Made ya look!

No, I'm not talking about replacing the progressive income tax. What I'd like to address today is how to pay for healthcare for everyone.

In a perfect world, the simplest solution would be to just scale up Medicare to cover everybody. Why this wasn't the goal from the very beginning is only apparent when you realize that the debate is being driven not by the needs of the many but the greed of the few. It doesn't take a long, complicated argument to explain this.

All you need to do is ask, "How much is your health insurance?" I'll use me as an example, since my family is solidly middle class, national median income, two children, two jobs, two cars, two cats, and a mortgage. Our health insurance comes through my wife's employer and costs us roughly 15% of our combined gross income. Add to that the cost of copays, deductibles and co-insurance and you're getting closer to 18% of gross income. We get our insurance from my wife's employer because my employer charges 25% of gross income (not including copays and deductibles) for the same level of coverage.

That 18% is like a tax. A healthcare tax charged by a for-profit company. And it's 18% because not everybody is covered and not everybody pays into the system. But mostly because it's a for-profit system.

If we had Medicare for All, not only would that simple message be easy to communicate to the masses and easy to understand, it would be easy to pay for with a simple flat income tax with no income limits. More than likely, the tax would be significantly less that what the average American currently pays in health insurance premiums, deductibles, copays. How hard is that to explain?

The whole problem with this debate is caused by the need to keep the current employer-provided health insurance system intact, while also attempting to provide coverage for everyone else. This introduces confusing levels of complexity, complexity that leads to misunderstandings, complexity that leaves the issue vulnerable to misinformation, propaganda and damned lies. In other words, fear. Fear of losing coverage. Fear of the other. Fear of the unknown.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. - H.P. Lovecraft

The current hodgepodge of proposals and counterproposals has created the environment of fear that could lead to a poor bill or even total defeat. That is, after all, why there's been a hodgepodge of proposals and counterproposals.

Draw them in with the prospect of gain, take them by confusion. - Sun Tzu

A simple, effective message would resolve everything. But a simple, effective message requires a simple, effective healthcare solution.

That solution, and its message, are one in the same:

Medicare for everybody, paid for with a flat tax on income, cheaper than what you're paying now.