Healthcare System
Welcome back, my fellow Common Sense Patriots, to another hard-hitting episode of Common Sense for America. Today, we're channeling the spirit of the great Thomas Paine and his revolutionary "Common Sense" manifesto to tackle the absolute mess that is our healthcare system.[^1]
Brace yourselves, folks, because these numbers are going to make your head spin. Healthcare now devours a whopping 17.6% of our economy, with costs ballooning to an eye-watering $4.8 trillion this year.[^2] That's rising faster than inflation and outpacing our economic growth! The average Joe is now expected to shell out up to $400,000 on medical bills over their lifetime, with women getting hit even harder thanks to longer lifespans.[^3] These crushing expenses are tearing families apart, shattering the American Dream, and even costing people the roofs over their heads. In fact, medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States, with over 500,000 families going broke each year due to healthcare costs.[^11]
Get this: half of those costs come after age 65, with a staggering 25% incurred in just the last year of life.[^4] Two-thirds of us are clinging to employer- provided insurance, while another 27% are at the mercy of government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. And a full 9% are out there with no safety net at all![^5] Our patchwork system might provide quality care, but it's letting costs spiral out of control at a rate of 7.6% per year.[^6]
But it doesn't have to be this way, Patriots! Just look at the cosmetic surgery and Lasik markets, where patients pay out of pocket and shop around. Prices there have barely budged or even gone down![^7][^8] Why? Because competition works and empowered consumers keep the market honest.
So here's the deal: we need to put patients back in the driver's seat. Insurance payouts should go into their accounts, not straight to providers' pockets. Insurers must show their prices upfront and level with patients about what's really necessary. Armed with that knowledge, we can shop for value and force insurers and doctors to compete for our business. This is how we make market forces work for us, whether it's private insurance or government programs.
But folks, just wrangling costs isn't enough. We've got to tackle the root causes of all these chronic diseases that are weighing us down. It's like Ben Franklin said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." And let me tell you, we're in need of a whole lot of prevention right now. Did you know that chronic diseases account for a staggering 90% of our nation's $4.1 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures?[^12]
Talk about a bitter pill to swallow!
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, Alzheimer's, tooth decay - these are just some of the plagues ravaging our people, and far too often, we're bringing them on ourselves.[^9] Couch potato lifestyles, junk food diets, smoking, binge drinking - these vices are robbing us of our health and our futures. It's a national disgrace that one in three young American men are now too fat to fight for their country![^10] Even more alarming, obesity-related illnesses are now costing us over $190 billion per year, and if trends continue, that figure could shoot up to $500 billion by 2030.[^13]
But we can fight back, Patriots! We need to hit unhealthy products where it hurts - in the pocketbook. Slap taxes on sugary drinks, greasy fries, and processed garbage, just like we do with cigarettes and booze. Bring back mandatory PE in schools and make military service a rite of passage to whip our youth into fighting shape. Require annual checkups and teach nutrition in every classroom. The CDC estimates that if we could eliminate just three risk factors - poor diet, inactivity, and smoking - we'd prevent a jaw-dropping 80% of heart disease and stroke, 80% of type 2 diabetes, and 40% of cancer.[^14] Those are battles worth fighting, if you ask me!
And when the time comes, when we're staring down the barrel of a terminal illness, we deserve the right to go out on our own terms, with dignity and faith. No soulless bureaucrat should dictate those intimate moments. That's a decision for patients, their families, and their God. Let the states sort out the details, I say!
I'm counting on you, my Common Sense Patriots, to spread the word about the real state of our healthcare system. Wake up your friends and family to these uncomfortable truths. Fire up that fighting spirit and flood commonsense4america.com with your ideas and battle stories. Together, we can be the rising tide that lifts all boats to a healthier future.
So until next time, when we take on the educational elite and declare our school choice revolution, stay strong, stay loud, and stay proud. Remember, Patriots: better health doesn't start in Washington - it starts with us, in our homes, our schools, and our communities. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors." [^15] Let's take back control of our health, our happiness, and our futures. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America!
Citations:
[^1]: Paine, T. (1776). Common Sense. Philadelphia: W.T. Bradford.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3755/3755-h/3755-h.htm
[^2]: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2022). National Health Expenditure
Data. https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-
and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData
[^3]: Alemayehu, B., & Warner, K. E. (2004). The Lifetime Distribution of Health Care
Costs. Health Services Research, 39(3), 627-642. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-
6773.2004.00248.x
[^4]: Bekelman, J. E., Halpern, S. D., Blankart, C. R., et al. (2016). Comparison of Site
of Death, Health Care Utilization, and Hospital Expenditures for Patients Dying With
Cancer in 7 Developed Countries. JAMA, 315(3), 272-283.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.18603
[^5]: Keisler-Starkey, K., & Bunch, L. N. (2021). Health Insurance Coverage in the
United States: 2020. Current Population Reports, P60-274. U.S. Census Bureau.
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-274.html
[^6]: PwC Health Research Institute. (2021). Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers
2022. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/health-industries/library/behind-the-
numbers.html
[^7]: American Society of Plastic Surgeons. (2020). 2019 Plastic Surgery Statistics.
https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/plastic-surgery-statistics
[^8]: Salamy, S. P. (2020). The Evolution of LASIK. American Academy of
Ophthalmology. https://www.aao.org/eyenet/article/evolution-of-lasik
[^9]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). About Chronic Diseases.
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/index.htm
[^10]: Mission: Readiness. (2010). Too Fat to Fight: Retired Military Leaders Want Junk
Food Out of America's Schools. https://www.strongnation.org/documents/16
[^11]: Himmelstein, D. U., et al. (2019). Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the
Affordable Care Act. American Journal of Public Health, 109(3), 431-433.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304901
[^12]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Health and Economic Costs
of Chronic Diseases. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm
[^13]: Wang, Y. C., et al. (2011). Health and Economic Burden of the Projected Obesity
Trends in the USA and the UK. The Lancet, 378(9793), 815-825.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60814-3
[^14]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). The Power of Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/center/nccdphp/power-of-prevention.html
[^15]: Jefferson, T. (1802, July 12). Letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko. Founders Online,
National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-37-02-0430
