The Healthcare Divide

There is an increasing nurse and doctor shortage.  A massive one.  If the remaining baby boomers retired all at once, America would be fucked.  We don’t have nearly enough new ones coming in – even the boomers hold out another 5-10 years.  Already, we are really short on general practitioners, especially in more rural areas.

Frankly, there needs to be more incentive and support.  Maybe some kind of program to make education (including post grad) free for physicians.  Whatever we do, it needs to be done soon.

Poor hospitals that cannot compete in terms of pay and benefits need to be subsidized.  This is all in addition to creating a universal coverage.  It will mean higher taxes – mostly for the rich, but some of that burden will fall on the working class as well.

Right now, we have one of the most viciously corrupt, greedy, sociopathic healthcare systems in the world.  The only way to really begin to level the playing field is through legislation, but…

I don’t think much will be done in this.  Even if by some miracle Biden and his ilk grow a conscience, real reform will not get republican support.  This is why the new President should have been radical in many regards.  Screw the filibuster, change the rules, pack the Supreme Court – and get shit done.

It is one of the many things that is already terrible, but going to get a great deal worse, even in the short term.