Congress's role in the implementation of Universal Healthcare

Despite the increased rallying by Americans for universal healthcare, we have made seemingly negligible progress towards such a system. Considering that most other developed nations have some form of universal healthcare, it feels like a simple problem that should have a simple solution, but that the people in power just don’t want to afford us universal healthcare. That is unfortunately not the case, as there are too many seats at the table, too many conflicting interests, and too many systems and subsystems in place for universal healthcare to be implemented with a simple signature or with relative ease. The only institution that can realistically prompt the implementation of universal healthcare system nationally is Congress, the legislative branch of government, through creating the laws that will usher in the framework for universal healthcare. In this blog, I will further be discussing why and how Congress impedes progress towards Universal Healthcare ranging from composition of opposing factions to some of the economics.

Congress as a whole unit is extremely powerful, arguably more powerful than the other branches of government, as Congress create the laws which all Americans must follow. Owing to the fact that Congress is so powerful, it is justly divided into two factions, one being the Senate (2 representatives per state) and the other being the House of Representatives (number of representatives based on size of each state’s population), which constitutes to a total of 535 members of Congress. Parties, interest groups, and voters/citizens all influence members of Congress in their vote choices, and members also compromise and negotiate with one another to reach agreements. Every decision made affects some group, so naturally every group wants their voice heard. In short, for a bill to be passed, it must go through a committee and subcommittee, and then it’s voted on, then repeats the cycle in the other chamber, then a final conference between both chambers to solidify a proposal. (Genome.gov.) Universal healthcare is convoluted as it is, as there can be multiple ways of going about attaining it with multiple possible forms. Having every single component being agreed upon by a majority in every single step of the proposal becoming a law is incredibly difficult, so must be tactfully crafted at the start. Conclusively, the reason any form of universal is having trouble being passed is because there are too many hoops and opposition to go through because of all of the different interest groups represented in Congress and all of the stages.

One of the reasons that no significant progress is being made is because of the inadequate allocation of funding and taxation by Congress. Another ability of Congress is to appropriate spending for any fiscal policy measures, meaning that “Congress can raise and provide public money and oversee its proper expenditure”. (Casey.senate.gov)  Specifically,  Article I, Section 8 is what gives Congress the power to “lay and collect axes, duties, imports, and excises.” The Constitution allows Congress to tax in order to “provide for the common defense and general welfare. Congress has the power to set the stage for universal healthcare by increasing taxes on the wealthy, regulating drug prices (through taxation), and redistribution of wasted expenditure towards a universal healthcare (Here is a breakdown of our 2018 expenditure, nearly 50% towards defense). As suggested in my source, Congress has the power to influence the spending of the government, so I am advocating for us to allocate some of the defense budget towards healthcare along with the added taxes from the uber rich because as it stands now, prioritizing the interests of the wealthy is a massive roadblock for universal healthcare.

Another of the reasons no progress is being made is because congress members generally have to stick with what their constituents voted them in for. So even if bills are proposed that would benefit the majority of citizens, congress members are still generally tied to their constituents’ will. ( Openstax, TYPES OF REPRESENTATION: LOOKING OUT FOR CONSTITUENTS)It should be noted that it is not absolute; it is just a trend that if not followed risks losing standing after term. Because of each respective member’s insistence to get their way on behalf of their represented, mostly simple laws are likely to get passed, as complicated ones might rub too many shoulders wrongly. The point being made here is that congress people are usually firm to their base, and it is related to stopping the implementation of Universal healthcare because too many congress people are firm in their rejection of anything progressive in regards to UH, as their base generally is(earlier we established that Americans are anti-intellectual, so they view “handouts” poorly).

So in summary, Universal Healthcare is held back by the fact there are so many hands (conflict of interest at the table) coupled with so many hoops, the fact that Congress is putting too little pressure on the wealthy, and the fact that representatives in Congress generally have to stick with what their constituents voted them in for. My first source stresses the lengthiness of the legislative process and all of the checks “yes” it has to go through, it would fall under social of our group concept map, as we are working on how the system of legislation is run(all the steps listed in source 1). My second source digs into the power that Congress has over our economics, and I supplement it with my 3rd source to suggest an improved allocation of their funding. They would fall under resources of our group concept map, as we determine how we pay for it with source 3(reallocation of funding) and who pays for it(prompting the wealthy to pay through taxes). The final source has to do with both mental and social, as both constituents and their representatives believe that they generally have to meet eye to eye, effectively being a political culture.  And although the abilities of congress are pivotal to the implementation of universal healthcare, but other factions both regional and local also fall into play and can’t be overlooked.

#medicareforall #universalhealthcare