It's a Record!

Spending on health care now eats up 16% of the US economy. And growing. The "good news" is that drug costs are only 10% of that figure, and they finally stopped ten years of double-digit growth. Yes, ten years of double-digit growth every year in the cost of medication. Health care eating a sixth out of the economy. When will they get it?

Conservatives of all stripes in all countries seem to have an irrational hatred of healthy people. That can be the only possible reason for their decades-long fight against public health. Every advanced country in the world provides universal health care. It's the only civilized way to do it. Health care is a right, not a privilege of wealth. But in the US, it's become a centre of corporate profit. And as we all know (say it together) corporate profit trumps all.

But wait: turns out, health sector profits actually hurt other sectors. It's the proverbial snake eating its own tail. As the neocons protect massive health sector profiteering, they simultaneously raise costs for their other close friends (more like family, really) in other industries. And what do the even most callus and grotesque corporate criminals have to offer their employees? Health care.

It's a well-known but seldom acknowledged fact that universal health care (no matter what the system or the country) costs less per person than the bloated cash register system in the US. Paul Krugman points out that a big chunk of administration dollars are spent by every provider trying to shift the cost to someone else. It's a nonsensical system that kills people every day.

And here in Canada, we're reaping the befits. Where auto plants are closing and laying off workforce in the US, they're investing billions in Canadian plants. The reason? Health care costs (and worker education). They've figured out that it's better to pay somewhat higher corporate taxes (and still get government sweetheart deals) and not have to carry a huge and ever-increasing burden of medical spending.

And programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are purportedly killing state budgets, could be wiped out. When the healthy and rich are in the same program as the sick and poor (that's four separate categories if you're counting), the risk and cost is spread out and manageable.

But that's against the conservative creed, isn't it? Conservatives believe that we're all in this alone, that you keep what you get and if you get nothing than screw you. If life hands you a lemon - suck on it. You won't get any sugar or water from anyone else to make that lemonade.

The rest of us don't see it that way. We all know that the more we rely on each other, the stronger we are. But guys like Canadian Conservative Leader Steven Harper want to turn the Canadian system into one system for the rich who can pay for top care and one system for the rest of us to get the left-overs.

It's in-human. It's greed over all. It's short-sighted. It's less efficient and more costly. It's conservative.