A Second way to get to Single Payer

wildhypotheses

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Sunday August 09, 2009 · 6:05 PM PDT

2009/08/09 · 18:05

A second way to get to single payer

(I diaried a first one a while back, which was swamped by up to four comments.)

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Polls indicate that most people under 50 years of age are in favor of major health care overhaul.

These polls also indicate that a large fraction, possibly a majority, of those over 50 are concerned about it; some are opposed.

The Obama administration, so far, has been weak on advertising and educating the public about health care, and what the changes would actually mean.

There is a lot of (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that many older folks do not even understand that Medicare is a government-run program.

Most people on medicare are quite happy with it, although some have private insurance as a supplement to it.

Therefore, the administration could <now> push a program of "Medicare for all." This needs no educating nor much advertising. People will understand it.

Such a program would work, in practice, similar to the way social security works now: Most people would get it, some would depend on it completely. There would still be a place for private insurace, in providing so called "medigap" insurance, as congress would continually have to deal with the actual cost of the program. And, its very existence would help hold costs down.

Poll
72 votes Show Results
How to get to single payer

Medicare for all

Allow states to set up such programs on their own

Arm-twist all blue dog democrats, threatening with primary opposition

Arm-twist all republicans, threatening to expose their sex lives

Massive public relations and advertising about single-payer

Allow senate to do it themselves

72 votes Vote Now!
How to get to single payer

Medicare for all

57 votes

Allow states to set up such programs on their own

8%

6 votes

Arm-twist all blue dog democrats, threatening with primary opposition

3%

2 votes

Arm-twist all republicans, threatening to expose their sex lives

3%

2 votes

Massive public relations and advertising about single-payer

7%

5 votes

Allow senate to do it themselves

0%

0 votes

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