We Can't Do Single Payer In One Leap

[andyrowe]

In my opinion the public option would be much easier to get passed in the Senate. And with all the trouble we're having with that, why is everyone still saying, "Eff the public option. Single payer is the only way!"

I mean really? I doubt we could even get that through the House.

[Cleita]

1. News flash... we don't have a public option. It's gone to make Joe Lieberman happy.

This bill is a health insurance retooling and bail out. It has nothing much to do with real access to health care, which is what we need. That's why people are saying good riddance and bring back single payer.

[hayu_lol]

5. That attitude is how BLUE DOGS get elected as Dems...

We can send people to the moon and beyond. If we can do that, we can initiate SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH PLANS.

[Cleita]

6. Really?

Stating the facts, get's Blue dogs elected? That's a bit of a straw man don't you think?

[noiretextatique]

10. i do...so is the notion that anything that doesn't benefit

wall street and corporations "can't be done quickly."

[undeterred]

2. We can't start out by moving in the opposite direction

which is fortifying the for profit health care system.

[canetoad]

3. It's not that you can't DO it

in one step because many countries did - my own for example in 1975.

Getting it passed is quite another thing.

[rug]

4. And you can't leap when you're on your knees.

[quaker bill]

7. Single payer can only be done in one leap

That is simply the nature of it. You are however correct, today it is a pipe dream, a lovely one, but a pipe dream nonetheless.

The notion that there will be some kind of public uprising to demand it is also a pipe dream. This country could not even mount a modest uprising over torture.

[RC]

8. So we play Hop Scotch instead?

http://www.timws.com/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Shoulda done the whole enchilada in one state, then when we

see how that state does, go from there.

[Cleita]

11. Actually one city has done it, San Francisco.

There was a caller into Ed Schultz's radio show who said that you can buy into a public option, an insurance offered by the city, for $60 a month. The poor get it paid from the general fund. It's proving to be successful. There are no ER and waiting room waits and costs are coming down. Ed said he's going to research it and then will talk about it on his show. This may be the way to go, by municipalities. In my area, because we are basically rural, it would have to it by county, instead of city, but it could work.

[Laelth]

12. No, but it can be done state-by-state.

The current system is unsustainable, and everyone knows it. Change will come, eventually, UNLESS we pass the disastrous bill that's currently on the table.

California will probably pass single-payer on its own in 2011. All they need is a Democratic Governor. The legislature has already passed the bill. Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Once California has single-payer, most (if not all) states will follow suit.

It's likely that if we pass a new law now, the new law will preempt single-payer, i.e. the Federal law will preempt state law and prevent states from enacting a single-payer system.

THIS is what the health insurance companies fear. THIS is what brought them to the bargaining table. THIS is why they are not fighting Obama's tepid reforms, and THIS is why it is extremely important that we do not pass any health insurance reform bill this year.

Let's not settle for a bail-out of the health insurance industry. Let's insist on the eradication of it. In all likelihood, California will lead the way in 2011 ... if we can just give them time.

Canada got its single-payer system one province at a time. That seems to be the way it will have to happen in the U.S.

:dem:

-Laelth

[dhpgetsit]

13. Hear, hear!