Why single payer matters more than CHIP. (And why DUers need to understand this because most of us

[Luminous Animal]

are not poor who need CHIP)

#1 You have to know about CHIP.

#2 You have to have a local access to an agency or internet access that will help you negotiate CHIP.

#3 Lots of poor people in #1 and #2 do not.


I've been an advocate for the poor my entire adult life. Every single government an most NGO agencies that purports to server the poor makes it difficult to do so.

I call them poverty pimps.

[winter is coming]

1. Let me add...

1) You have to periodically re-qualify for CHIP. You wouldn't for single-payer, since everyone's covered, all the time.

2) With CHIP or children's Medicaid, it's possible for your kids to have insurance, while you don't.

[mythology]

2. There are reasons very few countries actually have single payer

The European country with the highest health outcomes is the Netherlands and has a system that isn't all that different than the ACA.

Moving from our current system, especially given that the House is unlikely to switch until at least after the next census, to single payer, is at best highly unlikely. Advancing things that might have a chance is a better use of legislators' time. For example, does it do any good when the House attempts to repeal the ACA for umpteenth time?

[Scootaloo]

3. Okay. Aside from "it's hard!" is there any cogent reason to not TRY?

You understand that a failed effort at achieving single payer will still leave us with what has been achieved o far, right? 'Cause clinton supporters keep talking as if making hte effort to improve will fail and - SOMEHOW - take everything else with it.

[winter is coming]

6. We put a man on the moon, something no one else had ever done.

And yet, we're supposed to believe it's "too hard" to implement single-payer, something other countries have already done?

[Scootaloo]

7. And they act like even making the effort will take away everything already achieved.

It's the strangest mentality I've seen on "our side" of politics

[area51]

10. +1 n/t

[daybranch]

12. Hillary is just trying to grab onto Obama's achievements as if everything he does is sacrosanct,

-pandering to uninformed African American voters and Obama-bots who want to hang onto the fallacy that everything Obama did is perfect because he is either African American or has a lot of charisma. Many African Americans I know are becoming aware of the shortcomings of the ACA. Pandering only works until truth is known. Go Bernie! The candidate who wants to let the people run their own country. He is not for sale, never was, never will be!

[joshcryer]

9. Well, you could get single payer without cost controls.

And with certain benefits cut (such as dental or eye care for the most impoverished) and you would not want that. That would be almost no different than the ACA with a public option. If that's what you want you're better off pushing for a public option.

[Recursion]

11. Well, because the majority vote of the world is that it isn't a great idea

Very few countries have single payer. Most countries have looked at it and decided a multi-payer system is better.

[daybranch]

13. Are these countries that decided against it modern democracies?

Or are they like the USA run by their own oligarchies? I suspect the latter. It should be up to the people and right now people favor Bernie's medicare for all.
Is O Malley against Medicare for all ? If so , he is more out of touch than I previously presumed, further lowering his chances of getting more than 5 percent in New Hampshire or Iowa Primary vote totals.
Many people had sympathy for O Malley to give us different views on the issues, but he is getting too far from the progressive base of the democratic party as to be relevant in his own right. At this point all he can do is eat up air time aiding Hillary, while conducting what is a botched, impossible campaign. He had no real support in Ohio but he botched any way to get any. Let's take a poll now on DU.
Does you believe that O Malley's continued presence as a potential candidate is doing any real service to the country?`I vote no. He should have withdrawn long ago and certainly when the time he and his campaign botched getting on primary ballot in Ohio.

[99Forever]

14. ....

[silenttigersong]

4. Just a link for you who care to be open minded

[link:http:// http://www.pnhp.org/facts/what-is-single-payer|

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!!

[joshcryer]

8. CHIP covers dental and eye care.

Which is not necessarily covered under some forms of single payer.

Note: I'm playing devils advocate here, if we got single payer we would not go "backwards" so the argument that single payer "dismantles" anything is a canard idiotic talking point. I'm merely saying that if you got single payer it would have to cover dental and eye care, which the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act does do (and is what Sanders advocates). But it's conceivable that, in the compromise aspect of drafting the legislation, things like dental and eye care are thrown out.

But Medicare for All ain't passing this congress. We couldn't even get the public option when we had congress.