Did Obama ever promise single payer? Historical factcheck with Medicare included

[Peacetrain]

I from the bottom of my heart understand and appreciate the anger and angst about single payer. I have shared about my own brother who lost his job, is now working again but has no health insurance..

But reality is reality..like a baby does not go from laying on its back to running around the house without going through the crawling stage first, we are not going directly to single payer.

There is no way we can afford it. And if you want to know why, you can thank George Bush and company again, with the medicare prescription drug fiasco which is going to bankrupt that program.






__________________________________________________________________________________________
If Obama Were Starting From Scratch, He Would Support A Single Payer System. The New Yorker wrote, "'If you're starting from scratch,' he says, 'then a single-payer system'-a government-managed system like Canada's, which disconnects health insurance from employment-'would probably make sense. But we've got all these legacy systems in place, and managing the transition, as well as adjusting the culture to a different system, would be difficult to pull off. So we may need a system that's not so disruptive that people feel like suddenly what they've known for most of their lives is thrown by the wayside.'" (New Yorker, 5/7/07)
___________________________________________________________________________________________--
Report: Medicare could go broke by 2019
By Peronet Despeignes, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Medicare will go broke by 2019, seven years earlier than predicted a year ago, and could begin squeezing the rest of the federal budget as soon as 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by the trustees of Medicare and Social Security.

The annual report blamed the deterioration in Medicare's long-term financial outlook on lower-than-expected revenue from workers' payroll taxes, higher spending on health care and the prescription drug benefit Congress passed last year. Social Security's outlook changed little; it is expected to remain solvent until 2042.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-23-medicare_x.htm

[lamp_shade]

1. No he didn't.

[lostnotforgotten]

2. He Embraced It Back In 2003 - There Is A Link Somewhere On DU

eom

[avaistheone1]

16. --> In 2003, Barack Obama told the Illinois AFL-CIO: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer

Back in 2003, Barack Obama told the Illinois AFL-CIO: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14% of its Gross National Product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody . . . a single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee.htm




I think then it is time we institute a single-payer program Mr. President.

[66 dmhlt]

35. Looks like that link is broken - but OpenLeft has it ...

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13294/the-move-away-from-singlepayer

[avaistheone1]

39. You can also find it here.

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO

[napi21]

3. No he didn't BUT he DID insist on a competative private plan to

be includd in the choice of options for the American people.

I think many people are confusing "single payer" with a "private plan option".

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. I think you mean "public plan"

private plans are what most of us have right now. A public plan is like Medicare or the VA. Obama proposed a new public plan modeled on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan during the campaign.

[napi21]

52. Yes I did. Sorry! I'm just so aggrivated at Bacus & severak others

claiming pub olan is off the table, and we haved to work with what we've got! That's complete BS!

[avaistheone1]

18. Wrong.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee....

or

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO

[vaberella]

4. He NEVER did. Most people say he did because of that video you have quoted.

What he stated was that he supports it, but only if he had a chance to start the health reform from scratch. Since he doesn't he stated and always stated he believed in a public option.

The public option would in effect destroy private insurance anyway and leading to single payer or something similar. I would support any public option that gives a flat fee of about 30 dollars a month or so because that would also be seen as a tax to support the program. Technically it would not be free it would open the door for national treatment and provide that. Later when the system is 100% and 98% of Americans are ensured then we can worry about everything else.

However, he had one position and he's stuck with it. This man doesn't fuck around even if DUers would like to think otherwise. A rather vocal single payer advocate was pushing that video that O turned on his word, now they're supportive of a public option. When you understand the situation and Os position you get everything else.

Vabby.

[avaistheone1]

20. Yes, Obama absolutely stated he was in favor of single payer -

that is once the Democrats have the White House and both houses.

Now is the time Mr President.

Obama's quote supporting single payer can be found in this article.


http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee.html

or

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO

[vaberella]

32. File doesn't work.

And he didn't insist on single payer. He's an advocate for it but he never ran his campaign on it.

[avaistheone1]

37. Try this.

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO


He said he is a proponent. Then what the hell is an advocate or a proponent of an issue?

I think you are splitting hairs. Obama said very clearly he is a proponent of single payer and the road map he saw for how it can be achieved.

The road map has been realized now it is Obama's time to lead.

[vaberella]

40. It doesn't matter.

He never promised it or even ran his entire campaign on it. He supports it, I support it. However I rooted for O because he gave us a public option because I also knew that single payer wouldn't go anywhere. He ran his campaign on something that would and later over time lead to single payer.

[avaistheone1]

41. Obama said he was a proponent of it.

His words not mine. When an elected official says he is a proponent of an issue that is much different than saying you veberella support an issue. I am sure Obama saying that to the AFL-CIO gathering gained Obama a lot of approval, endorsements, stature and money from that group as well as to an expectation that he would follow through on this beliefs. I sure statements like those help
place Obama well on the road that led to the office he holds today.

[vaberella]

50. I know.

He also stated several conditions and that doesn't mean that he could even win with that. The senate would destroy any single-payer bid. So he went with the next best thing in relation to the political climate on his campaign. He NEVER promoted single payer as part of his campaign message. You can scream till you're blue in the face but there is nothing to say such a thing. He has said over and over that he advocates single payer, but he also said that there are a lot of things to consider and he knows and we both know that if he pushed single payer it would be torn down by both Republicans and Democrats---about 13 I'd say.

I know very well what a proponent of an issue is. However, he also did not run as a candidate on the role of a proponent. He ran 3 years later as a candidate for public choice option and massive health care reform. 3 years is a long time to understand what's going on and get some advice.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

58. I'm a proponent of free candy and diet coke.

That doesn't mean I'm going to deliver it. Similarly, Obama said he wants a playoff for college football, but he's probably not going to make any personal steps to make it happen. He never promised that he would.

You might not understand the distinction or care about the difference between making a promise and supporting a cause, but that doesn't make the two concepts interchangeable.

[nichomachus]

5. Don't believe the lie -- DADT was the "first step"

in repealing the ban on gays in the military.

It' been in place now for 16 years now and it has made things markedly worse than they were before.

The Medicare Part D fiasco was a "first step" in bringing about some meaningful relief in drug prices for seniors. Once it was in place, everyone forgot about it.

So, please don't fall for this "one step at a time" bullshit. It's a lie.

[avaistheone1]

21. I agree. It is a lie. Much like there never will be a black man in the White

House. Same crap.

[nichomachus]

Stupidest comparison of the week

BRAVO¡

[avaistheone1]

31. How so?

I think it is perfectly appropriate.

I'm standing by it unless you have a great argument why it doesn't make sense.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. He ran on transparency in the process of creating the plan

also he ran on 'no mandated purchase' and on the creation of a public option. So far, none of that seems to be talked about either.

He ran on lots of things, but mostly he ran on the money given him by millions of American voters.

[Dawgs]

7. No, but he did promise to listen to all points of view.

I'm not sure he kept that promise; although I'm not exactly sure that he's not listening. It certainly does appear that he's not.

[uponit7771]

15. The folk around him sure have their hands to their head screamin la la la la la

...I love yoooooou!!!

[avaistheone1]

19. Yes, Obama did promise.

In 2003 he said...

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee....

or

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO

[Thrill]

8. No. The only way I will be pissed with Obama is if there is no public option

I've always known Single Payer wasn't realistic

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. Medicare would be greatly helped by 3 proposals Obama made as a candidate

�� Allow consumers to import safe drugs from other countries.
�� Prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs from consumers.
�� Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices.

The fact that the Medicare drug benefit was crafted with a specific ban against price negotiation should be a hint as to whose interests the Congress was looking out for - that's right Big Pharma.

[rateyes]

11. No, he didn't. But, he did say that the corporations wouldn't

be running the show, and he also ran on a public option. He also ran on reducing costs. This agreement he got from the corporations doesn't reduce costs, it just slows down the huge increases.

[avaistheone1]

23. Oh yes he did.

Obama's 2003 quote can be found right here.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee....

or

http://tiny.cc/kYGYO

[Peacetrain]

44. No he did not

[John Q. Citizen]

12. You are under the misconception that a single payer system will cost more. That' is false.

A single payer system will cost the exact same amount we are currently spending.

What we can't afford is government subsudies for private insurance companies. That will cost a lot more than we are currently spending.

We had our baby steps long ago. They are called Medicare, Medicaide, SCHIP, The VA.
Social Security is a single payer not for profit retirement insurance system
FDIC is a single payer government run insurance system to insure bank account depostits up to $200,000. It has worked so well that congress recently doubled the amount of insurance protection from $100,000 to $200k. Medicare is a single payer health insurance program for Americans over 65.

So you see? We know single payer works really well and we have been using single payer insurance for the last 50 plus years here in this country. It works. It's not magic or mysterious or foreign.

The prescription drug benefit was written by big pharma. It subsidizes private drug companies.


You are hoping Obama will use what is bankrupting Medicare (according to what you posted) for the rest of our health care system?

Why?

[Peacetrain]

13. I am under no misconception.. medicare is left as is will be bankrupt in

a few years. It has to be addressed and cleaned up before we move another step.

The fact that the Bush and Cheney cabal have single handedly managed to bankrupt the program to forestall using medicare as the model for single payer seems to have suddenly gone off into the ether.


What I am opposed to, is not honest debate about where we are going, but dishonest debate assigning a position to any canidate that they did not have and then trashing them for it.

[John Q. Citizen]

17. Max Baucus supported the indusrty written prescription drug benetfit that your

article claims has led to the earlier bankrupting of Medicare. He was one of a handful of Dems to cross the aisle and vote with the Repos.

Now you are supporting Obama's desire to subsidize private insurance companies? Why do you expect their will be a different outcome?

Obama has a long history of supporting single payer. As he got higher and higher office he keeps running farther and farther away from single payer.

My concern is with the fact that he campaigned on listening to ideas from all sides. He said that he would judge ideas on their merits, not on ideology.

Yet supporters of single payer have been cut out of the process and denied a seat at the table from the get go.


I agree with you that Obama didn't run on single payer. but he also didn't run on excluding single payer and on excluding supporters of single payer from the process.

[Peacetrain]

34. This is what drives me nuts John Q.. not the discussion, not that advocacy

Of course single payer advocates should be at the table.. and I am all for that. That deserves a gazillion threads of its own, and how do we get there.

Medicare has been breached to keep the single payer issue off. You pointed it out so well yourself, we have to get the give away to big pharmacy out of medicare, especially if we want to use it as a model.

The medicare drug act with giving all that money to be big pharms was a deliberate act to pull down medicare. It is a far right wing subversive action to destroy medicare, and then social security.

That is the debate, not a made up one, and if you look up and down just this thread you will see it.. of somehow he promised single payer. He NEVER promised it. He said he was a proponent in 2003, be he never promised it.

He then modified and ran on the dual proposal of private and public. That is what he ran on. He did not run on single payer.

[gblady]

56. spot on!

[avaistheone1]

24. All the data shows that single-payer is the viable economic option and beats all other options

both for lowering costs for participants and for employers.

Study after study shows single-payer provides the most costs savings and delivers the most services. Period.

Check this out.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0309bybee....

[cascadiance]

27. Then WHY is the rest of the civilized world not BANKRUPT! They have it!!!

This is health lobbyist BS!! Over a third of the expense we pay for healthcare is to pay for people to figure out who NOT to cover, which is TOTALLY wasted money! That is why other countries get more for their buck and medicare is more efficient than our insurance companies in giving back care for what is paid in to the system.

And part of this is also due to the fact that medicare is paid for by payroll tax too, which is getting less and less revenue now as a regressive tax when there is more and more income disparity and more people are put out of work.

Removing the cap from payroll tax and dropping the rates will make it solvent for both social security and medicare (so that SS can be kept in line with inflation and medicare can be adequately funded, and provide a much needed tax cut to lower income Americans!

[avaistheone1]

33. Precisely. Merkel of Germany pointed out at the G20 summit her country would not suffer like

Americans will during the recession because they have a safety net which includes universal health coverage.

There citizens don't go bankrupt because of medical bills either.

[AlphaCentauri]

14. wonder what this mean "adjusting the culture to a different system"

change it's too risky to go for

[gblady]

22. Hear from his own lips.....

"I am a proponant of a single payer, universal health care plan"
"We may not get there immediately"
from 2003...I think...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

more recent, 2008....still talking Universal health care for all....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om5gGBVy_4k&feature=related

not living up to "they won't have every seat at the table"
at least so far...I keep hoping he will live up to this promise.

[avaistheone1]

26. Thank you.

:fistbump:

[Peacetrain]

29. Yes he is a proponent,.. and what promise?

There was no promise..

[vaberella]

36. That's the thing. He's always supported single payer.

He's made no qualms about that. Most people think because he supported it he promised it. He did not run his campaign on it EVER. He even went as far as to say that if we get the things in place, ie Dem gov we could get closer but we can't do a 180. People love to pick and choose what they want from the guy but he ran on one thing. PUBLIC OPTION, and he's trying to come through on that one. End of story.

[Adelante]

49. That's how I remember it nt

[avaistheone1]

42. I see he positions himself as a proponent

and then he has no responsibility to follow-through after making speeches about his advocacy as an elected official before professional groups and voters.

That is indefensible.

[Peacetrain]

43. See post 34

[cascadiance]

25. BUT! Americans were NOT given a choice of someone who WAS for single payer!

Without instant runoff voting, there really was no choice of a candidate that was for single payer health care. So to say that people voted "against" single payer health care when they voted for Obama is a false premise! The fact is thayices of candidates that have all of their campaign money lined up for the *least* objectionable candidate.

Americans have been and still are wanting single payer health care, and at some point are going to DEMAND to be heard that they have their politicians, INCLUDING Obama, bring them to a seat at the table to get what a Democracy truly wants, and not what is foisted upon us by Washington elites.

[avaistheone1]

28. By and large the vote for Barack Obama was vote to get this country

out of Iraq.

The vote was by no means a vote for Obama's health plan (which was not single-payer) at the time he campaigned for president. I know because I was involved in national polling on the presidential campaign and we were polling on what issues would cause voters to elect a given candidate.

However, polls have been showing for years that Americans want single-payer universal coverage, and the numbers continue to grow.

[jgraz]

38. Not buying it, sorry.

Are you seriously trying to tell us that your national polling organization *still* thinks Iraq was the number one issue for Obama voters? Still? After the economy collapsed?

If that's what you're trying to tell us, please show your work. Let's see a single national post-election poll that lists Iraq as "by and large" the number one issue for voters.

On second thought, I don't really care. "By and large" we elected Obama to lead. And a true leader would find a real solution to the healthcare crisis -- one that didn't involve handouts to criminal insurance companies.

[avaistheone1]

45. No, No.. No.

I am totally in your camp.

I was trying to make the point at the time of the presidential election people were quite shell shocked with the magnitude of issues the country was dealing with, but the clear choice of those polled AT THAT TIME was that the US get out of Iraq.

I only was involved with national polling of voters at the time of the election. I am well aware that Americans favor a single payer solution to the health crisis for years, and that those numbers continue to grow.

I am anxious for Obama and our Democratic leadership to show some spine on these issues. I think the health care crisis is one of key issues of our time which most be solved. I strongly believe that only a single-payer solution will work effectively.

[jgraz]

46. You can't agree with me!! I want a fight!!!!

:P

[avaistheone1]

48. Beware.

Instead you are getting this.

:pals:

[jgraz]

30. As so many people fail to understand: this is not about Barack Obama

Obama's got guaranteed healthcare for the rest of his life. He can promise whatever he wants and he'll still be taken care of.

This is not about campaign promises, it's about doing what's right. And "there is no way we can afford it"? We can afford to bomb the fuck out of any country whenever we feel like it, but we can't provide healthcare for our citizens? Bullshit.

[avaistheone1]

47. That's right. Do the right thing.

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.



Dedicated to the brave doctors and nurses fighting for single payer health care,who are placing themselves at risk and under arrest so that all American have quality and affordable health care.

[scheming daemons]

51. You don't understand... it's not about what Obama said... it's about what people HEARD

They want single-payer so much that they think Obama was for it.

[Peacetrain]

53. Unfortunately I am becoming painfully aware of that...

[Phx_Dem]

54. No, he never did. And he and his plan won over Hillary's single-player plan.

Once again, the progressives prove how intolerant they are to other people's opinions. They INSIST! on single-payer plan even though Obama never offered that up and the public doesn't fully support it, and if you disagree with their demands, you're tarred and feathered. Kinda of reminds me of the GOP.

[Jakes Progress]

55. Really tired of "He did - No he didn't"

That is not the point. I'm telling him what I want. He is my president and I want single payer. He is the president for the whole country and the majority want single payer.

Who cares what he said? He has done some things he didn't say. He hasn't done some things he did say. Who cares? A campaign is just that.

Now he is our leader and we want leadership not "cooperation" with the same pharma and insurance companies that have been gouging and making billions on pain and suffering.

[leftofthedial]

57. he never promised anything to anyone ever.

he gave some speeches and talked about stuff, but if you can't produce the signed contract, he didn't promise it.

So let's just shut up, go away, and let him do his work















on behalf of our corporate overlords.

No promises to see here. Move along.

[Blaze Diem]

59. I always thought he said that'All Americans should have the same healt care as those in Congress.

That's what I want.