis as many subsist on unhealthy diets of ultra processed foods which have been shown to encourage the aforementioned obesity, plus cancer, heart disease and cognitive impairment. Another commentator points out there is a big correlation between income and the ability to feed one's family a healthy diet. Give people enough income to buy healthy food and time to cook them and they will eat healthy. What is stopping this from happening?
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