Single Payer: The Health Care Plan Not On The Table

[t0dd]

WASHINGTON — Just about every time President Obama holds a town hall meeting, someone asks about the health care plan that’s not under consideration.

“Why have they taken single-payer off the plate?” Linda Allison wanted to know during a New Mexico forum in May.

By now, the president has a stock answer for those who want to replace the current system of employer-based health insurance with a single-payer plan in which the government pays all medical bills.

“If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense,” Obama said. “That’s the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world. The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch.”

Too Disruptive?

Obama argues that shifting to a single-payer system would be too disruptive for the $2.2 trillion health care industry. That view is shared by most of the policymakers now running the health care debate, but not by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio.

“We’re not starting from scratch,” Kucinich said. “We’re starting in a ditch. And the ditch is that Americans are being driven into poverty by a health care system that is for-profit.”

Kucinich co-sponsored legislation that would expand the government-funded Medicare program to cover all Americans, not just those aged 65 and older. Kucinich made single-payer health care a cornerstone of his own quixotic presidential campaign.

“One out of every three dollars in our current health care system goes for corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork,” Kucinich said. “If you took the money that’s being wasted and put it into a not-for-profit system, you’d suddenly have enough money to cover every American.”

Health care experts agree that switching to a single-payer system would sharply reduce administrative costs. But wary lawmakers instead focused on a more incremental approach.

More here: http://www.wbur.org/2009/07/24/single-payer-health-care

I wonder if someone mentioned the polls to Obama, that a majority of Americans favor a single payer system, how he would respond? "That wouldn't be fair to the insurance companies!" I'm sure we'd get the same, overused, cautionary bullshit! Is it so much to ask for some courage and forceful leadership? Why do we always have to play the cautionary card? I know it is practical, but we have majorities in Congress.. we have public consensus.. we have a real chance..

I think now is the time to say fuck doing what is practical. We all know single payer is a long shot, but why not stand up to these private insurance companies once and for all that are only concerned with maximizing profit instead of saving lives? It's disgusting what we have settled for. If only there could be an uprising in our country, a real uprising.. Oh well, if there is hope, it lies in the proles...

[MrModerate]

1. Outside of the obvious -- that insurance companies buy and sell politicians like used cars . . .

And the appearance of economic mismanagement if an entire industry (which includes lots more worker bees and middle managers than it does CEOs and investors) collapsed, I'm confused why the dems haven't just declared war on 'em. Bottom line, they're ghouls who add zero value for the dollars they extract.

I supposed the public option could eventually starve them to death, but what a waste in the meantime!

[John Q. Citizen]

2. The Plantation system is in place and is 1/6 of the economy, so emancipation is off the table.

We need to tweak the slavery system to keep the slave owners honest.

People can have a choice. They can choose to live in a slave state, or, if they don't want that, they can move to a free state!


Obama needs to quit fronting for the ongoing criminal enterprise thats killing 18,000 American men women and children a year so they can make big bucks.

[Union Yes]

3. I'm a single payer supporter 100%. I tried knr'ing this out of the hole.

[dflprincess]

4. Not just not on the table but it's become "the plan that shall not be mentioned"

Not only has Obama changed his mind about single payer - he's changed his mind about "RomneyCare". While a presidential candidate he opposed mandates, now he's all for them - despite evidence that this is not working in Massachusetts. The higher he goes, the more corporate friendly he gets and the more unwilling he is to listen to ideas he (and Rham no doubt) do not agree with - despite promises to listen to all sides.

Yesterday, he said it will take "years" to ramp his public option up and the CBO says by 2019 only 10 million people will be on that option (which makes it unprofitable). We don't have years - but we do have a good structure already working that we could build on.

This whole thing has become a farce that will only benefit the insurance companies and by the time the supporters of this figure out what has happened, it will be too late and the bill will be law. But you'll remember how you were scammed when you see your money going to United Health Group or some other bunch of crooks every month.

[Chisox08]

5. KnR

Single payer should be on the table but it looks like the insurance companies will be writing this bill as Big Pharma did with Medicare part D.

[abumbyanyothername]

6. How's this sound?

Mid to late August, we hold rallies, with lit torches, at everyone's district office.
Labor Day weekend we start massing in DC.
Labor Day we have a huge free concert, and get Dennis, Howard and Rep Weiner to address the massive crowd.
Tuesday September 8 we pass out torches and light them and start shouting our demand for single payer, medicare for all or whatever the hell you think the best brand name is.

[maryf]

7. Sounds great start with a Rally in DC this coming Thursday, July 31st!!

Medicare's 44th anniversary and a Rally for Single Payer, Medicare for all! info at http://www.healthcare-now.org be there if you can!!

[mnhtnbb]

8. I like your ideas. At dinner tonight I told hubby I'm thinking of writing

every progressive organization I can think of with the suggestion that they start gearing up
to organize a massive, huge, ginormous protest march on DC in September. Shut Congress down
with sit-ins unless they pass AT LEAST a public option health care bill.

We all should have shut DC down in 2000 when the Bushies stole the election. When 72% of Americans
want a public option, it's damn well time for our representatives to do the right thing and figure
out how to make it possible.

[t0dd]

9. It does sound great.

We need to spread awareness.. involve more people.. tell the horror stories.. everyone should see Sicko! This is America, and it is a disgrace we are the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care. Enough is enough is enough!!

[abumbyanyothername]

10. Maybe we could have an outdoor screening

of Sicko and Mike could talk.

[t0dd]

11. I wonder if he could take time away from his latest film to do some promoting for it?

Anyway, I really appreciate the exchanging of ideas going on here.. haha :)

[crickets]

12. "If I were starting a system from scratch..."

WHY aren't we starting from scratch? If the system is that broken, maybe we SHOULD. It's not like it isn't possible. Why weigh disrupting business as usual against citizens' very lives?

People want it, we need it, it makes the most fiscal and practical sense in the long run: let's do it.

[dflprincess]

13. He is starting from scratch with that worthless "insurance exchange"

but we don't have to start at square 1 - we can build on Medicare. For that matter we can look at the systems that have been built in other countries and take what works from them. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

[crickets]

15. You're preaching to the choir. : )

Not that I mind at all; I agree with you, especially with the point that we could build on Medicare. It's this notion that it would be such a burden for the government to work out a Single Payer plan that really ticks me off. The solutions, ones which would be best for everyone all around, are staring our reps in the face and they refuse to acknowledge this. It's frustrating.

[dflprincess]

18. Sometimes I have to preach to the choir to bring my

blood pressure back down - it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who's disgusted by what's happening with this issue.

Here's to us :toast:

[wroberts189]

14. The loss of all our good paying manufactoring jobs was also disruptive.

Medicare for all now.

[nightrain]

16. K&R. I hadn't heard Kucinich on the ditch. I like that!

I'm there for the longhaul. Been a single payer advocate since the late 70s, and proud of it. We have come a long way, particularly lately. Thank you Dennis Kucinich and pnhp and the other organizations who stick their necks out!! We're definitely making headway.

[leftstreet]

17. We should just offer the Insurance industry a bailout now

Then we could get on with the inevitable single payer.

Waiting for these bubbles to burst is ridiculous.

[spin]

19. That's what it will take. If we don't march and demonstrate, we will ...

never see true heath care reform.

Sadly even if we do we may not get it. Our politicians are bought and paid for.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

20. Bump