The defunding of Medicaid as a result of the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill puts at risk the healthcare coverage of about 17 million Americans in addition to necessary funding for rural hospitals and the majority of nursing home patients.
While many will be left without an option, the alternative should not be a reliance on the privatized healthcare model, the very system that often denies Americans the coverage they need or leaves many individuals with crippling debt. The issue is that the private model is structured like a business with the primary intention of generating profit for shareholders. It operates as a for-profit industry, and the best way to generate those profits is to up-charge, under provide, and deny claims. It’s a business, a commodity, an investment opportunity.
How Private Healthcare is modeled
A universal option is not out of reach for Americans. The U.S. is the only OECD nation without universal healthcare, a structure which in many other countries provides citizens with better healthcare outcomes at a much lower cost. A universal system would be significantly cheaper than the common employer provided private option by almost half a trillion dollars.
Americans currently spend roughly 4.5 trillion for healthcare every year, while a universal solution would drop it to just over 4 trillion. That means the average cost that each person pays would drop by approximately $1,500 every year while also providing better outcomes. This universalized system would cut out administrative costs, bureaucracy and paperwork, cut the cost of medicine and care, and would be far more accessible for every American. No premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. Additionally, It would not be able to deny lifesaving or preventative care and would give Americans direct access to services that are often denied under the current model.
While some may fear that universalizing healthcare would overburden the system, this is a fear that is already being realized under the current structure. Due to medicaid cuts as a result of the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, hospitals face funding shortages which will impact staffing, access to resources, and overall performance. A Hospital in rural Nebraska has already announced its imminent closure due to a foreseeable lack in funding from the passage of this bill. This will push more demand to hospitals in more dense regions who likewise, will face similar funding cuts. Hospitals across the country will face even more strain on an already failing system. On the other hand, the establishment of a universal option would ensure a well funded healthcare system and would ensure access to a hospital within reach for every American.
Americans can either continue paying large sums to private corporations and still get denied claims, over priced drugs, and obnoxious paperwork, or pay far less for a service that is practically free at the point of use. This system would treat healthcare as a human right, not an investment opportunity. It would provide reliable access to a wide variety of health services ranging from preventative care, to personalized health consultations with trained professionals, to cheaper and readily accessible medication and treatments, to a lack of denials for any healthcare need.
Rather, our government is choosing to provide tax cuts to the richest billionaires instead of using that money to provide Americans with a system that would guarantee cheap and effective Medicare for all.
Zinnia 
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