Memory Refresher: Americans Overwhelmingly Wanted A Public Health Insurance Plan Like Medicare

[amborin]

http://beta.crooksandliars.com/clsphinx?keys=dlc

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. The citizens have

the humanity that their fucking political leaders lack.

[Rex]

10. Yep.

The leaders don't give a fuck...it is all about money now.

[treestar]

2. Then they needed to vote accordingly.

They needed to refrain from voting for Lieberman or various and sundry Blue Dogs.

Or we need to admit those who are the majority in this poll are concentrated in blue states, so that their voting power does not translate to the Senate.

[bluestate10]

7. Exactly!! nt

[Fumesucker]

16. Half of Republicans favor Medicare for all..

You need some other talking point..

[treestar]

21. Half of what Republicans?

the ones I talk to call it "Marxism"

[City Lights]

3. K&R.

What the people want is irrelevant.

[gratuitous]

4. But it wouldn't have been sensible!

Besides, President Snowe would never have approved, and if the White House had pushed the issue, you know darned well the Democrats would have lost the House in 2010. This is the best possible result that could have ever been achieved.

[slipslidingaway]

8. And we would not be talking about cuts to Medicare now ...

:puke:

[slipslidingaway]

5. knr - and two-thirds wanted Medicare for All ...

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/12/09/two-thirds-support-3/

"...In this paper (Part 3 in a six-part series) I will present data from polls that ask about single-payer, and then inquire why some polls show landslide majorities for single-payer and some do not. We will find a clear pattern: Polls that convey more information tend to report higher levels of support than polls that convey little information, and polls that convey accurate information tend to report more support than polls that convey inaccurate information.

Table 1 lists 14 poll questions taken from 11 polls conducted over the last two decades which used the phrase “single payer” and/or referred to an existing single-payer system (Medicare, for example). All 14 questions found majority support for single-payer..."

[bluestate10]

6. Yet the overwhelmingly voted for republicans during the 2010 midterms.

I take their desires for what they are worth. Nothing. If americans want world class health care, voting for republicans will destroy that dream.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Talking points from the Third Way site ...

do not mention universal care ... talk about our uniquely American system.

:wtf:

[sendero]

12. "uniquely American"..

.. translation: broken

[slipslidingaway]

20. Yes and profits ...

posted lots of links in this thread.

:hi:

Uniquely American Solution - What is it ? Why is it being pushed?
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/63

Including ...

“American Values” — A Smoke Screen in the Debate on Health Care Reform
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/389

"Suppose that “freedom to choose” is indeed the paramount American value relevant to health care. For many people, it would surely imply choice of physician, hospital, or clinic. For such choice, a single-payer system beats the competition hands down. Incremental reforms preserving the private insurance industry and employer-based insurance would probably perpetuate the restricted choice of health care providers that many Americans already encounter: private plans typically limit access to certain physicians or hospitals, and physicians often refuse to accept certain plans. In contrast, single-payer proposals eliminate those restrictions...

...In their book Benchmarks of Fairness for Health Care Reform, Norman Daniels and colleagues reject these “ungenerous” views of our values, arguing that past failures to reform health care are better explained by the influence of interest groups whose wealth and power are threatened by reform..."

[hifiguy]

22. "uniquely 'murkan" = FUBAR nt

[slipslidingaway]

25. Yes, not working very well :( n/t

[gratuitous]

11. I don't know about "overwhelmingly"

But certainly the Democrats did their level best to put the brakes on voter enthusiasm throughout 2010, led by a failure of leadership from the White House, the Speaker and the Majority Leaders in the House and the Senate.

[Cleita]

14. I'll believe that when we have an above the board and

transparent election system, with oversight from non-partisan auditors. However, I do believe that in the last election, many Democrats did stay home and didn't vote.

[Edweird]

15. Dems sick of RW policy stayed home. I'm sure the FAR RW individual mandate didn't help.

The insurance profit act passed in March of 2010 and the election was in November. Your nonsense about people not wanting healthcare doesn't fly.

[JackRiddler]

17. You'd think they were angry at Democrats for the bait-and-switch.

First off, it's a wild exaggeration to say "Americans" "overwhelmingly" voted for Republicans in the 2010 elections. It was the usual low turn out for midterms with a few percentage points difference resulting in big swings in results.

But that's right, Republicans won the 2010 Congressional elections.

That happened after Democrats failed to press their advantage on health care and failed to pass the plan that most Americans wanted. Not even a public option, let alone the single-payer version (Medicare for all) that Americans support.

That happened after Republicans engaged in many months of vicious disinformation about health care and everything else, and Democrats failed to fight back vigorously.

So what do you think those election results prove?

Looks like the Democrats should have pushed through a proper public health care system and stood up against the Republican attacks!

But they didn't.

So the evidence you're presenting would seem to support the opposite of your implicit thesis.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Paradoxically, to punish the timid losers who failed to deliver. n/t

[Marrah_G]

24. The Health insurance bill had nothing to do with a public option.

[Cleita]

13. I've been following various polls on universal health

care since the early eighties and consistently, when they aren't doctored, seventy percent plus or minus of Americans want a government administered health plan like Medicare or like Canada's. So why are the minority still ruling the majority? I think it's time our leaders start listening to the people.

[Ignis]

19. ...Which is probably why it was included in the 2008 (D) Platform.

Covering All Americans and Providing Real Choices of Affordable Health Insurance Options.

Families and individuals should have the option of keeping the coverage they have or choosing from a wide array of health insurance plans, including many private health insurance options and a public plan. Coverage should be made affordable for all Americans with subsidies provided through tax credits and other means.

-- http://www.democrats.org/about/party_platform (pg. 10)

But every time I mention this inconvenient fact on DU, I'm told that the party platform "doesn't matter."

So it goes.

[Marrah_G]

23. But the Health Insurance does not-

It is clear who Washington truly works for.