"Problems of U.S. Health Care Are Rooted in the Private Sector, Despite Right-Wing Claims"

As with all life essential needs, citizens have the right to collective bargaining and self provisioning without having to pay for corporate fat cat big salaries, boards of directors, investor dividends, and corporate's traditional huge subsidies to corporate lobbyists and legislators who act against us. If we can fulfill our needs better and cheaper than commercial interests can, then we are entitled to do just that, without making others rich at our expense! Meeting life's essential needs, food, water, shelter, energy, and health care should not be subject to the uncertainties and vagaries of capitalist interests. Capitalism is more appropriate in non life essential commodities and services such as recreational clothing, automobile choices, restaurants, sporting goods and activities, ... If we eliminate corporatocracy from food, water, energy, and health care, we can collectively, through our representative government, provide ourselves with those needs in the best quality at the best price.

"Right-wingers, insurance companies, and other opponents of health care reform in the United States are always looking for ways to blame the government for the failures of our health care system. But the simple truth is that they have it backwards: our problems with health care are firmly rooted in the private sector. That is why the average high-income country – where government is vastly more involved in health care – spends half as much per person on health care as we do, and has better health outcomes."

"The most effective way to insure everyone and make our health care system affordable would have been to expand Medicare to everyone, while beginning the process of reducing costs through negotiation with, and restructuring incentives for, the private sector. The private insurance companies use up hundreds of billions annually on administrative costs, marketing, and other waste – which is what you would expect from companies who maximize profit by insuring the healthy and trying to avoid paying for the sick."

"We also spend nearly $300 billion on pharmaceuticals each year, most of which is waste due to the patent monopolies of pharmaceutical companies. We could eliminate most of this waste through further public financing of pharmaceutical research, with new drugs sold as low-cost generics. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation in the Senate to realize these savings."

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/problems-of-us-health-care-are-rooted-in-the-private-sector-despite-right-wing-claims