Ignore The Naysayers – Single Payer Healthcare Is A Great Idea

[GoLeft TV]

The media is telling us that Bernie Sanders’ plan for a single payer healthcare option is unattainable, but the facts of the case say otherwise. These naysayers clearly have something to gain by downplaying a plan that most Americans support.

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

[Hoyt]

1. Not all naysayers have something to gain. But we all have something to lose if the plan is not

viable, especially along with all the other stuff we need to do -- education, welfare, jobs, Social Security, etc., that cost money.

Universal Health Care and Single Payer (however you define it) is a goal I believe in, have since the 1980s, but Sanders can't make it happen. He might as well be rail against cancer with today's Congress.

[ish of the hammer]

2. "No We Can't"

[Hoyt]

5. Sometimes, you really can't. On this, Sanders is as many observers have labeled him -- Quixotic.

[ish of the hammer]

11. so to paraphrase Clinton (and you)

the rest of the world can do universal healthcare, but "No we Can't"?

[paleotn]

9. Then lets all just throw up our hands...

...and give up. I'm joking.

The things you do list that need to be done, I agree with and all will cost new spend. Of all of them, SS is easily expanded by simply doing what Regan and Tip O'Neal did. Raise the SS wage cutoff. I know. I was around back then. Done. Problem solved.

For universal healthcare, the money is already there. More than enough, actually. The system, even under ACA, is inefficient and costs far more per participant than universal. That is not new spend like what's required for education, jobs, SS expansion. We're already spending those dollars and more.

Would it be painful? Probably. It's always painful when antiquated industries die, but they die all the time.

[Hoyt]

10. You left out the biggest factor -- getting the GOPers who control Congress to go along.

Most of Sanders' ideas are good, but he's not going to get them enacted no matter how good they are. He might as well ask for free tuition to Harvard for everyone, minimum wage of $150/hour with comparable unemployment benefits, work week of 10 hours, no cancer, etc. With Sanders, I feel another McGovern/Dukakis landslide and 3 new right wing racists on the Supreme Court.

[old guy]

3. In the present political climate

single payer is not attainable. We will have to change the whole mindset that our business/government leaders operate under. The constant war footing is costing billions to maintain, corporations subsidies and other tax loopholes for the rich are making it difficult if not impossible to implement the system. This is not to say we should forget about it because we shouldn't, but until the mindset changes nothing will happen and that mindset will not change in the near future.

[Plucketeer]

4. Technically, you are correct

But we're talking REVOLUTION here - not just a frizzle-haired, pie-in-the-sky geezer for the Oval Office.

We need a flag of our own to lead our march. Maybe a flag sporting a silhouette of Bernie's hair and a motto that proclaims: Don't tread on us!

[Dustlawyer]

6. We have to fight for it!

We have to prove that we are legion and that we will not settle for less.

We could audit the Pentagon for waste, fraud, and abuse and find more than enough money to fund single payer, public education, and free public college for all. The MIC uses the military budget for their own personal piggy bank, that's why they have lost "trillions" of dollars they cannot account for. Yet there is no audit, investigation, or news stories covering this. Why do you think that is?

[paleotn]

8. The one constant in this life....

...is nothing is constant. And the speed of change may surprise you.

[paleotn]

7. Simple insurance 101 applies....

...in general, the bigger the risk pool, the lower the cost for each individual. Insurance companies must deal with dissimilar risk (people who smoke vs. people who don't, people over 50 vs. those under 30, etc.) The impact of that is magnified in smaller risk pools, thus insuring those in smaller pools costs more per participant and costs more in the aggregate of all insurance pools.

The solution is to make the risk pools as big as possible. The ACA increases the size of risk pools by pulling more participants into the system, reducing participant and aggregate costs. It's much better than pre-ACA, but still sub-optimal. A far better solution is everyone in only one, all encompassing pool.

In our private system, that would still be sub-optimal given that only one private insurer would monopolize the market. The inefficiency drag caused by multiple sets of paperwork and systems for health providers to deal with is eliminated, but you still have profit motive and all the other moral and inefficiency issues inherent in a monopoly.

The optimal solution is to remove the profit motive entirely, with one, all encompassing government run system. It's not perfect with ice cream and ponies for all, but from a technical standpoint, it is the most cost efficient system available. That's exactly why I support Bernie's plan. It may not get passed Congress in my lifetime, but then again I never expected to see same sex marriage legalized either. More importantly, it gets the concept into the national dialog for all to see.

[zebonaut]

12. "We can send a Man to the Moon....we just can't pay for your Hernia surgery