Here’s to your Health

The truth is that We Do Not Have a Health Care System.

What America has is a health care puzzle. We have a bunch of antiquated pieces cobbled together in a process that was not thought out, nor integrated. There is the Veterans System, as well as the Indian Health Care System, as well as Disability, and various types of Medicare and Medicaid, the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Affordable Health Care subsidies, The Military Healthcare Services, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Substance Abuse and Mental health Services (SAMHSA), the Ryan White program, the Community Health Care clinic system… The majority of these programs are functional and helpful. But collectively they contribute to our Federal Deficit by the tune of around $1.6 trillion every year - making it the largest category by far of federal spending. This is a mess.

There is no need to eliminate anything. We believe that it makes sense to create an integrated system and streamline all of these bits and pieces under one organized plan or plans This would be studied and carefully implemented. The result would be more efficient and lead to better care - especially for the IHS and Veterans Systems who suffer from staff shortages and limitations.

This has nothing to do with the insurance healthcare system. This is just streamlining for Federal moneys.

Currently there are around 28 million people in the US with no medical coverage. Between 2025 and 2031 the number of uninsured is expected to balloon by 16% to nearly a tenth of the population including many who are the poorest and most prone to illness.

Yet the cost is staggering. Medicare currently costs $865 billion every year, Medicaid costs $618 billion. ACA and chip costs $141 billion. The VA is 153 billion per year and combined with all other programs it account for over a trillion dollars of the budget every year. Roughly 25% of the federal budget is for medical coverage. It is hard to convey how massive this is - It is the elephant in the room.. And it is going to get bigger. By 2031 medical costs are destined to be 6.4% of our GDP.

What we truly can not afford to do is …. nothing.

The cost savings need to happen. The organizations needs to happen.

Let’s think about it logically and organize the various federal health programs into a health care system that works for everyone.