$$$ for Healthcare

$$$$ for Healthcare
By Barb Anderson
The cost of medical care in the U. S. is always a topic of discussion. It is higher than most other industrialized countries, and the results are not nearly so good for longevity and infant mortality. When the subject of universal healthcare comes up, we are told it is just too expensive. Besides, we don't need it because most people can get healthcare if they want to work  for  it.  Yet we all know that millions   of people even with "Obamacare" do not have access to healthcare. Many of those same people who are saying healthcare costs too much or everyone should not just get it automatically are willing to continue the terrible cost of war to support the Pentagon and related groups.
The last excuse I got was they were protecting us from all the bad things out there! Yet when the healthcare within their community is dealing with the bad things, it is accepted as part of life. Even those wounded warriors who are home but still in healthcare crises cannot depend on the government. This is the same government that could afford to send them into  harm's way but cannot afford to bring them all the way to good health once they are home.      What kind of country – are we?
Healthcare should be  considered a civil right, not something you have to beg for, work a certain job for, or prove yourself  in some way for.
Those  in power only seem to see power and the problem of holding  onto  that  power,  which  costs more  than  any  single payer  healthcare would  cost-something  that  would  protect the  American  people  better  than the  power  struggle  does. We  are told  this is to  protect  us  from those  bad  people.   I think  those  in power  are  holding  onto  it because  it  brings money  to  the table.   In  our great  market  system,  money  is more   important   than   people and   their   healthcare.     This
would be strongly denied, but I think actions speak more loudly than words.
There is always going to be an enemy for the military industrial complex to worry us about. The problem is are we ever  going  to  see  all  of  our citizens as the most important thing      to      worry     about?
Healthcare is something we can give to all citizens, but that won't bring money to the table unless the insurance companies are in charge, which is the problem with the ACA. Wars and the military do bring money to the table, or they will continue to look for money on the table by telling us how awful everyone who is against us is. I am not nai"ve, and I know that the war ISIS is waging is terrible. But the dollars that both corporations and the military receive are used also as a means of telling us that they are taking good care of us and therefore we cannot afford universal healthcare, free adequately funded education, better roads, a clean environment, etc., etc., etc.
FDR said, ''The only thing to fear is fear itself." The market economy is making sure we are scared of our own shadows. That gives the military and their corporate enablers the power and the money that goes with it.
Single payer healthcare will put that money to better use for the general welfare of all our citizens and decrease the unquestioned power of the military.