The Saint-Louis Post Dispatch recently published an editorial that finally addresses the real solution to the nation’s debt woes:
If America truly is serious about dealing with its deficit problems, there’s a fairly simple solution. But you’re probably not going to like it: Enact a single-payer health care plan.
See, we told you weren’t going to like it.
But the fact is that everyone who has studied the deficit problem has agreed that it’s actually a health care problem — more specifically, the cost of providing Medicare benefits to an aging and longer-living population. The bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform reported last December: “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects if we continue on our current course, deficits will remain high throughout the rest of this decade and beyond, and debt will spiral ever higher, reaching 90 percent of GDP in 2020.
Read the rest of the editorial here: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_97afa329-42f8-5f12-adb0-97fa305c3e4b.html#ixzz1VJIHFMrk
I disagree with the paper’s assumption that the public is not going to like having to set up a single payer system. Polls routinely show enthusiastic support for providing Medicare to all Americans. It’s health reform opponents and corporate “sickcare” shills who like to demonize a popular idea and try to mute public support. Nevertheless, bravo to the Post-Dispatch. As the adverse effects of skyrocketing medical costs on the nation’s overall fiscal health become increasingly harder to ignore, hopefully more media outlets will begin calling for the United States to join the rest of the industrialized world and adopt Medicare for all.
Sylvia@californiaonecare.org