Bernie Sanders on healthcare

Health Care is relatively simple when it comes to Sanders' plan.  That plan is a single payer health care system.  So how will that work.  Basically it is Medicare, but it will cover people of all ages, and help deal with Dental, Optical, and long-term and short term care.  All aspects of health care will be covered by this single system.  Based on what Sanders has on his sight, government will set the standards for what constitutes a doctor and the training they require.  This nationalization will most likely apply to Pharmacists and all other health professionals as well.  Likewise, this may mean that drug companies or aspects of the drug companies may be nationalized.  Sanders points out that they will be able to negotiate for lower drug prices because of this, but last this author checked (as I work as a pharmaceutical technician) we inhibit some drug companies from selling their drugs cheaper by adding unnecessary safety standards, requiring drugs to be prescription when they need not to be, and the FDA limits the production on how many drugs can be produced per year thus increasing the cost of drugs.  So government is at least a part of the reason our drug costs are so high in my experience.  But Sanders basically nationalizing them effectively does the same thing it does already so there will be little to no changes there in my opinion with respect to prices. The main advantage to the plan though is that you can go anywhere to any doctor and still have coverage in this one size fits all system as Bernie points out that our system may cause people with the same coverage and condition to be treated differently (I personally think this is what's supposed to happen as each person's body is different and that treating them the same can potentially put people at risk of staying unhealthy and worse).  Sanders though wants to focus on preventative medicine so as to reduce costs in the long run which also makes sense, but how his system will do that without providing incentives to the people to come in for checkups regularly, exercise, or just eat healthy is entirely unclear.  You see without these incentives to enhance or create this preventative care system people will not participate.  Also you actually end up increasing costs using a preventative care model for it costs more to test and evaluate people on a regular basis to try and catch a disease or condition before it starts than it is to treat the condition.  So personally, I think empowering people with medical knowledge on how to screen themselves for cancers and awareness programs work better all the while actually finding a cure, but this is just my two cents.  

Final Thought:  Overall, Sanders wants to mimic the European healthcare model with a single payer health care system.  Problem I have with it is that government chooses what will and will not be covered and thus people may lose access to certain forms of treatment for it will not be affordable like it is here in the U.S. currently.  Also, our health insurance premiums are high because it is not built around selling to individual people, but instead built around selling to businesses.  So if the Republicans have their way by reversing the status quo, then we will have at the very least cheap health insurance.  To me, a single payer system where healthcare is rationed based on a government's budget is the wrong approach despite all the advantages it may have.  Instead a personal system where we can treat ourselves and only go to a doctor when we have a health issue we cannot handle ourselves is the way to go in my view.  So, yea I am critical of Sanders here, but I work in the current system and see where it can be improved and even fixed.  But if you like Sanders' version of health care, then he is your guy.  Hope you enjoyed the read, and may the best candidate win.