Bernie Sanders-Still swinging for single payer as it will save $$ YES IT WILL.

[joeycola]

It will save money cause the administrative structure is already in place but will have to expand.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/health-care-reform_b_332432.html
Sen. Bernie Sanders

Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont
Posted: October 23, 2009 09:46 PM

Health Care Reform


Senator Sanders Unfiltered is a weekly web program produced by Brave New Films.

Stay up-to-date with "Unfiltered" on Facebook. Follow Bernie on Twitter.

One of the reasons that I am a strong proponent of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all proposal is that it is much less complicated than what we are going to end up with in Congress. A single-payer approach saves hundreds of billions of dollars a year because you don't end up with thousands of different health insurance programs appealing to all different kinds of people and costing a fortune to administer. I am going to continue the fight for single-payer. I am cautiously optimistic that we may end up with legislation that will allow states to go forward with single-payer if they want to.



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Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/health-care-reform_b_332432.html

[Armstead]

1. I'll K&R bernie any ol' time

I wish to hell the democratic party took more cues from him...Then we might actually have a TWO party system, with the progressive public interest strongly represented.

[joeycola]

2. I wish they would listen to him also.

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr - also it will cover everyone and Sanders one of the few Democrats to vote against...

the data exclusivity amendment.

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/07/14/senate-help-amendment-on-data-exclusivity/

"Sen. Bernie Sanders: Let’s find out why year after year the drug companies make hugh profits, look at why the drug companies have never once, to the best of my knowledge, have never lost a political debate here in Congress… (medicine) doesn’t do anybody any good if they can’t afford it. I think for year after year we’ve been paying a lot of attention to our friends in PhRMA, who are spending, I don’t know what they spend in lobbying and campaign contributions, a whole lot of money. Maybe it’s time that we start worrying about the people who have to pay for this medicine..."

[Armstead]

4. Can't Rec twice but at least can give it a kick

[NYCGirl]

5. Yes, what we need is a futile gesture at this point. NT

[andym]

6. Allowing states to go forward with single-payer is a start.

If a large state like CA. implements single-payer and it works better than everything elsewhere, then it will be a showcase for moving the whole country over.

[ProSense]

7. The beautiful thing is that Senator Sanders also

signed the letter demanding that a public option be included in the Senager bill.

Good for him.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Once the Dem leadership caved to the insurance companies. nt

[ProSense]

10. Actually, no. He was for it when the debate began

Q: What can you tell me about your meeting with President Obama?

Senator Sanders: The President wants a very aggressive timetable, I'm not sure that that can be met. His hope is that legislation is passed in the Senate before the August break. And that will require the Finance Committee to pass something, the HELP Committee to pass something, and then the two committees to work out their differences, and then to bring it to the floor and pass that. President Obama said he supports a public plan option and he (reiterated that) today in a letter to Senator Kennedy and Senator Baucus.

Q: What can progressives do to make sure there is truly a robust public plan option?

Senator Sanders: As a matter of fact, I've just come from--and will be going to in a few minutes--back to the HELP Committee where we are just discussing this issue. There are five different options--from strong to weak. This is not a mark-up, this is just an informal discussion among the members. But that is just what we are discussing right now...

link

[slipslidingaway]

11. Once Sanders accepted that the Dem leadership was not going to let...

SP even be discussed he has been working to try and make the PO plan the best it can be, but he still favors SP as the best solution.

From your link, you forgot to post the Many parts of the article where he discusses SP.


"I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Sanders this evening as he took a brief break from ongoing discussions within the HELP Committee, and prior to his making the case for single-payer on The Ed Show (a case Schultz has featured on his five-night-a-week MSNBC program and in town halls across the country). This is what the Senator had to say:

Q: Tell me about the purpose of the meeting with Senator Baucus today?

Senator Sanders: The truth of the matter is--and I say this not ideologically but just from an objective analysis of the health care situation--the only way you're gonna provide comprehensive, universal, and cost-effective healthcare to every man, woman, and child in this country is through a single-payer system. That's just a simple reality. And the reason for that is that to pay for universal comprehensive healthcare you have to deal with the enormous amount of waste that is currently within the private health insurance industry. The estimate is about $400 billion a year in administrative costs, in billing, in profits, in CEO compensation, in advertising--all of those things which have nothing to do with the provision of healthcare...

In California, my understanding is that 1 out of every 3 dollars of premiums goes to administration. If we are gonna address the very rapid and dangerous increase in healthcare , then the only way to do that is through a single-payer system which wrings out all of the waste that private health insurance creates.

So, you gotta put that issue out on the table and that's what we're trying to do...

I just think it's very important for the American people to understand why our system is the most expensive, the most wasteful, the most bureaucratic in the entire industrialized world. The only way you can do that is through the analysis that single-payer provides..."

[ProSense]

12. Sanders is fighting for single payer, not against a public option,

That's what people don't seem to get: reality.

[slipslidingaway]

14. And the reality that the Dems took it off the table even though over 60%...

of the public supported the idea. The public option helped to push SP off the table, something you are not understanding.

They Dems could have built support from the bottom up, but they did not, the health insurance companies provide a valuable service.

By collecting money, paying providers and skimming roughly 30% off for non-medical costs.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Saving whose money? The individual taxpayer's?

In that case, yes, of course it will.

Look, Canada and America have roughly the same tax rates at the middle and lower income levels. And our tax rates are comparable. Ok, ours are marginally higher.

But most of us don't spend a dime on health care. That small increase in taxes takes care of ALL of our health care needs.

So, yeah, single payer is a no-brainer. But only for about 90% of Americans.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. Good