Why I believe we will never have single payer or universal coverage

[TZ]

It has less to do with wussy politicians or paranoid corporations than it has to do with the citizens of this country. To put it bluntly too many people don't want it. Particularly the ones who already have their own coverage thats good. All these idiots at the town halls are just loud versions of what many people think..that in order to cover everyone, it will hurt those that already have good coverage. The attitude from the average American seems to be "I got mine so the rest of you can go to hell". (also remember that liberals are only about 17% of the voting population, a minority)
I personally believe that most people are lying when they say universal coverage is important. And unfortunately the politicians are hearing these voices loudly. (Even the democrats). Therefore they will not go agaisnt the will of their constituents how ever wrong headed and damaging that may be for the greater good.
The only way we could get universal care, IMO, is by raising taxes as well..Most European contries with universal care also have most higher taxes than we do. And god knows raising taxes is teh evil..:sarcasm:
In short, I think there are too many spoiled, self-centered, cowardly, arrogant people to ever allow single payer to even be debated, let alone pass.
Just my bitter, cynical 02 cents.

[Cant trust em]

1. I watched the entirety of a Virginia town hall hosted by Sen. Mark Warner

I am sorry to say that I agree with you 100%.

"How's that going to save Libby money?" Is what one person in the crowd asked. She could care less if 47 million people are unable to get health care.

[phantom power]

2. I don't entirely agree..

for one thing, 30% of Americans already have Single Payer, and like it. It's Medicare. Secondly, everybody knows what it is like to deal with insurance companies, and nobody likes them. And we all feel screwed by them.

Single Payer could be sold to the American people. I don't even think it would be very hard. In fact, it is by far the easiest health care plan to explain and the easiest to sell in terms of why it's good. Almost nobody ever tried to make the sale. In one of politics' greatest self-fulfilling failures, the Dems declared it "politically impossible" and took it off the table. Well, that is transparent bullshit. I think we saw an inkling of that with Obama's speech last night. He finally projected some strength, and made some moral arguments, and people loved it. If he had started making the same kind of speeches on behalf of Single Payer back in March, and put the Dem caucus on the spot publicly to make it happen, the American people would have gotten behind it.

So, I guess I think the blame does rest on Congress, and by syllogism on the insurance industry who pays them off. 3/4 of Americans are very ready to be sold on Single Payer.

[TZ]

6. I've heard people around where I live. say

THAT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM..and.I live in a pretty democratic area. Its my firm belief that most healthy people have little contact with their insurance companies and therefore don't have a true idea of how bad it is. As a chronically ill person, I get shocked responses sometimes from naive people who don't understand about how difficult it is to deal with them.
I also have a hard time believing that any of the people who voted for McCain want universal care..and thats roughly 40% of the country.

[phantom power]

16. The way to address your first point is to personalize the issue...

You trot out specific real people with real health-insurance horror stories. There are obviously millions of stories, literally. Then you back up those horror stories with actual statistics, and you remind everybody relentlessly that they're all one accident or diagnosis away from being in the same boat. The GOP does this very successfully, and they do it with lies. Imagine how well it works when you do it and tell people the truth! Especially a truth that most people already know, if you get them to think about it a little bit. Even most people who haven't ever had health problems usually know people who have.

As for McCain voters, about half of them are hard core 22%-ers and nobody is going to change their minds, and so nobody should waste any energy or political capital trying to. However, the other half are "mushy-centrists" who are in reality very easy to influence in almost any direction. Show strong leadership and they will follow.

Finally, the real secret is consistency. Keep telling the stories. Keep showing the leadership. Keep making speeches like last night. Over and over, until the job is done, and then move on to the next job. Again the GOP is good at this. They're relentless. We should emulate them, because they're right about that: relentless works.

[Posteritatis]

3. They won't happen in the US until it stops fighting the Cold War. (nt)

[rockymountaindem]

13. Right on

As long as people still think that single-payer means Brezhnev is going to rise from the grave and become President, we can't make headway there.

Once memories of the USSR fade, people yelling "socialist" at the drop of a hat won't be able to stifle debate. They'll have to come up with another piece of slander :eyes:

[Posteritatis]

14. Hey, it's possible - Brezhnev died, but his body lives on.. (nt)

[leftstreet]

4. After we bail out the Insurance industry, we'll get it

Patience

[mother earth]

5. I think people also forget that doctors are fed up with the

insurance companies interfering with patient care, single payer takes them out of the equation. I believe Larry King's show tonight will be on this topic.

The problem is that all of these corporations are sinking a lot of money, time and effort into making us believe that WE THE PEOPLE are against this. I believe they are a minority, not the majority, but again we get snookered into believing the big lie. Or, at least most believe it.

[TZ]

7. As much as I respect the profession of doctors

(I'm a Mayo clinic patient and I respect them greatly), I've heard a couple of doctors complaining that they feel like they would make less money under single payer. That REALLY depresses me. Hypocratic oath anyone?

[mother earth]

10. Not all of them feel this way, much of what they pay out is

because of an enormous amount of paperwork that must be processed, they are continually having to check on what procedures are covered or not, and this is time consuming. I'm betting they'd be covering more time with more patients if the redtape is cut out. So it would actually streamline things & might mean greater productivity, so it's not necessarily going to kill the profit factor. It's a very complicated web, and we haven't even touched on the malpractice insurance fees. Insurance companies gain everything, the rest of us are sucked in & have to comply.

[elocs]

8. I call the Republicans where I live "YOYOs" because "You're On Your Own"

seems to be their motto. They are firmly against spending any money unless it somehow directly benefits them. They are also insanely obsessed that anybody get something that "they" perceive is undeserved.

It is odd that for allegedly fiscal conservatives they don't mind paying twice as much as other industrialized nations for our inferior healthcare. They are, however, very fond of finding more and more ways to imprison non-dangerous lawmakers and pay thousands of dollars a year to keep them locked up.

Yes, they are tight-fisted and scroogish YOYOs.

[TZ]

9. YOYO's...I like that. Perfect description.

They love paying out money for unnecessary wars, but don't want to spend the money on taking care of the people here...

[area51]

15. "...imprison non-dangerous lawmakers..."

As opposed to our congresspeople who are dangerous lawmakers? Sorry, I can't resist a stupid joke. :spank:

[CrispyQ]

11. I think we have a very large segment of the population who have insurance,

but they've never tested their insurance. We will all continue to see our rates go up & more & more claims declined.

How ironic that deregulating so much of industry has increased environmental & health issues for American workers, who are, once again, at the mercy of yet another big industry. When are the American people going to wake up & realize that unregulated capitalism & free markets are bullshit.

[lapislzi]

12. Disagree.

The context in which Obama placed the health-care reform debate is a moral one. He made a strong case for the moral imperative that we, as Americans can and should take care of one another. He stole any moral argument from the other side. Because now anyone who argues against health care reform can (and rightfully should) be labeled "immoral." Seizing the moral high ground was a smart move.

I am deeply frustrated by the slow pace and shallow nature of the current proposals, however. I do believe we can eventually move towards single-payer, but it's going to take a long time and require tremendous political will. I'll probably be dead by the time it comes to pass, but maybe my daughter won't be.