Quite possibly thanks to hubris, we lost a Senate seat yesterday. I think its important to realize, we probably would not have lost that seat if the Democratic leadership had been listening to the will of the American people. Instead, they often listen only to the insurers. (I only just read this today about the MA race. Interesting).
People are increasingly being buried by health care bills and they know that there are better ways to do this. Thats what they expected from the Democrats in 2008, not their stubborn preservation of the insurance and billing monster.
The system they cluelessly claim "works" sucks away MORE THAN 50% of the money we spend on health care and flushes it down a black hole, its only purpose being TO MAKE QUALITY HEALTH CARE TOO EXPENSIVE FOR MOST AMERICANS AND DENY IT TO THEM.
Americans are sick of enabling this most vicious of vicious circles. Its time for something that works, and works WELL.
Vicious circle? How? Because it creates ABSOLUTELY NOTHING GOOD and "justifies" itself LARGELY BY ITS OWN WASTED DOLLARS, MAKING HEALTH CARE LITERALLY TWICE AS EXPENSIVE.
The use of 'insurance' is mostly to deny care. It adds absolutely no value.
"Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
-the Red Queen to Alice in "Through the Looking Glass"
Our fixation on denying poor and sick people care hurts Americans health. Our health care system is getting worse and worse. 101,000 die each year of preventable causes. We need to STOP THIS MADNESS.
Its time for some COMMON SENSE.
What can we do to get quality health care for ALL Americans, and end the push to segregation between the elite who self-pay or maintain indemnity plans: the medical haves and the majority in HMO mangled care "have nots"?
Separated and Unequal?
A growing perceived imperative, to prevent class mixing and comparing, is perhaps one reason for the excise tax. Separating the medical haves from the have nots is exactly what its coming to now, in the United States. For example, some new imaging facilities, in cities where rich and poor live side by side, are being built with two signs, two completely separate entrances and two waiting rooms, as well as computerized traffic control. Their purpose is to maintain a profoundly inefficient system where the quality of care is separated because its unequal.
IS it LEGAL to force Americans to SUPPORT A CASTE SYSTEM THROUGH TAXES?
We need something that saves that WASTED 50% and instead, spends it on care for everybody, like the Canadian Medicare system, paid for by their 1% higher taxes.
We need to end the increasing fear employers and workers have of price hikes designed to force employers to lay off sick workers. (THAT kind of discrimination DOESN'T end in 2014, at all.)
How can we pay for that high quality national system paid for by taxes? Guess what! ITS FAR CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE PAY FOR HEALTH CARE NOW!
The MOST IMPORTANT thing we have to realize is that the caste system in and of itself adds HUGE BLOAT TO THE SYSTEM. Even though its primary function is to DENY care to the poor and working people, it in and of itself costs SO much that eliminating it and the billing hassles and overhead associated with it, would eliminate the need for it! That huge savings makes it possible to give everyone TOP quality care for what we spend now.
So, what's the point of keeping the misery, then? To prop up prices? To keep people divided and fearful? To stifle innovative new businesses? I don't know. DO YOU?
How radical is it? Not very. Private ownership of providers would remain. But how could we then insure that everyone got high quality care? Eliminate the caste system in payment. Have just one single payer. No more Bronze painted or silver or gold painted plans.. Everybody is in the gold plan. No co-pays. Instead, pay for the whole system through our existing taxes and legislate a STRONG, POLITICALLY INDEPENDENT WALL BETWEEN POLITICIANS AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. Give it an independent source of funding, direct from taxes. No "lock box" that politicians can take from at will. And negotiate prices based on logic, for example, drug prices paid by the government should reflect a level slightly higher perhaps than the average paid by all governments, no more, The documented global average price.
In order to do this well, all we need to do is look at the rest of the developed world. We don't live in a vacuum. Many nations - almost the entire rest of the developed world can help.
Single payer improves healthcare for everybody, rich and poor, and that insures that the poor and working people get good care, because if the rich get crappy care, they complain.
This system would also END JOB LOCK and END JOB DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THOSE OVER 40, because employers would not longer fear the price hikes that they get when an employee gets sick. They would not have to pay any premiums at all. Neither would families or individuals.
Even Obama has admitted this is the best way to do things.
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES.. Medicare buy-in, for example, is a scam that gives a huge gift to the insurance companies straight from the taxpayers.