Connecticut Governor Says State Will ‘Cancel’ $1 Billion In Citizens’ Medical Debt

There is a "too good to be true" smell about this

This video is online here. A related news article is online here.

According to these news reports:

The idea, [Governor] Lamont told the outlet, is to leverage $6.5 million that is available in the federal program to erase roughly $1 billion. The tremendous losses on the balance sheets of healthcare providers were not addressed.

This smells fishy

Here’s why this smells fishy. How is only $6.5 millon going to pay off $1 billion in debts? $6.5 million is only 0.65% of $1 billion.

If one reads the news article one learns that the plan is to have some non-profit companies buy the debts from the health providers and then notify the patients who owed the health provider money that they no longer owe that money.

In other words, say John Doe owes Central Hospital $5,000. The non-profit says to Central Hospital, we’ll give you 0.65% of $5,000, or $32.50, in exchange for which John Doe will no longer owe you any money. Then the non-profit says to John Doe, “You no longer owe Central Hospital anything.”

What smells fishy about this plan by Governor Lamont to eliminate medical debt is that, according to the news article:

The tremendous losses on the balance sheets of healthcare providers were not addressed.

Why in the world would Central Hospital agree to accept a measly $32.50 for giving up its claim that John Doe owes it $5000?

It is true that if it were unlikely that John Doe would ever pay the $5000, then Central Hospital might think it wise to get at least $32.50 for sure rather than likely never get the $5,000. But we’re not talking about particularly poor John Does in this case, since the qualification for this debt relief is merely that one not earn above four times the federal poverty limit. In other words, as the news article says,

Eligibility for the program is open to a wide array of households. Income for a family of four could not exceed $125,000 annually, and those whose debt consumes 5% or more of their intake would also qualify.

I don’t know what Governor Lamont has in mind, or up his sleeve, but whatever it is it sure smells fishy!

The Non-Fishy Sensible Way to Eliminate Oppressive Debt for Medical Treatment

Here’s how oppressive debt for medical treatment can and ought to be eliminated.

First, arrange society so that all who contribute by working reasonably according to ability receive for free what they need or reasonably desire with scarce things equitably rationed according to need. (Read the details about how this works here.)

Now, if John Doe has been working reasonably according to ability (which means working zero if he is a child or past retirement age having worked reasonably according to ability prior to that, or is a student or is caring for children or others or is unable to work for some reason) and he goes to the Central Hospital for treatment, then the treatment is free, and the doctors and nurses and orderlies and the people who clean the hospital and cook the food in the hospital and the people who build the hospital and the people who drive the trucks with supplies for the hospital and the people who grow the food for the hospital and the people who teach the doctors and the nurses for the hospital and the people who build the homes for the people in the hospital to live in and the people who entertain all these people, and…you get the idea, right?—all of these people, in exchange for contributing reasonably according to ability, ALSO get what they need or reasonably desire for free and THAT is how they get “paid.”

If John Doe had refused to contribute reasonably according to ability then he would have to barter with the hospital to get his treatment.

It’s not complicated.

It’s what most people want.

What makes this controversial is that the billionaires would no longer have their enormous wealth and power and privilege if society were arranged this way because it would then be a no-rich-and-no-poor egalitarian society. “The Horror! The Horror!”—say the billionaires.

Read here how you can help make society the way it ought to be.