Create a national Medical Service for the Poor and Save Money

The concept that all American citizens rightly ought to have access to necessary medical treatment is broadly accepted. The problem is in delivery the lowest cost competent medical service to the poor. Just as public defenders are appointed to those that cannot afford them, free medical service is needed for the poor unable to afford it. The Republican notion that health care should be made ‘more affordable’ is nonsense regarding those that are broke or well below the poverty line-they need no cost health services.

Honest politicians (not really an oxymoron) would recognize that buying insurance for all poor Americans- 35 to 50 million citizens- would be far costlier to taxpayers than a plain and simple national medical service for those that make less than $ 10,000 annually. In a realistic political environment politicians would actually seek to get the most bang for the buck on medical coverage for the poor.

Creating a national medical service for the poor (perhaps also for Veterans in the same hospital service) would not compete with private enterprise (that includes the vast global corporate medical insurers too). Poor people given food stamps would not go spend money at Denny’s for dinner or Pepe’s Elegant Taco Universe if the government did not provide the food stamps-they would go hungry like as not. Neither would poor people with injuries or illnesses go to Dr. Rolls Hilton the III’s medical suite for treatment as an alternative to a national medical service. Instead, they would go to emergency rooms and everyone else from government to corporate and taxpayers and shareholders soak up the cost with a little work going to bankruptcy court as well.

The least expensive and acceptable way to lower national medical costs is first to create a national medical service for the poor. An effective safety net covering the majority of ordinary medical problems for that class would reduce the expense for everyone else. Buying insurance coverage each month for life for the poor is a terribly wasteful concept financially likely to cost far more than a national medical service.