This liberal progressive is dead set against universal coverage as it’s being described. This country spends nearly 20 cents of every dollar on health care, with much of that going on the national credit card. Not another dime, as far I’m concerned.

As it is we spend double, per capita, than nearly every other developed country. But whereas those countries provide universal access and low out-of-pocket costs, we still have millions who are uninsured and extremely high premiums, deductibles, copays. If you think that extra spending is buying us vastly better health, you’re wrong. Where’s it all going? Profit. Profits to hospitals, physicians groups, nursing facilities, pharmaceuticals, medical device manufacturers, home health providers, …the list goes on. Some value is lost in higher administrative costs from relying on private insurers to finance the system, but that’s a drop in the bucket. Before we spend any more, we need to focus on getting the value out of what we already spend. The only fiscally responsible solution is to prop up a public system that provides both financing AND delivery.

Here’s an analogy: While I am a big supporter of universal broadband, I would never demand that we implement “Comcast for All” as the solution. We can’t afford it. Demanding universal access to the private delivery system is no different.

Stepping back, we need to ask, what is the point? Health care does not equal health, and having health insurance is not a major contributor to good health. Want to increase health? Spend more on education! Nothing predicts health better than education. To allow health care spending to further crowd out education funding would be a real tragedy.