jayparkinsonmd:

Obama’s plan started with good intentions. But in the end, it ended up being a compromise that essentially puts the medical industry on life support. It’s prolonging the death of a completely unsustainable industry. Let’s look at the average cost of yearly health insurance premiums over time:

2001: $4,918

2009: $10,743

2019: $28, 530

These numbers are an undisputed fact. By the end of the decade, premiums will be, on average, just shy of $30,000. Obamacare does very little to control costs. Remember, almost everything about this Act is a compromise with the incumbents to maintain the status quo as much as possible. And that status quo is unsustainable. Even with Obamacare, the premiums are still going to rise to nearly $30,000 by the end of the decade. 

I think now is not the right time to put a dying industry on life support. We need to think long term. And the only long term sustainable solution for the medical industry is a single payor healthcare system. There is simply no way, in a country as large as ours, to link profitability to sickness. And Obamacare, by mandating us as individuals to purchase healthcare from a private industry beholden to it’s shareholders, simply prolongs an unsustainable industry.

I think healthcare reform, and I mean fundamental reform, can only happen when everyone’s feet is held to the fire. And that’s going to happen toward the end of this decade, when individuals and companies en masse, realize they can’t afford even the average premium. And that’s the right time to fundamentally change the entire business model of healthcare in America. When people aren’t under the gun, compromise is the easiest way out. But compromise amongst industry insiders won’t solve the fundamental problems we face trying to take care of the health of our population. Trial by fire is probably the only way.

We need a completely different system— a single payor that profits off wellness, not sickness. We’re simply not going to get that by placing a broken and unsustainable system on life support. If I felt that Obamacare was a good first step toward a sustainable system, I’d support it. But the shit is going to hit the health insurance premium fan in the next 7 years, and I have no faith that more compromises amongst industry insiders will get us toward a sustainable single payor system. 

I think the real “success” of our modern American leaders is giving all of us, especially minority groups, just enough rights to shut us up. That’s what’s happening with healthcare too. In seven years, they’ll look out at the population and tout stats that say we’re better off. But, in reality, over the long term, we’re worse off. The leaders deciding my long term health and financial status will be dead and gone when our healthcare system is beyond bankrupt. And their selfish focus on short term compromise instead of long terms gains makes me furious. And for that reason, I’m not a fan of Obamacare and I hope SCOTUS overturns it and lets us have a trial by fire in seven years, hastening a much quicker transition from a medical industry to a single payor, sustainable healthcare system.

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