Say it loud and say it to everyone you know. "Socialized Medicine"

[Stinky The Clown]

That will bail out the Big 3 and the Little 3 and the Inbetween 3. It will make all our businesses more competitive.

But it has other benefits, too. Right now the national mood is awful. People are angry. People are mistrustful. People are just plain scared. If we can, as a nation, tell everyone that one huge worry - their bodily well being - has been lifted, they will feel much better about all the other crap they're facing.

If Barack Obama wants to make a big splash and lead, this is one for his first hundred days. Couch it and sell it any way you want - bailout for business, concern for the little guy, international competitiveness. It doesn't matter. It helps on many levels.

"Socialized Medicine."

Say it.

It is easy to say.

No euphemism.




"Socialized Medicine."



See how easy that is?

[Puzzler]

1. Agreed 100%.

.

[tekisui]

2. And, it would be cheaper for the taxpayer than "bailing out"

every failing Corporation.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. As I said, it is helpful on *many* levels

It is as close to a panacea as anything ever will be.

[cyberswede]

3. K&R

We just need to desensitize people to the term - take away it's negative connotation.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Just Call It "Medicare For Everyone"

People are more comfortable with that.

[Homer Wells]

5. Kicked and Recommended!! n/t

[codjh9]

6. I'm 100% for it, and have been for many reasons for several years. BRING IT ON!!!

[riverwalker]

7. Socialized Medicine

will save this country.

[CTyankee]

8. I hear more and more people saying that socialized medicine might be a good idea just now.

Not everyone is blindly stupid on this. Lots of Americans have been to Europe and see that people there are fine with their health care and don't want ours. In fact, they have pretty nice lives and they don't work like dogs just to exist...

Just got back from Spain where I saw people out in cafes eating tapas, drinking wine or coffee and (unfortunately) smoking. Early, midday, evening, night (dinner hour starts around 9 pm), everybody out on the Ramblas...

[Merlot]

12. I have a friend in the airline industry, travels all over the world

Yet says "socialized medicine" like it's a horrible thing. "No one is going to mess with my health care." Said the same old horror story about how on 60 minutes they showed people in Canada waiting months for proceedures. I said that after spending about $800 a month on insurance premiums, how would he feel if the insurance company denied a service? Because they do that all the time.

Didn't hear much on the subject after that.

Oh, and he just got laid off, so we'll see if his opinion changes.

Me, I just can't argue it with people anymore. It's to stupid, right up their with is global warming real?

[CTyankee]

20. You can't argue with hard core rwingers.

About the best we can hope for are the ones in the middle of the spectrum who haven't had a drilling in the evils of "socialized medicine" but who are LIVING the evils of privatized medicine. The story of what happened to Obama's mother is chilling and instructive...

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Some people just need to be considered as "left behinders".

We have:

A Democratic president who has studied history - Lincoln's "Team of Rivals" and FDR's "First Hundred Days"

A Democratic House that knows full well who elected them to

A Democratic Senate with enough repubicans who know full well what the mood is at home and that people want to GET SHIT DONE.

This is truly the best chance to get this passed than has existed ...... maybe ever. I don't care if we don't convince these small thinkers to go along or not. Winning involves just one more vote than losing.

[CTyankee]

23. I was thinking of some of those folks this morning. It's as if their show has closed and left town.

They're in a cold ugly place right now and they should be. They have all the problems that we all do, but they don't have the beacon of hope that we have, a source of inspiration and a renewal of our faith in liberalism. We were right all along...

[Merlot]

38. No, he's actually a democrat, though voted for bushco last time

Bought into the whole "don't change midstream" thinking. Also, just very underinformed.

[Kalyke]

35. But, see, that's the thing.

Europeans drink more and smoke more, but because they exercise more and work less, the smoking and drinking doesn't seem to lead to as many instances of cancer, lung disease, liver failures that we have.

Which leads me to believe what I've always believed: everything in moderation, including if you want to smoke and drink.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. It is remarkable...

That throwing money at corporations and financial institutions that don't have any apparent intention of fixing one goddamned systemic or institutional problem they might have is accepted by the vast majority of our fellow citizens as the natural order of things. Then say "Socialized Medicine" and these same people start donning camoflage facepaint and BDU's, grabbing weapons, digging foxholes, and start listening foir the sounds of an advancing army singing "The Internationale" on the horizon.

Personally, I think there far too many people with undiagnosed and serious psychiatric conditions roaming amongst us.

[codjh9]

11. You are 100% right! They're psychotic - or at the very least, woefully ignorant & misled.

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. And they can thank their St. Raygun for that.

Personally, I think there far too many people with undiagnosed and serious psychiatric conditions roaming amongst us.

[diamidue]

32. I was stunned the other day.

A Right-wing evangelical family member sent letters out to distant members of the family asking for funds to help pay for an operation for her child. I am not adverse to helping people out, but come on. She continues to vote against her own best interests and the best interests of her children - (and the interests of my own children, btw), and yet I am expected to help pay her bills?? Maybe I am being petty, but it ticks me off.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

34. I can understand your discomfort.

She chooses to ignore the systemic causes of her predicament, and continues to support a system and the people who created those systemic causes.

As a psychologist friend once told me: He could do a lot better for his clients if he did not have to spend all his time teaching them bedrock cognitive skills.

[snappyturtle]

13. K&R I don't care what it is called, the nation needs it. I won't be using

the term here in a repub nest....but I will say single payor healthcare. Too many here already think PE Obama is a Muslim/Commie. No sense in confusing them even more.

[qwertyMike]

14. I was born in post-war Britain

Belfast 1945. Britain had just voted Socialist. I emigrated to Canada in 1968.

I have NEVER paid a penny for any medical treatment in my life (except in my taxes I guess). In fact if I got a bill I'd be indignant!

I'm very healthy but here are the treatments I have received in my life FREE:

Operation for correcting a squint I was born with + about a year of rehab on my eyes, Glasses, tonsils, home visits from the Doc. for the usual childhood maladies, circumcision (ouch), teeth removed after a rugby injury, free dentures (3 times), Appendectomy, Numerous X rays for rib injuries (I drank a lot), 33 visits to alcohol rehab (I drank a lot :) ), Pneumonia, birth of 2 children, and a lot more.

I have never paid for drugs/medication.

Like I said I'd be indignant.
The world is laughing (sadly) at the richest country in the world not providing 'free' medicine/drugs. WHERE does your tax money go???

K. Marx

PS: My university tuition was free and I received a living grant each year. I was able to run a car at college and vacation in Spain i the summer after I had a small summer/xmas job.

[raccoon]

15. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the phrase "national health plan."

I totally agree we need it, but the word "socialized" many people react to the way a bull does to a red flag.

Or else "Medicare for all," as someone posted.

[Winterblues]

16. When we think of "Social Security" , what do we think of?

I consider Health Care an important part of my "Security" and I am sure a lot of others do as well. As Medicare was done so should National Health Care, without the 20% co-pay...

[ProgressiveFool]

17. except to most, "socialized medicine" means government doing the doctoring

If you want a phrase to push at people, go with "single-payer" instead, to make clear that government's only role there is to pay the bills, not to make medical decisions and analysis.

Agreed, though, that it would lift a huge burden off of American business, and allow for better pay and/or retirement benefits to take the place of what's spent by businesses on healthcare insurance.

[slipslidingaway]

25. Agree! n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

18. How many people are stuck in a job that is breaking down both

their physical and mental health because they need the coverage?? It may be something that they have done for a long time but are no longer "easily" able to perform... or they may be working with/for someone who dogs them every day... but can't do anything about it... it's a terrible trap to be in... anyone?

[cliffordu]

19. Exactly right.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!!!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Timmy5835]

24. A BIG NO to Socialized Medicine...

A BIG YES to Universal Health Care. Their is a big difference between the two. In Socialized Medicine the Hospitals and Doctors are government employees. All health care would come from government clinics. In Universal Health Care, the Hospitals and Doctors are still private but are reimbursed by the government, like Medicare. Another huge, bureaucratic government program is something we really don't need now.

[leftstreet]

27. Bullshit

We have Medicare here. It works without herding seniors into "government clinics."

Nice try.

:eyes:

[Greyhound]

28. I think you might be confusing universal health care and universal health insurance.

Single payer universal health care is socialized health care, what you describe as socialized is government run or provided health care.

Single payer only establishes prices and method of payment (and makes health insurance companies obsolete).

All part of the divide, confuse, and conquer strategy.

Make it easier, just call it HR 676.

[slipslidingaway]

26. Please see this thread as well...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4507724&mesg_id=4507724

[Senator]

29. And Repeat: "Healthcare Is NOT A Commodity."

It is not a "product" like other things. Because -- like national defense -- we ALL need it in exactly the same quantity. Which is "as much as we need, when we need."

You can't "project" your individual costs or your company's. You can't "contain" expenditures predictably. And there really is no "insurance pool" from which only some risk-sharers get sick and die (sudden, youthful, "cost-free" deaths of premium-payers are simply not that common).

So it can't function well within markets and capitalism. In fact, it damages them.

That is why it has no place in the private sector. Because literally all the "profit" is blood money -- that could have made a fellow American well, or saved their life.

Which is why it always feels a bit icky when it's bought and sold.

Because it has never really been a commodity.

---

[Stinky The Clown]

30. Health Care is an unfunded RIGHT

Keep repeating that.

Cuz it is a truth.

[Odin2005]

36. Healthcare should not be for sale, it should be a basic human right

Social Security should be expanded into a complete government pension system.

[TheKentuckian]

33. Socialized insurance is about mandatory

and we probably need an additional pension program of some sort in addition/in place of SS too. The 401k scam isn't working for the people at all. If we can take health care and pension plans out of the mix then we can compete with the industrialized world.

[eridani]

37. I think that what you mean is "socialized insurance"

Current single payer plans do not propose that medical providers be government employees, which is what most people think of as socialized medicine. Britain has socialzed medicine, but Canada has socialized insurance.

The government ponied up the cash for our interstate highway system, but let out contracts to private builders for the actual work. I think that would work just fine with health care.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

39. Can we call it "The National Health Service"

service of health for all - free at the point of use?