Howard Dean heckled by single payer advocates at Portland book signing.

[madfloridian]

Run time: 06:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmudepfL4E   Posted on YouTube: July 25, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: July 25, 2009 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 3779

 
From a blog called Talk with Tim

This is a write-up of Howard Dean's book signing appearance at Powells Books in Portland, Oregon.

Dean was going to begin by signing books but since some people had taken their lunch break to attend he switched gears and launched into a clear and passionate speech about the problems we face and how we can fix them. Just moments into his speech, a heckler starts harassing him about single-payer healthcare. The heckler was roundly shushed by the audience and Gov. Dean asked him to please respect other people’s time and when it comes to Q&A he will be called on to speak. However, the guy wanted to be a pain and he was eventually asked to leave by Powell’s employees. Another heckler attempted the same thing shortly after and was again shushed by the crowd and asked to leave by employees. After that it went without a problem and was very informative.

Here is more from the blogger about points from Dean's speech.

We offer efficient, government run healthcare already for veterans and the eldery. We should expand this to everyone.

Medicare only costs 4% of every dollar to administer. The best private insurance can do is 20%. Huge savings potential.

Primary care physicians in the British healthcare system typically make more money than primary care physicians in America.

Prevent health problems instead of overpaying for expensive treatment in the case of preventable diseases.

President Obama’s plan will offer a huge benefit to small business by relieving them of the expense of providing health care. With a public option.

Some single payer advocates are asking congressional Democrats to abstain from voting on the public option.

From PDA blog:

PDA blog

This worries me because we really are not getting a clear picture of the public plan yet. I hate to see them saying not to vote for it when we are not really sure of the final product.

Himmelstein says that the Obama plan would mandate that people buy insurance from competing private plans – and one denuded public plan.

The private health insurance companies would cherry pick the young healthy patients, while the sick older patients would opt into the public plan – making the public plan unsustainable.

Himmelstein says the upcoming Congressional vote on the Obama health care reform has little significance because it does not represent fundamental reform.

“It’s like giving aspirin to a patient who has cancer,” Himmelstein said. “Instead of asking – what can we do to treat your cancer?”

Himmelstein says that when the time comes to vote on the Obama health plan, members of Congress should abstain.

We are definitely not going to get single payer, but there is a chance we could get a decent public option.