I find it interesting that single payer supporters are so inflexible in their vision of what health reform should be like.
Progressive blogger Ezra Klein says that the opponents of single payer supporters actually are moderate Democrats, rather than the right. “Their enemies are on the left,” writes Mr. Klein. “Their targets tend not to be those blocking reform, but those promoting the wrong type of reform.”
Influential Senator Max Baucus was pointedly asked why single payer was not an option, and his response was blunt: “I think at this time, in this country, single payer is not going to get to first base in the Congress.”
As I have said before, PHNP and other single payer groups are advocating for a system that’s an extreme political improbability. Like it or not, health reform is going to build upon what we already have. For them to fight the Obama administration’s attempt at reform is ironic, in that doing so will only serve to preserve the dysfunctional status quo.
Until they bend a little bit, I have no doubt they are destined to be rendered irrelevant in the health reform debate going forward.
Related posts:
- Taking on the single-payer zealots
- Obama invokes single-payer
- Single-payer: Will Americans go for the Prius?
- The intolerance of single payer supporters
- Single-payer: Forcing health care down people’s throats?
- Single payer: The assault continues
- Single payer ills, part 2
{ 4 comments }
In America, those who advocate the loss of freedom should be irrelevant to any discussion.
I agree with anonymous above. I’m tired of the loss of freedom that comes from my health insurance provider dictating which providers I can and can’t see, and deciding which needed care gets denied so they can make more money.
I am tired of the loss of freedom that comes with being forced to stick out a soul-killing job, as my husband did for many months with an abusive situation with the boss’s wife who also worked in the office, just for health insurance that might or might not cover what we might need.
I’m tired of the loss of freedom that comes from lying awake nights and spending evenings in tears because I, a young and fairly health woman, got rejected for an individual insurance plan for seeing the doctor for a common condition for which I took Advil and rested until I was better.
I’m tired of the loss of freedom that comes from knowing that I could go bankrupt, even though I now have insurance (no thanks to the above company), due to medical bills. THREE QUARTERS of people who went bankrupt due to medical bills had health insurance when they got sick.
If it’s inflexible to say that people who advocate that the above loss of freedom should continue to be inflicted on the American people (unlike every other wealthy industrialized nation on this planet) to appease those making millions off our pain and suffering and worry, then I am inflexible. Greed has no place in health care. And more for-profit health “insurance” does not equal health care.
Leaving out single payer is politically narrow-minded. Here’s what happens: single payer isn’t even discussed, some hodgepodge system goes though where hundreds of private insurers are still in the game. The costs don’t go down as dramatically, the Repubs say that UH doesn’t work in America, the Democrats are blamed. If you get if it a shot, and it doesn’t go through, then you can at least say, “Look, we should of done it right, LIKE EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE HE WORLD.” You need to think longer term.
The Netherlands have come up with an intriguing solution based on private insurance. The insurance companies are prevented from indulging in the kinds of shenanigans they get away with in the US and the citizens seem happy with it. As I recall the average monthly premium is around $100-$200 per month and those who cannot afford it get it for free. They also allow citizens to receive treatment out of the country. Under this plan the insurers cannot deny claims and cannot deny coverage based on pre existing conditions. Of course the Dutch are very pragmatic unlike Americans.
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