A Snowballs Chance
SNOWBALLS CHANCE
Im no artist so its crude and silly but it has a message, go here to see a larger clearer version, choose fullview > Snowball
I don't know if we can get single payer or even get it on the table,but I can explain why we shouldn't give up, we should keep helping the snowball along.
There a many problems with our current health care system, I will mention only four:
- Moral problem : For profit, managed care can not solve the US health care problems because health care is not a commodity that people shop for,health care should not be about profit at all. One reason is because the quality of care must always be compromised when the motivating factor for corporations is to save money through denial of care and decreasing provider costs. It is not good when your health and life are weighed in the balance on a cost to profit basis.
- Waste problem : Private for profit corporations are the lease efficient deliverers of health care. They spend between 20 and 30% of premiums on administration and profits. The public sector is the most efficient. Medicare spends 3% on administration
- corruption problem: Then there is the collusion problem ; Corporations are able to buy politicians through our campaign finance system and control the media to convince people that corporate health care is democratic, represents freedom, and is the most efficient system for delivering health care, none of it true.
- Dishonesty of the opposition : Their number one scare tactic is to cry wolf to the sheep, or in this case "socialized medicine" Single payer universal health care is not socialized medicine. It is health care payment system, not a health care delivery system. Health care providers would be in a "fee for service practice" , and would not be employees of the government, which would be socialized medicine. Single payer health care is not socialized medicine, any more than the public funding of education is socialized education, or the public funding of the defense industry is socialized defense.
- Freedom of choice : There would be free choice of health care providers under a single payer universal health care system, unlike our
current managed care system in which people are forced to see providers on the insurer's panel to obtain medical benefits, no more preferred doctor pools.
- No Overlords: There would be no management of care under a single payer, universal health care system unlike the current managed
care system which mandates insurer preapproval for services thus undercutting patient confidentiality and taking health care decisions away from the health care provider and
consumer.
- Nothing to lose, much to gain : The actual health care providers will lose nothing here, health care providers fees would be set as they are currently in 90% of cases,and providers would have a means of negotiating fees unlike the current managed care system in which they are set in corporate board rooms with profits, not patient care, in mind. They would actually do better because there are many who can not pay after they are treated and so the providers must pass that cost on to those other patients who do have insurance, everything goes up across the board.
The oppostion is a formidable and many headed hydra , I will mention one head :
- One of the leading attackers of reform is profiteer Rick Scott ; The former CEO of the Columbia Hospital Corporation of America , who was forced to resign in 1997 amid fraud charges. This is the group that launched the infamous "Swift Boat" attack on the 2004 presidential bid of Sen. John Kerry, and attack ads against Obama during the presidential campaign. He may not be the titular head but he is speaking out loudly and paying heavily with the help of this group to sink health care reform. He is on par with Dick Cheney in the dark arts. Very interesting story on this guy Rick Scott and what he is up to. here >AFL-CIO Now Blog (Rick Scott )
- Finally, our President Obama doesn't think its possible : Obama "If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense," Obama said in response to the questioner in New Mexico, echoing comments he made during his presidential campaign. "The only problem is that we're not starting from scratch. . . . We don't want a huge disruption as we go into health-care reform where suddenly we're trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy." Read here > Washington Post (June 06 2009)
Help the snowball, put some cool wind behind him, keep alert and active on the health care reform issue, especially single payer. Once you get informed you see how foolish and corrupt the opposition really is.
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HAHAHAHAHA. I hereby award you the Dayly Cartoon Award of the Day given to all of you from all of me at this here TPMCafe site. hahhahahahaha
"There's a mighty wind ablowin' and its blowin you and me." hahahaha
There is a serious message here. But if we do not chuckle at times, we begin to consider riots in the street.
We must keep on keepin on. Write our reps and support groups like Move-On.Org.
June 10, 2009 9:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
my bad Dickday, the reply to you is down below
June 10, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Your four problems hits the nail on the head.
Why is it so hard to Congress and other to see this?
$$$$$
June 10, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wvbiker, you hit it dead center, money. Anyone can see how practical single payer is, it is working all over the world. There is absolutely no reason to disparage it, except payola.
June 10, 2009 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've printed your post to keep as a brush-up reference for arguments I constantly have with blockheads in my income bracket who can't see why this issue is so important - and how a single-payer health care system in this country would be such a boon to us all.
June 10, 2009 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Curt, they will have a hard time arguing against single payer when the facts knock the stuffing from their strawman, or is it scarecrow? I kind of pitty them Curt,I sure wouldnt want to be in a debate against you, but its for their own good.
June 10, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent, DonDi. I wish this could move up and out of this librul site and into the blogosphere in general so the skeptics of single-payer could see the true picture....or cartoon, as it were. :o)
June 10, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Flower you are an inspiration here and you are right we have to get out of the camp sometimes to get things done, just be sure and come back home ,OK
I think we have many kinds or arrows to use in the good causes, the flaming arrow of anger, the steel arrow of truth, and sometimes the nerfy arrow of humor, which can disarm defenses. You have great senses Flower and I see you know how and when to use all these arrows, or as you said, sometimes a shrinking violet and sometimes a Tiger lily.
June 10, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
dickday thanks for the award, its a reward really to someone like me who has to slog along to present something.I have a brand new pencil sharpened only one time but the eraser is completely worn off trying to put this down on paper.Sometimes anger is the thing we need as in your blog responding to Babe Buchanan, it was inspiring, gave me the will to keep fighting back, and to keep trying to blog.
June 10, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
DonDi you are doing JUST FINE. Oh and good comments here along with recommendations. And you still have 11 hours or so to go.
June 10, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the snowball turns to water, we can always throw it on the opposition in the hope they will then melt like the wicked witch of the West.
Loved the drawing(Keep them coming!)and your analysis is spot on. Thanks for a refreshing view of the problem.
June 10, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahaha Thanks FDRdog ,melt the witches and ground their flying monkeys too! I appreciated your fine post on treason today and am pondering it further, what happened to men of honor?
June 10, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fdr Also thanks for the comment on the drawing,as long as my talented grandchildren do not see it, I can probably hold on to a little dignity around here.
June 10, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many things to recommend, not least the delightful cartoon capturing the spirit of the post.
But this stands out:
Single payer health care is not socialized medicine, any more than the public funding of education is socialized education, or the public funding of the defense industry is socialized defense.
I think many might say "Well, yes WE do have socialized education, and its gotta stop!! Bring on the charters!!!!" (missing the point, of course, but nonetheless)--but the "socialized defense" analogy is terrific.
Why is it people are comfortable with funding defense but not medical care?
(I'm NOT speaking, of course, to the regular denizens of TPM....)
June 10, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could it be simply that people are threatened by change? The military system has been the way it is for a long time. But brave Americans are afraid to change something even if it's to their benefit.
I mean, heck, the digital TV transition? How long has that been talked about, deadlined, extensioned, and finally it happens Friday? And it's not a radical change--we still have to buy TVs at the store and we watch our normal programs. They'll just be a bit clearer...
June 10, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maytra good point and you are right, people are allergic to change, even when it is good change.I see it at work and even at home.My wife resisted my computer at first, then after she got used to it she claimed it, I had to build another one for me.
I could name other things but she might read this and not having supper is not a change I desire.
June 10, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL, thanks for the blog. We have to keep plugging this. It took Canada decades to completely transition into single payer. If we do anything, anything, then we're on our way. It's not always all or nothing (though I wish we'd just go single payer NOW).
June 10, 2009 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
New avatar?
I don't think the fear of change is entirely the source of a reluctance to fund medical care. I think there's an element of "You should be able to take care of yourself, and if you can't, there's something, well, off about you". And people don't realize, until it's much too late, that the current system isn't designed to actually look after them--it's designed to make money.
The defense funding is different. That's America standing up for our rights. That's, dare I say, macho stuff that appeals to the really superficial side of us.
Health care? That's ishy squishy stuff for people who didn't manage their finances, or their health, or who are fat and smoke, or something like that. It's not a problem for ME.
/snark
More people realize it's a problem right now than ever before, but I predict that people will panic at the thought of change because insurance companies and conservative PACs will package it as "YOUR HEALTH CARE IS GOING TO BE TAKEN AWAY AND GIVEN TO SOME LESS DESERVING AMERICAN UNLESS YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW".
And Democrats will let that happen.
I think I'll shut up now. Too depressing, the direction I'm heading in.
June 10, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, that "Halloween costume 70s wig" avatar was grainy anyway.
And you are right about the mindset around health care. But everyone has to go to the doctor, and unless you are wealthy and don't get around much most people know of someone who has been completely wiped out or demeaned by the cost of healthcare. I've said it one here before, but my grandfather had colon cancer and was still working at a grocery store to help pay for his and my ailing grandmother's drugs. The current system is destructive and demeaning.
Another issue is people who go it alone or own small business. If we are for small business or individual innovations to help restart the economy, the freedom of not having to somehow pay for coverage could incite innovation we've never heard of. And this point isn't a moral one, it's an economic one. So many reasons to get rid of what we have now.....
June 10, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
CT Voter Why, is the heart of the matter and we have to keep asking it.Thanks for your kind comments
June 10, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with the snowball.
Thanks for a great take
on our ongoing roll
up the DC mountain.
June 10, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the nice word picture Strato, up the hill we go.
June 10, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Put your money on the snowball.
Congress is in the tank for the managed health care industry. It is no coincidence why health care costs have gone crazy for so many years and exactly why certain individuals are fighting to avoid changing it. The snowball can go to hell and back and will remain as cold as the hearts of the industry biggies and certain members of the U.S. congress. This is an industry worth well north of ONE trillion dollars every year. And they know precisely how to spend it to get what they want.
June 10, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
thepeoplechoose, what a shame that we have to argue for health care, when health care has been reduced to a commodity when it should be a natural right unexploited for profit.
June 10, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if I'd call it a natural right. There has to be some perspective. We don't have that. By the time someone finishes medical school these days they've already spent a half million (or more) on their education. The entire cost structure of health care is out of control. It wasn't always this way. This has gotten this way mostly since managed care took over the reins roughly four to five decades ago.
June 10, 2009 8:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thepeoplechoose, yes you are right I chose the wrong term with natural right,overstated and over dramatic. A more sensible term would be beneficent right. A beneficent right as a citizen of America.I agree that doctors and nurses well deserve their recompense for all the years of hard study,all the long hours of work they do, and the choice they made to spend their life healing their fellow man.
June 10, 2009 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
DonDi that is a more reasonable framing of the argument. The real trick remains in how does a society arrive at an equitable distribution of the product of the society? Over my lifetime our nation has inarguably moved away from this equity proposition in all regards. Nor do I see the possibility to reverse it. The accrued power that accompanies the inequity creates an impenetrable barrier to change. A lot of people around these parts have come to realize the stark reality of this by noting the degree to which Obama has backpedaled on major campaign promises. Confronting this unhappy barrier to the change he would have liked I'd guess is causing him great concern. A great many people dearly wanted to believe in our system of laws and governance but have found themselves sorely disappointed. As a species we remain subject to natural law which specifies survival of the fittest. In that realm there really are no rules.
June 11, 2009 5:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
All this makes perfect sense and is simple and easy to understand. Too bad we don't have a President or a Congress willing to stand up to the insurance parasites and put them out of business with a single payer plan. Actually, they wouldn't be out of business, it's just that they would shrink considerably and wouldn't be able to make their CEO's rich beyond anyone's wildest imagination. Awful! Just awful!
June 10, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oleeb yes it is awful, and they know if single payer is ever passed they will have to find another way to practice their leechcraft.
June 10, 2009 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Americans to Congress: "Can we have single payer healthcare?"
Congressional reply: "Get sick and die! Private companies will send you the bill for services, shareholder's cut, marketing, executive salaries and drugs. It's better that way."
June 10, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"and then," muttering to himself, "they'll cut my campaign a nice check...."
June 10, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I called Senator Amy's Minneapolis Office and asked if she would support a single-payer healthcare plan this year. The staffer responds: "I'm not sure." I then get transferred to the DC where they disconnect me.
That about sums up how much they want to hear from constitutents.
June 10, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
DonDi, I'm recommending this post, even though I don't think going straight to single payer right now is correct.
I'm giving a rec because I think this is *precisely* how to continue pushing this issue. This is a well-reasoned, cogently argued, yet non-offensive piece that aides and media types can read and use in their own discussions and arguments with the politicians who ultimately will determine what system we have.
THAT kind of communication is what's really needed from those of us at the grassroots level. Get the ideas, back them up without being snide or condescending, and arrange them in such a way that the work of presenting them to the legislators is basically done for the presenter.
I would like to talk about one particular Obama quote in the post.
I understand why you read the quote the way you did. I would like to offer an alternate reading, if I may.
There's an old maxim in chess which holds that a lost game cannot be turned into a won game with just one move. You have to work on making progress, and unless your opponent blunders badly, that progress will be measured and grinding.
To my eyes, Obama's answer at the Albuquerque town hall applies that same principle, while also implicitly acknowledging that single payer makes the most sense. The current for-profit health care system is deeply sunk into the fabric of American life. It's going to have to be detangled and then uprooted - but this is going to be VERY slow work. And you can't get there from here in one jump, I think.
To illustrate my point: let's say that you could snap your fingers right now, and we'd have a single payer system. Okay, great...for everyone except the people currently employed by our for-profit health care system. Now, none of us may feel too badly for the fat-cat CEO or the overpaid, underperforming risk analyst.
But what about the myriad other people - those in customer service, sales, medical assistance, data entry, supply chain support, delivery, maintenance, payroll, human resources, facilities and the like? Where will they go? What will they do? There's not nearly enough room for all of them to find work immediately. This leaves us with what I think might be a Pyrrhic victory. We get single payer - just in time to support a seven-figure layoff against which even the loss of GM and Chrysler might have paled in comparison.
I think that, to avoid that collateral damage, you introduce a public option. One of two things happens: either the private companies don't adjust, in which case their subscriber base deserts them and the companies die off; or they adjust, become leaner, better priced and more competitive, in which case people would have more than one reasonably priced option. I would personally be thrilled with either option.
Thanks again for a great post. Please consider turning it into a letter for your Congressional delegation.
June 10, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Medicare is a single-payer system. It was enacted without the kind of disruption you predict. If you want to ease into it, you could start by lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 55 and asking people to pay a premium until they reach 65 or something like that and then phase it in to younger workers over time. If you did that you'd be making a COMMITMENT, stating a CLEAR DIRECTION and giving people a proposal they would immediately UNDERSTAND.
As it is, any bill is going to be so timid and tepid and complicated and contingent that it will be nickled and dimed to death. It's going to be underfunded from the get go which means that insurance isn't going to be affordable at all and that will totally destroy confidence in the "reform" making people doubt and oppose any future improvements.
I think your jobs argument is just a huge excuse. I started my career in the S&L industry, now gone and no one had sympathy for me or my peers then when we had to reinvent ourselves and start over. No one really has any sympathy for autoworkers or the entire blue collar working class. Why insurance workers are sacred cows is a mystery. Collecting extortionate premiums from the sick and dying to finance a jobs program is absurd.
June 10, 2009 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Medicare wasn't implemented as *the* health care option in the US. It was put on top of our for-profit system. And I don't think Medicare is what I'd want to model a single payer system on.
As for the "sacred cows" you deride, here's something to chew on. Aetna, CIGNA and WellPoint - by themselves, employ well over 100,000 people. UnitedHealthGroup is larger than all three of those companies. So, let's say we're talking about 150,000 employees (a low estimate) between those four companies. Humana, Health Net and Coventry are also Fortune 500-type companies, but I don't know their numbers by heart.
Shut those 4 businesses down, right now, and you're looking at a minimum of 150,000 unemployed people. The contractors, suppliers and vendors they employ who would also go out of business upon their closing could multiply that number by 3 or more. I'd hope any industry that employs that many people (like, say, the auto industry) would be treated as a "sacred cow".
Finally, I wonder if you've ever tried being non-confrontational when you post. You seem to come into every thread and every discussion looking for a fight. In the process, you attack people who (1) probably are closer to your position than you realize, and (2) could quite possibly be persuaded to follow you, if you could unclench your fist long enough to point the way.
June 10, 2009 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Boyd Reed I agree with all you say and am enlightened as well. It is the dream I wanted to show, the destination at the end of the journey, and the struggle we face to get there,hence the snowballs chance. Every mile we make in forward progress is the closer we get to the our hopeful destination of health care for all. I included President Obama's quote not to disparage him, for that is our first reaction when we read it, but to enlighten us subconsciously to his knowledge of these things, that he has a grasp of the situation and the struggle ahead. It may be in steps but it may yet be done in time.The used car salesman asks for top dollar and negotiates from the high position to a lower but acceptable price. It does not hurt our struggle for universal health care and ultimately single payer to do the same thing.Your comments are deeply appreciated and received.
June 10, 2009 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dondi: "A picture is worth a thousand words...."
THANK YOU for this, which I have bookmarked and saved as "the distance between point A and point B."
Keep sharpened pencils at hand, and draw and write whatever you are thinking about. I really believe that composition is the same skill, whether in art or in writing.
June 10, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
WWstaebler thank you for your encouragement.I will keep the pencil sharp and buy a king size eraser until I improve in skill. Trying to get a picture out of my head onto paper is still a struggle.
June 10, 2009 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
The fierce Republican opposition to a public option in the current debate is predicated in part, as they explicitly acknowledge, on the fear that the public component might outcompete private alternatives, eventuating in a single payer system.
I'm one of the few participants in these forums who is not absolutely certain that single payer is the optimal choice for the U.S. I think it may well be, but this nation is so large and heterogeneous that it might become extraordinarily difficult to manage efficiently. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any model elsewhere in the world, so it remains a matter of uncertainty. I greatly admire the Canadian system, and none of my Canadian friends would dream of trading their system for ours, but Canada is smaller than we are, and their provinces are different in concept from our states.
If I were forced to predict, I would expect single payer to prove itself an excellent choice here as well, but it's important not to be overly dogmatic.
In any case, from a political perspective, I think the Republicans may be onto something. Strong support for a public option in the pending health care legislation might be a very wise choice; it would convince legislators that we are practical folk, cognizant of political realities, while at the same time building a foundation that might ultimately translate a dream of single payer into reality.
June 10, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fred Moolten, Wisely said and agreed to.I believe a public option to be the bare minimum allowed to be considered as a step forward in progress and wisdom.thanks Fred
June 10, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you from the bottom of my once Republican heart. I needed a good explanation of single payer health care and now I have gotten one plus the pros and cons of both sides of the issue. I will reread this to get all of the points in my old brain.
June 10, 2009 10:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maggie thank you for letting me know this post helped someone understand the issue,that makes the time spent well worth it, and from you it is a double bonus.
June 10, 2009 11:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great 'cartoon' Dondi. The way the Dems are running the show, I'll be happy to get a public option that doesn't have its legs cut off before it gets out of the subcommittee. Rock on! Single payer!
June 10, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Miguelito I will be happy with that too if as you say, it has legs.
June 10, 2009 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very nice post, DonDi. Clear arguments...I'm one of the fence sitters. I don't care so much about the means, I just want everyone to have access to affordable health care. How we get there, I'll leave to smarter folks than me.
June 11, 2009 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink