Meredith C. Ryan is like the majority of Americans who must intersect with our health care system at some time in their lifetime.. Unless you are lucky to work for a large company with corporate subsidized health insurance, accessing health care is frustrating and sometimes impossible. Meredith cannot wait for Single-Payer Medicare for All to come to fruition.
Meredith C. Ryan wants Single-Payer Medicare for All now
Every day Meredith gets to Starbucks early in the morning. More often than not, when I show up to do my first blog of the morning between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, most patrons have taken all the tables I want. Meredith would clear a little spot allowing me to blog until a table in “my section” avails itself.
Meredith is a Type 1 diabetic. Before the Affordable Care Act, she spent 10 years uninsured. Either the cost of health insurance was too high or they would not insure someone with a preexisting condition. While the Affordable Care Act gave her a new lease on life, its reliance on the market-based private insurance system means it is not only expensive but very inefficient.
Because of the convoluted nature of private health insurance, Meredith had difficulty finding out exactly who incorrectly billed her. At the time of the video, she was getting ready for her second conference call with two different companies to get the erroneous item removed. Her frustration was palpable.
“This healthcare system that we built out of pillars of nine million things, nine million different companies is stupid in the extreme,” Meredith said. “Medicare for all will wipe out all of this. … They are selling us a bill of goods and I am tired of it.”
Meredith is absolutely correct. We allow the plutocracy to lie to us. We allow them to suspend our sense of logic or our mathematical skills. It is impossible mathematically all else equal that hundreds of companies with all the overhead that comes with each organization could somehow provide less expensive service. It makes no sense. Additionally, private healthcare companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, not to you. A Single-Payer Medicare for All system run by “we the people,” our government is much more efficient.
Check out the town hall we had in Houston a few months ago that is sure to enlighten. Share it to get the awareness of Americans up.