Why are repukes so reluctant to government run health care?

[Herman Munster]

Now, we know why it is a good idea. It's just common sense that there should be a social safety net and 40 million people without coverage is an outrage. But let's look at it from the only perspective the repukes understand: MONEY and SHAREHOLDER WEALTH.

Their corporate masters should rejoice over government run healthcare. It would get rid of a huge expense off of their balance sheet and allow for more profits. GM, Ford, and a number of old legacy companies that are just about bankrupt because of their legacy health obligations should love government run health care as just about any other company out there should.

[BlueJazz]

1. I believe Republicans love to see/create the downtrodden.

It makes them feels Superior to a lot of folks. ..They're that petty..and insecure...

[niallmac]

2. National Health care creates demographic chaos.

People could actually move around the country
without sacrificing their right to health care.
The present system suits the controllers just fine.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Health Insurance companies and Doctors are powerful lobbies, and

also our current patchwork system gives a lot of leverage of corporations over their employees since the employees are dependent on their jobs for insurance.

It's basically that simple.

I've worked in both the private and socialized medical systems (military medicine is socialized medicine, even though a lot of right wing military doctors don't realize it LOL they are salaried government employees providing free care to a population guaranteed care, with no profit incentive).

Both have plusses and minuses. But I always felt the care I gave in the socialized sector was pretty good, and it was INFINITELY better than the type of care that people without insurance get in our system.

There are so many people uninsured, this should be a no brainer for Democrats to get out in front of.

There's no reason anyone without health insurance should ever vote Republican.

[SharonAnn]

4. I don't get it either. They manage to steal all kinds of money from it.

Of course, sometimes they get caught. Like HCA, the Frist family business, got fined $1.7 BILLION for Medicare fraud.

A Republican eye surgeon where I lived a few years ago was convicted and fined for more than $1 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Think of Republicans as a business. One of the main things they

have to sell is "protection of intellectual property". The pharmaceutical industry relies on government for their $multi-billion monopolies on nongeneric drugs, and makes tens or hundreds of millions more every time a drug is delayed from going off patent. See http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx for an accounting of pharma industry bribes over the last few years, and how well they timed with government breaks for the industry.

IMO, if government also became the ultimate purchaser of pharmaceuticals under a single payer system, as well as ultimate protector of monopolies, government would have a conflict of interest. There would be powerful nonpolitical government bureaucrats whose job would be to keep health care costs down.

That would be bad for pharmaceutical profits, and therefore bad for the Republican protection racket. The Republican party motto ought to be, "Ubi est meo"? (Where's mine?)

Bill Moyers's "Capitol Crimes" is a great description of the "vertically integrated Republican shake-down machine" that has developed over the last few years, in the pharma industry and in other industries.