The time is here

The case for a guaranteed, universal health care system for the United States recently got much stronger. There are two developments that lead to this conclusion.

The first has been termed “The Great Resignation,” and the second is the large number of people who have chosen to leave their jobs rather than get a vaccine that would protect them, and their clients and co-workers from a potentially fatal disease.

Since the United States is the only advanced country that links health care coverage to employment, those who are now unemployed will, by necessity, lose health care coverage. Of course, people will still get health care, but it will either bankrupt them, or put the burden for their care on everyone else.

This is all so unnecessary, and is easily solved by instituting a nationwide health care plan that would cover everyone, regardless of employment. Whether it be a “Medicare For All” system, or a regulated insurance plan like most European nations use, is not the issue. The issue is a commitment by the American people to finally abandon the dysfunctional non-system that currently costs too much, rations health care based on financial status, and bankrupts the seriously ill.

Daniel J. Schaffer, MD

Spokane