Health care is a big issue in our nation's capital, as President Trump seeks to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Let's consider Poland, where Trump recently made a brief stop. Today American babies are one-third more likely to die in their first year of life than Polish children do. American women are four times as likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth as Polish women, according to the World Health Organization.
Meanwhile, the U.S. spends far more on health care-an average of nearly $10,000 per person-than other countries do. Poland's medical costs just $1,680 per person.
Choose almost any developed country, and its people pay less for health care and its children are more likely to survive. All those countries have single payer government health insurance-Medicare for all.
President Obama noted before he left office, "When I came into office, 44 million people were uninsured. Today, we've covered more than 20 million of them. For the first time in our history, more than 90 percent of Americans are insured."
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Another reason to think that universal health coverage would make a difference is that when Americans make it to age 65 they get Medicare. At that point, U.S. life expectancy of 18 more years for men and 20 more for women is roughly the same as in Europe.
There are problems unique to the U.S. that affect health care results, including our large minority populations who have less health insurance and poorer outcomes. Single payer will help all ethnic groups.
Republican's are strongly opposed to the individual mandate in Obamacare. But insurance doesn't work without broad participation.
There are some problems with Obamacare. It'll be easier to correct those rather than attempt an entirely new Trumpcare replacement plan.
Rolf Westgard
St. Paul
