Fact and fiction of Republican health care talking points.

Fiction: We can’t afford publicly funded health care.

Fact: Health care costs the United States twice what the most expensive universal health care system does. When Canada instituted its single payer plan they were spending almost exactly what the U.S. spends now. They currently spend about half of what we do per capita and 1/3 less of GDP. Any money spent on start up of a publicly funded health care system will be paid back in less than a decade and continue to pay dividends in lower costs and healthier people. It’s like contributing to a 401K; whatever you put in you get back with interest later.

Fiction: Some government bureaucrat will direct your treatment.

Fact: None of the 37 countries that have universal health care direct treatment through the government. Doctors, chosen by the patient, direct treatment and the government administers collection of funds and dispersment of payments.

Fiction: There will be long waiting periods for treatment.

Fact: Treatment of injury and illness is usually faster than here in the U.S. Elective treatments such as cosmetic surgery, joint replacement and specialty treatments take longer than our system but the difference is usually measured in days or weeks, not months.

Fiction: Government systems always result in rationing of care.

Fact: Private health care systems always result in rationing of care. Here in the U.S. a patient that drinks heavily will not be considered for a liver transplant. The same is true of heavy smokers seeking a heart or lung transplant. Insurance companies routinely deny expensive diagnostic treatments such as MRI. The same is true of many government run health care systems. In the U.S. 70% of health care costs are incurred in the last year of life. England won’t pay for organ transplants in patients older than 80 years. HMOs routinely deny coverage for such operations. Which is worse, rationing care in the last year of life or rationing care for the entire life of the patient?

Fiction: Government run health care will be an administrative nightmare.

Fact: Medicare administrative costs are 30% less than private insurance costs. Most doctor’s offices have at least one staff member dedicated to handling insurance filing. If all the insurance companies used universal forms like Medicare that would not be necessary.

Fiction: A publicly funded insurance option will be unfair to private insurance companies.

Fact: A publicly funded option would be just one more option presented to the patient. In fact, most of those opting for the public program would be people the insurance companies don’t want anyway: the poor, those with pre-existing conditions, people who can’t get insurance through their employers and those between early retirement and Medicare. Besides if, as the loyal opposition insists, competition is good and lowers cost why not offer a public option to compete with the many private offerings?

Fiction: The U.S. has the best health care in the world and people travel from other countries to get treatment here.

Fact: For some specialty treatments affordable only to the wealthy the U.S. system can provide treatment. However, a much larger number of people are traveling to other countries to get major and minor procedures done. There is even a name for it: Medical Tourism. Satori World Medical arranges travel for people seeking affordable health care overseas. An arterial bypass in the U.S. costs about $80,000 but patients traveling through Satori can expect to pay as little as $21,000 including travel expenses.

There’s a lot of fiction being spread by the insurance and pharma lobbies and parroted by the Republicans in congress and in mainstream media. Don’t fall for it.

And that is the problem. People who oppose universal health care do not believe that health care is a right for all people. They also do not care if society is healthy, educated or fed. These people care only about themselves and their pocketbooks. Nothing we can say will make a difference to them. They do not think. They only follow. Right now we have the majority in congress. It is the only time we can get this passed. We cannot concern ourselves about the other side. We will never be able to compromise to the point that they are satisfied. So let leave them dissatisfied.:)

the media are spreading are distorting the debate and making it easier for "our" reps in Congress (and the WH) to compromise away whatever gain might have been possible.

But I wonder how any facts can convince someone who has a "faith-based" belief and loyalty to corporate control of everything in our society. Their closed "minds" are not really susceptible to education.

Fiction: A publicly funded insurance option will be unfair to private insurance companies.

First, let me say this - I don't care that it's unfair. I'm not nearly as anti-corporate as a lot of people here, but if any industry could be legitimately called organized crime, it's the insurance industry.

Now that this is out of the way, I actually agree with the notion that a public option will eventually kill private insurers. The government getting involved in health care will be much like what WalMart has done to small retailers - push them out of business due to economies of scale.

Of course, I view this as a positive, not a negative. It's a backdoor way to get the single payer system that we want without having to politically defend it. A public option looks like a compromise to most Americans, and I think it's a phenomenal means to a desired end.

"And your point is?"

I think you are right about eventually killing off the insurance companies as far as health care goes. I actually think that's the whole point in offering a public option. Just make the service so un-attractive that they voluntarily pull out of it.

As a Canadian, I can't understand why anyone would want to keep your system.

95% of us LOVE our health care and are GLAD we don't have insurance companies to deal with.