Sure it's crazy. But let's get behind it anyway! From an intuitive perspective, the Trump administration might seem the absolutely wrong political time to be calling for single-payer health care. The sensible thing is for liberals to hunker down, hedge our bets, shore up our defenses, gird our loins, unmix our metaphors, and do everything we can to defend the Affordable Care Act, right? Well OF COURSE we're going to do that. But while we're at it, since Congress, the media, and a good chunk of the voting public are actually spending a few minutes focusing on America's ungodly mess of a health care "system" again, why don't we also make a hell of a lot of noise about single-payer while we've got their attention? And the appropriate vehicle is Michigan Rep. John Conyers's perennial House bill to extend Medicare to all Americans. As L.A Times business columnist David Lazarus says, even if it has no chance of passing in a Republican-controlled Congress, the bill,
This is where our Australian system called the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme) is the way to go. In fact it's so good several US drug companies have tried to take it to court and are lobbying our politicians to scrap it. It looks at any particular drug, determines the value to the taxpayer to the benefits it will give to the patient. If approved it negotiates with the drug companies over the price. All my meds cost me AU$6.20 as a pensioner, $35 or less for someone employed.
There is a profound fucked-up-ed-ness about the US that (I think) must be a holdover from a punitive Puritan ethic; the US, Canada, and Australia are similar in certain significant ways (young nations; pioneers needed to settle sometimes-fierce terrain), but only the US is regressive in this way and with regard to gun control. ..... (And, tho I sometimes had very good insurance, it never covered remedial massage. There is a weird, possibly inherent grudgingness in the US -- YOU can't have and YOU can't have and YOU can have a little and YOU can't have and HEY LOOK it's a "self-made" millionaire, we LOVE you, you MUST be a good person because only GOOD people are blessed with money! Prosperity gospel.)
A depressing number of Americans believe with religious fervor that Murrica is the absolute, unsurpassed bestest at literally everything; therefore, by definition, any study that implies otherwise is untrue, and trying to adapt things that work in other countries here is tantamount to treason. It's fucking dumb and I don't know why they're so invested in it. Maybe Abstract America is the only thing they feel like they can be proud of.
The more I contemplate how many people are literally going to die in misery just to spite that black guy in the White House, the more convinced I am that America was just a bad idea from the outset.
He was never particularly interested in good business for himself either. In the sense that he wouldn't recognize a good business idea if it sank needle-sharp teeth into his pasty flabby buttocks.
The for-profit medical industry in the US makes WAY too many people sick. There's plenty of room for insurance companies in Medicare for All, just ask the Dutch or the Germans or you-get-the-idea. There will still be millionaire doctors; they'll be remaking Hollywood (and Park Avenue) faces and tits and asses, the same way they are now. Sure, that Merck stock may not be quite as valuable, but there shouldn't be a law that says pharmaceutical companies get to be richer than God. Medicare for All is the best idea. Thank you, John Conyers, for reminding us of that every legislative session.
I can't call my Republican legislators because thankfully, I have none.
Conyers, who has introduced a Medicare For All bill at the beginning of every session of Congress since 2003, doesn’t think Trump is likely to be moved. He says Trump is “erratic,” but unlikely to swing quite far enough to suddenly embrace single-payer. On the other hand, with 51 Democratic co-sponsors — no Republicans just yet — and the prospect of Trumpcare kicking millions of people off insurance if the ACA is repealed, it’s just possible that true single payer might be the solution embraced when enough people are pissed off enough to throw the bastards out.
this is delusional. there is no scenario where Twittler is going to settle for anything less than destroying the signature legislation of President Obama. This idiotic idea supposes that delivering healthcare is the goal. It is not, nor has it ever been the goal of the GOP or Trump to deliver healthcare to anyone. The only thing Twittler is interested in is braying his triumph over that blah guy who insulted him at the WHCD.
quit wasting everyone's time daydreaming up absurd scenarios where Twittler suddenly sees the light and becomes stable long enough to pursue one idea to it's conclusion. It is never, ever going to happen.
introduce 676 every day for as long as you can. great. go for it. but quit wasting our time with this BS fairy tale that the GOP or the horrid orange troll is going to suddenly come to their senses and start behaving like rational human beings. ain't gonna happen
No. The Affordable Care Act IS a Republican idea. Obama glommed on to it in a mistaken hope that Republicans wouldn't be so stupid as to reject their own ideas. Democrats should get back their principles instead of beating a dead dog.
This is where our Australian system called the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme) is the way to go. In fact it's so good several US drug companies have tried to take it to court and are lobbying our politicians to scrap it. It looks at any particular drug, determines the value to the taxpayer to the benefits it will give to the patient. If approved it negotiates with the drug companies over the price. All my meds cost me AU$6.20 as a pensioner, $35 or less for someone employed.
There is a profound fucked-up-ed-ness about the US that (I think) must be a holdover from a punitive Puritan ethic; the US, Canada, and Australia are similar in certain significant ways (young nations; pioneers needed to settle sometimes-fierce terrain), but only the US is regressive in this way and with regard to gun control. ..... (And, tho I sometimes had very good insurance, it never covered remedial massage. There is a weird, possibly inherent grudgingness in the US -- YOU can't have and YOU can't have and YOU can have a little and YOU can't have and HEY LOOK it's a "self-made" millionaire, we LOVE you, you MUST be a good person because only GOOD people are blessed with money! Prosperity gospel.)
It's simple and efficient, and fair, everyone does it, except Republican America.
cf, members of congress healthcare plan
Legislation that makes sound economic sense and benefits the whole of society?
NOT ON OUR WATCH, MISTER!
Billionaire dollar bonuses for Aetna CEOs. Think how much Healthcare that bonus could buy for thousands of people...
Actually heard at a meeting: "Now we are going to strategize about our synergistic tranche vis a vis robotics. " I had to leave the room.....
A depressing number of Americans believe with religious fervor that Murrica is the absolute, unsurpassed bestest at literally everything; therefore, by definition, any study that implies otherwise is untrue, and trying to adapt things that work in other countries here is tantamount to treason. It's fucking dumb and I don't know why they're so invested in it. Maybe Abstract America is the only thing they feel like they can be proud of.
The more I contemplate how many people are literally going to die in misery just to spite that black guy in the White House, the more convinced I am that America was just a bad idea from the outset.
He was never particularly interested in good business for himself either. In the sense that he wouldn't recognize a good business idea if it sank needle-sharp teeth into his pasty flabby buttocks.
Ah, RDJ. I just kind of want to be friends with him.
The for-profit medical industry in the US makes WAY too many people sick. There's plenty of room for insurance companies in Medicare for All, just ask the Dutch or the Germans or you-get-the-idea. There will still be millionaire doctors; they'll be remaking Hollywood (and Park Avenue) faces and tits and asses, the same way they are now. Sure, that Merck stock may not be quite as valuable, but there shouldn't be a law that says pharmaceutical companies get to be richer than God. Medicare for All is the best idea. Thank you, John Conyers, for reminding us of that every legislative session.
I can't call my Republican legislators because thankfully, I have none.
Conyers, who has introduced a Medicare For All bill at the beginning of every session of Congress since 2003, doesn’t think Trump is likely to be moved. He says Trump is “erratic,” but unlikely to swing quite far enough to suddenly embrace single-payer. On the other hand, with 51 Democratic co-sponsors — no Republicans just yet — and the prospect of Trumpcare kicking millions of people off insurance if the ACA is repealed, it’s just possible that true single payer might be the solution embraced when enough people are pissed off enough to throw the bastards out.
this is delusional. there is no scenario where Twittler is going to settle for anything less than destroying the signature legislation of President Obama. This idiotic idea supposes that delivering healthcare is the goal. It is not, nor has it ever been the goal of the GOP or Trump to deliver healthcare to anyone. The only thing Twittler is interested in is braying his triumph over that blah guy who insulted him at the WHCD.
quit wasting everyone's time daydreaming up absurd scenarios where Twittler suddenly sees the light and becomes stable long enough to pursue one idea to it's conclusion. It is never, ever going to happen.
introduce 676 every day for as long as you can. great. go for it. but quit wasting our time with this BS fairy tale that the GOP or the horrid orange troll is going to suddenly come to their senses and start behaving like rational human beings. ain't gonna happen
I'm in awe of your restraint, I probably would have set the building on fire.
No. The Affordable Care Act IS a Republican idea. Obama glommed on to it in a mistaken hope that Republicans wouldn't be so stupid as to reject their own ideas. Democrats should get back their principles instead of beating a dead dog.
Needs a cat in a shark suit on top.