President Obama on Single Payer Healthcare
In this video President Obama implies that he does not want to risk the failure of getting a Healthcare Reform Bill at the expense of ideological purity. He states that if we were starting from scratch he understands that the Single Payer Healthcare insurance would be preferable and that given that healthcare is 1/6th of our economy that we probably could not make that drastic transition.
We should stand with the President on this issue under one and only one condition. If the bill includes a public option that any citizen has the ability to join irrespective of preexisting conditions or current employer provided plan. The reason we can accept this compromise is that ultimately the mathematics of the Single Payer Government option (public option) will ultimately effect a transition of most citizens to the public plan simply based on the cost.
I will support bho's proposal if it has a publicly funded option. My only concern, is that such an option will necessarily attract the sickest of Americans and as such, make it less economically viable. The real solution is to throw all of our population into one, publicly funded insurance pool. I wish we had some elected representatives with the cajones to advocate such.
May 15, 2009 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I accept that it will take some time to get to single payer because we will have to fight for it. Is there research somewhere about how other nations made this transition? I am curious about how we can make these shifts. So much is involved. Single payer is worth fighting for. Getting improvements along the way is not a bad thing. This initial bit seems just a gesture as there appears to absolutely no accountability involved. Money makers in the industry volunteering to cut there profits a bit over time with no accountability seems lame on one hand but on another it's a bit like workers in a company agreeing to take a paycut to keep their jobs.
I think we need to understand a lot more about 'how' we can get to a strong, reasonable, healthy, healthcare system.
May 15, 2009 2:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well put, and correct. The two keys are eliminate the ability to discriminate based on preexisting condition (across ALL plans IMO) and a truly public option.
Synchro: I don't think the insurance company's PR gambit should be viewed as anything other than that, PR. It doesn't seem to have changed the course of legislation nearly as much as they hoped.
May 15, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
They have not even allowed Single-Payer advocates to sit at the table! Baucus had them arrested! Right. How can we believe that they intend to have a single-payer public option when they aren't even pretending to listen?
May 15, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Costs can never be meaningfully cut if the private insurance industry is still involved, because 25-30% of health care costs are administrative. Unless administration for paying providers is streamlined over to the umbrella of single payer, the costs will remain too high for significant savings.
Also, can anyone truly believe that the for-profit health care industry will allow those "public option" tax dollars they believe they deserve to go anywhere but to them? Look at what they've done to Medicare with the 2003 Act resulting in Medicare Advantage and Part D drug plans. The only people to benefit from the 2003 Act are the private insurers, HMOs, and drug companies.
May 15, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama = Neo-Lib
100 days is enough time for a ruler to establish his priorities. For Obama, it looks like this:
1. Reinforce the entrenched economic dominance of the investment banking cartel; indemnify major players from financial loss.
2. Consolidate the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; neutralize Iran and prepare the foundation for expansion into Pakistan.
3. Clamp a lid on political excesses of the outgoing regime; ensure loyalty of military and CIA via guarantees of immunity from prosecution.
4. Stonewall on health insurance reform to give major insurers time to distribute congressional campaign donations.
May 15, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama's bill is not a healthcare bill. It's a Neo-Dem, Neo-Lib, DLC shell game that will probably take a little money from the mail clerk to give to the retail clerk. It will not tax the wealthy. It will not reduce profits for big insurance and big pharma. It will not make Americans healthier. It will not reduce costs. It will not increase the number of primary care physicians. It will not increase access to healthcare. It will do nothing but reinforce the status quo. We may not get another chance for a generation.
But hey! If you like bombing foreign villages and justice replaced by tribunals, he's your guy.
Just don't expect healthcare.
May 15, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink