Donald Trump’s promise of health care for everyone has run headlong into the Republican Party’s entrenched enchantment with small government, tax cuts, personal freedom and “the free market.” Another obstacle is the insurance industry’s ties to the powerful world of high finance where profit and high CEO compensation are the prime directives, and this carries over to pharmaceutical companies and medical suppliers and providers.
Health care for everyone and private, for-profit enterprise do not mix easily. If President Trump and Mr. Bannon truly wish to disrupt the status quo, this would be a good place for their focus. A national health care system of clinics, hospitals and doctors — whose funding and education is provided by the government and backed up by private supplemental insurance — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All, is the only viable approach to fulfilling Trump’s promise.
Robert Porath, Boulder
