The Right Wing's Latest Argument Against Public Health Care -- We'd Like It Too Much

via AlterNet:



The Right Wing's Latest Argument Against Public Health Care -- We'd Like It Too Much

By Lindsay Beyerstein, The Media Consortium. Posted December 24, 2008.

That's right: Conservatives are terrified that a new system would be so good we would never want to get rid of it.



A common thread is emerging in the right-wing response to health care reform. Its opponents aren't claiming that public health care will be bad. Rather, they are terrified that the new system will be so good that no citizen would buy expensive private insurance -- or vote for politicians who wanted to take public insurance away.

Barack Obama's team is sending clear signals that health care reform is a core economic issue, and the health insurance industry is becoming increasingly anxious by the future administration's determination to bring health care costs under control. Some Americans are seeing their health care premiums rising at four times the rate of inflation, if they have insurance at all. Health care reform is a pocketbook issue for all of us, according to the Obama team.

In tough economic times, it might be tempting to postpone health care reforms, but Obama is adamant that delay would be a false economy. In the American Prospect, Joanne Kenen and Sarah Axeen support claims about the high cost of doing nothing:



If health care costs continue to rise at their current rates, it will cost $24,000 a year to insure a family of four by 2016, an 84 percent increase from today. At these rates, half of American households would have to spend at least 45 percent of their income to be insured. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/114800/the_right_wing%27s_latest_argument_against_public_health_care_--_we%27d_like_it_too_much/

You are all aware that in the UK we've got our National Health which has existed since the late '40s. There are also thriving price healthcare companies.

What I'm not sure of, based on the fact that some of you use the term "free in the UK" , is the extent to which you'd be prepared to pay for universal public healthcare.

To remind you ours works thus :

All income above c. £5000 is subject to the employee paying 11% of gross wages and the employer paying 12.8 % on top of that. The combination covers healthcare and state pension too.

The government's income from the above is also used to fund fucking wars in Iraq etc. x(

...and burn the Greedy, Leeching Insurance Companies to the Ground.

I believe they have caused as much damage to this country as Republicans...

How many bad decisions and general "withdrawl from the commons" is due to liability insurance and fear of boosting the rates?

And, I like any post with the word "commons" in it.