Universal healthcare for all!

[Subdivisions]

If we can afford $700 Billion for resource wars, then we can afford healthcare for all.

I will NOT support, nor settle for, anything less!


ETA: To those of you who have come later to this thread, my unfortunate use of the word "free" in my topic line set off a bit of confusion here as to whether my wording was faulty or, to my amazement considering my history here, that I'm carrying water for a right-wing talking point. I used the word in haste borne of the frustration that there is even a debate on this issue in this country. As such, I have edited my topic to exclude that most unfortunate word. I do realize that universal health care would not be "free". What I meant using that word was that health care would be available to all who need it without any additional charge besides what they normally pay in taxes.

[begin_within]

1. Seconded.

[leftstreet]

2. It's 'taxpayer funded' not 'free' n/t

[MercutioATC]

3. Very important point.

Thanks.

[clear eye]

27. What point? n/t

[CBGLuthier]

6. Does the word "duhh" have any meaning to you?

[leftstreet]

8. 'free' healthcare is generally a RW talking point (duh)

[Subdivisions]

15. WTF? Don't even imply one bit that I'm proffering RW talking points. I changed the title

of my thread just for you.

[leftstreet]

17. Excellent

I wasn't implying you did it deliberately

[Subdivisions]

7. I know. We already pay taxes. That's a given. NO NEW TAX! There's no

new tax to pay for resource wars. There should be no new tax for health care.

If we can pay for wars, we can pay for health care. Period.

[Goldstein1984]

31. We should be paying for healthcare INSTEAD of wars

It's all about getting insurance companies out of the healthcare business. They contribute nothing to health. Their profit margin would pay the first Universal Healthcare Dividend.

[clear eye]

25. And it'd be cheaper than the premiums or bankruptcies that are being extorted now.

Do you mean that "free" has been misused to mean a choice of private health insurers?

It unfortunately sounds like you are carrying water for the Tea-Baggers who believe that single payer will bankrupt us instead of the reverse.

[Subdivisions]

28. Fucking hell. Just forget it. Misuse one goddamned word and now I'm a fucking

water-carrier for neanderthals.

Just forget it and let this thread die.

[clear eye]

36. I was replying to the person correcting you.

The correction was more misleading than your OP, if it was misleading.

Please note the comment my reply connects to, and calm down a little, huh? I'm on your side.

[leftstreet]

38. ...

Since you edited the title, can you can ask the Mods to slice/dice the thread?

Any thread about single payer nonprofit healthcare is outstanding!

[KansDem]

4. I'm with you!!!

:woohoo:

...and in case it isn't clear:
:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[Morning Dew]

5. Universal single payer is the only way to go.

the MANDATE should be on the government, not the citizens.

k&r

[Subdivisions]

14. Those goddamned teabaggers are out there every time their

moonbat reps (michelle bachman comes to mind) call on them. My question is WHERE THE FUCK IS OUR SIDE? I'm in Texas. I was able to plan to be in DC for Obama's inauguration. And I would be there to support universal health care if I could. But, there are thousands of US within a short drive of DC. So, where are WE?

WE HAVE TO DEMAND UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. WE NEED THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS TO GO TO DC AND DEMAND WHAT WE WANT!

[maglatinavi]

34. Sub

count me in if someone can give me a ride. I am 79 yrs. old have no "wheels' but 'll go anyplace to demand real health care reform for every one... kill the senate bill now... God bless Dean...:fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[libertypirate]

9. If we called it 'life care'

we could redefine it as a constitutional issue.

[Subdivisions]

26. I like it! n/t

[Cleita]

10. I would change the wording slightly to access to healthcare for all

regardless of ability to pay, to be paid through the general fund. It's not free but the patient doesn't need to worry about payment as the doctor will receive it from the government. This is true single payer universal health care.

[tomm2thumbs]

23. I like that graphic

telling and simple

[Cleita]

32. Thanks!

It's a bumper sticker available in the DU store. I was one of the three winners of a bumper sticker contest for it. I thought EladG did a nice job of the colors and arrangement. :-)

[lapfog_1]

11. How about something a lot less utopian

like Medicare that you can buy into at any age.

No taxpayer money needed.

We'll fix it for those who can't afford it by changing a bit higher premiums for everyone that buys into the program.

Sure, it's a regressive tax. But it's not really a tax. You don't HAVE to buy this and there is no mandate to have insurance.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. There is no such thing as Free Universal Health Care...

We pay for it with taxes or through some other method of extracting funds from individuals. But Free doesn't exist, either here or anywhere there is universal or near universal health care. Some contires use a mandate to get money form every citizen, others have some form of single payer, and the tax payres pay for it with higher taxes than we have here. The best you can say is that, for the poor, it is subsidized by the tax or money donations of the middle class and wealthy.

[clear eye]

29. You DO know that the taxes, instead of skyrocketing like insurance premiums,

will cost less than we are paying now, and the taxes can come from a progressive increase in income taxes? Right?

[kestrel91316]

13. Nobody is asking for "free" healthcare. We want taxpayer funded

healthcare, which is quite affordable and feasible when we stop fighting unwarranted, foolish wars of aggression, and remove the health "insurance" scammers from the picture.

[Subdivisions]

16. Jesus Christ. I changed the title of my thread so that you won't be confused. I very well

know that it's not technically free. I guess some of you just aren't capable of parsing words. Either that or you just enjoy picking nits.

[kestrel91316]

19. FAIL. Your OP sounded too much like RW flamebaiting about how Dems supposedly want FREE healthcare.

[Subdivisions]

21. NO! YOU FAIL! If you consider for one moment that I would purposely

put forth anything right-wing, the you are the one who FAILS!

[superduperfarleft]

30. Lulz. Best subthread ever.

YOU FAIL! NO YOU FAIL!

[RedEarth]

18. .......edited my post since I was going to ask the op how we would pay for free healthcare

since heathcare in the US currently runs about $2 trillion a year. ....Now Universial Healthcare is a horse of a different color and I am in favor of that.



U.S. Health Care Costs

Background Brief

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.2 trillion in 2007, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. Stemming this growth has become a major policy priority, as the government, employers, and consumers increasingly struggle to keep up with health care costs. <1>

In 2007, U.S. health care spending was about $7,421 per resident and accounted for 16.2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP);


http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?imID=1&parentID=61&id=358

[Subdivisions]

22. There are many ways to pay for it - shifting MIC spending to health care comes to mind.

I believed Obama when he saidhealth care coverage would be a break-even program, cleaning up abuse and corruption in Medicare/Medicaid, etc. The ways to pay for it have been discussed here over and over, so I won't produce a bullet list.

[cark]

24. HC cost on average $7k per person

That was in 2007. So my family of 4 would need to spend about 30k on HC for the system just to break even. We need to be looking at ways to actually reform the system so it costs less per person, that is the real problem and so far it has not been addressed.

[Xenotime]

20. Here, HERE!

[Goldstein1984]

33. Just getting for-profit insurance companies out of the game

will save money. If we reduce our defense budget, which constitutes half of the entire world's defense spending we could use some of that.

This is a good thread, even even with the semantic debate.

Once this bad bill dies a natural and rightful death, I will not support anything less than a universal/life/Medicare plan that covers everyone.

[maglatinavi]

35. Goldstein

I agree... it has always been my thoughts, universal/life/medicare for all... thank God/Godess for Dean... he is the real mojo... Obama has failed his best campainger, Teddy who in sickness and pain went out to campaign for him... what a shame!!!
Dean 2012!!!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :dem: :dem: :dem:

[Goldstein1984]

39. We've come to a point in our civilization where health care

is obviously a basic human right, as fundamental as life and liberty. Lack of health care is just another way that the working class are kept in fear and manageable.

Of course, I thought we had also come to a point in our civilization where torture was self-evidently wrong. The same people who oppose universal health care see no problem with supporting or excusing torture. They seem oblivious to suffering.

[amborin]

37. much better use of taxpayer $$$ than wars, Wall Street, etc....

[Laelth]

40. Don't be silly. Universal healthcare is for OTHER people, not us.

:dem:

-Laelth