One Republican's View On Single Payer

One Republican's view on single payer

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/august/former_jasper_county.php

Jack Bernard writes an Op_Ed for the Columbs, GA Ledger-Inquirer:

Beware health-industrial complex

By Jack Bernard
Ledger-Enquirer
August 23, 2009

I am a Republican, former chairman of the Republican Party in Jasper County, Ga., and chair of that county commission.

In my view, it is unpatriotic to continue to lie to the American public about the situation facing us. Over the last 10 years, wages have gone up by about one-fourth. Health insurance premiums have gone up well over 100 percent. We cannot continue along this path to fiscal destruction. Inaction is not an option.

It is also against American values to mislead the public into believing that everyone can get good care even if they do not have insurance. The mark of a great nation is not how well it treats its privileged, but rather how well it treats its downtrodden. On this measure, we fail miserably; strange for a nation that prides itself on being the most religious democracy in the world. Where in the Bible did Jesus say “might makes right” or “those with the gold rule”?

Very few health or insurance professionals advocate for a single-payer system, the best way to control costs and ensure access. I hear all sorts of reasons: rationing (really, like HMOs do not do that now), paperwork (apparently insurance company bureaucracy does not count), socialism (come on — practitioners will still be independent and we all know it) and so forth. It is rare that we hear the underlying cause openly stated: greed. It will cut my income.

The members of Physicians for a National Health Plan are an exception to this rule. If you take a look at their Web site, www.pnhp.org, the rationale for a single-payer system is clearly articulated.

The French have the top system in the world, with something like Medicare covering 66 percent of costs and private insurance for the rest, yet their cost per capita is half of ours. Universal Medicare will both control costs and achieve universal access to high quality care. Congressmen would get the same insurance as you and I. You better believe your coverage would be just as good as or better than what you are getting now.

The problem is not technical; it is political. It is high time we put the country ahead of ourselves and establish a single-payer system.

Jack Bernard is CEO of Monticello (Ga.) Health Care Solutions and a former chairman of the Jasper County Commission and the Jasper County Republican Party.

the wizard (of Oz) would be proud

There's probably quite a few Republicans who remember when the party was full of decent, genuinely conservative men of good will. They might not notice that the party has become an outright corporatist slave or they might think "Why should I leave the party, I was here first?". Some of them are actively trying to pull the party back to a respectable centre-right footing, maybe this guy is one of them.

Happened here (Britain) when Labour took a hard swing to the right in the mid-to-late Nineties. Even now, you can find the occasional leftie (like my local MP) or outright socialist who refuses to leave teh party just because it's left him.

and it looks like we found him

His sentiments are Democratic.

I wonder how long that's going to take to dawn on him as has party continues to side with the industry that's ruining us individually and as a country. I wonder how long he's going to be a party to their lies.

The insurance companies own the country. Insurance is behind all of Wall Street. It was always that way.

In the end, I think we're gonna end up with nothing.

Just sayin'

The Republican Party is controlled by nutjobs, and (partially as a result) a great deal of today's Democrats are yesterday's Republicans. That leaves FDR liberals like me feeling kind of marooned.

He's no longer a Republican. He's too smart and too humane, as well as rational.

Glenn Beck's blackboard if he isn't careful.

...pulling for single payer...he'll be as welcome as the progressive democrats.

Lying to We The People is anti-American and unpatriotic...says a republic???!!


No small airplanes, Jack.

He dares to point out long-term self destructive behavior caused by privatized services. The cretins running the show don't like that.

Yeah...no small airplanes is right.

But people are so very eager to pick teams and decide their team is right and any other team sucks.


I have a friend working as a civilian in Iraq right now. The locals he know are terrified the U.S. is going to pack up and leave. The Americans are a fairly nice occupying army. And they just hope if we leave they get a fairly nice dictator and not a brutal dictator. My friend says that the idea of freedom or self determination is just something that does not exist in the people he has met.

Can you imagine Americans hoping to be ruled by someone who isn't too brutal? Can you imagine hoping for a dictator who will not abuse your race of people, regardless of how many he kills of the others?

we really aren't divided on this issue Democrat vs. Republican. That is the problem with the tone of this whole thing. It is a mortal struggle. On one side we have the insurance industry who have purchased their media pundits and political minions on both sides of the aisle, and on the other side we have us, the people... Republican or Democrat, we are all screaming for relief and we are all skeptical about our chances for getting anything except another big bill after all the dust settles. And this under the false flag of "reform".

The more I read, the more I am convinced that instead of healthcare reform, we are going to get a hefty handout to the health insurance industry, without which the industry will collapse under the weight of its own outlandshly overpriced premiums.

lucid response from a Republican on health care. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2009/06/14/bernarded_0614.html

GOP should favor health overhaul
By Jack Bernard

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Nine of the 10 Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have sent a letter to the Obama administration rejecting a public plan option, much less a single- payer system, in the coming debate over health care reform.

As a Republican, a health care executive and former chairman of the Republican Party of Jasper County, I believe this is a mistake, technically and politically.

Although strongly in favor of universal coverage, President Franklin Roosevelt de-emphasized it in favor of pushing through Social Security. Industry lobbyists were simply too strong.

Since then, initiatives to establish comprehensive national health care insurance have failed. In the meantime, about 20,000 Americans die each year due to lack of insurance. Is this the America that we want for our children?
....... more

There are a lot of decent people who are Republicans but we never hear from them. And there are few in positions of power.

I doubt he will receive any donations from the Insurance Industry for his next election, but he deserves credit for sounding more like a Democrat than a lot of those who have a 'D' after their names. Good for him I hope others will take a lesson from him.

"after their names."

Sad, isn't it?

They have no representation in their party. My late mom would have asked what Margaret Chase Smith would have thought of that.

a republican, making sense. i hope a lot of republicans listen and learn.

This is what you have to write to these people?

And this is THE BETTER of the Republican hoard.

Unbelievable.

He wrote a very good article, too.

He's gonna have an awfully tough time getting into the next convention, let alone a chance at the microphone.

Doesn't he know this is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF BEING A REPUBLICAN TODAY?

Now, don't you go HONEST on us Republicans!

That would be the Democratic Party's WORST NIGHTMARE! (and possibly America's greatest hope)

He's still thinking. He still thinks this is about good public policy, when the teabagger party is all about preventing this President and Congress from implementing what could be a hugely popular policy that they could claim credit for for a generation.

that is motivating them. Hmmmmmm, I wonder what that might be . . . . and I wonder why those who are in the streets screaming, in defense of persons who make 200 million $ a year to NOT provide health care, won't/don't reveal what they REALLY support.

concern for the downtrodden ???

The end is nigh.

I'm surprised he's still a republican. If he's woken up to their lies about this issue... what about all the others?

Weird.

Why aren't more making this very simple argument?

He sounds like a good Democrat.

You should take Micheal Steele's Job!

is having both major political parties more interested in protecting corporate interests rather than promoting the health and welfare of our citizens.

Its painfully true - the problem IS political not technical.

"The mark of a great nation is not how well it treats its privileged, but rather how well it treats its downtrodden."

Their actions (as a party) have been very contrary to this kind of thinking for the last 30 years. I hope there are others in his party who can see things his way too.

If the Republicans try to steal "single payer" ... I say we don't fight them! :+

" The problem is not technical; it is political. It is high time we put the country ahead of ourselves and establish a single-payer system"
The reason it is political is the whole Republican party, as well as conservative Democrats. Of, course this includes the whole insurance, for-profit hospitals, medical complex, big pharma, etc.There is plenty of blame to go around. The Democrats have been trying for decades to get this, and always seem to go whimpering into the night. If you go to a hospital and have no insurance, your bill is larger than if you have insurance. That, in itself, shows the immorality of the system. I don't care whose arm you have to twist,whose job you have to threaten, pass the public option. My preference is Medicare, but something. The bottom line is simple; if a hospital is a for-profit, it has to make money. Who pays for it? So for all the Dems crying about the cost, it's pay now or later, and hopefully, if it's later, you won't have the job you have now. The Blue Dog will be replaced with a real Democrat.

Mostly for a birther friend of mine from college. :evilgrin:

WOW!

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/08/28/former-jasper-county-republican-chairman-on-single-payer

Dr. McCanne's comment on the Jack Bernard article...

"If you set politics aside and look at proposed policies for reform, the logic of a single-payer, improved Medicare for all should unite those with views as diverse as a Democrat fighting for health care justice and a Republican demanding common sense business principles that would provide all of us with much greater value in health care.

The Republicans would do well to listen to former Jasper County Republican Party chairman Jack Bernard. But it’s also the Democrats who must lay down their swords and health insurer lobby money, and listen to this gentleman. The price of maintaining a partisan barrier is too high."

Thanks for posting!

...then I remember they're still a Republican.

Republican principles.

Single payer could cut health care costs in this country by 50% while improving outcome.

Rare breed.

Finally someone tells the truth about the French system. I have been treated there and my impression is that it is far superior to the American system.

That's me falling off my chair in amazement at a Republican showing compassion, making sense, and doing it in public. And he's the county GOP Chairman, no less. Amazing.


Wonder how long before he has a bunch of teabagging nutcases on his lawn?

ever happen here in the land of the free . . . er . . . free market?

I'm basically in favor of single payer, with some reservations (Medicare hasn't seemed to contain costs very well).

But I just don't see it happening without something equivalent to the level of Civil Rights era activism.

...and in the era of me-too Baby Boomer consumerism, that won't happen.

The whole thing is dead. It's been dead for several months. The Dems are now in process of finding a way to back out without getting barbequed by their supporters.

actually cared for anyone other than their masters' bank accounts. What a man! Time to find an email addy and sent an atta boy.

http://www.jackbernard.net/

:bounce:

The Rs will be coming after him. Hope he doesn't plan any trips by other than mule, camel or foot in the near future. I laud his honesty and willingness to engage in a demonstration of facts. The French aren't so bad after all it turns out in that they provide high quality health care for everyone at a significantly lower cost.

It is so refreshing to see someone look at the matter factually and acknowledge what is the obvious answer: a single payer system, possibly modeled on France's system where people can still buy private supplemental insurance.

Here's to a Republican who is more interested in factual discussion than the current tactic of poisoning the well of political debate: Thanks Mr. Bernard!

He's probably as disgusted as a Republican as I am as a Democrat where passage of health care reform is, damn it!

We've got the votes and Obama needs to follow that favorite picture of mine, "Chill the Fuck Out, I got this!"

and actually have a heart.

The one quip I have is his statement that "Over the last 10 years, wages have gone up by about one-fourth."

The wage situation is far worse than he's making it out to be.

First of all he spoke up.

Second, he spoke up in GA.

Third, he did it publically.

Fourth, he signed his name to it.

Fifth, they know who he is and where he lives.

who are busy planning the next corporate welfare act and hoping to fill their own pockets in the process. These greedy bastards who think strip mining sick people for profits "is part of the free market" are every bit a amoral as the bastards who think torture is a legitimate interrogation technique.

Republicans and democratic leadership barely bat an eye over 100,000 dead men women and children in Iraq. I won't bat an eye if a few greedy and evil CEOs go out of business. Single payer needs to clean the scum out of our marketplace. Insurance companies are run by human scum. Let's put the public first for a change and then we can talk about letting these vermin back into the game. For now they should be shut down.

....start thinking like Jack, I might have to take back some of the bad things I've said about Republicans....

and of course, everyone falls for it yet again.