America’s health care discussion will not go away

In recent days, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges and admitted to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.

The man revealed how he had posed as an investor to learn Thompson’s location and how quickly his calls were returned when company officials thought he was an investor as opposed to how often his calls were ignored when he was a patient seeking care.

Such stories caused a substantial number of people to see the shooter as a perverse kind of folk hero, administering a kind of rough justice. That surge of support should have shocked all of us. Is this callousness symptomatic of the state of American healthcare?

Healthcare remains near the top of a list of issues that are relevant in any national election and that is true this year as well.

Republicans must defend the decision to not renew Affordable Care Act subsidies and the reductions to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill that are strategically scheduled to kick in after the midterm s. Estimates suggest some 15 million Americans could lose healthcare coverage in the next decade as a result.

For Democrats, there is a different challenge. The gathering strength of the progressive wing of the party almost universally supports what is known as “Medicare for All.”

The debate over some sort of universal healthcare insurance, something other developed democracies settled long ago, has a long history in this country.

The hardships of the Great Depression led a panel of experts to call for universal health insurance in 1932. In its opposition, the American Medical Association characterized it as a choice between “Americanism and Sovietism.”

Harry Truman was the first president to propose a plan of voluntary national health insurance, akin to Barack Obama’s failed “public option,” which again was met with cries of “communism.”

In 1965, with overwhelming majorities in Congress, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law Medicare and Medicaid despite criticism that it was socialism. Actor Ronald Reagan, who vehemently opposed the law, lamented that Americans would spend their sunset years telling their children,” What it was like when men were free.” As president, Reagan tried to control Medicare and Medicaid spending but did not try to repeal either program.

The last attempt to expand healthcare coverage was President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which President Trump tried and failed to repeal. However, the president has done much to cripple it while promising something “better” — a promise he will never fulfill.

In addition to cries of “socialism” conservatives warn against the ruinous cost of “Medicare for All” at a time when the federal debt is at a record, already driven ever higher by surging medical costs. They will point to Vermont’s failed attempt at universal coverage and the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill promises expansive coverage but has no funding mechanism except a vague pledge to tax the rich.

End of discussion?

No, this issue will not go away. Health insurance premiums are up double digits this year. America spends vastly more per capita on healthcare than other countries and sees poorer results. More than half of personal bankruptcies in America are caused by massive medical bills, while millions of people remain uninsured.

Yes, countries with universal health insurance struggle with costs and other problems (long waits, rationing, etc.). However, there is a certain logic to spreading risk in an insurance pool of 342 million. Plenty of studies (see Yale University’s) suggest universal coverage could save billions of dollars.

Candidates for office this fall need to spell out how they would tackle the problems cited above and how they would pay for it. If their glib answers are “more competition” (as rural health centers close) or “tax the rich,” they are not serious.

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.