Opinion: NPU Health Legislation Fails Low Income Hutorians
Written by Dr. Jacob Stearns of Jameson University
The National Progressive Union recently tabled a piece of legislation to eliminate private health insurance and widen the public health plan's availability to all. That piece of legislation won't make it through the house as their coalition partners in the Royalist Party have voted with the One Party against it, and Hutori's lowest earners should breathe a collective sigh of relief. Currently about 40 million people are covered by Hutorian Healthcare Insurance (HHI) at no cost, but had the NPU had their way, all of those people would now have to select from a wide range of plans and would have to pay a fee. For a party whose name has Progressive in it, their legislation doesn't quite seem that progressive at all.
Those on the left, or progressives, generally argue for higher taxation on the wealthy and in turn use that money to fund government programs for the poor. However this program would actually benefit the nearly 60 million highest earners in this country while negatively affecting the lowest earners that progressives claim to fight for. In a word, it is hypocritical. Many of these low income Hutorians simply wouldn't be able to afford coverage anymore, and would have to go without. This would lead to many Hutorians having no access to vital medical care.
The bill also argues that the current legislation creates a redundancy in administration costs, which simply isn't true. Hospitals currently send the bill to the patient's insurer, having only one insurer in the nation doesn't really change this at all. A lot of the NPU's defense of the bill relates to saving the government money, but again it simply isn't true. Covering 60 million more people would cost the government more, even if all of those people are paying a fee for the service, unless of course that fee is very high, which again would make it so that many Hutorians simply wouldn't be able to afford coverage.
While many of the arguments in the Nationwide Healthcare Coverage Act have no grounds, I hate to criticize without offering solutions of my own, so here is a solution to the problem the bill correctly pointed out:
- The NPU bill argues that the current legislation creates a perverse incentive for private insurers to save money by rejecting insurance claims, while this is true, there is an easy fix. A new piece of legislation could make it illegal for insurers to reject an applicant based on pre-existing conditions and impose stiff penalties for companies who refuse to provide the coverage that is being paid for.
I believe even the Royalist Party could admit that articles 4 and 5 of the Hutorian Healthcare Act (the articles which enacted the current public health insurance plan and pharmaceutical insurance plan) are't perfect. But the Nationwide Healthcare Coverage Act would only worsen the situation.