Single Payer Is Getting a Second Life as Obamacare Frustration Peaks

[eridani]

That said, plenty of single payer supporters are thankful that the ACA at least broke the logjam preventing action on changing our system.

http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2013/december/single-payer-is-getting-a-second-life-as-obamacare-frustration-peaks

Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system? That’s what activists are hoping—and they’re plotting a state-by-state fight.

As the rollout of Obamacare clunks forward, activists who opposed the law from the beginning say it is time to seize the moment, to tear down the current health-care edifice and start anew, especially now as frustration with the law’s implementation is reaching a peak.

These are not Tea Party activists but advocates for a single-payer health-care system who say some of the problems with the launch of the Affordable Care Act—in addition to built-in problems with the law itself—have made the American public more receptive than ever to a Medicare-for-all kind of coverage system.

On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the American Health Security Act, which would require each state to set up a single-payer health-care system and would undo the exchanges that have plagued Obamacare. Meanwhile, various state-led efforts are under way that advocates hope will sweep the country statehouse by statehouse, as soon as lawmakers see the advantage of a single-payer system. In Vermont, for example, lawmakers have set aside the financing and are already preparing to adopt a single-payer system when the federal government permits it, which according to provisions of the Affordable Care Act will be in 2015. In Massachusetts, Don Berwick, a former top Obama administration health official, is basing his campaign for governor on bringing a single-payer system to the commonwealth. And advocates in New York, Maryland, Oregon, and around the country say they see new energy around their cause.

“As the president fully understands, the rollout has been a disaster, the website has been a disaster, said Sanders in an interview moments after his bill was introduced in the Senate. “But the truth is, even if all of those problems were corrected tomorrow and if the Affordable Care Act did all that it was supposed to do, it would be only a modest step forward to dealing with the dysfunction of the American health-care system. When you have a lot of complications, it is an opportunity for insurance companies and drug companies and medical equipment suppliers to make billions and billions of profits rather than to see our money go into health care and making people well.”

[GReedDiamond]

1. KnR...nt

[Skittles]

2. now THIS is true:

“..............but the truth is, even if all of those problems were corrected tomorrow and if the Affordable Care Act did all that it was supposed to do, it would be only a modest step forward to dealing with the dysfunction of the American health-care system."

[Wilms]

3. ^

[Beach Rat]

4. I would eventully like to see single payer...

but yesterday, I signed up for a plan under the ACA. I waited for access to the web site for about 1/2 hour. Once I got on, it took me another 1/2 hour to go through the process. I got kicked off the page I was on but got right back on. It really wasn't that big a deal.

Now I've got coverage, a better plan than I had when I worked for a mid-sized organization, at a price I can afford. I went to sleep last night and for the first time in a two and a half years, one of the thoughts going through my mind wasn't about what if I get sick or hurt. I'm making a doctor's appointment for the first week of January. I haven't seen a doctor in almost 4 years. That's probably not good for a guy in his 50's but now I can do something about that. I just can't understand why there is so much resistance to this law.

[eridani]

5. Because Obama is black. And because "freedom" n/t

[Beach Rat]

8. Sadly. I believe you are correct.

[eridani]

6. Please understand that insurance is not care

And that health care expenses are very unevenly distributed. In every age demographic, 85% pf the population accounts for 15% of the health care costs of that demographic, and 15% accounts for 85% of the costs. 5% accounts for 50% of the costs, and in any given year 50% of the population has no health care costs at all.

What that means is that the lucky 85% will never know what a shitty deal the cheap bronze plans are. The unlucky 15% relying on those plans are instantly bankrupt in the event of serious illness. That is why in MA, years after reform, medical bankruptcies are STILL half of all bankruptcies, albeit down from 59%.

[jsr]

7. Medicare for All.

It's simple.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. K&R But the truth is,

even if all of those problems were corrected tomorrow and if the Affordable Care Act did all that it was supposed to do, it would be only a modest step forward to dealing with the dysfunction of the American health-care system.

Speaking plain truth as usual.
& R