Repairing the Healthcare System: They Are Getting There

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

As Obamacare implodes, President Trump is trying to get a Republican congress to repeal and replace Obamacare in an orderly fashion with a minimum of disruption to the present healthcare system.

The Republican establishment in congress is trying to disrupt his goal. All the Democrats are going to stonewall him.

Republicans won both houses of congress because they promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. They had seven years to create a plan. They have failed to achieve a consensus in the Republican caucus.

Democrats are starting to talk about making it easy. They are suggesting congress replacing Obamacare with a government run single party payer healthcare system.

You may recall President Obama told John Kerry and Barney Frank that America would get to a single party healthcare system via Obamacare. He told them not to worry.

The reality of the situation is America is inching its way to a universal single party payer healthcare system.

Medicaid, Medicare and the VA system are already single party payer systems. Each one of these programs has been declared unsustainable.

It is incomprehensible to me that the Republican politicians who the American people elected in good faith are not hearing their complaints

Presently 41.5% of the population is in one of these single party payer healthcare plans. 49% of Americans pay no taxes. This means that 51% of Americans are paying the healthcare bill for 49% who do not pay taxes.

This is the redistribution of wealth that Dr. Donald Berwick said was essential in America.

If fact many of the 49% receive additional monies from the government such as food stamps, free mobile telephone service and free housing.

America is on its way to European socialism, This ideological system has failed in Europe.

The following calculation is how I came up with the percentage of Americans that are in an entitlement healthcare system. I use U.S. agency census data.

“The current population of the United States of America is 326,613,397 as of Monday, July 24, 2017, based on the latest United Nations estimates.”

9 %of the population is urban (270,683,202 people in 2017)
The median agein the United States is 1 years.

hfo/world-population/us-population/

The chart below displays the total number of individuals enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in the current month (April 2017) and the period prior to the start of first Marketplace open enrollment period or “baseline” period (July – Sept. 2013).

The current enrollment is obviously post Obamacare.

*Month*	*Expansion States*	*Non-Expansion States*	*Total*
Baseline July-Sept 2013 (Monthly Average) (49 states)	37,069,415	19,733,676	56,803,091
Apr 2017 (preliminary) (51 states)	52,058,495	22,472,507	74,531,002

Medicaid and Chip increased by 22,472,507 since the onset September 2013.

74,531,002/326,613,397 equals 22.81% of the population is on Medicaid so far.

Medicare enrollment is lower than present Medicaid enrollment. As of May 2017, 37,976,052 are on original Medicare and 20,089,220 are on Medicare Advantage or others Medicare plans for a total of 58,065,272 on this single party payer entitlement.

Medicare is an entitlement program with high premiums. The premiums are means tested. People in the upper tax brackets pay over $18,000 a year in after tax dollars premiums for Part B, Part D and Part F.

The people in lower tax brackets pay less. The premium deduction for Part B is taken out of their monthly Social Security check. This creates a burden on their standard of living.

The additional 58,065,272 to the 74,531,002 bring the total percentage of the population on a single payer healthcare system to 40.6%.

(132,596,274/326,613,397= 40.6%)

If the VA healthcare system enrollees are added to the analysis of the number enrollees to a government run single party payer healthcare system the percentages increase.

In Fiscal Year 2014 the total veteran population was 21,619,731. 9,111,955 veterans were enrolled. 6,616,963 veterans used the VA Hospital System. The VA System brings the total number enrollees in a single party payer system to 133,508,229 or 40.9%

9,111,955 + 132,596,274= 133,508,229

133,508,229/326,613,397= 40.87%

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43579.pdf

The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 567 federally recognized tribes in 36 states.

https://www.ihs.gov/aboutihs/

133,508,229+2,200,000= 135,708,229

135,708,229/326,613,397= 41.5%

41.5% of the American population is already in a government controlled single party payer healthcare system. President Obama was right. He promised he would get there

Barney Frank and John Kerry did not have to worry. The only problem is that Obamacare is collapsing because it is unsustainable.

It is a pity is Republicans cannot agree to an innovative plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Maybe the Republican want to have control over the healthcare system and deny Americans their freedoms.

The Democrats don’t care about the welfare and freedoms of Americans or the fiscal health of the nation.

Something needs to be done about this madness now.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” is, mine and mine alone.

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https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/charts/82287/povertyratesbyregion2015_450px.png?v=42795

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Dashboard/Medicare-Enrollment/Enrollment%20Dashboard.html