In a Nov. 25 Herald article, “Florida voters rejected Medicare for All in the midterms. Thank goodness,” Sally C. Pipes, head of the Pacific Research Institute, interpreted Florida’s midterm results as a rejection of Medicare for all.
It’s amazing how free market and limited government intervention proponents advance unsubstantiated allegations to attack efforts to reform and improve our health care system. Obamacare, Medicare for All, and Expansion of Medicaid are all terrible public policy choices.
My question to these free market advocates is: What is your alternative? During the 2016 election, Republicans claimed they had a solution. Candidate Trump committed to sign his plan the first day in office. Two years later, we are still waiting for the plan.
We are witnessing a surge toward monopolization of health care and other economic sectors. Mergers and acquisitions are propelled by a single goal: Increase business profitability through market control. This demands a similarly strong negotiator on the other side of the table, one that, by far, invests and spends the most in caring for people: The federal government. Medicare has more than 58 million enrollees. In Florida, there are almost 4 million enrollees.
While free market advocates figure out their plan, millions of Americans are without health care insurance.
The system continues to waste money, provides no benefit to patients and achieves fewer results than the “socialist systems” Republicans criticized most.
The fundamental value of our democracy is the respect for our individual dignity.
Consistency with this value obliges us to build a health care system with access for all, cost effective practices and services, and more importantly, achieving optimum outcome.
Jose R. Fox,
Coral Gables