FLIP SIDE: Rich could solve health care crisis

By Daphne Drohobyczer
The Scene staff

Dear “Doctor” Donald Trump:

You’re trying to eliminate Obamacare and replace it with legislation that would cut coverage to millions. The existing law is the best thing to come along thus far, providing relatively affordable coverage to working people, a goal stated by another Republican president, Richard Nixon, in 1972.

In an address to Congress, he said, “An all-directions reform of our health care system — so that every citizen will be able to get quality health care at reasonable cost regardless of income and regardless of area of residence — remains an item of highest priority on my unfinished agenda for America in the 1970s.”

Because I think that health care is a bare necessity for all Americans, I have a proposal to make: universal health care for all. It would be bolstered by something we’ll call “The Physicians List.”

Insurance costs could be supplemented by a voluntary group of very wealthy individuals who would designate a specific amount of money to help fund not only medicine but also research and pharmaceutical production.

Wealthy individuals could choose to be listed on The Physician’s List or to remain anonymous. They could be listed with the businesses they are associated with. Linking corporations to their founders or CEOs might generate even more revenue from consumers thankful of their generosity for making a contribution through The Physicians List.

When communities see who is paying for some of their health care, they are more apt to patronize those businesses. As business and revenue increase, more money is produced for the greater good.

Let’s face a worn-out fact: Rich people know how to get richer, turning people’s pennies into half dollars. The Physicians List would allow the rich to expand their wealth, making it easier to share that wealth and provide a big boost to a shrinking middle class.

Having grown up with parents who are from Europe, we relish the fact that universal health care can exist in the post-modern United States of America. We are the richest country in the world, rivaling countries like the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. Why the heck are we not providing health care to all Americans, while simultaneously cashing out doctors with with huge salaries and allowing pharmaceutical companies to gouge consumers?!

Every other modernized country in the world provides low-cost health care, so why not us? We are all aware that President Trump wants to make America great again, and a key element is our birthright to health care.

Millions of employees who lack insurance through their employer are hurting; so are those who are disabled or make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Even citizens who are covered are getting squeezed by higher deductibles and soaring medical costs.

There is no excuse for the health of American citizens to be compromised because they lack insurance or can’t afford it. GOP presidents, including Nixon and two Bushes, have touted the sanctity of American life. The challenge for contemporary Republicans to advance this goal.

The Physician’s List is a hand up and not a handout, a win-win for all Americans.