Single-payer health care

[iwasthere]

as long as we have politicians the odds are always going to be up in Vegas and in the back rooms of well est. beer saloons.

[irishbobcat]

Why the mandate plans won't work, and why
single-payer "Medicare for All" is what we need
By Len Rodberg, PhD
1. Americans are afraid that they can't afford to get sick. Those of us with insurance are paying
more and more of the premium and more out-of-pocket as well. Studies show further that we face
bankruptcy if we get sick.1 Many among us have to choose between paying for medicine and paying
for food and housing. And with the recent economic downturn, the ranks of those without insurance
are growing.
2. A majority of physicians (59 percent) and an even higher proportion of Americans (62
percent or more) support single-payer national health insurance or "Medicare for All."2 In
spite of this, all we are hearing about today are mandate plans that would require everyone to
buy the same private insurance that is already failing us. These proposals don't regulate
insurance premiums, they don't keep the insurance companies from refusing to pay many of our
bills, and they don't improve the insurance we now have. Some offer a "public option," but this will
quickly become too expensive as the sick flee to the public sector as private insurers avoid them,
abandon them, or make it too difficult for them to get their bills paid.
3. These proposals won't work, either to expand coverage or to contain costs. Plans like these
have been tried in many states over the past two decades (Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington
State, Oregon, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine).3 They have all failed to reduce the number of uninsured
or to contain costs.
4. These mandate plans will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation's health care
costs. In this economic downturn, we need assure health care for all without adding to the nation's
cost and the government's deficit. The bottom line is: these proposals don't reform our
fragmented, inefficient system, they just add to its complexity and costs.
5. As long as we continue to rely on private for-profit insurers, universal coverage will be
unaffordable. Their administrative costs consume nearly one-third of our health care dollar.4 We
will never have enough money to provide everyone with decent care until we eliminate private
insurance with its enormous waste and inadequate coverage. And we will never be able to keep costs
down and get the care we need as long as the wasteful and unnecessary insurance companies stand
between us and our doctors.
6. Every other industrialized country has some form of universal health care. None uses
profitmaking, investor-owned insurance companies like ours to provide health care for all their
people.5
7. We have an American system that works. It's Medicare. It's not perfect, but Americans with
Medicare are far happier than those with private insurance. Doctors face fewer hassles in getting
paid, and Medicare has been a leader in keeping costs down. And keep in mind that Medicare insures people with the greatest health care needs: people over 65 and the disabled. We should
improve and expand Medicare to cover everyone.
8. A single-payer "Medicare for All" system is embodied in H.R. 676, sponsored by Rep. John
Conyers and 92 other members of Congress. It would have:
• Automatic enrollment for everyone
• Comprehensive services covering all medically necessary care and drugs
• Free choice of doctor and hospital, who remain independent and negotiate their fees and
budgets with a public or nonprofit agency
• Public or nonprofit agency processes and pays the bills
• Entire system financed through progressive taxes
• Help job growth and the entire U.S. economy by removing the burden of health costs from
business
• Cover everyone without spending any more than we are now.6
8. The growth in health care costs must be addressed if any proposal is to succeed.
• Single payer offers real tools to contain costs: budgeting, especially for hospitals, planning
of capital investments, and an emphasis on primary care and coordination of care.
• Mandate plans offer only hopes: competition among insurance companies,
computerization, chronic disease management. Competition among the shrinking number
of insurance companies has already failed to contain costs and, in the absence of single
payer and reformed primary care, computerization and chronic disease management will
raise costs, not lower them.
9. Single-payer Medicare for All is the right answer:
• It is right on choice. In mandate plans we get a choice of plan, but we lose our choice of
doctor and hospital. Single payer ensures choice of doctor and hospital.
• It is right on efficiency. Single payer would slash administrative costs and promote
efficient primary care. It would also enhance evidence-based quality assurance.
• It is right on accountability. It will be a public, nonprofit system that will respond to what
doctors and their patients need, not what corporate executives and their stockholders

[sfc_oliver]

Iwasthere, I'd bet the odds in Vegas are even up.

[irishbobcat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGGDOp4uUg

[iwasthere]

i think a beer or two will help our fearsome leader out of his stupidity. i think we should take score who will say the most stupid things during their presidency Bush Jr. or Obama.

[sfc_oliver]

Why I was simply quoting from our fearsome leader in Washington.

[iwasthere]

sarge, who are you calling stupid?

[sfc_oliver]

Yep we'll still pay our Medicare shares. With existing penalties.

[Towntalk]

Single-payer system = Every Single person in the whole wide world = FREE HEALTH CARE TO ALL ... NO EXCEPTIONS ... NO EXCLUSIONS EXCEPT THOSE OVER 65. SENIOR CITIZENS NOT INCLUDED.

[sfc_oliver]

I doubt I will ever believe much of what Mr Stupidly has to say about anything.

[irishbobcat]

"Health insurance is like a hospital gown, you think you are covered but you are not." Carl Romanelli (2006 Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from PA).

Last night at his prime time health care news conference, President Obama finally admitted what we have known all along.

"I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that unless you have a -- what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual."

There it is folks. Only single payer can fix the ills with our health care system. He also talked about the critical importance of "eliminating waste". Only single payer effectively does that, by cutting out the massive overhead waste (31%) by paper churning insurance industry bureaucrats, who line their own pockets to provide LESS health care with the available resources.

Single Payer Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum998.php

This is the single payer moment. We have enough Democrats alone to pass it. So why hasn't it been signed into law yet?

Why not a single payer system? Because the big insurance and drug companies don't want that? Oh, really?? What about what we the people want? What about what would be best for America? We need to tell our members of Congress what we want, keep telling them, and remind them that we told them.

So please submit the action page above. And when do you will have an opportunity from the return page to get one of the NEW "Single Payer Health Care" caps, touting the concept with the PEOPLE's talking points, that it is the "economical and efficient" way to go.

It is time for us to seize control of the media marketing of political policy. And with this new cap you can spread the meme that single payer is not a "risky experiment" or "socialized medicine" or "rationing care" or any of the other cheap shot smears that the right wing has tried to pass off lately as a policy debate. No, the words that need to come out of our mouth are "economical and efficient" and then all will know what single payer is REALLY about.

You can request the new single payer cap, or another activist gift, directly from this page

Progressive Activist Gift Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/all_gifts.php

And yes, you can also respond to this action through the new Twitter gateway Just send the following Twitter reply, and add any personal comment you like.

@cxs #p998

And if you want a step by step explanation of how to set up the Twitter thing here is the link for that.

Twitter Activism Step-By-Step: http://tcxs.net/step_by_step.php

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

[sfc_oliver]

Have to agree with Rick and because of that have to give Dennis some credit. As ridicules as his attacks are he does attach his name to them.

BTW Dennis, I tell you not to use Hollywood so you might at least sound more intelligent. And I am not a Ditto Head, What I hear from Rush is what the Democrats on the boards tell me. I wonder why they all listen to him?

Proud Conservative Right wing Radical.

[Rick Rowlands]

If a liberal education means not using punctuation, capitalization or proper sentence structure then I am glad that all I have is a 12 year public education from the Hubbard school system. 

For a personal attack to be a personal attack, the identiy of the victim must be known.  All we know you by is your alias, so by definition there can be no personal attack.  I on the other hand am not afraid of my views and place my name at the top of every post I make.   Are you prepared to come out with your full name and stand behind what you say?

[irishbobcat]

Sargent First Class Flea Collar.....

YOU DON"T TELL ME WHAT TO DO>>>>>>>>>>

YOU CONSERVATIVE DITTO HEAD......

[sfc_oliver]

Why does Dennis still refuse to accept facts that are part of history?

Dennis you were found to be wrong, just admit it and move on. And I told you to stop using Hollywood as a source.

I would love to see every American above poverty level, Not because I worked for it, but because they did. It's that simple, you reap what you sow.

Once again I remind you that 2000 years ago we were told the poor will always be with us.

Nice to change it, but doubtful it can be done.