To: President Donald Trump, The California State House, The California State Senate, Governor Gavin Newsom, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Medicare for all 2 - 7 Plan
Expand Medicare to cover all within five years. Pay for it by making the Medicare tax progressive: 4% for most people up to 7% for the highest earners. Employers pay twice what their employees pay (minimum 8%). People making less than $40K/yr pay 2 - 4%, while their employers pay the 8% minimum. Lower the overall cost of medical care through health and nutrition promotion programs, bulk medicine purchase discounts, and subsidizing medical schools to bring down the salaries of doctors.
Why is this important?
Millions of lives and our economy as a whole are being ruined due to the stranglehold of the insurance companies and the drug companies on our health care system. As a percentage of gross domestic product, we spend twice the average of other comparable countries on health care and get the worst results for it. (the absolute worst of other comparable countries) I waste time and money making unnecessary appointments with my primary care physician in order to see a specialist, and too many of the doctors that I do see are obviously in it more for the money than for the vocation. Millions of dollars and millions of hours of labor are wasted on paperwork to prop up an untenable system that benefits very few. We all live in fear of a health crisis ruining our finances. The issue is not really that complicated and the solution is simple, but nobody in Washington is going near it. Let's present them with something. We pay 1.45% tax our entire working lives in order to have health care when we retire. Why not pay 4% instead and have health care now and forever, for us and our children? (happy side effect: my plan's 14% surtax on exorbitant salaries will help keep that scourge in check as well)