Response to Sicko/High Cost of US Healthcare

People who argue that the cost of socialized universal medical care is too high ignore the high costs imposed on our economy and citizens by the US health care system.

The large health care expenses we pay in the US go to support a large, wealthy health insurance industry that, more than anything else, makes our system more complicated than it should be. The general role of a middle man in a supply chain is to extract as much profit as possible without adding any value or efficiency, a task that the US health insurance industry excels at.

Along with this primary cost to the citizenry of the US, there is a tremendous amount of money and energy lost to the transaction costs of hospitals and doctors trying to coordinate their care with health insurance agencies.

The current US system basically takes money from average citizens and people who are sick or hurt and gives it over to a superfluous industry that actually seeks to reduce the quality of healthcare in this country. All of this, of course, is sanctioned and encouraged by the US government.

Our system of healthcare is really a form of charity to the health insurance industry, not to mention the pharmaceutical industry. This is not surprising - our political system is set up such that the government is a service provider to for-profit industries. Industries pay government officials and agencies in various forms, and the government, in return, provides a sort of political road-paving service, smoothing the way for corporations and industries to seek profit with fewer barriers.