Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

By Britt Nelson

“United we stand, divided we fall.” How many times have we heard that one?

Politically the United States of America is split with Democrats fighting Republicans at fever pitch. Not much has changed in the U.S. Congress other than the Republicans having the upper hand. It’s sad to see America as divided as it is as President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday.

Democrats are spewing out scare tactics concerning the repeal of the Affordable Care Act by the Republicans which is well underway in the U.S. Congress. President Obama’s attempt at a health care system has been a failure, and its goodbye ObamaCare – much to the dismay of the Democrats. Trump and the Republicans campaigned heavily against ObamaCare and won the presidency in the process and the U.S. Senate, and kept control of the U.S. House of Representatives. So change is in the air with health care in America. Trump needs to deliver a replacement national health care system — that 20 million Americans now enrolled in ObamaCare — can actually afford.

The ultimate gift to the American people from the U.S. Government representing ‘We the People’ would be a single-payer system in which the government reorganizes its priorities and pays the nation’s health care bills and contain the cost. For decades the nation’s health care bills have spiraled upwards leaving many uninsured or paying high premiums with deductibles so high that the coverage is useless except in the most extreme cases of sickness or accident.

According to the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, other counties such as Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Ireland and Denmark have success in providing universal health care to their citizens, so why can’t the United States? As of 2009, at least 58 countries offered some form of universal health care to their citizens.

Even little old Costa Rica has had public universal health care for decades for its citizens and qualified foreign residents, who pay a monthly fee based on income. This health care system is funded by a 15-percent payroll tax, pensioner payments and sales taxes on luxury goods, according to Wikipedia. But doctors, nurses and other medical professionals in Costa Rica do not earn the same income as their counterparts in the USA.

“The reason why U.S. government health care is so big already, without achieving universal coverage, is we heavily subsidize health coverage for Americans with high incomes, while leaving many Americans with low incomes unsubsidized,” said Avik Roy, in a recent article published in Forbes Magazine. “If we had a true safety net, in which we helped the poor and sick get coverage – while letting the wealthy buy health care in the free market – we’d spend a fraction of what we do today.”

Health care affects everyone and providing universal health care to every citizen should be the highest of government priorities. Those citizens with income above a certain level should pay for their own private health insurance plan, for those citizens below a certain income level health coverage should be free with no premiums and no deductibles.

It’s up to the new Trump administration and the U.S. Congress to show some guts and enact a sensible bi-partisan solution to health care in America. There are entire government agencies, with huge budgets, that could be eliminated such as the U.S. Department of Education. It’s all about government priorities verses powerful special interests such as the insurance industry, big ‘pharma’ and the American Medical Association. It’s all about the cost of medical care in a complex world of technology, medical advances and new discoveries that save lives. It’s all about you and your family, your children, your parents, your co-workers and your neighbors. It’s all about everyone without color or creed. Access to universal health care for U.S. citizens should be a guarantee of the U.S. Constitution. It’s all about priorities.

All eyes are on the U.S. Congress and the new Trump administration to see what develops in the coming weeks with replacement health care coverage. Will a universal health care plan emerge? Probably not, but anything short of a complete revolution in the health care industry simply will not fly with voters.

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.