A Deadly Turn

Col#264-11/16/25

A DEADLY TURN
By
Richard Davis

The day that the government shutdown of 2025 ended was the day that any hope for preserving the quality of life of millions of Americans ended. On the surface, the shutdown was presumably about extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. But there was a lot more at stake.

The Republicans had already had success in shredding the Medicaid program by making sure that millions of people will not be able to access the program. Those changes have not played out yet. When they do, there will be a new epidemic of untreated disease that will have consequences throughout the entire health care industry.

Hospitals will initially see less income because people will feel they can’t afford to get treated for what ails them. Eventually, hospitals and all kinds of related entities will start to trim down and then shut down. This will have a ripple effect on the entire U.S. economy over the next decade. It will be a slow and painful death for much of the American health care system.

Most estimates indicate that the budget bill that was passed a few months ago will cut one trillion dollars from the health care system. Those cuts include Medicare as well as Medicaid. The goal of Republicans is clear. They want to privatize what is left of the American health care system and eventually eliminate any government role in the provision of health care.

We have been down this road before and it has not always been a totally Republican led effort. Democratic presidents have supported the Medicare Advantage program over the years. That program pushes Medicare enrollees into the private marketplace and it has been very popular.

The success of Medicare Advantage is being threatened and insurance companies are starting to drop these plans because they will no longer be able to continue to reap obscene levels of profit because of legislative changes. It seemed like a good turn of events, but the bigger picture shows something different. Despite a decrease in the utilization of Medicare Advantage the entire insurance industry may get a big boost from other Republicans efforts at privatization.

The future looks grim for at least the next two years. Even if the Democrats take over congress or the White House the changes that the current administration makes will take years to reverse. Considering the lack of backbone of the current Democratic party it is possible that even if they take power, they will not tinker with a more privatized health insurance system.

All other industrialized countries in the world have taken different routes when it comes to the provision of health insurance and health care. They, with the exception of the U.S., have determined that health care is a human right and something that government should take the responsibility of providing to its citizens.

Some countries have taken a purely socialized medicine route and others have created hybridized systems that use some free market aspects. They all make health care affordable for their citizens and no one in these countries has to have a bake sale or set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay a medical bill.

Now that the Republicans have beaten the Democrats into submission over health care they will march on. There is supposed to be a vote in congress in December to restore Affordable Care Act subsidies. The outcome of that is obvious, whether or not the vote happens. It seems like a stretch that Republicans could totally privatize Medicaid and Medicare in the next two years but who ever thought that Trump would be doing all of the insane things he continues to do?