Comments on: What happened to single payer?

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:57:04 +0000

The complexities of this debate are difficult enough without having to deal with semi-educated quips like, ““Choices are always limited by government intervention,” or, from Minnesota’s John Kline, ““Creating a new, one-size-fits-all health care system modeled on Medicare is a recipe for disaster.” And, “It would ration care while empowering bureaucrats.”

Is Kline capable of thinking? Does he not realize that we already have the world’s leading model of bureaucratic incompetence and waste–the for-profit health insurance industry?

Does he not know–and these facts are painfully easily available–that the U.S. system, predicated on “competition”, “profit” and the “market”, are wildly inefficient compared with state-involved systems in the rest of the OECD?

Does he have even an inkling of the well-known fact that internationally the U.S. system is seen as a disaster and to be avoided?

Does Kline have even the slightest capacity for comprehending that we already have one of the world’s most heavily rationed health care systems? What else do we call the situation where tens of millions can’t get health insurance? This is how the market rations health care insurance–you don’t get it at all, or you don’t get what you need.

By: Freedom Lover

Freedom Lover — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:47:20 +0000

Obama was once a proponent of single payer. Like most politicians, he has found that special interest money is too powerful and convenient to go “cold turkey” on. Our present system is artificially inflated due to the haggling and bureaucracies in place at present. We are essentially paying for paper shuffling all to ensure profits. This “hybrid” public/private system is in place already in some states (MN included.) It is not a sustainable model to dump the “un-profitable” people (read: pre-existing conditions) into the public sector and have the high profit (read: healthy people who don’t have pre-existing conditions and dutifully pay their premiums) go into the private, for-profit segment. The arguments stating choice would be lessened are erroneous. We are presently limited to HMO’s and other profit-driven conglomerates and single payer would allow for more independent doctors offices and hospitals. It would, in fact, increase choices and quality of care would be determined by doctors and not insurance bureaucracies. The only thing that single payer does is establish set pricing for each given medical treatment. The paper-shuffling middlemen who are there to deny claims and insure profits would be cut out. It is said that our present level of spending in America would cover 100% of people if the haggling was cut out. Opponents are the bureacracies that profit from the present system, and lawmakers who enjoy the campaign contributions of these special interests. Quality of care has NOTHING to do with this argument, but rather, greed.

By: johnhkennedy

johnhkennedy — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:17:33 +0000

I did not believe that Single Payer had a chance from the start,
not because it isn’t needed, not because it isn’t the only real solution,
but because Rep. Conyers is leading the Single Payer fight.

After we voters gave the Democrats Control Of the House in 2006
Conyers had Control of The House Judiciary Committee
and could have made Impeachment or Prosecution of
Bush, Cheney and their torture advocating lawyers happen.

Conyers posed as the leading advocate of Bush and Cheney’s impeachment but stonewalled it for 7 years and kept Rep. Kucinich’s Impeach Bills from ever being debated or voted on.

Conyers broke his promise to hold impeach hearings after the ’08 election.

When activists brought Conyers an impeachment petition with 1.1 Million Signatures he ignored it and had them arrested on the spot. He has not mentioned it since that day.

Recently, Conyers issued a huge HJC report advocating accountability-prosecution for the Bush people who obviously broke Federal Laws, including Torture. Nothing will come of this either. He poses but does not dispose.

Conyers is on the board of Progressive Democrats of America but even that group cannot get him to do his job as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

I just don’t see Conyers following through on much of anything. Time for him to retire.

If Our Democratic Congressmen Refuse to enforce the Federal Law on Felony Torture,
are they Soft On Crime
Or did they just Lie To Us when they took their Oath Of Office?

If they refuse to enforce our Federal Anti-Torture Laws for obvious crimes
is there any hope they will get us Single Payer?

WE VOTERS HAVE BEEN FIGHTING BUSH-CHENEY POLICIES FOR SEVEN YEARS.

Could we see some fight from our Congressmen?

SIGN THE PETITION
To Prosecute Them For Torture

http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot

By: darkmark

darkmark — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:22:03 +0000

fascism is when a country is run by the corporations. its just that simple. so we get a third rate health care system that profits corporations and limits our health care to what we as individuals, divide and conquer, can pay. if you don’t have the gold you can just go away and suffer or die.

By: Keith Kuckler

Keith Kuckler — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:05:52 +0000

Just “follow the money”, is it any wonder that Max Baucus democratic chair of the senate finance committee, did not give single payer advocates a chance to have their say. He gets more money from the big for profit health care industry than anyone else in congress. I live just a half an hour from Canada, and, I often get a chance to go there, or talk to Canadians when they are in Grand Mmarais, i have never heard one of them who would trade their system for the one we have. In fact they are flabbergasted when they hear how our system runs, and, what it costs us.

By: Eric Ferguson

Eric Ferguson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Lots of compassion for health insurance executives, none for 40-something million uninsured people. A right to get in line? Without insurance, you don’t even get to join the line.

By: EK

EK — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:57:15 +0000

Members of Congress, in general, have no balls.

We have so many families and individuals in this country who have NO health insurance, it is absurd.

John Kline will tell any lie in order to brown-nose his corporate buddies.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:18:53 +0000

A single-payer, universal healthcare system is the only thing that will get us out of our current healthcare crisis. Anything less is doomed to failure. We can either do the right thing now, or address this problem again when whatever Band-Aid plan our Congress comes up with fails and millions more have either died or gone bankrupt. What do we have to do to convince our elected representatives that they must act in our best interests? Here’s an idea: Deny each and every member of Congress their health coverage until they come up with a plan that covers all of us. Only when that happens will they receive health benefits, and those benefits will be exactly what each of us gets; no more, no less. Will any member of Congress come out publicly and claim that they deserve healthcare benefits any more than any other American?
When we hear the republicans screaming about the evils of ‘socialized medicine’, the hypocrisy is overwhelming. The fact is, we have socialized medicine right now. Those health benefits that our elected representatives enjoy are paid for and administered by the government through taxpayer dollars. When representatives like Tom Price say that government funded healthcare is, “a right to get in line”, how is that any different than what we have now? Try to schedule an appointment with a gastroenterologist today and you’ll find that they’re booked out two months. Try making an appointment with a dermatologist and a two month wait will look good. If the insurance company administering your coverage has anything to say about it, you won’t even get the chance to wait in line. I think a disclosure would be appropriate of just how much money Tom Price has accepted in campaign donations from the healthcare industry, (including big Pharma), and its lobbyists.
I have relatives in Canada and friends in England who receive health coverage through government run programs. They’ll complain about the system from time to time, but try to take away their health cards & you’ll have a fight on your hands. To the person, when they come to the US and get a taste of our healthcare system, they’re astonished at how pathetic it is and how overpriced. They think we’re crazy to have allowed such a system to exist. To those who have been scared by the thought of government coming between us and our physicians, would you rather have an insurance company doing just that? We must remember that we are the government and the ‘social’ in socialized medicine is us! Remember too that the laws governing how corporations are run compels them to act in the best interests of the corporation, not in our best interests. In other words, they are legally bound to do what must be done to maximize profits, not to provide us with adequate healthcare. Is it any wonder that the insurance companies have whole departments set up whose only task is to figure out how to deny their customers coverage?
We’re at a unique place right now where we have the opportunity to examine the many models of government run healthcare and pick and choose the best elements of each for our system. We could build a shining example of a healthcare system that meets the needs of its people for the world to imitate, or instead continue to be its laughing stock.

By: realist

realist — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:02:59 +0000

Like the 8 hour work week, like Social Security, like child-labor laws, like voting rights for women and Blacks, this needs to go to the streets.

No one is going to simply give us Single Payer. We’re going to have to fight for it, and fight hard. We need to be militant. And like previous battles for human rights, we’re going to have to commit for the long term.

I don’t expect to see Single Payer in the US within my diminishing lifetime. This is a fight for the kids and the grandkids.