By Richard Master
The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.), Letters, July 19, 2016
Reflecting on the story, "New peak for U.S. health care spending," that annual U.S. health care cost has surpassed $10,000 per person: That's an astounding figure that should wake up readers, that our health care system is eating the rest of the U.S. economy alive. Clearly, other countries of the industrialized world deal with health care more effectively.
Vince Mondillo of Easton and I researched and produced "Fix It ... Healthcare at the Tipping Point," a documentary at fixithealthcare.com that describes our administratively complex and costly system. Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act was a compromise measure that expanded coverage to more citizens but further entrenched commercial insurance companies' costly practices.
"Fix It" presents the business case, the economic case, for a Medicare-for-all system. Single-payer reform has worked to provide superb care to all citizens in many countries of the industrialized world. It's not a government takeover but tax-financed, privately delivered health care.
We Americans are unfortunately stuck in the Dark Ages, trying to put a shine on an archaic, complex expensive health care system that works for special business interests (Big Pharma, insurance companies, massive hospital networks and, yes, the media through advertising revenues) but doesn't work for our society.
Richard Master is CEO of MCS Industries Inc., Palmer Township, and executive producer of "Fix It ... Healthcare at the Tipping Point." He resides in Bethlehem.
http://www.mcall.com/opinion/letters/mc-health-care-spending-master-20160719-story.html