If you don’t want Washingtonians to experience the healthcare access problems, waitlists, lack of choice, high taxes and rationing practices that people in countries with taxpayer-funded universal healthcare experience, you should be part of a conversation that’s happening right now in Washington state.
A Universal Health Care Commission (UHCC) was set into motion with legislation in 2021. Its charge is to pave a path toward government-run health care for all Washingtonians. The group meets regularly — and it hears regularly from proponents of socialized medicine with little to no contrary thought. (Thanks is due Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax. He's a commission member who regularly asks inconvenient questions that show how a socialized system is not all unicorns and rainbows, and his questions expose how far the UHCC actually is from figuring out how to manage such a system — and how to pay for it.)
The commission’s next meeting is Thursday, June 18, from 2 to 5 p.m. Look here to find meeting materials and see ways to submit comments or attend the meeting online or in person.
You can expect a good turnout from activists with formal groups that support universal, taxpayer-financed, government-run healthcare. They typically show up and tell the commission to hurry up and make Washington the first state in the nation with a socialized system. Several people from a group called Whole Washington will be there to give public comment. In addition to influencing lawmakers on the regular, they have their sights on a 2028 initiative to try and enact a taxpayer-financed system. People who are similarly supportive from Health Care for All will likely show. That group takes a bow on its webpage for successful advocacy on issues that include protecting rural and reproductive healthcare to helping pass the income tax in the latest legislative session.
Concerns I have about taxpayer-funded, government-run systems are usually not presented, even though I hear from numerous people with stories about troubles patients have with socialized medicine. There are wait lists, there is rationing. A two-tiered system often materializes. People with more money cross their country’s borders to receive needed care.
High taxes and the stamp “universal” does not bring health care for all.
Trading one bad system for another is not going to get us where we want to be with decisions made closer to doctors and patients. No one cares about a patient’s health as much as the patient. And we need more competition and more payers, not fewer of them, to bring down prices and improve choice. But these ideas are not discussed by the UHCC. Their charge is “to establish a universal system of health care for all residents.”
Most commission members hope to fulfill the mission-impossible. At the most recent UHCC meeting, commission members discussed starting the state off with a universal, taxpayer-financed primary care system, leaving emergency and specialty care out of the equation for now. Proponents of the idea say it’s a good transitional step, and one that will get us closer to the legislative goal of seeing more state spending go toward primary care. I think it’s the latest step toward the wrong goal, but not for the reasons that universal fans were also down on the idea.
One Whole Washington member suggested the universal primary care exploration would divert the commission’s energy and focus from the full meal deal. Kathryn Lewandowsky, the vice chair of Whole Washington, said she was concerned about the universal primary care idea in part because it didn’t fully do away with insurance companies. She said, “It continues to force Washingtonians to deal with for-profit health insurance companies for emergency and specialty care where we have no ability to have any real choice in who those companies are.” She added, “When choice is taken away from consumers, it removes an important aspect of capitalism that powers the market to lower costs and improve customer services, including quality of services.” Wait. Was she endorsing a free-market system of healthcare?
Research shows access, choice and quality suffer in socialized systems. Care is rationed.
We also won't solve healthcare affordability problems with such a system. Demand will outstrip supply, and Washington state will always need more money if it chooses to adopt a taxpayer-financed system. Lawmakers are unable to handle spending choices now, and the state is in a continual cycle of budget deficit.
Putting the state on a fast or slow track to a single-payer system is not the right solution, but it’s the one majority lawmakers are into. I think the state needs an FHCC, a free-market healthcare commission. If you agree, enter the discussion.
