Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Howard Speaks

Universal Health Insurance
& Dentistry



Howard Farran, DDS,
MBA, MAGD
Publisher,
Dentaltown Magazine 		America’s first greatest socialist president Franklin D. Roosevelt could hear the loud cries of the tired, poor, huddled masses of workers and he knew they wanted four rights.
  1. When workers were building railroads for Leland Stanford and John Hopkins and were injured on the job, they were fired! They wanted workers compensation instead. Today workers compensation is not a benefit it is a statutory right.
  2. When workers were laid off when the transcontinental railroad was finished at Promontory, Utah, when Stanford drove the last spike, thousands of workers were left in the middle of nowhere and unemployed. Workers wanted a little income until they could find another job, or at the very least get back to San Francisco. Today unemployment insurance and benefits are not benefits they are statutory rights.
  3. When workers were too old to work, they were fired and most turned to begging; they wanted a pension. The Social Security Act was signed by FDR on August 15, 1935. Today a retirement pension is not a benefit it is a statutory right.
  4. When workers got sick they wanted universal healthcare insurance so they could afford to see their physician. Out of the four benefits FDR knew the people wanted, this is the only one that he could not get passed. The physicians lobby was too powerful.
America’s second greatest socialist president was a young man named John F. Kennedy. His goal was to complete the fourth leg of the socialist movement and implement universal health coverage. Kennedy was assassinated, but his work was signed into law by his successor Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy and Johnson weren’t able to achieve total universal healthcare coverage, but they got their proverbial foot in the door with coverage for the elderly called Medicare. Today, Medicare for the elderly is not a benefit, it is a statutory right.

The states followed Kennedy and Johnson’s lead for the elderly and passed Medicaid for the poor. Today, Medicaid is not a benefit for the poor, it is a statutory right. Medicare and Medicaid both cover about 30 percent of all Americans. So today we do have universal healthcare for one third of our population; the retired elderly and the poor. Someday, sooner rather than later, another great socialist will get elected, and as I write this today it looks like Hillary Clinton could be that person; but whomever it turns out to be, he or she could try to expand Medicare and Medicaid into one big plan and to make sure it covers every single American.

When you look around the world almost all of your powerhouse democracies are socialist and provide universal health insurance for all of their citizens; Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and on and on and on. America will be no different; it’s just a matter of time.

How Can America Afford Universal Health Care Insurance?

We already spend more on health care as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) than any other country. In 2005, the United States spent 16 percent GDP on health care which reached $2 trillion, which was four times what America spent on defense. Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France. We are already spending enough money to cover everyone, so we just need to figure out how we can actually do it. The United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations insuring all of its citizens, yet we have nearly 45 million people (nearly one out of every six Americans) who are uninsured.
Many Americans falsely and absurdly believe that America’s free enterprise pharmaceuticals invent all of the world’s new drugs, but this is absurd. There are more biotech startups in Europe than in the United States. Japan is a major source of new biotech developments. Plenty of pharmaceutical research is done outside the U.S.

The number-two pharmaceutical company in the world, GlaxoSmithKline, is British.

The number-three pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-Aventis, is French.

The number-four pharmaceutical company, Novartis, is Swiss along with number-five, Hoffman-La Roche.

The number-six, Astra-Zeneca, is Anglo-Swedish.

Europe’s combined research and development spending on pharmaceuticals is slightly higher than the American companies that make up the balance of the top 10.

Why Universal Health Care Insurance Will Pass

We have been moving in a socialist direction since the days of FDR. Survey after survey after survey shows Americans are worried about their health insurance, worried about the cost of it, worried that they might lose their health insurance, or simply are currently out of the system and just don’t have health care insurance. The rich insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and physicians will eventually be drowned out by the millions and millions of American voters demanding a system like Canada’s. They already see how Medicare works for the American elderly. You hardly see any elderly complaining about Medicare and you won’t see any elderly citizens not using their benefit. American elderly love their Medicare as much as the far vast majority of Canadians love their health care system.

Of course most dentists don’t agree with universal health insurance. We are all rich. I see their incomes, houses, and cars! But what if you were one of the 47 million uninsured? What if you were a single dental assistant with two children without any medical insurance because your dentist does not provide health insurance for his workers to save money?

What percent of right-wing republican dentists do not provide “free enterprise” health insurance for their dental staff? Half? Yet the same dentists do not want the government to provide health insurance either. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If every single employer, dentists and Wal-Mart included, provided “free enterprise” health insurance for their workers, I wouldn’t have to write about this.

How Will Universal Health Care Insurance Affect Dentistry?

It won’t.

Universal health insurance will be so expensive they will not be able to include dentistry except for some allowances for poor children. Dentistry has always been separate from medical insurance. Canada, New Zealand and Australia have primarily private dental systems, while many other countries like the United Kingdom are watching their socialized dental systems massively contract. Will universal health insurance be the end of the world? No! America already has socialized teachers, schools, firemen, airports, air traffic controllers, and don’t forget the post office.

What will I be rooting for? I am a registered libertarian, so it would take me another 40 pages to explain it to a big government spending “tax-and-spend” democrat or a big government “borrow-and-spend” republican. But I can say one thing, if you really want to know, read the book Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Healthcare and How to Free It by Michael F. Cannon & Michael D. Tanner with a forward by George P. Schultz. Or better yet, just join the Cato Institute at www.cato.org.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
Dentaltown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie Perks
Townie® Poll
Who or what do you turn to for most financial advice regarding your practice?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds Dental News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Dentaltown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450