The case for Single Payer. It's the only acceptable solution.

[seafan]

Thank you, DU'er eridani, for your words.

Hey, Congress!!! I don’t want to “shop” for health insurance in any kind of “market”!

I want to pay a tax to support a trust fund which pays for care when and if I need it, just like I pay my property tax to support the fire department. In the event of fire, they send a truck out. Just the truck and people with the training required to put out the fire. No more or no less than what I would need in that circumstance. No personal responsibility questionnaires to prove that I’ve taught my kids not to play with matches, that I have my wiring up to code, that I don’t store oily rags in the basement and am truly eligible for and deserving of assistance. And especially no tripling of my property tax just for using the service. There is not one single logical reason why a heart attack should not be dealt with (and paid for) like putting out a house fire. The cheapest and most efficient way to pay for health care is to pay for it like we pay for any other public good, like schools, roads, libraries, fire and police protection, or any other part of our society’s infrastructure.

We have been stymied for 15 years in trying to overhaul our health care system, ever since Newt Gingrich and Co. sank their bloody hooks into the attempt by the Clinton administration.

Fifteen years passed until we had the hard-won opportunity to address it again.


We have the power in our hands NOW. Democrats hold the White House, House and Senate. There will not be another opportunity to get this accomplished anytime in the foreseeable future. Republicans are crouching offstage to return with a vengeance to tear down any feeble, timid attempts at health care reform.

If Democrats cannot do any better than a *50-state opt-out*, that serves only 5-10% of the population, and does not take effect until after 2013, what good are these elected officials? They certainly don't represent us.


We have to be bold, go for the whole enchilada, and never waver.


This is the big push for single payer that we must get behind. Unless Single Payer health care is ironed into law just as Social Security and Medicare were by the courageous few who were relentless in pushing for it, this battle to rip it away from us will never end with Republicans.



That is really the bottom line. Unless Single Payer is cemented into federal law, Republicans will dismantle it, and we will go another few decades before we have the power to address it again.

That is unacceptable.


Democrats, you F-ing have total power right now. USE IT. What good is **your majority** if you are too cowardly to use it?


All of you had better contemplate life as private citizens again, for if you do not deliver Single Payer Health Care for the American people for 2010, you will be going home just as soon as we can evict you. Think of some ways to explain to your grandchildren why, when you had the power to change people's lives for the better, you sat on your chicken-$h*t asses and frittered it away.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Right ON!

kick

[timtom]

2. K&R!

However, your vision may be a bit blurred. Except for a handful, congress is (I believe) bought and paid for. I do not see ever getting a progressive solution on anything. It will always be byzantine plans to look like progress, but will always lack palpability.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Sorry, This Isn't A Zero Sum Game...

It's reform...specifically insurance reform. This is a first step toward single payer...get the system set up and cover those most in need and through it force insurance companies to lower prices. If they don't they risk losing it all as more and more people will choose a public program and over time this could make Single payer possible. Fact is there aren't the votes even in the Democratic party for single payer at this time as the costs of such a system is one that many won't support.

Then there are those of us who are self-insured and want the competition. As one whose had experience in dealing with medicare claims, it's not the do-all, end-all...it has its own limitations. In my case I'd like to choose from the best option yet am very glad to pay increased taxes to ensure those who aren't as fortunate and not covered will get basic healthcare. If the government program offers better rates and coverage then let's see how the system works...and if it isn't, the option is there to chose another method of insurance.

The deal is this country isn't ready for a fully socialized healthcare system. Just as SSI set the stage for Medicare, Public Option will do the same with a single payer system.

President Obama has said many times that this is a first step, not the last. If you want single payer, then work to get more who support that concept elected. That's how a representative democracy works.

[tomp]

5. it's bullshit reform vs no reform.

you're not going to get what you think you're going to get.

obama has publicly said that americans already pay enough money to provide high quality health care for all. the economic argument against single payer is bullshit.

obama's first step is going to fail in the end. it is cynical pre-determined outcome bipartisan politics against the interests of the people at its finest. kabuki theater in the service of the big money health care players. one day everyone will see this. in the meantime support for obama's joke hurts everyone.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Obama Doesn't Vote In The House Or Senate...

Many of us detested how DeLay and booosh turned the legislative into a sham...rule by fiat and intimidation. President Obama has returned the balance of power back to the legislative who are responsible for drafting the legislation and putting a bill together. While the President has influence it is best used in getting the few votes to put a bill over the top. He can't nor shouldn't dictate what is or isn't passed.

Fact is Single Payer never would have gotten this far...and for those with no insurance, failure would have be disaster and only embolden the insurance lobby to screw the public even further. Is this what you'd prefer? Another Hillarycare fisaco cause it isn't exactly to your liking? Sorry, a representative democracy doesn't work that way. Want single payer (which I've long said will be the end result of setting up a public program) then get the votes...it's that simple. Work to get more Progressives elected.

[sui generis]

6. the problem is that the country IS ready

It's the corporatocracy that is not ready.

As long as we have risk group based premiums co-managed by employers beholden to different rules in different states, we have a broken system.

Primary healthcare should never have been the responsibility of private insurers. Your employer has the right to disseminate your MIB (medical information bureau) records to any business relationship without violating the provisions of HIPAA, and that includes people who form a vendor relationship to analyze health risk or any other "third party" service an employer can use to scrub their insurance rolls.

Get employers and private insurers OUT of the the primary healthcare game. They've had their day, at our expense. At the very least, private insurance should be the "option" here.

The costs of the system are laid out in terms of a 10 year budget, with no change to underlying pricing, including no lift from government bargaining agreements. The costs are artificially inflated and really centered around subsidy provisions, not real health care provision, and both "sides" are buying it hook, line and sinker.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly

I'm a big proponent of getting healtcare detached as a condition of employment. I know way to many people pigeon-holed in dead-end jobs strictly cause of the insurance benefits. And public option will make that happen. In some cases it will be by employers who will no longer want to provide any coverage thus employees will be free to go their own way, either in a public program or on their own.

Again...there are those who have good private policies (believe it or not) and will want to keep them. Shouldn't they be allowed to do so as long as they contribute to the pool that will be the basis of a public system. I self insure and I'd like to see who offers the best deal...as just as much as I detest insurance companies playing god, I'm not ready to go from one gatekeeper to another.

Yes, the costs are laid out over 10 years...and I always chuckle when I hear those numbers thrown out as no one can say with certainty what type of economy we'll be dealing with in 2019 or 2023. If anything I see the estimates being inflated as part of the game...and yes, this is a game. Sadly it is one where millions of lives hang in the balance, but if this is the way to start down the road to reform and a single-payer system, then would you prefer nothing done and hope the AHIP gets more power?

The bottom line is we have a government that is spending far more than its taking in...and this is just one of many reforms that are needed. It's the start in rolling back decades of "deregulation" that has strangled the middle class, but also one that isn't a quick or easy fix. Again...this is a start...and right now getting any reformed passed sure beats the status quo.

[eridani]

15. Current "reforms" do NOT force insurance companies to lower prices

The original version would have. but a version restricted to 5-10% that refuses to allow everyone who want it in will do nothing of the sort.

If the country isn't ready for it, then why are FUCKING TEABAGGERS telling the government to not mess with their Medicare?

[demwing]

4. As much as I agree with your passion and support for SP

I don't think anyone will lose their job over HCR with a PO. That's not a cut at SP, it's just a measure of how little people understand the issues.

[ChiciB1]

7. There Are So Many Questions To Be Asked About What They Are Planning

to pass that I don't know where to begin. First & foremost I don't think we even know what IS included or will be included and allowed in the bill.

Then there's another question that was posed this AM on C-Span... what if a state OPTED out and a person in that state decides to move to a state that OPTED in, what happens to them?? How easy will THIS be.

For all the GLEE of so many here, I for one see there are MANY questions that haven't even been considered. We JUST DON'T KNOW for sure. I don't TRUST this and I'm sure I'll once again be called out for being Anti-Obama, but as I felt before and I feel now, perhaps getting SOMETHING passed just to say you passed it just sounds LAME to me!!

To all the Rah-Rah's out there you might just want to remember a phrase that says... beware of what you wish for, you just might get it!

Since I heard yesterday from Reid's mouth, I spent until this morning to make any reply. I just don't know that THIS is close to the BEST we could do! I AGREE, as one who lives in a RED state and have Bill Nelson as one of my Democratic Senators (D,????) this may turn into a nightmare in the end! And I'm not in ANY position to move either unless of course I want to move away from my family, give up and sell my home, sell my 5 acres that we bought for an investment. My son just recently had a son and I was happy that we lived close enough together so we could enjoy watching him grow. My daughter has 2 children that I know love & enjoy.... so just PICKING up and moving isn't all that easy!

[Rudy Adams]

10. Too bad it's never gonna happen!

Reality

[jtrockville]

11. Single payer is the only solution that serves the people.

But sadly, it seems we the people only exist to serve industry.

[Bitwit1234]

12. Pelosi

is pushing for it to take effect next year. I think single payer would be a better option. But if they make the insurance companies play by the rules of not cancelling and denying people insurance and if they bring the cost under control, this might help til they get to single payer.

The republicans think they are going to take back congress. They say they have double digit leads in the congress races. THEY SAY..no one else does especially they people who don't want the ruining, lying, greedy butts back in office. It does not seem that it takes long for a republican to get into office and ruin everthing after they have elected a democrat and they have cleaned it up.

If we can throw more of the obstructors out of office next year maybe we can then move on to single payer.

[seafan]

13. We are beyond the *toe in the water* approach. Health care geared to corporate profits is a failure.

Our health care system is a five alarm fire and there are those who think throwing a bucket of water here and there will keep it under control. Even in the best case scenario, it would then smolder until the next deadly flareup.


Again, to clear up confusion, a true "socialized" health care system would require that the government own the hospitals, clinics, and would pay the physicians' salaries. That does not happen with single payer Medicare For All system. The hospitals, clinics and physicians' practices remain privately owned and operated. The bills are merely submitted to the government for payment.

Personally, I'd rather my physician have the extra time with me as a patient, rather than fighting with myriad insurance companies for payment via oppressive paperwork.



The VA program is a socialized system however, and many Congressional detractors of health care reform **enjoy** the short trip over to Walter Reed whenever they have an ingrown toenail feel the need. Yet these same hypocritical people shoot their mouths off about the evils of *socialized medicine* and how they will **stand firm** against forcing THAT EVIL onto the rest of us.


It's a false argument against Single Payer.



No one talks much about the real reason for the increasing costs for Medicare--- the relentless pursuit of profit by Big Insurance, Big Pharma, including the privately-run supplemental programs such as Medicare Advantage (which actually isn't "Medicare"); another example is the continual push by Big Insurance of the oldest, sickest and more costly patients into Medicare/Medicaid while Big Insurance cherry-picks the younger, healthier patients for themselves--- and once again, we see the negative influence of these corporations over our health care.

That doesn't even touch the rampant fraud that occurs in the Giant Ripoff of Medicare by unscrupulous people who set up dummy businesses that provide *medical equipment* for imaginary patients. It is especially acute in South Florida.


THESE are the bad actors in the ballooning costs of Medicare-- corporate greedheads and the fly-by-night shysters. Yet, Republicans bray about Medicare going broke, when it is primarily *their friends* doing it. (In exactly the same manner they scream about government's failure to do anything constructive, when they have just been routed from failure to govern-- but that's another story.)






No.

Too many years have passed and too many teabagger types have dominated this debate. It's time to marginalize all of this and get on with improving health care for all Americans.



Because, when we really get down to it, there are no more excuses.

[inna]

14. kr

[eridani]

16. Ask your congresscritters to vote for the Weiner amendment

Substitutes 676 for 3200/