THIS is what we get?

[Mythsaje]

We've got three candidates with three similar healthcare "plans" that don't solve the crisis facing us, put our health and safety in the hands of corporate bureaucrats with a mandate to save money rather than lives, and we're all okay with this?

Uh...not really. Not at all, actually.


Universal, single-payer healthcare would be good for everyone EXCEPT the insurance companies. And, forgive me for being callous, but the well-being of the insurance companies is just under the future well-being of cockroaches on my priority list.

Universal, single-payer healthcare would be good for business. It would save them from having to carry the burden of contracting with various insurance companies and HMOs, save them from having to pay people to juggle the paperwork, and eliminate healthcare benefits from any contract negotiations they might face in the future.

Universal, single-payer healthcare would be good for the citizens. It would prevent people from avoiding necessary care because of fear of debt, or costs at the time of treatment. It would allow them to see the doctor of their choice rather than being forced into a particular plan's "preferred provider" list. It would give people the ability to tend to illnesses and injuries before they got worse rather than being put off for fear of debt.

It would be good for the country not only because of the reasons stated above--what's good for business AND the citizens IS good for the country, but also because it would free up a chunk of middle class income for more discretionary spending and/or savings.

It would save the hospitals from having to charge those who can pay exorbitant fees to make up for those who can't.

The medical insurance companies and HMOs are parasites feeding off the American people and as long as our ostensibly "progressive" Democratic candidates are more interested in protecting THEIR interests than the interests of the rest of us--everyone who ISN'T an insurance company exec or shareholder--our healthcare crisis in this country is just going to get worse. Pasting a bandaid over a gushing gut wound isn't going to help, no matter how much effort they put into patting us on the head and telling us that it will.

As far as I'm concerned, the rich can go along the way they always have. They can privately insure themselves or pay directly. I don't really care. But the rest of us...well, the rest of us deserve more for our taxes than we're getting.

A hell of a lot more.

[Guaranteed]

1. Great post.

Thanks!

[Lasher]

2. This is the biggest single reason I'll probably vote for Kucinich in the primary

All that you say is true. But rest assured I'll vote Democratic all the way in the general election. Even with this and other shortcomings every single one of our candidates is a better choice than any Republican.

[Mythsaje]

3. I know it...

Pretty damn sad, ain't it?

[Lasher]

4. Yes, this is my biggest disappointment so far

I'm starting to think we might be better off with what we have today than we would be with the health care plans being proposed by the 3 Democratic front runners.

[2rth2pwr]

5. With Kucinich's plan, what is his plan for the approx 2.5 million jobs

that will be lost?

"About 44 percent of insurance workers are in office and administrative support jobs found in every industry, including secretaries, typists, word processors, bookkeepers, and other clerical workers (table 1). Many office and administrative support positions in the insurance industry, however, require skills and knowledge unique to the industry."....

"The insurance industry employed about 2.3 million wage and salary workers in 2004. Insurance carriers accounted for 62 percent of jobs, while insurance agencies, brokerages, and providers of other insurance-related services accounted for 38 percent of jobs. In addition, about 151,000 workers in the industry were self-employed in 2004, mostly insurance sales agents." http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs028.htm





edited to add link.

[eridani]

6. Claims processing needs the most warm bodies

If the government was responsible for claims processing, it could flat out FORBID that any of these jobs be outsourced.

Sooner or later we are going to have to confront the fact that a large sector of our economy is devoted to actively harming society. The only way we can put all those people back in work is to cut work hours and increase minimum wage by a whole lot.

The military is mainly for bullying the rest of the world and grabbing their resources. A military that was actually about defense would employ far fewer people.

Many rural areas look to building prisons as econcomic "development". Since most of the prison-industrial complex requires a massive influx of low-level drug offenders, better than half of its employees are utterly superfluous. Our huge investment in prisons is the GI Bill in reverse--now we are spending billions to DESKILL our population.

Insurance companies exist to deny care to sick people, and people who are involved in that end of it (rather than the productive claims processing part) are getting paid to harm society.

[krispos42]

7. They'll be hired by the federal government

After all, Medicare will have hundreds of millions of new people to take care of! Somebody's got to process all the paperwork! They'll have to get used to using the 'Approved' stamp more, that's all.

[superkia]

15. That and at least they will have health care unlike many poor people now.

[Lucinda]

8. Thanks for this!

been looking for this info

[Mythsaje]

9. The industry as a whole would be fine...

I don't think this is a valid argument for preserving a for-profit health insurance system that is bad for America and bad for Americans. If we eliminated the inequities of the drug war, a LOT of prison guards would be out of work. Still, I happen to think that would be a fine thing. And if we eliminated war for profit, a lot of defense contractors and weapons manufacturers would be hit hard, but I'm not sure that's a good argument for maintaining a morally defunct industry.

[2rth2pwr]

10. I know it's late, but how can the industry as a whole be fine

if there is no industry?

[Mythsaje]

11. No insurance industry?

How would eliminating health insurance eliminate the whole industry? Are we forgetting about the whole mandatory car insurance thing, homeowner's insurance, renters insurance, corporate liability insurance, medical malpractice insurance, or life insurance?

The insurance industry would survive.

[2rth2pwr]

12. Right, the insurance industry would survive

My question relates to the employees in the medical and health care insurance field. The 2.5 million number was for the whole industry, I don't have the breakdown for the number of employees who would lose jobs under DK, my question is- Does he have a plan for the people who would be out of work?

Thanks

[Mythsaje]

13. Heck if I know...

I'm not a DK supporter, though I prefer his healthcare plan to these "feed the monster" plans of the front-runners.

The health insurance industry is a parasitic blight on this country. My advice to those in that side of the industry? Look for a lateral move into a different form of insurance.

[JTFrog]

14. You could say that about

many industries harming not only this country, but the planet. Why end our dependency on oil? What would all the oil riggers and gas station owners and truck drivers and military personell do? What would coal miners/strip miners do? Etc. Etc. Etc.

We could end a lot of the outsourcing for a start. Bring some of our jobs back into this country. The government would pick up a large portion of the employees to handle the increase in medicare recipients. It's not the basic employees that make insurance expensive to the industry. It's the CEO's and stockholder profits that make insurance a ridiculous part of our health care system.

[YOY]

18. In case you didn't see the posts by others many of them

would be employed by the Federal Government or as contractors to the agency handling the claims. Similarly many of them will move to other branches of the insurance industry to cover any gaps remaining. It would be a big system initially that will need a bit of money (but ironically less money to run the industry) to get going and a quite a bit of manpower would be neccesary to get things moving.

If the economy permits (and new industries are created as well as protectionist measures are enabled to balace trade deficits and prevent excessive outsourcing.), the employees will not be abandoned in an economy with decidedly less jobs.

I'm afraid the top level executives from those Health Insurance companies will have to go screw themselves. They'll be taken care of by other branches and industries anyways.

[bbgrunt]

16. money doesn't talk, it screams.

[YOY]

17. You evil far leftists!

It is the right and duty of every Jackbooted rightwinger who is jaded by the shrub/pubs to take "their Democratic" party from the "looney left" for thinking like you do Mythsaje! You're so far left you're obviously a crazy deranged communist! :sarcasm:

How dare you beleive in such things as a universal health care system...just like the majority of Americans...

[Mythsaje]

19. The funny thing is that I don't consider myself "far left" at all...

I'm one of what Hartmann calls the "radical middle."

;)

Of course, *I* can see where the middle actually IS...unlike the rich and self-absorbed.

[YOY]

20. I don't consider myself "far leftist" either

but recently at DU I've been called that several times by several folks I'd never seen before a few week ago. I've actually considered myself left of center but pretty goddamn far from a radical.

Yup, favoring ending a war that can't be won because it's a waste of human lives and money...and also started on false premises. Just color me red comrade... :sarcasm:

[f the letter]

21. amen amen

There is simply no argument against this that will withstand an argument where talking-points phrases are not allowed. Of course even something moderate like SCHIP is labeled 'big government' and socialistic and a disavowal of the market system. i can't believe that anybody can look at the insurance industry and say "OK, i see why this is better than single payer care"