Medicare for all. Period.

It's just that simple.






We were sold down the river, people.

As was said tonight on MSNBC (think it was Arianna Huffington on Keith), most everyone is happy with Medicare.... basically provide something the people under sixty five will like, given the choice.

The same hoopla came about prior to Medicare being passed and it's time we reminded ourselves about what has been learned through history.

seem to say that they want savings, then ignore the most savings-est plans.

Removing the age restriction.

That takes care of it. Let the health care insurance companies invest their profits in industry in the U.S. that makes jobs for Americans. Penalize them if they take their profits overseas. Impossible? Probably under our current system. Necessary? Probably if we don't want to end up an impoverished people full of ailing elderly without healthcare in about ten years.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that sounds desperately simple and beautiful.


What irks me is the missed opportunity the Democrats could have had by daring to open the discussion with Single Payer.

Our system is broken. We all know that. It is immoral to leave 45 million uninsured. So here's the most efficient system that's been recommended to us-- Single Payer. We've got it already. It's called Medicare.

Imagine if we'd had 15 prominent Democrats and every administration official selling its merits in unison to start things off.

It's a public-private, mixed option. The medical services and doctors are private. The payment and cost control is public. Patient satisfaction is high. Costs are much lower and everyone is covered.

So, my fellow Americans, whatever reform we consider has to meet that high standard. Everyone is covered. Free to go to the doctor of their choice. Administrative costs are much lower and budgeting decisions are much more transparent.

The healthcare debate could have been so much more productive and exciting by now.

How cool would it have been to see President Obama telling the public about the challenge the private sector had to face-- I can see him humorously pointing out the efficiencies of Single Payer and what a tall order it would be for the private sector to reform its ever-escalating costs to match that efficiency. But we need them to do it. Private insurance profits escalated 1000% in the past five years, even as more and more people lost their coverage or went bankrupt due to medical bills.

Instead I actually heard some Democrats saying they wanted to be sure to be fair to the insurance companies! Are you kidding me? I heard a couple of legislators say that. Gotta be fair to the private sector. WHY? They've made billions already and haven't used that money wisely. They've been quite cruel and unethical and we are now broken and tired.

And the right wing PR groups hired by the Pay-or-Die companies to fan the flames of fear and anger in their fake "grass roots groups" couldn't get much worse than they are right now.

But the Democrats didn't even toss the well established system into the public discussion. Are you kidding me? We weren't asking to discuss Conrad's Cockamamie Coops. We wanted to discuss expanding Medicare, or following the system that's cheaper and more effective that's been practiced in Canada for decades now. But a few tough Democrats just tossed it out the door. Our best option.

Wow, that bribery (oh I mean campaign support) really is powerful stuff.

You know the ones who are charged up the arse with fear about "all those health insurance industry jobs being lost.

It's clearly mentioned that those in that private industry will be at the forefront as those hired into government run (Medicare for all). If that isn't keeping the insurance industry honest, I don't know what is.

Obama may be been the one "sold down the river" because of his misguided wall street choices. He needs to hear "the people".

He needs to hear us now.

He hasn't changed.

... you're right. I never thought he was.

However, history places he and his administration in a very tough spot. It's not going to work out unless he DOES start responding to the grass roots such as we are.

And, WTF is this about people showing up at town hall meetings with sidearms?

which is FAR out of the mainstream of the American people.

Don't confuse his ambiguous rhetoric with who he is.

Now you've got me curious, so indulge me for comparison... How do you feel about Howard Dean? Are these two guys even closely on the same page on domestic policy? This question is in the attempt to understand your reason for weighing in the way you did.

I've gotta have some data points so's I can draw a fair conclusion myself.

Said that Obama would be far right wing candidate in his country and a right winger by European standards.

My own friend from Finland said pretty much the same.

I generally weigh the opinions of Europeans and the Commonwealth greater than Americans as far as Western trends go, cause the Seleucids weren't more Greek than the Greeks.

... and Welcome to DU :hi:

Kucinich is a slightly left of mainstream Democrat (or at least what Democrats were before Clinton).

Obama gave more money to bankers in a month than 28 years of repuke Presidents did (and they were trying with all their might). Obama "negotiated" (more like conspired to devise) a secret deal with big Pharma and the leading health insurance providers to kill any taint of real reform and to guarantee their profits in perpetuity. The deal with Pharma alone included a $150 million budget expressly for promoting the deal. (Now where did they get that "million bucks a day" to fight the public option?) Obama gave away single payer before even one second of negotiation. (At the time 72% of Americans favored a single-payer option.)

Obama is a bad guy. An untrustworthy bad guy. Either that or he is the most incompetent politician on Earth. One or the other is true. All his smiling shuck and jive can't hide it anymore.

Holy fucking cow... What must YOU use as a yardstick of comparison? I admit I haven't read much of what you posted, but that judgment "One or the other is true" is scathing. What if neither statement is true? "Shuck and jive"? How would you describe Bill Clinton? I'd remember many accused BC of "pandering" for similar political behavior. Hey, you want some burnt cork and a laugh track for that?

What if Obama's view of health care was never left of anything and just left of center? That was made clear to me during the primary when I supported Kucinich with my limited income. I also worked very hard in the previous presidential primary for Howard Dean, just to set the stage on where I'm coming from. I consider myself as a Democrat with values that range from moderate to slightly to the left.

But, how in the WORLD did you determine Obama as a "bad guy"? I'm really interested in how long you've been engaged in assessing politicians (are you a sage?) and how much you know about politics to have provided that stunning assessment. Personally, I think it smacks of racism, but that's me.

:wtf:

Unfortunately the media will not cover single payer disruptions (except Ed Schultz on MSNBC).... only people like the deathers and others who aid and abet the corporatist agenda.

I still hold out hope that obama will really take the gloves off. Shelve reform this year and run his election on a Medicare For All platform.

exactly how I feel. Respectfully but in no uncertain terms. I'm sick of being sick.

You nailed it......................

so expanding medicare should take 11 months or LESS.

there is room for HUGE improvements but the system is already there, so why not use it??

The leading Single Payer bill is called Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. All needed services and drugs are covered by the bill. The gaps will go away and part D will go away as well.

If the public option goes out the window then i think you'll see the Single Payer movement grow tremendously. Progressives got sold down the river. I think once this is obvious there will be the recognition that we need to unite around HR676.

and neither did he...

Listen to Johnny Cash on this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IJw9jid5Yk&feature=related

People will be at the gates of hell if we don't stand our ground. I won't back down.

They made a "secret" deal with the sickness industry to ensure that single-payer was off the table. The fix was in LONG before the "debate" dog and pony show began. Single payer ain't coming back.

thanks for the post.

You have no idea how upset I am with him. He was on Karl Rove's Congressional hit list because he had beaten our Bushbot incumbant by a slim margin and Rahm Emanuel took him under his wing..to protect him from the GOP. Sure enough, he won his seat second time around with no serious contenders and a large margin. I think his silences on this is payback to Emanuel and it is totally disheartening to me.

interesting about your rep keeping his seat.

We need publically funded campaigns, not people buying their seats or paying back a debt in support of a bad bill.

to be "sold down the river"... you need to have been sold something.



Please show me where Obama... or any prominent Democrat... promised Medicare for all?

"Sold down the river" is what slave traders did with inconvenient or lucrative slaves.

Please show me that you know WTF you are talking about and that you have anything to contribute other than the same old tired "Obama never promised anything" nonsense.

We'd need to get rid of the 20% not covered, deductibles, Part D. And include eyes, teeth,feet, better mental health services. And add various practitioner types that are currently not included. But yes, the structure is already there, as opposed to co-ops.

Got turned down for it once along with SSI(getting lawyer for appeal,which also irks my ass); praying for a leg, and can't get one damn doctor in the area to prescribe me any pain pills for my phantom pain. But my oh so kind idiot ex doctor was so gracious as to prescribe me pills that work half ass for 256 a month out of pocket. So I do without.

You bet, I'll take most anything.

hypocritical, to say the least.

and a couple other small things but absolutely yes. Let's sell that one.

Then people can just buy additional add ons for stuff like Dental, etc.... if they make it affordable.

Start adding the uninsured to Medicare first. Then add the rest using age groups. If they prefer their current plan, they keep that. Otherwise, sign up for Medicare. The system is already in place.

There is nothing hard about this. Except insurance and pharma don't want to lose their huge profits.

1) Healthcare that includes everyone who is legally present within the borders of the United States of America.
2) Healthcare that has premiums that are means tested: can't afford to pay, pay nothing, can pay something, pay something.
3) Healthcare that is free at the point of delivery.

Medicare for all mostly covers point #1 and #2 but certainly does not cover #3.

with maybe 10 million people in the proposed plan it will NOT provide real competition to the private insurance companies.

Most of the tax subsidies will go to the for profit companies, then they can continue to lobby for their interests.

Why the hell is everyone in favor of the public plan that will support the profits of insurance companies and leaves millions without access to medical care.


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/greider

By William Greider

"...Barack Obama mainly did this to himself. To avoid the accusation of socialized medicine, he intentionally shrouded his objectives in bureaucratic euphemisms like "public option." What the hell does that mean? It doesn't mean anything..."

The "public option" was a huge compromise to begin with. And now we can't have that.

Anyone getting the picture yet? We are not represented. Period.

meant to add to the recs.

Amen to that.

control anyone's primary health care.

really, really, really simple minded. to the point of drooling idiocy.

If it were that simple, it would have been done already.

It seems the only idiocy is displayed by You...

No Single Payer, No more VOTES from me...

it IS that simple...

EVERYONE!!!

Period.

Medicare now empahsizes quantity over quality, needs some tweaking

<http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/236375/topic/WS_HLM2_QUA/Mayo-Clinic-Other-Healthcare-Stakeholders-Say-Reform-Should-Mean-Paying-for-Value.html>

IZCVRD might work.