Ive been following the healthcare affordability war with fear because it appears to me that there are people in Washington who will do or say anything to stop real change. The latest skirmish comes as the national Democratic blogosphere seems finally to be understanding the differences between Single Payer healthcare for all, and the ersatz shapeshifting Public Option, which seems to be designed to prevent all meaningful discussion of anything, as well as prevent any cost-cutting that could actually have teeth. The latest move on the part of the anti-single payer forces comes as discussion of a number of oft-repeated lies has made many of the public reluctant students of the mechanics of health insurance and risk pools, "adverse selection" and "death spiral". Increasingly vocal, many bloggers and journalists are openly questioning the legislators wisdom. Obviously, the limited public option options make single payer the obvious choice. It works. The biggest problem is that some bad apples in corporate America seem to own Washington..
Also, they have been building up public option for months with untruths. Reluctant to be caught in their lies, perhaps the Finance Committee Dems are deciding to put off the insurance industry-saving "designed to fail" public option for a long, long, long, long time.
Maybe by then, people would have forgotten it, they may think!??
Q.) What happens when you lie?
A.) You end up having to cover it up, and that drains your energy away from positive endeavors.
I think that that is what has happened with the Dems and the White House. Planners spent years cooking up this plan to repreat the victory of 1994 in sqashing universal health care. They had it all planned out, the press was on board, and their candidate in the White House.
But then, those stupid sick people and bloggers had to go out and ruin it by bringing up single payer again and again.
Couldn't we just pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist? Most Americans can't afford to travel now, anyway.
The answer is of course, NO, because many, many people are dying.
Reasons why we should immediately stop the delaying tactics abound.Not only is the stress damaging millions of Americans health, these ugly evasions in Washington are exposing a side of our government that many Americans probably wish that they didn't suddenly understand all too clearly. Our democracy is increasingly a sham perpetrated by corporations to maintain an unhealthy death grip on power and profit at the expense of the best interests of 300 million Americans.
We The People demand that these legislators immediately stop their fake "debate" and start listening to reason and fiscal responsibility.
Single Payer is known to work its known to make health care affordable.
They must set up a new transparent discussion process open to all in which single payer advocates are not just included, single payer should be the default choice. If other approaches are considered, they should have to work within a framework designed to weed out phony assumptions and reward affordability strategies that have been proven elsewhere.
We should bring in representatives of other countries who have implemented single payer and other SUCCESSFUL SYSTEMS and THEY should create the mathematical models..
The American advocates of these OTHER experimental "public option" schemes should be included as well, BUT obviously, the systems that have proven their worth should be given a higher weighting until the experimental schemes have proven their sound nature in a compuer simulation that is completely transparent, with all assumptions and formula used PUBLIC. The public option schemes should have to prove their worth before they are considered alongside single payer, the solution known to work.
They will, with the cooperation of all parties, do a series of transparent, mathematically sound analyses of the various proposals, using multiple use cases and monte carlo simulations that analyze the financial impact of the various kinds of approaches on them.. The gal would be to examine the proposals under simulated stress conditions.. for example, what happens to affordability and sustainability in hyperinflationary scenarios, what happens in depressions, what happens in economic booms? The criteria that matters most is the finances and ability to save for the future of American families and businesses OVER TIME.
After each set of numbers is run, the assumptions should be published and critiqued on a nationally available web site by economists and interested citizens. Nobody who has accepted money from the healthcare industry should be allowed to participate as their opinions and motives are suspect. They have a known conflict of interest. THEN, when the people have decided what solutions should work the best in a NATIONAL REFERENDUM the public servants in Washington should do their jobs for us, their employers, and IMPLEMENT THEM.
The simulations need to be done transparently. All assumptions and formulas/algorithms should be put out for public comment.
Essential is the idea of using proven solutions before untested ones..
Lets get some folk from single payer countries to help us make a good model representing successful single payer systems and their lessons learned.
The bad Democrats are extremely arrogant. They are holding back affordability. Lets do something very reasonable considering the unproven nature of their schemes and make them flesh them out with specifics - we'll do the same with single payer.
They have no right to prevent discussion of single payer. Lets recognize that they dd that because it works.. and to balance things out, put the burden of proof on them to prove that their plans might work.
Lets not let them hijack affordability with their experimental procedures, we can't take the risk of wasting years on something we could have seen would not work