Its been a while since I've written about politics. Last time on May 23rd this year, and before that, November 5th last year. So this time: Health Insurance.

America is facing a massive problem. We currently have an industry that survives by making people pay to continue living. Now, I understand that medicine has costs, but if you do the math, the cost of health insurance, while better than paying yourself, is higher than it has to be to take care of people.

Because of the high cost of health insurance, people like me (poor college student) have trouble paying for it. I live with my parents, so their insurance covers me as long as I'm in school. Once I'm out, I'll be doing what I can to get my career started (I'm trying now, but the republican economy is worthless...I'll need to have my degree at this rate if I want to be hired).

From about.com:
“The most recent figures are from 2005, and indicate that the average individual’s job-based premiums were $3,991 that year, while families spent an average of $10,728.”

With our current system, I'd be looking at that $3,991 per year. Odds are, with low income starting out, student loans to pay, and obviously cost of living issues, I won't be able to afford that. Turns out that 10's of millions of Americans are with me there. Since when is being wealthy a prerequisite for life?

And for many people, it really does help them stay alive. I have some kind of chronic condition. We don't know what it is. I've been fairly sick for years. Once I'm out of school, there's the issue of getting my own insurance. I have a "pre-existing condition", though we don't know what it is. I won't be able to afford the grossly overstated prices that health insurance companies charge. Untreated, the conditions we're testing for could make me very sick, or even kill me if they continue to get worse.

The solution to the problem is a system that doesn't have this problem. Corporations, by law, must attempt to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. Health insurance companies are incorporated. Basically, using our lives to extort massive profits out of us is what they do to fulfill their legal obligations. The system itself doesn't work.

We need a system that does not have incentives or requirements that cause prices to go up more than costs. Government systems are the best answer, simply because the government is not for profit.

Now, I know what those stupid commercials keep saying. "If you go to Canada, you'll see that people have to wait a lot for medical procedures." Remember how I said I have a chronic condition? Well I waited two months to see a gastroenterologist. After that, I was told it would be about 6 months more before we could do the procedure that would check for a certain condition that this might be. This is in the USA. I know one person on DA (I forget who) waited a similar amount of time to see a dermatologist.

So what is it that makes Canada's system so bad? It can't be the wait, since we already have that. In fact, it seems like its not so bad.

The final issue with the system is funding. Once we establish that it is the best option to bring the government into the game, we have to figure out how to pay for everything. Obama's people have estimated that this will cost $1 trillion over 10 years, or $100 billion per year. That sure sounds like a lot. There's a big fight in Washington right now about how to fund this thing. The thing I have to wonder is....why?

Is it hard to do division when the numbers have 12 digits? Did everyone in congress fail math? Or maybe there's something I'm missing, because it seems very easy to fund this, assuming these estimates are accurate.

Lets do the math that other people haven't done. $100 billion per year is our starting point. Last July (2008), the US population was at 304,059,724 people. This includes children, but I will assume that parents pay for the children. Divide $100 billion by 304,059,724 people and you get $328.88 per person per year. Divide by 12 and you get $27.41 per month per person. Not so bad, eh?

So if each American paid $27.41 per month (and parents cover kids), then the system is 100% funded. There is one more issue we have to address. What I'm talking about is the issue of people who can not pay. That number ($27.41) can fund the system only if each American can pay. What we need to do is find a number that can fund it even if some can't pay.

Let's start with a nice round number. $50 per person per month. Its not bad, considering Americans pay, on average, $3,991 per year for individual coverage. That means $600 per person per year, compared with the number I just mentioned. Obviously, the cheaper one is the preferable option, when we're talking about people who can't afford the existing system. A lot more people would be able to pay into the system than what we currently have.

So what does that $50 a month do? If each American paid into the system at that rate, then each month, we'd take in $15,252,986,200. Now, if we believe the estimates the government has provided, then what we need each month is $8,361,687,034.84. What we need is only 54.82% of what we'd be taking in in this situation. What that means is that 45.18% of Americans could be completely unable to pay even a penny, and still the system would work. So a system like this could run even if 137 million people were unable to pay. If we also take into account people who can only pay some of that cost, the system is even more well taken care of.

Now, if I remember correctly, Obama said something recently about 2/3 of the cost of this system being covered by commitments by healthcare providers and drug companies to lower costs. I didn't even take that into account, and it already sounds affordable. If we take into account the massive savings that we get from eliminating corporate greed, the system gets easier and easier to fund.

At this point, we can massively increase what it costs and what we charge without coming close to what the insurance industry currently charges. This means that the estimates for the cost of the system could be tripled and yet we could still fund it at a better price than what insurance really charges.

So the only question left is....why aren't we there already?