What part of the US constitution allows Bernie Sander's programs? Why should we have a single payer system when the VA is a single payer system and lets down our veterans?
This is the age-old argument about the limits of the Constitution.Does the Constitution grant power to government or grant rights to people?
In this case, I would argue that it does not matter, In the preamble of the constitution it reads:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (x)
We establish this Constitution to promote the general Welfare, it is explicit in the text. People may argue what general Welfare means. to better understand the framing of those words at the time, let’s look at Dictionary of the English language by Samuel Johnson (1768). To place some context of timing, The constitution was written in 1787 and would be ratified by 1788 and would be put into effect by 1789, making this the dictionary closest in time-period to the Constitution.
General: the whole, in totality
Welfare: happiness, prosperity
At the time the Constitution was written, those words would have been perceived to mean to promote happiness and prosperity of the whole of the People of the United States of America.
Universal Healthcare would eliminate the number one reason for bankruptcy in the United States, Medical Bills.
A free college education would reduce the fastest growing type of debt, Student Loans.
Do those two things not promote the prosperity of the whole, if they are given to all equally?
On the VA, Republicans have consistently cut funding to Veterans programs, including the VA.
So it seems disingenuous to call into question why the VA is failing while there is a history of lack of support. It is also interesting how you do not bring up the largest single payer healthcare system in the US, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services(CMS).
This is likely because it is difficult to find a compelling argument for your side here:
Cost rises more slowly for CMS (4.3% a year) than for private insurance (6.3% per year)
CMS costs is projected to continue rising at a slower rate than private insurance for the next 30 years
Administrative costs are only 2.7% for the CMS while it is 17% for private insurance.
It seems to me that a single payer system is still superior, especially since the Kaiser Family foundation concluded:
In most local markets, providers have monopoly power. Consequently, private insurers lack the bargaining power to contain prices.
In most areas, two or three dominant insurers dominate the regional market, limit competition and make it extremely difficult if not impossible for new insurers to enter the marketplace and stimulate price competition.
Medicare Advantage, which enrolls seniors in private health plans, has failed to deliver care more efficiently than traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Both the CBO and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the commission which advises congress on Medicare’s finances, have calculated that Medicare Advantage plans covering the same care as traditional Medicare cost 12 percent more
Karen Ignagni, who heads America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry’s trade association, has admitted that private plans cannot bargain down provider costs and has asked Washington to intervene.
Even private insurers are looking for the government to step in and help them on their pricing, why not just cut the profit centers out of the deal and save that money?
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