Single Payer

Sullivan whined about entitlements (being wrong of course), and John Cole makes the obvious point;

Only a fool can not see the writing on the wall- we are going to have to move to single-payer at some point, because businesses can not compete and the largest problem for Detroit is… their health care obligations and other retiree benefits. Likewise, we spend an enormous amount of our GDP on health care yet have rankings that look third world on issues like infant mortality. Something has to give.

And before the morons start saying I have switched positions on this, I haven’t done anything of the sort. My consistent position the last few years has been that this is sort of inevitable, and whether I want this to happen or not is irrelevant. It will happen.

To which Sully sez; I fear John is right.

He fears it? Really?

I've been arguing this for ages.. The United States spends far higher per person for care, and receive inferior treatment. To be sure, Americans have access to cutting edge technologies and procedures, much the same as patients in Western European countries do. There are world class specialists in many nations.

The issue is cost. Simply take the profit motive out of the insurance, and costs go down substantially.. which will be a major boon for all Americans.. business owners won't have to foot the bill.. corporations.. individuals paying hundreds of dollars a month.. and finally.. 40+ million people without health insurance.. covered.

There is no downside.

And remember.. the Loon Brigade likes to argue that this plan involves the nationalizing of the provider side, and it does not. Providers will need to compete for the dollars, in both levels of service and price. We could even have a provider database online, where patients can rate and comment on their providers. This will motivate the providers to do a good job.

Think about the economies of scale. Medi-Care and Medi-Caid are already primed with the infrastructure and ready to go. It would be fantastic to be able to show up at your doctors office, get your treatment.. and leave with no bills waiting for you in the mail later. Heck, get your scripts on the way home.. no bills..

As it is now, I get my monthly maintenance meds from India.. and I have Mega-Corp provided insurance. It's far cheaper for me to pay cash to the Indians.

This system is what Sullivan "fears". Could he be so stupid as the Loon Brigade to think that it would make the providers Federal Employees? Heck no..

...

/adding




This jackass is on my teevee.. arguing that Federal spending in the New Deal and World War II did not bring the country out of the great depression.

Chris Matthews argued that the spending did end the depression.

The jackass said that if spending would have worked, why didn't it end the depression before World War II.

Chris Matthews could only mumble "ohh.. ohh... oh..." over and over. He doesn't know anything about the New Deal and the Depression.

I swear to Gorak, these people are so fucking stupid. Why the fuck are they even on the teevee?