Single Payer Moment

[davidswanson]

While a Democratic polling firm has just found, as pollsters always do, dramatic public support for public health coverage, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill appear divided, as they have always been, over whether to take a comprehensive approach to health care.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on C-Span on Sunday that incrementalism would suit him better "than to go out and just bite something you can't chew." Clyburn said he opposes any comprehensive approach in 2009. Meanwhile House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) made a long speech about healthcare at a conference in D.C. on Thursday in which he said "I am committed to helping bring comprehensive reform to the floor of the 111th Congress."

Now, on Capitol Hill, phrases like "comprehensive reform" and "universal healthcare" can mean almost anything, including proposals that would likely require comprehensive reform themselves by the time the ink was dry. But there is an opening right now for serious healthcare reform of the sort that has succeeded in almost every other wealthy country on earth: single payer. Here are three reasons why this is a moment in which single payer health coverage (private medicine paid for by the government, and the elimination of all health insurance companies) has become possible.

First, the partisan dynamics have changed in Congress. While some Republicans might vote for single payer, they wouldn't need to. The Democratic leadership could persuade enough Democrats to vote Yes to pass it without a single Republican, if they chose to. In the House, where the Democrats seriously worsened an economic stimulus bill this week in order to win irrelevant Republican votes and then didn't get a single one, they might be in the mood to wake up and begin behaving as the majority they are. In the Senate, there is the ever-present scourge of the filibuster, which allows senators representing 11 percent of the public to block legislation, but the Democrats could change the rule to rid our republic of that antidemocratic blight if they choose to. This will require placing a great deal of pressure on Democratic senators to persuade them that losing important battles in which they vote well but don't play to win will hurt them as much as it hurts the Republicans who vote against the public will.

That's where the second reason comes in. A massive, well-organized public movement has been built that is pressing right now for single-payer. In the House of Representatives, the leading advocate is Congressman John Conyers whose bill H.R. 676 had 93 cosponsors in the last Congress. Conyers provides a useful FAQ on single payer here, and Physicians for a National Health Program has provided a longer one. Other advocates include Labor for Single Payer, Healthcare Now, the California Nurses Association, and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care which boasts dozens of major organizational members. Progressive Democrats of America has mobilized tremendous grassroots pressure through its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign:
https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/personal2.asp?formid=healthpet

This is essentially a campaign for single payer health coverage, but it both organizes the peace movement to participate and communicates an important selling point. The financial cost of creating a single payer system would be a fraction of what we spend each year merely on the occupation of Iraq, which Congress and the president have committed to ending. Compared to the cost of wasteful programs at the Pentagon or bailouts for bankers or even the new economic stimulus bill, single payer is a bargain, doesn't kill anyone, saves and improves lives, and even stimulates the economy better than most of the measures being used toward that end. The movement for single payer has organized a lot more than numbers; it's also marshaled persuasive arguments.

The third reason that this is the moment for single payer is that it is so obviously the best solution. When put into consideration with other proposals, single payer wins the debates hands down. The alternative to single payer is multiple payer. That means massive waste and inefficiency, not what a new government ostentatiously looking for solutions that really work should settle on. It also means maintaining the only things in America less popular than Dick Cheney: health insurance companies, and funding them with public money as well as money directly from citizens. In a multiple payer system, one of the payers is YOU. If you can't pay, you may be out of luck. If you can and do pay, you are often out of luck as well. And the bureaucratic waste extends to your own life. You fill out forms for the privilege of paying through the nose for the privilege of being told you can't be helped unless you get a second mortgage. Talking about "universal" systems that are "affordable" is all well and good, but they cannot actually exist as long as the for-profit health insurance companies are running the show. How does this alternative sound for affordable: go to whatever doctor you choose and then go home with no bill and no paperwork. What if such a system could be paid for with taxes on businesses that amounted to less than what most of them currently pay for health care? What if the removal of the profit motive allowed a shift to preventive and truly comprehensive medicine? This is not a dream. It's far more possible right now than giving trillions of dollars to bankers would have seemed a year ago or polite debates over which torture techniques are acceptable would have seemed eight years ago.

Here's what you can do. Listen to the Thom Hartmann Show on Friday. During the first hour, Thom will talk with Senator Bernie Sanders, who was a cosponsor of H.R. 676 when he was in the House. During the second and third hours, Thom will talk about how we can get single payer through Congress. And he'll ask everyone to do two things on Friday:

Call Congressman James Clyburn and ask him to whip his colleagues for H.R. 676: [phone].

Call your own Congress Member and ask them to cosponsor and promote H.R. 676: [phone].

You can also help by signing the Healthcare Not Warfare petition at http://pdamerica.org



Van courtesy of True Majority.
Photo courtesy of California Nurses Association.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. David, I will be in DC next week

with my union lobbying.

I believe this is one of the items we will be discussing with our reps. :)

[davidswanson]

5. glad

to hear it!

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I will be sure to post a report.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. The US cant compete with countries that have universal health care

how can we get jobs back when our businesses are expected to pay for health care?

(as if some are).

And many of the industrialized countries have UHC.

And many have had UHC for years.

We've been controlled by corporate interests.

In New Zealand and Australia, if you want to pay for private insurance
you are free to do so, but otherwise you still have UHC.

[wolfgangmo]

25. Add to your list.

Canada allows for supplemental insurance as well, mostly vision and dental.

[slipslidingaway]

3. Thank you "...Here's what you can do.....

"...Here's what you can do. Listen to the Thom Hartmann Show on Friday. During the first hour, Thom will talk with Senator Bernie Sanders, who was a cosponsor of H.R. 676 when he was in the House. During the second and third hours, Thom will talk about how we can get single payer through Congress. And he'll ask everyone to do two things on Friday:

Call Congressman James Clyburn and ask him to whip his colleagues for H.R. 676: [phone].

Call your own Congress Member and ask them to cosponsor and promote H.R. 676: [phone].

You can also help by signing the Healthcare Not Warfare petition at http://pdamerica.org/"

[truedelphi]

11. Thanks for posting - and will opem my post list Friday & make the calls

[slipslidingaway]

18. I just made the calls - thanks to David Swanson for keeping this

issue out front.

:hi:

[demodonkey]

4. NOW is the time for single-payer. Obama said "make me" & we need to MAKE THEM ALL PASS THIS. HR 676!

Single payer health care for all. We can't afford NOT to do this.


K & R!

[area51]

6. K&R for this life-and-death issue. (n/t)

[lonestarnot]

7. K & R! Healthcare yes Insurance Cos. NO! Single Payer Now!

[SmileyRose]

9. medicare for all. NOW

Those who can and want to can buy supplementals just like the over 65 do. The for profit insurance industry would not be shut out. They could also participate in the highly regulated Medicare HMO market.

Medicare must also be expanded to cover all generic prescriptions and brands when there is no good generic alternative - with the exception of lifestyle drugs.

Health savings accounts should be continued so folks with enough income to do so can save for copays, OTC drugs, cost for supplemental coverage, extras not approved by medicare, gym memberships, formal weight loss programs etc.

[Ms. Toad]

10. It can't come soon enough for me.

I just put 160 miles on my car and 5 and a half hours of my time picking my daughter (who doesn't have a car) up from college to cart her to the closest facility covered by our health insurance - only to find out that 5 of the 6 tests she needed will be sent for processing to the only lab in this half of the country that processes those particular tests.

She has a facility within walking distance - not covered by our health insurance - which could have drawn the blood and sent it to the exact same lab that the facility that was covered by our health insurance sent them to.

What kind of economic sense does it make the insurance company to require me to drive that far and take that much time so that an "authorize" technician could stick her and pack the blood off with the courier to the exact same destination anyone in this part of the country has to send the blood to?

[Kitty Herder]

12. K&R

[bananas]

13. k&r nt

[mmonk]

14. Maybe we who want single payer should try a new strategy. Get Republican

support and the dems might follow.

[defendandprotect]

31. This only works the other way around . . .

GOP-corporate has been fighting healthcare for decades ---

and co-opting Democratic Party on every issue -- See: DLC

[MindPilot]

15. Why aren't the execs advocating for UHC? I got slammed for asking that

My employer (large electronics firm with will over a 100,000 employees) started a "social networking" site ostensibly to solicte money-making/money-saving ideas for the company.

Yesterday I posted that I thought the execs should publically get behind advocating for Single-payer UHC. The public can think UHC is a good idea all they want but until the business leaders are on-board, it ain't happening.

OMFG!!11! You would have thought I suggested melding with the Borg. I got pounded with all the usual "look at how bad goverment does things! Do you want going to the doctor to be like a trip to the DMV?!! I'm not paying taxes for..." I'm sure everyone has already heard all the knee-jerk talking points.

My standard response has become 'I'm sure glad there weren't any of you "keep government out of healthcare" types around when we were eradicating polio'.

But it seems like the business leaders should really be out in front on UHC; they really have the most to gain.

[mmonk]

16. Business people have been highly programmed by rightwing

propaganda. That is why small business votes the same as big business without realizing they are getting buried by big business interests. Ideology reduces the ability to reason. Single payer would make American business much more compettitive and reduce their costs. I say this as someone who has been in private business most of my life and have recieved publicans from the NFIB.

[wolfgangmo]

26. It comes down to money.

A lot of the big wigs are getting huge kickbacks from the health insurance companies. There is no other reason for the capricious way they flip coverages and companies as often as they do.

So until the management of many of our companies are arrested for the criminals they are along with their families and bussed off to the FEMA "camps" and new rational leadership steps in, then they won't get on board. It's not that they don't know that it is good for their companies and their country, it's just that they are getting their money and they don't give a shit.

[defendandprotect]

32. Did you remind them that we just bailed out capitalism/corporations . . . ???

and that auto companies are also in difficulty because they refused to

end their alliance with oil industry-? All electric cars are need now!

Corrupt capitalism is over --- except that they still have control of our government!!

[LWolf]

17. k & r nt

[bvar22]

19. Every developed country in The World....

...has implemented a form of Single Payer HealthCare.
In every other developed country in The World, HealthCare is a RIGHT protected by the government.

But in the USA, Single Payer is just too hard?
Americans must settle for less in the richest country in The World?

The MAJORITY of Americans (Democrats & Republicans) are ready for Single Payer.
It is being blocked by our "representatives" in Washington....Democrats & Republicans.

Don't settle for less.
Mandatory Health Insurance is LESS, and a step AWAY from Single Payer.
Mandatory Health Insurance is A REPUBLICAN Scam that benefits the RICHEST. (RomneyCare)

Demand nothing less than Single Payer.
Expand MediCare to cover ALL Americans.
We are already paying for it!

[Sunnyshine]

20. K&R - Thanks David! Krugman thinks it's one of the best solutions too!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=222&topic_id=52004&mesg_id=52004

Washington and MSM are purposely ignoring this. Once again, the needs of the taxpayers are trumped by corporate interest.

[DesertFlower]

21. K&R

[DesertFlower]

22. self delete - dupe

[Prophet 451]

23. Universal healthcare would save the economy

Crossposted from another thread because the same comments apply here:

OK, let's say you want to set up a USHS (for lack of a better term). You're going to need hospitals, roads to connect them, amubulances. That's a stack of money going into construction and the auto industry right there. Then you have to fill the hospitals with beds, bedding, medical equipment, a canteen, maybe a newsstand. That's more money being pumped into the economy.

Then you need workers. Doctors and nurses, obviously but also janitors, groundkeepers, admin staff, IT specialists, a cook and serving staff (for the canteen), pharmacists, orderlies, someone to run the newsstand. A lot of those are unskilled or semi-skilled positions, positions that can be filled by people currently on the unemployment line. I've known people who were janitors, groundskeepers and suchlike in the NHS and it's a decent living. It's not luxury but it's a decent wage you can live on, unionised and pretty much recession-proof.

So, universal healthcare would pump a stack of money into the economy and create a load of jobs but what does it have to offer the moneyed class? Well, to start with, it's cheaper. OK, it costs an ungodly amount of money to set up but once it's done, you don't have to spend that kind of money again (as you might well have to with the banks), you just have to maintain it and that's pretty cheap. The current mixture of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance costs Americans a combined total of around $2.3 trillion a year. Covering the entire US population under the NHS model would cost around $600 billion a year. Even the French model, generally accepted as the world's best, would only cost around $900 billion a year, less than half of what you currently pay so it means more money in the pockets of everyone who pays taxes. Oh, and private insurance spends typically 20-30% of it's expenditure on administration. The NHS, staffed by well-policed career civil servants with pensions and benefits, spends around 6.5% of it's expenditure on administration and they're unionised too so there goes that arguement.

A USHS can also deal with problems before they become problems. Here, it's recommended (but not required) that you get a check-up roughly every six months. I usually ignore that because I'm one of those horribly stubborn men who won't go to the doctor if I can possibly avoid it but I'm also on anti-depressent medication which requires a review every few months and my most recent review showed I had slightly high blood pressure. Because that was caught very early on, I can deal with it with a couple of fairly minor adjustments to my diet and lifestyle. Cost to the NHS: About fifteen minutes of the doctor's time to explain the changes I needed to make, no expenditure of drugs to deal with it. If you're sick and you have to pay for doctor's visits, you put them off as long as possible so when you finally do go to the doctor, you're sick as a dog and off work for weeks or even months. When doctor's visits are included in your taxes, you go as soon as you're sick and, in most cases, you're back at work by the end of the week.

Now, there's loads of different ways of funding universal healthcare. The UK, France and Germany all have entirely different funding mechanisms but the US is coming to this idea late in the game so there's nothing to stop the US from studying the existing methods and mix-and-matching parts, absorbing Medicare and Medicaid along the way, until you come up with something special and uniquely American. Morally, I don't think I need to justify universal healthcare here. Conservatives keep telling me that it's a bad idea because it would always be broke. I think they've missed the point. Of course it always broke! It's not supposed to turn a profit! You put money in and get healthcare out, that's how it's supposed to work. Then they tell me it can't work because government can't do anything right. Guys, the entirety of the rest of the civilised world manages this in some form. We can debate the particular methods in various ways but is the USA really so uncivilised that it can't even manage to build a working healthcare system? I don't think so. I think you have plenty of people who could set up and run such a system perfectly well. They will occasionally tell you that Europe is begging the US not to go down the road of "socialised medicine". They are lying to you. Every time some idiot here proposes abolishing the NHS, we shout them down and boot them out of office at the first opportunity. The NHS isn't perfect, don't get me wrong, there are problems but no corporate suit decides if you live or die.

Healthcare isn't "sexy". Politicians love posing with troops or battleships, they're "sexy". But healthcare is reliable, it saves lives day-in and day-out and it does so quietly, with minimal fuss. You have around forty million reasons you need a system like that and an economy to save.

[micraphone]

33. Super post Prophet!

You hit the nail on the head. No country has yet developed a 'perfect' system but the idea of combining all methodologies into a 'super' health system for the USA is a no-brainer.

How is it the 'pigs can get away with their socialist/communist blah when every other capitalist country (and then some) in the world has UHC is beyond me.

It must be the famously left wing MSM :sarcasm:

[nichomachus]

24. What we have now is "Single Prayer"

The next step down is "Sorry, you don't have a prayer."

[dysfunctional press]

27. medicare for EVERYONE. it really is THAT easy.

incrementalism is a way to make it designed to fail miserably.

i gots me a feelin' that we'll be seeing LOTS of activism & protests in d.c. when winter breaks.

the time is NOW, or probably NEVER.

[Union Yes]

28. Free market healthcare in 'Murika= Genocide of the sick.

FMH= worst idea in human history.

Healthcare for profit= just as bad.

22,000 Americans die annually under our system of economically cleansing the sick.

Exactly the way Rethugs want it.

SPUHC for all now!!

[New Dawn]

29. K&R

[defendandprotect]

30. Healthcare -- Not Warfare . .. that's all we've been paying for since WWII . .. !!!

We're now"third world America" -- but a military Superpower --!!????????????

With a bankrupted Treasury--!!!

Figure that out, folks!!

We've been paying for military and intelligence since the end of WWII with nothing

to show for it except war and more war -- pollution of the planet -- and Global Warming!!

Nuclear weapons are now in play -- even reduced in size so we can play with bunker busters!

George Bush actually tested a huge bomb shortly after he took office!!!

Painful to remember all the toxicity that went on over past 8 years and decades of sick

GOP control.

Single Payer --- where are the buttons -- ?? We should all be wearing them -- !!

Healthcare -- Not Warfare!!

This would certainly also help the unions --- where are the buttons?