I am not a Democrat. I am way, way to the left of the American Democratic Party; Bernie Sanders is a moderate in my political spectrum vision. Nonetheless, I work hard to elect Democrats and that's why I'm on Daily Kos. I was a fundraiser and a delegate for John Kerry, and I worked hard in my neighboring states (Indiana and Iowa) to elect Barack Obama. I believe that there are significant differences between the 2 major US political parties that matter. Real people will be hurt if the more reactionary of the two corporate parties have control - that's obvious to me. And I had no illusions about Obama being a liberal - he was clearly a centrist and said so. Still - the health care reform issue has driven me to despair and disgust, and for the first time, I'm considering if "The worse the better" might not be the only thing that works....
I'v lived under two national health care systems. They both worked well. I was able to get high quality health care under both. I never had to wait to see a doctor as long as I've had to wait in the US.
In the US, we ran our own business. We paid over $1000 a month for junk insurance and still ended up devastated by medical bills - and that was without a catastropic illness. I got "rated" - the insurance equivalent of a black ball - by Blue Cross Blue Shield for having a pre-existing condition (hypothyroidism) and was turned down repeatedly by most companies. Illinois' pool of insurance for the "unisurable" has a years long waiting list and still will cost you up to $750 a month. My husband gave up his full time business to get a job at company that provided group insurance - but now that job is uncertain due to the recession.
I cannot afford to get the dental care I need. I debate whether to have a test for a genetic illness I almost certainly have because that will make me totally uninsurable and may prevent me from being employed if potential employers find out about it. When an employer looks at who to lay off first, those responsible for hiking the group insurance premium are often top of the list. Meanwhile, the Republicans are acting as we knew they would - and the Democrats can't seem to act if it might offend the insurance companies and their lobbies. When you cannot achieve desperately needed change through your electoral system, what options do you have? Historically, strikes sometimes were successful. But organized labor is at the weakest point it's been in over a century.
Violence? No one wants that. So - what will work? Here's the only thing I think will truly get us actual health care reform: if huge numbers of employers drop their group coverage and tens of millions more ordinary working people were thrust into the same tar pit at once. Then, and probably only then, would we get a "Manhattan Project" to fix this unspeakably cruel system. And that is a very sad commentary on what this nation has devolved into - only when the suffering reaches into enough homes, will enough of us care about it to demand change.
It was very different in Australia. Here's how it worked there: (my husband describing it at a health care forum)
Single payer is fiscally, morally, and practically the best system. It works. Damn it, it WORKS. It would improve the lives of working Americans in untold ways, it would help busines (except the current insurance companies), it would create jobs and entrepeneurs and boost the economy a thousand times more than any current stimulus plan. Whatever it takes to achieve real reform - we need to do it.