Presidential candidates have a history of failing to deliver on their healthcare promises. President Trump once promised that all Americans would have insurance, but the uninsured population remains sizable. Before him, President Barack Obama promised that health insurance would be cheaper under his administration, but prices increased. When it comes to improving healthcare, candidates can’t seem to stop themselves from promising voters the moon.
The quality of healthcare continues to increase, and so does the cost. That’s why healthcare was the most important issue to voters in the 2018 midterm election. Sure, it’s tempting to look to presidential hopefuls for a miracle cure to this decades-long problem, but if they continue to do so, voters are going to be severely disappointed.
Sadly, politicians just don’t know how to fix healthcare — in fact, no one really does.
When people think of what’s wrong with the current system, rising costs mount the top of the list. America isn’t alone in this problem. Each year, all developed countries are spending increasing amounts of money per capita on healthcare. We don’t really have a successful model to emulate, meaning we’ll have to come up with our own solution. But “Medicare for all” isn’t it.
At this early stage in the 2020 campaign, precious few candidates have a fleshed-out plan for how they’ll make a dent in healthcare costs. Joining the ranks of Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made repeated calls for universal healthcare. “Freedom,” he says on his campaign website, “means not having to choose between healthcare and financial survival.” Essentially, he believes people should receive healthcare now. If they can’t afford it, he says, public funds ought to pay for the whole shebang. This sounds nice, but it’s completely untenable.
Nobody in their right mind wants suffering people to be denied treatment because of the cost associated with it. But a free lunch has never been free. If public funds go toward paying for healthcare, taxpayers are picking up the bill.
You don’t have to be libertarian to oppose paying for all healthcare services with public funds. A cursory glance at the largess of healthcare costs should make any sensible person shiver. Annually, we spend over $11,000 per person, almost one-fifth of the median salary, and federal government debt hovers around $22 trillion. “Medicare for all,” as estimates predict, will cost the federal government an additional $32 trillion over ten years. This sort of disaster scenario brings to mind the impending doom of Social Security, something millennials can rightly blame on Baby Boomers. We’d be well-advised not to make the same mistake with healthcare. By adopting the single-payer system so many Democrats tout, we risk giving our children the unwanted gift of unbearable debt.
But your presidential candidates don’t really worry about that. Rather, they worry about getting your vote. After all, they won’t be paying for your healthcare, your tax dollars will. So now they can make you sweet promises. But implementing universal healthcare would just postpone (and worsen) a crisis that has been decades in the making. As long as candidates fail to come up with new, more honest ways of cutting costs, the only thing they’re promising is pain for generations to come.
That’s not to say there’s a trove of better solutions out there somewhere. Costs are mainly going up because of the increase in labor costs. Healthcare is a skilled-labor-heavy industry with low productivity growth; the opportunity cost of healthcare professionals is high, as are medical education costs. As a result, doctors and nurses receive high wages. This is far from an unfair exchange, but that doesn’t change the fact that it makes healthcare expensive.
No federal proposal is ever going to achieve the cost savings we need. Instead, solutions should arise from the private sector, where empty vows aren’t required to win votes. Technology and business innovators are in the best position to create solutions that slash costs and increase access to medical services. But right now, the heavy burden of regulation makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to bring those kind of solutions to the market. The role of the federal government? Merely to get out of the way and ensure that these innovations can reach patients as speedily and smoothly as possible. Sadly, it refuses to do so.
America desperately needs a candidate worthy of leading the country and capable of making good decisions. But when candidates promise they can fix healthcare once and for all, I beg of you: be wary. Whether they want to cure cancer or cut costs, they’re bound to disappoint.
Elise Amez-Droz (@eliseamezdroz) is a healthcare policy associate in the Washington, D.C., metro area and a Young Voices contributor.
