Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Don't Even Go Near Single Payer
Politico is out this morning with it's Monday issue featuring a much hyped special section on health care.
The issue is jam packed with $10,000 full page ads from the usual suspects: United Health Group, the drug industry (The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association), the high tech medical equipment industry (Advanced Medical Technology Association), and corporate liberal groups like AARP.
All of which oppose what the majority of doctors and the majority of the American people want - a single payer, Medicare for all, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital - health care system.
The Politico health care issue features five news articles and six opinion pieces.
Not one of which mentions single payer.
Matt Wuerker's cartoon in Politico this morning is titled "The Really Big Operation: Just Try and Fix Healthcare."
The patient (the U.S. health care system) is below the headline - and you can't touch patient or you'll get zapped.
As in: "Bzzt! Don't even go near proposing single payer. You'll be called a socialist!"
The editors at Politico apparently heeded Wuerker's warning.
Not a mention of single payer in the entire issue. (Other than Wuerker's warning.)
Looks as if Politico is positioning itself to be the new paper of record.
- Posted in
118 Comments so far
Show AllNew Poll Shows 73% Support Private Health Care Option
from healthcareforamerica dot org
Washington, DC – A new poll conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) found there is “intense and widespread voter support” for the choice of a public health insurance plan as part of comprehensive, national health care reform even when voters hear the sharpest insurance industry attacks such as a public health insurance plan would lead to lower quality health care, more expensive health care, or big government....
(snip)
While recent polling has shown consistent broad support for comprehensive health care reform, this poll specifically addressed whether people want a choice of a public health insurance plan. The answer is an overwhelming yes: 73% of voters want a choice of a private or public health insurance plan, including Democrats (77%), Independents (79%), and Republicans (63%).
Unedited at:
http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content
public_rejects_insurance_industrys_misleading_claims_new_poll_shows
I guess if the USA was a Democracy then what the people wanted might matter.
Is healthcareforamerica like Campaign for an American Solution, a (fake) industry lobby?
I could find the results, but not the dat (and more importantly the actual questions asked)
Just curious... is this like lumping (the majority) people who support Single Payer with people who support a mix of Public/Private, to say that the majority are ok with Private?
Why not let single payer advocates have EQUAL TIME on all mass media to explain to the public exactly what single payer is and why it is superior.
As it stands now discussion of single payer on the networks is virtually censored.
In spite of all this the public still overwhelmingly supports single payer.
Then you can ask your poll question in any wording you desire and it won't matter.
Why are advocates of death and insurance company profits like yourself so terrified to allow a fair and full debate of healthcare issues?
The majority of people I talk to, when I mention "single payer," immediately throw "socialized medicine" back at me and spout the myths about government-controlled health care, rationing, long waits, etc.. This seems to demonstrate that single payer advocates not having equal time in the MSM has resulted in widespread fear, ignorance, suspicion, etc. of any change to the current system.
Sounds like you're running with a rough crowd. Even some of the Republicans I know favor single payer.
Single payer need not reduce choice.
Yes, it's obvious that the political/corporate cabal, aka the Establishment, is united in their dedication to "disappearing" single-payer.
Like impeachment and "looking backwards", it's "off the table".
If anyone still doubts that the political status quo, Obama notwithstanding, is utterly corrupt and malignant, keeps your eyes on this critical issue.
Obviously the politicians and their para-corporate service delivery system are suppressing the popular will for single-payer, and prefer to support a status quo that allows insurance corporation and their political bag men to thrive at the expense of We the People.
They are parasites; even the leeches used for "health care" in bygone days have more integrity and character than the parasitic, bloodsucking politicians and their corporate partners in crime.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Good metaphors,
As you point out, the vampirical kleptocrats and parasitical oligarchs are up to no good as usual, nothing has changed here. What can we call a system that profits from the ill health and death of the people? A necromanceropoly? Vampiropoly? I'll have to work on that one.
When one thinks about it for a moment, this type of system is morally disgusting in the extreme, not to mention inefficient (13-16% of GNP).
Here's a fun fact for you while you're trying to name this death system. In 2008 Sen. Baucus received the most money (other than the 3 presidential candidates) from the funeral directors lobbying group.
Leeches. Oh my yes. Obama is applying leeches, both in the quackery of his proposed solution and in the bloodsucking politics the Democratic Party (SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT PROUD) are practicing. Take two leeches and call me in the morning.
"...and corporate liberal groups like AARP."
Corporate AND liberal?
AARP is all about preserving the status quo for the old status quo, to hell with the future.
As far as the rest of the article - just status quo.
Having just turned sixty and starting to feel like it, I have been looking at arrp and wondering why we do not start a real group to represent the baby boomers. The last I looked we still are by far the most powerful group in the country. The arrp is a disgrace. Like so many aspects of this country. I for one since waterboarding has become such an accepted thing would like to see it go mainstream so that we could get some real answers out of these people who are opposed to the teaching of Christ. I am sure that since the country condones torture now that we might as well put this new tool to good use in the public good.
We be taking the oboma bumper sticker off the bus..
Much of Congress is part of your generation...don't think they adequately represent it? What about those of us who came of age during the Bush era?
Does Congress adequately represent anyone?
Since much of Congress is fairly old, white, and rich, I think they represent those people quite well.
erclone, have you checked out the Gray Panthers?
Kathy
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Re Ted Markow May 4th, 2009 10:55 am
If Bill Clinton could be described as a "liberal," the word has lost all meaning. (Ditto for Madame Speaker Pelosi, glenn ford).
Bill Clinton wasn't a liberal. He was the epitome of todays "corporate liberal." Same with Pelosi etc.
It's important to make the distinction between liberals and corporate liberals so, as you say--the word liberal won't lose all meaning.
He means "liberal" in the classical economic sense.
I get so frustrated attempting to engage in conversation on so many different topics, only to face a common brick wall: the elimination of undesired options from those available for discussion, especially when advantages are clear and motivations are blatantly 'clouded'...
perhaps adding the right knowledge to one's storehouse and the right plants to one's garden will allow home remedies to be concocted? among others, marijuana is certainly beneficial in a number of ways...the future is looking more and more self-reliant...
No argument here, but sadly one can't grow everything. One of the things that really bugs me is that in order to get certain medications one must have a prescription. I'm susceptible to ear infections and can diagnose them very early on, but can I get antibiotic pills or eardrops OTC? Nope, gotta get a Dr. to tell me what I already know, pay co-pay, insurance is billed, pharmacy gets their cut, etc. Birth control pills are another medication that should be cheap and OTC but are not. I'm sure there are lots more.
I've been posting this request on any thread having to do with health care, please put up with me and participate.
Get Well Soon, America
Will you all join with me in a small but hopefully effective effort? If we all do it I believe it can have a great impact.
I have been sending Get Well cards to the president. They say: "America is sick. We need single payer health care as outlined in HR 676. Please support this bill and help America to Get Well Soon. Love, Elaine"
Write your own words, but keep it simple, make sure to say single payer and mention supporting HR676. With the "swine flu" in the headlines there's a spotlight on health care.
I imagine a White House buried in Get Well cards.
Please take five minutes and 42 cents, right now, and send your own message.
Send it to: Pres. Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20500
Thank You!!!
elainem, I understand your frustration, but some medications are not suited for OTC. Putting antibiotics OTC would vastly increase indiscriminate use, with people taking them "just in case", or not realizing they have a life threatening allergy, or not knowing the symptoms of allergy. They are already over prescribed and creating resistant bacterial strains. For birth control, there are medical conditions that can become dangerously aggravated (life threatening) by their use, so a physical exam and some education is important.
Planned Parenthood might be helpful with the birth control.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Kathy, you make a good point. Allowing people access to antibiotics and birth control would require them to to be informed, to use discretion, intelligence and common sense. My bad.
And yes, planned parenthood was certainly helpful 33 years ago (Good Grief) when I was 16.
As an aside, don't you think that overuse of antibiotics in animals in our food chain is more of the reason for the resistant strains?
elainem, re: As an aside, don't you think that overuse of antibiotics in animals in our food chain is more of the reason for the resistant strains?
Definitely.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
The future is indeed more self-reliant but focused more on going local as opposed to more globalism.
Gov. Ritter of Colorado made an interesting comment about single payer last weekend. Lots of people want single payer and they want Colorado to lead the way. He said "no dice" as doing so would make health care even more expensive as all of a sudden Colorado would see a huge influx from neighboring states.
They would not only tax the local services but the newly created single payer system. Some weren't buying that though. Personally I do as I've seen some of the middle to upper class spending money on a health care vacation to the UK, or France.
With 50% of the bankruptcies being medical related, ask yourself what is cheaper: a $50k medical bill you can pay for, or a $2,000 (or less) trip to France?
Interestingly enough, the local doctors who showed up for this bill signing by Gov. Ritter over the weekend, get it. They want to be out from under the oppressive HMOs that dictate their ever single health "care" move. They know everything but health care is going more local. THe number of people who are practicing health by growing their own food and supporting local organic farmers has skyrocketed.
It's going to be really interesting.
[With 50% of the bankruptcies being medical related, ask yourself what is cheaper: a $50k medical bill you can pay for, or a $2,000 (or less) trip to France?]
Actually, if you get caught as a yank in Canada or France trying to get 'free' health care, you'll pay the 2k for the flight and the 50k medical bill. Don't think we wouldn't charge you if you didn't have health insurance in our countries.
We already have a single-payer, gov't sponsored health care systems in place: MediCare and MedicAid. All that need be done is expand such coverage to all.
Aloha, salud, lechiem,
- Tobias
http://www.youtube.com/user/tobiasaurusrex
Far too simple fopr people that want complication to profit from. Nice point.
Exactly. This is what HR676 will do.
Go here to see if your Rep is a co-sponsor:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00676:@@@P
If you don't see his/her name on the list, make a call, write a letter, etc.
I asked my (newly elected Dem) rep if he would get behind Single Payer and side with the American people rather than insurance industry. His answer was that Single Payer was not going to pass, though there would be some health care reform. He said that maybe later we'd see Single Payer. When is later? What's wrong with NOW?
Pelosi quote " Single Payer, Single Payer, all I hear is Single Payer , well your not going to get Single Payer". Shame on San Francisco.
Excellent comment. Indeed shame on the voters of San Francisco that send this pitiful excuse of a representative to the Congress, but far greater shame on Congress for choosing something like this as Speaker of the House, a postion that used to be held by people of integrity and honor. Two attributes that are strangers to Nancy Pelosi.
Those of us who felt that women might govern with more compassion and justice are sorely ashamed of her as well.
She almost seems to relish denying us that which we need and want most. We've been bad children and Mommy Dearest won't give us any dinner. Or change our diapers, tend our wounds, or get Daddy to stop beating us...
Ah....you know Nancy well............
Typical how the MSM frames her as a radical left-wing Democrat. In an international comparison,(one could use the political compass website, for example)she is Right of Center as is Obama and the DLC. Even the freakin Conservative party in the UK does not advocate complete privatization of the NHS. Even ol Maggie dared not cross that line.
We don't have a Left in our political system, anyone who goes down that road gets the Dennis K. blacklist treatment.
[As in: "Bzzt! Don't even go near proposing single payer. You'll be called a socialist!"]
Well, to quote a real communist. 'what does it matter if the cat is black or white? As long as it catches rats, it's a good cat.'
Do they call the fire dept a socialist organization? Are the police socialist? After all, everyone is supposed to be covered by their services and the state pays them for their calls.
That's a good way to frame the issue, especially regarding fire departments. They indeed used to be a pay for use service, "pay or burn", but society evolved to see protection from being burned alive at home as a right, not a luxury. We need to get them to see quality healthcare as a right too.
Good framing indeed. Unfortunately Single Payer is dead, killed by Obama, Democrats and the impatient left.
What about the Far Right? Except for a few rare evangelical leaders, no Republicans have stepped up for single payer. Like most Democrats, they too are guilty of killing sp. And when you said "impatient left", who exactly were you referring to because I thought that the impatient left was trying to deliver for single payer as quickly as possible since it's very badly needed ?
The Far Right prompted me to purchase two bumper stickers: one reads "18,000 people die every year for lack of health care"; the other asks "How can you be Pro Life and not support universal health care?" Of course, I already know the answer to that one: if you're not a fetus, the Right doesn't give diddly squat about you.
I know exactly what you mean. Once I purchased a "pro-life" sticker and an "out of Iraq" sticker just to see what it's like. At first when going to visit my parents from St Louis to southwestern MO, after getting past St Louis, oh boy the rural folks would sneer, beep the horns, stick up their middle finger and even trying shouting and swearing on the road. I never took the stickers down and in fact got used to ignoring the wackos especially since there would be fewer to contend with as I drove further into the rurals. My parents, conservative as they'd get, would fear that I'd get into trouble with the law for somehow dressing my car as a "liberal rebel" but wouldn't bother to take them down. It's sometimes so hilarious to see people go bonkers because they don't like one bumper sticker or another although I often try to make sure no one damages my care in their madness. I'll be happy to find a cool bumper sticker for single payer to adding to the back of my car. :)
Then again, I'll need to get a couple for my otherwise conservative parents who eventually got around to not only overcoming their hate of single payer but in fact love it to death after they helplessly watched my cousin struggle to stay alive from an illness and no healthcare coverage since he was long unemployed and struggling to find a job.
I'm employed but uninsured, had to undergo major surgery last year for which I still owe money. Found out that indigent funding covers tests and hospitalization, but not doctors. My conservative family members are STILL opposed to universal health care. They blame illegals for all of the woes of society, guess they make a nice scapegoat.
"My conservative family members are STILL opposed to universal health care. They blame illegals for all of the woes of society, guess they make a nice scapegoat."
I guess some people never learn even when it happens to their closest kith of kin. I often shake my head in sadness when I witness families treating their own flesh and blood like that. And blaming illegals? I've seen plenty of such cases. The poorer one is, the easier it is to make a scapegoat out of them. I can never ever stand pols such as Tom Tancredo arguing against single because with his lousy excuse being "because illegals will get it too". I'd like to see pols like him live in fear and insecurity without any coverage for even 1 day.
Unfortunately, there's no hope for my family- they listen to Rush. Last year when I was going through all of my tests and appointments trying to get a diagnosis, my father said that if I had a green card, I could get anything I wanted. That's when I realized I couldn't have a rational conversation with anyone in my family. I'm going through tests again this year (hopefully this time it will turn out to be nothing). My sister has a job with insurance and still has to pay copays and deductibles- she told me what she paid for a similar test. When I said that was ridiculous (isn't she having to pay twice, if she already pays for some of the insurance costs?), she said, "Well, they have to charge SOMEthing- they need to make money." I'm worried that the Medical Industrial Complex has brainwashed so many into thinking this.
The green card remark your father made to you was very cruel. Why he'd want to make you an immigrant and then scapegoat you is beyond me but it is depressing to watch people treat their own younger flesh and blood like that. Technically, your sister would be correct albeit a bit harsh on the remark. One way to make SP look a bit more appealing at least to your sister might be to ask her something like this "With single payer, both the employer and the employees save money because the company no longer has to bear the burden of those insurance costs and employees are no longer under the mercy of limited care. What do you think of single payer healthcare?" As I disussed on another post under a similar article on healthcare, it's the money obsession that needs to be cured. Not only is it damaging the health and well being but devaluing the value of money itself.
Yes, I can see where the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies have gone out of their ways to brainwash the masses.
NMLib May 4th, 2009 5:11 pm
"They blame illegals for all of the woes of society, guess they make a nice scapegoat."
I am totally opposed to illegal immigration. It is morally and legally wrong. Period.
That said, I don't see how anyone can blame illegals for the lack of Universal Health Care. They eat up a significant amount of health care per illegal family. They cost quite a bit per illegal every year.
But these are local community costs in the majority. State bears some. But they have absolutely nothing to do with National Health Care or the lack thereof. Thats just silly. That is scapegoating just as blaming Swine Flu here in the US on illegals is scapegoating. God give folks some brains!
My family isn't blaming illegals for us not having universal health care; they don't support universal health care- equating it to "socialized" medicine. Also, I frequently hear that they don't want to pay for unemployed people or illegals.
Heck, being uninsured, I also cost the community. I needed surgery last year and don't have insurance. Indigent funding covers tests (but not doctor fees to interpret the results) and hospitalization; thus, now you know why uninsured people go to the ER. Doctor fees (surgeries, office visits) and medications are NOT covered. Anesthesiology required that I come up with the money up front or they would not do the surgery (the surgery was necessary, but I didn't have a life-threatening condition).
Thank goodness they aren't among the idiots that blame illegals for silly things.
Illegals won't be able to access universal health care of any kind or it would collapse. The unemployed and those (like you) that are employed without health care is exactly who Universal Health Care is for.
I forget who made the comparison, but is Fire and Police protection socialization? We have decided its a societal duty and expense. I believe our citizens would decide on Single Payer if discussion weren't killed about it. The rush to pass something (their plan) presupposes failure of SP.
"Illegals won't be able to access universal health care of any kind or it would collapse."
So then what about legal immigrants, visitors, or tourists? Can they not receive healthcare when in the country? And if you're going to demand a requirement to prove citizenship or legal presence in the country prior to receiving care, you're making the same demand that the conservatives are of the poor and minorities who don't have the proper IDs to cast a vote in several states. It will result in the poor and minorities not having the same access that others have.