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TechnoratiHealth Professionals Tell Congress They Want Single-Payer
At a long-awaited House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, health-care professionals made it clear that they believe a single-payer system to be the best and perhaps only workable option for health care reform.
![[Rep. John Conyers testifying at the single-payer hearing on Wednesday morning. (Still taken from C-Span)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/conyers_singlepayerhearing.png "conyers_singlepayerhearing.png")
"Single-payer is the only reform that can control health care costs," said Walter Tsou, a University of Pennsylvania professor and an adviser to Physicians for a National Health Program. The last 50 years of government policy have protected insurance industry profits at the expense of taxpayers, doctors and hospitals, he said.
"Our most famous radical document begins with the words, 'We the People.' Not 'We the Insurers,'" he said. "It is time for our own generation's revolution."
For the most part, the panelists testifying before the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee agreed that spiraling costs are the greatest problem currently facing the medical community and its patients.
"Unless you can stop the insurance industry price gouging, we simply cannot make health care affordable, which means you either have price controls on the insurance industry or you take them out of the equation through single-payer reform," said Geri Jenkins, the co-president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represents 86,000 registered nurses. "If we were to have a debate on containing costs, improving quality and universality, the single-payer advantage would be clear."
The discussion about a single-payer approach has been slow in coming because congressional leaders and the White House took a single-payer system off the table early in talks on health care reform. But there are signs that they regret that decision now.
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), the subcommittee chairman, said he worries that systemic inefficiencies in U.S. health care make the nation less competitive abroad. Ranking subcommittee member Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) complained that health care is moving too quickly through Congress, noting that Wednesday's hearing was announced Thursday night, less than the customary week to 10 days he prefers to wait. But Andrews, who witnessed the failure of Clinton-era health care reform, responded, "it's not being done nearly quickly enough."
Fifteen years after the Clinton plan collapsed, the U.S. remains far behind other industrialized nations on health care, Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) told the subcommittee. Conyers said he has "a plan of a plan" for a "uniquely American" single-payer program that in its current form requires 3.5 percent of a taxpayer's income.
"This is the most popular system in the minds of most Americans," he said of single-payer generally, citing polls and constituents' calls to his office. "If you take the most popular health care option and take it off the table, heaven knows what you're left with."
Four of the five panelists, including Conyers, spoke in favor of single-payer. The only person in opposition was Manhattan Institute fellow David Gratzer, a doctor born and trained in Canada, who said the Canadian national-health system struggles to provide care to its citizens. "Like the Soviet Union, everything is free, nothing is available," Gratzer said.
But as long as Congress adequately funds health care, the other panelists said, that won't be an issue. "If they were to put the same amount of money into their systems as we do into ours, there would be no waits," said Marcia Angell, a Harvard lecturer and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The reason our health care system is in such trouble is that it's set up to generate profits, not to provide care," Angell said, noting that private insurers spend 20 percent on marketing and administrative costs, compared with 3 percent for Medicare. She deemed the health-insurance sector "an industry that offers almost nothing of value."
Most of the panelists dismissed concerns of job losses at private insurers, arguing that employment would increase overall given the increased demand for medical professionals. Jenkins estimated total job creation at 2.6 million.
Some subcommittee Republicans seemed insulted by the very idea that the U.S. health care system needs reform. "I've been struck by the testimony about how awful the quality of American health care is," Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who is a doctor, said. U.S. care, Price said, is second "almost to none."
Poor U.S. health outcomes, Gratzer argued, are a function simply of poor U.S. lifestyle choices, like smoking, drinking, overeating and murdering. If you remove murders and accidental deaths from U.S. deaths per year, he said, the "crude statistics" become less compelling.
Andrews seemed impatient with Gratzer's responses, especially when he argued that more time spent "hanging out with the family doctor" could improve individual health.
Andrews and full committee chair Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) are scheduled to discuss a single-payer system with the House Ways and Means Committee later Wednesday, and the subcommittee chair noted the presence of Ways and Means member Pete Stark at the hearing. "This is the beginning of the process, not the end," Andrews said.
69 Comments so far
Show AllThe reason the American public does not have a single payer system for health care is that Congressmen already provided such a system, but just for themselves. Totally free health care for Congressmen is paid by a single payer -- the American public. Deprive Congressmen of their personal health care freebies and entitlements of being a Congressman and a single payer system for the rest of us might pass tomorrow.
Signed: Lawlessone [for more irreverence, see resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
Another point, the majority of Americans recently pushed into bankruptcy by medical bills HAD “private insurance“…so, if by some miracle the politicians find a cost effective way to provide each of us with a “private insurance policy“, Americans would still risk loosing everything they worked their whole life for if they get sick!!
Also, I fear that the “Public Option”, sufficiently restrained and hampered so as to allow for “Private Insurers” to compete, will not be able to control cost and will soon be used as the prime example of expensive/ineffective government run programs ….then you can forget single payer for another 40 years..
Single Payer or nothing…and let the pot boil.
yes, housing reform will be the big battle...you can't continue to force people to work, even destroying the very world we inhabit, for the right to a piece of ground upon which to exist, and shelter from the elements...
that's what the planet IS...a home for all of us...
If 30 million additional people suddenly have access to medical care, who is going to provide it? Where are the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals going to come from? If these matters are not addressed, then we're going to see waiting lists and rationing, just like all the other government run health plans.
Mercian there is a five year phase in period. Including funding support for provider training and retraining for insurance workers. We can have many more nurses become nurse practitioners and graduate many physician's assistants in 5 years. They can handle routine medical care, referring more complex cases to MDs or NDs. We can also train many more people to be nurses. There is no shortage of applicants. The logjam is the schools. They refuse to pay nursing teachers what nurses earn and few nurses are willing to take a 50% salary cut to teach. At least in the past, most nurses loved being nurses, not teachers. I did.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
democracy is a 'favored' form of government by those interested in gaining or maintaining power, not because it results in the wishes of the majority of the populace coming to fruition, but because it allows for easy control of legislation...in the house, one present individual represents 30,000 non-present individuals...in the senate, of course, each present individual represents, potentially, many more (a half-state's worth) non-present individuals...to completely dominate this country, then, you have, like, 435 in the house, 100 in the senate, then the supremes and the president...a whole country of 300,000,000 plus, held in the hands of around 550 individuals...individuals ready to be, eager to be, demanding to be corrupted...as my kid would say, 'good luck with that'...you just lie, then do whatever, whine about those who (actually, your partners and confidants) impede your efforts, and imply that, with hope and hard work, 'we'll get em next time, when we vote'...then you head to the club...
dubet, excellent definition of a democracy, practiced American style.
Now, if we had a fourth estate instead of a fifth column and an educational system that actually informed students instead of propagandizing them... oh, I must be thinking of some other country. Pretty soon, some other planet.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
The ice has been broken. May the dam now burst and Washington be flooded by the voice of the People!
tsk, tsk, tsk, poor un/underinsured (ie, almost everybody).
we at AMA know that Big Insurance is the only to keep the fix, we mean fix, healthcare.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11health.html?_r=1&hp
'the association had said in a general statement of principles that health services should be “provided through private markets, as they are currently.”'
suckers! who are you to question your doctors' association? now shut up and take your medicine.
I am glad to see this in the article ...
"Most of the panelists dismissed concerns of job losses at private insurers, arguing that employment would increase overall given the increased demand for medical professionals. Jenkins estimated total job creation at 2.6 million."
Tens of millions of people over the years have had to cope with their livelihoods disappearing overnight - nearly always they were the poor slobs (like those who were struggling to make a living pumping gas or tossing pancakes at a roadside joint when Eisenhower's interstate came along and by-passed them). These people were put out of work by the government.
There is no special reason why the health insurance companies, (remember they claim "personhood") should remain in business, nor should they receive any special compensation.
I was listening to NPR last night and Nader was on. He made an example of how malaria medicine made available or more available or something along those lines, would cost what one wheel on a B-52 Bomber would cost.
That's says it all.
Gratzer says we have poor health statistics because of our poor lifestyle choices. These people like Gratzer have amazing imaginations. When they eat grass in North Korea or dirt in Haiti I imagine that Gratzer would celebrate these "lifestyle choices" based on established scientific research (My that sounds so official) that caloric deprivation diets extend longevity in fruit flies. So mister buck passer Gratzer just doesn't want to talk about why a retired pensioner should pay 10 to 13% of his monthly gross to a health insurance corporation which keeps jacking the copay and premiums well above the gamed CPI every year. And those who can't afford it should just change their lifestyle choices. This guy needs a serious monetary deprivation diet so he can improve his lifestyle choices.
Medicine needs a Hall of Shame. Gratzer reminds me of the doctors who worked for the tobacco companies.
Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.)
What a prize. The health care legislation is moving too quickly for him. Gee, asshole, was the war funding moving too quickly too? Yeah, that was different, wasn't it? I hope Franken campaigns against you soon so you can go back to "slow living" in the land of a thousand lakes.
Tom Price from Georgia. You folks in Georgia spread the word. Somebody knows Dr. Tom Price's price and boy have they paid it. This guy needs to get out of the way. Ask him how much money the "health insurance mafia" paid his pac. This guy is dirty. The price was right, HUH TOM?
Would someone explain in simple terms why health care needs to to a 'for profit' entity, why companies need to make aan outstanding bottom line rather than actually treat sick people? This is just another way of manufacturing profits without manufacturing product. This system is sick, should be allowed to suffocate from the greed that drives it. When the most advanced country on this planet has millions without access to good health care it is a travisty. In other words our great worldwide reputation is worthless, it certainly does not qualify for blue ribbons and standing ovations, only hallow injustice for its citizens.
Annabelle, it's simple.
The philosophy is that capitalism is the most efficient method of allocating resources.
This viewpoint has currently become the essence of Americanism.
Unfortunately, capitalism is an academic concept. It doesn't exist in the real world. In the real world military might and economic power use politics (and other methods) to allocate resources often for selfish purposes.
The insurance company oligarchs are using their economic power and this capitalism paradigm to attempt to maintain their "outstanding bottom line."
Given that the majority of Americans want a public health insurance plan the questions is will democracy prevail.
Also, the idea of "free markets" - equally informed, and most improtantly, equally empowered, buyers and sellers haggling away thereby always driving prices down and quality up, is another academic concept with no reality.
and in the notion of a free market having a role in medical care is completely preposterous.
"...why companies need to make aan outstanding bottom line..."
Because we have become all about the bottom line in the U.S. Nothing else matters but the bottom line. I'm not being facetious - the bottom line IS the bottom line.
This is not something that will or even can change from Washington or Wall Street, but within our own heads and hearts in everything we do. It's simple, but not easy.
"When the most advanced country on this planet has millions without access to good health care it is a travisty. "
That we are the "most advanced country on this planet" is highly debatable and a most parroted notion. Think carefully about what it means to be advanced and consider where we are as a nation and the things we do. It's propaganda and we'd do well to let go of this notion.
Excellent point. Whenever someone starts talking about the US as "the greatest blah blah whatever" in the world, it is worth challenging. That notion is the basis for a lot of ill-founded conclusions.
Good question annabelle, we have public education, how is that more important than health care? How are librarys more important than health care? These are important things but without health you have nothing. Health care is the last thing anyone should be making a profit on. Especially the obscene profits of people like Dr. William McGuire the former CEO of United Health Care. When he was given stock options valued at one time at $1,700,000,000 it wasn't enough. They had to be backdated to improve their value. Now that is GREED! He did lose his job because of it, but he still ended up with hundreds of million of dollars and he sure didn't go to jail. How many people's health care could that one mans bonus have paid for?
The idea that there are extremely long waits in Canada has never been documented nor even studied. Its just another BS story floated by the right wing nuts. If you want to experience long waits, try showing up at a doctors office or a hospital with no insurance. The 47 million Americans can speak to the issue of "long waits":
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/01/4963
The Denver Post recently had a good article about Canadian vs. U.S. health care systems:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427
About 22,000 die every year due to lack of health care. Thats REALLY a "long wait".
Single payer is going no where. After they tried to completely ignore it, the pols will pay it lip service and pass something that keeps their Wall St. insurance pals happy. The only solution is to ask health care professionals to strike or at least have a work slowdown. Refuse to provide care to anyone except in an emergency. That will bring the insurance money machine to a grinding halt and perhaps lead to some reform. Otherwise, K Street and Wall St. continue to pillage and plunder.
I, a U.S. citizen, and my sister, a Canadian, had similar operations at almost the same time. My, I hate to say, brainwashed sister, yes brainwashing by U.S. conservatives reaches into Canada, complained about her long wait. Her long wait was slightly shorter than my wait.
Your sister believes you had better service and care for less money than she did? Have you compared all the aspects of your whole medical treatment with your sister? I'd love to see the comparisons.
When my sister's children thought they might move to the U.S. for better opportunities, their father reminded them of the medical care they received in Canada. Instantly, there were no more thoughts of moving. All the Canadians I know consider their healthcare system a national treasure. She had much better service and her operation was far more successful.
Interesting.
Were it not for my children here in the States, I'd move in a heartbeat. Either to Canada or Scandinavia. I'm tired of watching this slow-moving train wreck that is the United States of America.
I did not read all the comments. But I do want to mention a MAJOR concern I have with the funding of healthcare. That is, I want the government to ensure that any money taxes to provide healthcare is designated for healthcare - NO EXCEPTIONS.
I'll be G-damned if I'm paying taxes for healthcare simply to have it stolen to fund more bombing of brown people in mud shacks or rice fields. Remember, SSec and Medicare would both be viable programs from now to eternity if the government had simply "lockboxed" the programs. That did not happen. The funds have been given IOUs - worthless in my opinion.
It's a good point, and one I share. However, we should also think of it this way: If we don't get a handle on this health (un)insurance issue, we will wind up with none. At least, none that is affordable or worth anything.
There WILL be misappropriation of some funds - that's the way things work here. However, I'm not willing to wait for all the kinks to be ironed out in our political/criminal sector before we get single-payer universal health insurance. We need it yesterday!
*Update*
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said he "frankly is not terribly interested" in hearing any other proposals. He wants to stick with his idea of having co-ops (which have a disastrous track record, and whose executives get paid a ton of money). He has touched off a firestorm among single-payer advocates with this callous dismissal. We need to ensure that we "frankly are not terribly interested" in hearing anymore of his bullshit and need to make sure we boot his ass out of office! Dodd and Baucus also need to go (they are coauthoring this bullshit bill).
"Four of the five panelists, including Conyers, spoke in favor of single-payer. The only person in opposition was Manhattan Institute fellow David Gratzer, a doctor born and trained in Canada, who said the Canadian national-health system struggles to provide care to its citizens. "Like the Soviet Union, everything is free, nothing is available," Gratzer said." - quote from David Gratzer in above article.
David Gratzer is a LIAR and he is lying his ass off by making this statement. Our system is nothing like the Soviet Union and is certainly not free!! Mentioning the Soviet Union is a sneaky way to plug the old bogeyman - socialism. There is much Canadians have to pay for, either on their own or by having additional health insurance (provided by the private sector I might add), with the premiums paid for by individuals or through any plans offered at work. As it stands though, we wouldn't trade our system in, especially not for the current U.S. system (unless I was filthy, filthy rich and powerful and no insurance company would dare turn me down because of who I was and what I have). There you have it - there are many current U.S. systems with the best system reserved for the minority of the population having the "juice".
Gratzer is scum, the lowest of the low. This scumbag even tries to portray poor U.S health statistics (I am assuming life longevity and infant mortality rates) as "cultural lifestyle choices" - hellooooo - Canadian lifestyle patterns are very, very similar to our U.S. friends. The man should be locked up for lying his ass off!!
"Poor U.S. health outcomes, Gratzer argued, are a function simply of poor U.S. lifestyle choices, like smoking, drinking, overeating and murdering"
This guy is a grade A moron. Because no one in canada drinks or smokes. People are sick because of their lifestyle choices! Spoken like a true libertarian, who probably has his own decent health care.
"The only person in opposition was Manhattan Institute fellow David Gratzer"
Would you expect anything different from someone endorsed by Milton Friedman?
The late Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, wrote that Dr. Gratzer is "a natural-born economist." David Gratzer's most recent book, with Foreword by Milton Friedman, is The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care.
My suggestion is that anyone who DEMANDS the government adopt Single Payer Universal Health Care needs to attend any and all TOWN HALL HEALTH CARE FORUMS that your Congressional members host in your community!!! DO IT!!!! Get people out in droves and get a seat at the forum and discuss it!!!
We are doing it in Oregon!
WE WANT SINGLE-PAYER, AND WE WANT IT NOW!!!
(Yes, I'm yelling! ...can anyone on capitol hill hear me???)
OK, all together now:
What do we want?" SINGLE PAYER!
"When do we want it?" NOW!
Let's all go camping this summer in our nation's capitol, shall we? See you there!
We should boycott the next election, and let the Move-on crowd become the Move-out of the Democratic party. Let's see how far Obama and his Ivy League racketeers make out without the support of the Working Classes. Do away with the DLC in DC that recycles people like Gore, Clinton, and Lieberman. Time to clean house. Let's hear it workers of the USA...
Don't trust the move-on.org crowd. They are sticking with Obama. I sent them the following a while back. To whom it may concern: I am very disappointed that MoveOn.Org. has abandoned it's early progressive roots and joined the Obama plan for keeping the health Insurance Industry rich at the expense of average Americans. If you can give me a good justifiction for the pay practises of one of the largest private insurers, I might change my mind. I give you the case of Dr. William McGuire who was forced out of United Health Care in a stock backdating scandal in 2006. I hope you will google Dr. McGuire to get the whole story but the gist of it is that he was given stock options in 2006 that were valued at one time at approximately $1.7 billion. This was of course after backdating. During the six years prior to 2006 the average compensation to Dr. McGuire was almost $58 Million dollars per year. Were talking about a lot of money here for just one employee. Other top executives received astronomical salarys and (backdated) stock options of over $2 billion at about the same time. Dr. McGuire did wonderful things for the stock holders during his term as CEO. Yearly returns of approximately 30%. I wonder at whose expense. Notice none of this money is going to lower the cost of premiums? You are on the wrong side of this issue. You might remember people are a tad upset with the bonus programs for bankers. They might be even more upset when they hear about the Insurance Executives. I have a feeling this isn't an isolated case. Your organization is going to look like you joined the other team if you stick with this decision. Time to do some research kids.
One sickness exploitation industry executive gets $1.7B in stock options. At $500 each, that's enough to cover the payola extortion "premiums" of 3,400,000 conusmers, aka as customers, aka patients, aka as citizens.
PROFITEER: A person (sic) who makes excessive profits, especially by taking advantage of a shortage of supply to charge exorbitant prices.
Formerly applied to war profiteering, but equally applicable to the exploitation of people's loved ones and their love of life in a financial game where the government can be bought to continue to supply enough "premium" to keep the game going long after the "care" as become about as ethical as the famous gas ovens.
GE, we bring good things to the life of the ruling class.
I take it that you already have someone paying for your healthcare.You must work for the republicans. they've been against healthcare for the American people for over 20 years
Senator Chris Dodd who is in the pockets of the Banking and
Financing industry, said, "It will never happen". With
bought and sold people like Dodd we will continue to suffer
in silence. His wife, Jackie Clegg is on a number of Boards
on different Banks etc. The both of them are not into any
volunteer type of help for the working classes, as we do not
exist as far as they are concerned.
Either his pal, Senator Ted Kennedy, is with us or against us.
Beware the "Canadian" doctor affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, a neoliberal think tank!!!!! And what's with the line "Like the Soviet Union, everything is free, nothing is available." I was in Urgent Care (at the hospital) last Monday with an elderly auntie (age 87) who had fallen in the grocery store and was complaining about her knee. She was seen in a timely fashion, and not only was her knee checked out (it was bruised and sore but not damaged), but during the assessment they picked up on a heart arrythmia which was treated before she left, first with some intraveneous medication to bring her heart rate down and then with a prescription to follow up. Cost? Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
I've told this story on CD before, but my last dentist (here in the US) was from Canada, I found out by casual conversation. When I asked him what he thinks about the US vs. Canadian health care systems, he said, in a roundabout way, he came to the US because he could make more money here. He's no longer my dentist.
The driving ideology of a person, organization, or administration is always the key to understanding what's really going on. Canadian doctors, coming from a society that is widely appreciative of its health care system, but who nevertheless come to the US with dark warnings about that system to preach the virtues of capitalistic health care, are giant walking red flags.
We also lose nurses to the US system. They all claim they can make "more money" in the US even though Good RNS in Canada can earn 100k a year with benefits and overtime.
With no experience they start at 54k a year.
Now if they wanted to make the same sort of wages paid in the US the money has to come from somewhere.
In the US they get it buy squeezing the patient for dollars. By charging 20 bucks for an Aspirin. By fees for services that are 4 and 5 times higher then In Canada.
(Read on Medical Tourism. The USA sends thousands of patients a year to places like India, Mexico AND CANADA to get surgeries just because it is cheaper. You never read that in the papers that speak of thousands Of canadians having to use the US system).
Quite frankly, I would much rather that our Doctors that were just in it for the buck all went down to the US leaving us with the ones who put the needs of the patients first.
Agreed. David Gratzer is probably one of those expatriate physicians who studied in Canada at state-subsidized universities where tuition is 1/4 what it is in the US then moved to the US to make money hand over fist.
His book on Canadian health care "reform" won a prize from the right-wing Donner Foundation (Canada's equivalent of the Heritage Foundation).
His last book, Code Blue, was praised by Milton Friedman.
What other references do you want?
Yes, wait lists are sometimes long in Canada, for some things like specialists, but
(a) emergencies are seen to as effectively as anywhere in the developed world and
(b) the reason we are short of doctors and hospital staff and beds is that the fed. gov't cut transfer payments for health care about 15-20 years ago to balance the budget, under the IMF gun, and it has been restoring funding very very very slowly.
Yes, then, there probably is a crisis, but it's of the neoliberal governments' own doing, not our Medicare (that's the Canadian name).
Another problem is the disparity of service between different provinces. Some provinces have better service, more specialists, more hospitals.
New Brunswick has a shortage of family physicians and specialists and communities and hospitals have been struggling to attract doctors to fill the gap. What does our neoliberal premier, Shawn Graham, do? Freeze physicians' wages for two years. Great way to attract new doctors.
So we see that Dr. Gratzer is disingenuous at best when he blames the Medicare system.
And yes, we have some right-wing doctors in Canada who are pushing for a two-tier system so they can open private clinics and charge their own rates, independent of Medicare, which is against the law.
USAmerican friends, don't fall for the anti-Medicare propaganda.
Yes, Canada's health care needs reform, but only in the form of more staff, better distribution of services, and definitely MORE FUNDING. We're still far more efficient and cost-effective than the private health care banditry that rules the US.
I went to SourceWatch to get the lowdown on David Gratzer. He is a "Senior Fellow" at the Manhattan Institute. What is the Manhattan Institute? Everything that follows is from SourceWatch [I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in learning the truth about "experts"]: "The Manhattan Institute (MI) is a right-wing 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank founded in 1978 by William J. Casey, who later became President Ronald Reagan's CIA director.[1]
The Manhattan Institute is "focused on promoting free-market principles whose mission is to 'develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.'"[2]
"The Manhattan Institute concerns itself with such things as 'welfare reform' (dismantling social programs), 'faith-based initiatives' (blurring the distinction between church and state), and 'education reform' (destroying public education)," Kurt Nimmo wrote October 10, 2002, in CounterPunch.[3] "
Go to SourceWatch to read the footnotes.
The health care issue is about much more than health care. It's the acid test of whether this nation is a corporate plutocracy, or whether there is still some semblance of democracy in our form of government. When 72 percent of the American people favor single-payer health insurance, and that option is taken off the table, it should be evident to everyone that the corporate plutocrats are in charge. If the people succeed in restoring a single-payer option, then there is still hope for a restoration of our democracy. What is completely unacceptable is for the corporate plutocrats and their political minions to ignore 72 percent of the American people who want a single-payer option, and still refer to our form of government as a democracy. I've been around for a long time, and this issue, very much like the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, will strip away all pretense and reveal to the entire world whether this nation has any right to be called a "democracy."
You are correct!
Millions could march on Warshington demanding an adequately funded single payer system and we still wouldn't get it, not as long as Republicans and Democrats control our politics. Perhaps the most pernicious thing that came out of the George Wanker Bush regime, along with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and their war against science, was the gleeful attitude of piracy. For eight years, economic thugs were allowed to prey on ordinary people with almost no fear of legal retribution. They ran amok. This is the thing that so pisses off the Republicans; they think that Obysmal's election means an end to all that. Shows you how stupid they are. No such thing will happen. The Democrats have been smelling Big Money since Reagan and they love it!
And, this is being reported only on the Huffington Post or an obsure CSPAN feed - so only a tiny minority of people will even ever hear of it.
Most of the other "news sources" serve a full menu of refried corporate propaganda.
Unfortunately, few Americans have the crtical thinking skills or inclination to question Madison Avenue advertising and political marketing.
We will soon see if the entire congress is owned by Wall Street as Senator Durbin said or if we or "if here the people rule."
If Congress ignores the will of about 72% of the people,why bother to have elections?
Elections are a wonderful way to perpetuate the illusion of democracy, and give cognitive dissonance a matrix upon which to flourish-- like a coral reef for small political fauna.
There are always going to be enough reactionary troglodyte wingnuts who will vote to ensure that the wacko liberals aren't in charge, and there will always be enough liberal moderates to reach for the rainbow of lesser-evil baby steps, and devote themselves to electing More and Better Democrats.
It couldn't be more obvious that there's an unbridgeable chasm between what trusting, credulous voters and moderate "good government" activists think they're accomplishing, and the reality of how elected politicians operate once they're "made men" in the organized crime syndicate disguised as a political duopoly.
But, as the tired phrase goes, the vast majority of citizens "can't handle the truth". So we have elections in order to remain in denial, lest We the People accept the awful truth that we are but infants in a car seat, twisting our little plastic steering wheel to and fro under the impression that it is guiding the movements of the runaway Hummer of contemporary Amerikan corporatized pseudo-politics.
· Yr Obd't Servant
"So we have elections in order to remain in denial, lest We the People accept the awful truth that we are but infants in a car seat, twisting our little plastic steering wheel to and fro under the impression that it is guiding the movements of the runaway Hummer of contemporary Amerikan corporatized pseudo-politics."
Wonderful analogy, though isn't it that we believe in the US political process and the elections it offers in order to remain in denial, as the "awful truth" is that voting is akin to "twisting our little plastic steering wheel...".
I do not mean to nitpick, as I thoroughly enjoyed your excellent comment, but if we did not have elections and did not have the illusion then we would not see ourselves as infants twisting their little steering wheels.
www.ni4d.us/ might just help - if it get enough publicity.
Sioux Rose
O.S. "Daddy? Are we there yet?"
Agree totally. What if they had an election and nobody came??? How about a boycott of the mid-term 2010 election, if they continue not to listen and to refuse to represent the people??
Ronnie,
Instead of a boycott why not vote third party and let our voices be heard. If we stay home, they will just excuse it as people not caring enough to vote. If we vote third party than we will let both parties know how we the people feel about their actions.
Chrisy
Been there, done that, the last 3 elections - 2000,2004,2008.
Of course you have. So have I, Chrisy, and "the other guy". But, it'll take a whole nation of believers in "real change" before anything like a third-party taking the reins will ever happen.
But, you still have to vote -- third party or not -- because when citizens stay home, our elected officials don't listen to us any longer. Why? It's simple. They know they don't have to.
Please always vote, and always encourage others to do the same.
I have a better idea: 100% participation by the American electorate in the mid-terms. That's an even better way to get their attention.
Unfortunately, the American people have short memories -- and even shorter attention spans, which bodes well for elected corporatist officials.
I was totally dismayed by the turn-out in yesterday's Democratic primary election in Virginia. Only 6% of registered voters turned out at the polls.
Cheers,
end.corporate.personhood
The health care discussion needs to be even broader. Yes single-payer should be considered and enacted. Health care as a for-profit industry needs to go away.
What is being ignored, though, is the discussion of prevention. Right now the food industry in this country is pumping poison out as fast as they can into the food supply. "Cheap" crap made with mercury-laden High Fructose Corn Syrup, unpredictable genetically modified organisms, meat grown in abyssmal conditions laden with bacteria and cancer making it into the food supply, all aimed at the poor. Real health care has to be holistic in it's approach, which means good nutrition, de-centralized food production, organic agriculture (which also sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere into the ground) and myriad other approaches which are not profitable for the greedy corporations, so these options are at least ignored and at most suppressed.
A very good point. Until Americans stop poisoning themselves with so-called (pseudo-)"food", the cost of health-care in this country will be high, even if we do have single payer.
Localism supports healthy food and disease prevention. Localism supports the organic kind of community where the interests of people trump the interests of elites. it is after all the interests of elites causing all problems. People want to do the right thing. It is the elites who have addicted the people to the opiates, eh?
Universal Single Payer Health Care or:
It's Time For A Second American Revolution In The Spirit of Perestroika
By Mikhail Gorbachev
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/its-time-for-a-second-american-revolution-in-the-spirit-of-perestroika-2...
Humbaba, that link didn't work for me. But this one did.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22808.htm
Gorbachev gets the large picture. Change is coming. Depending on how we deal with it it will be smooth or rough. The fact that the rich will fight like wolverines for their entitlements makes me suspect the latter. So be it. If Congress weren't so corrupt it would pass a bunch of laws to make it smooth. Obviously that's not going to happen. It would if the public voted in the right people, but they're not paying attention. Well, they're going to get slammed for that. Actually we all will, but that's life. There's a lyric from Tom Lehrer "We all go together when we go".
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"'I've been struck by the testimony about how awful the quality of American health care is,' Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who is a doctor, said. U.S. care, Price said, is second 'almost to none.' "
Will someone please explain to this genius that the argument over a single-payer healthcare system is about access and not the quality of care?
How good can any care be when one is denied it?
Price is clearly one of the folks who went in to medicine to get rich.
At least the issue made its way onto the table although I doubt that it has any chance of a fair hearing before the full Congress. The votes have already been bought.
q
Single payer = health care reformed
Private insurance, non-negotiable drug prices, triggered public components, criminalizing the uninsured, taxed employer-based insurance = health care deformed
Tell your president, congressional representative and senators that you want a NO PATIENT LEFT BEHIND health care system, not the NO INSURANCE COMPANY LEFT BEHIND, and NO DRUG MAKER LEFT BEHIND program that Obama and the US Congress and Senate are crafting.
"Unless you can stop the insurance industry price gouging, we simply cannot make health care affordable"
The price gouging in the healthcare/pharma sector as with all sectors designated as "high value" economic engines is blatantly in violation of our anti-collusion, anti-trust laws yet these laws along with many others have been systematically ignored for years. The public hasn't much of a clue these laws are being violated or even their purpose. Public ignorance/apathy is cultivated in the USA as in the "third word" primarily to disable the people from interfering with human/resource exploitation.
"systemic inefficiencies in U.S. health care make the nation less competitive abroad"
We don't need to be globally competitive. We need local ownership of production for local markets, local meaning something much smaller than koolaid-spewing Demoks can imagine. The only place you'll find a comprehensive policy in the USA is on the far-left. Our policy integrates local self-sufficiency with efficiency in the most elegant way: local self-sufficiency is itself the DRIVER of efficiency. Everyone knows that small enterprises are far more efficient than large ones.
Best value in healthcare is naturally achieved like best value in food, tools and everything else we produce for ourselves. Now contrast this with the approach of Demoks/Repuks - a mind-boggling mountain of obtuse, disjoint garbage that conflicts, discourages, disables and destroys any hopes of progress. Consider the elegance of the far-left platform and join the far-left sometime soon, if you want to participate in the Re-enlightenment of North America and enjoy the benefits.
How elegantly stated! Kudos to you.
The collusion and price-rigging between the big hospitals - many of which are effectively monopolies, and big insurers, also near-monopolies is indeed flagrant. And the fact that many of these monopolies are "not-for-profit" doesn't make a bit of difference.
Here in Pittsburgh a smaller hospital is bring an anti-trust suit against the monsterous UPMC (whose logo now defaces Pittsburgh's skyline), and Highmark insurance, for price-rigging.