C’mon guys! We’re rooting for you!! You can do it!!!
Signed - Canada
Woah, a rare Bernie article on Boing Boing! Too bad BB and the rest of the media couldn’t be bothered to talk about Bernie early in the primary when it would have mattered instead of talking about Trump every 5 minutes.
The amount the US pays is so far out of whack it’s not funny. We pay a total of 1.2 trillion for Medicare, Medicaid and the Veteran’s Administration. That’s $3800 per capita. If our healthcare system cost as much as Australia’s, we’d be done - the amounts we’re collecting right now would be enough to cover everyone 100% - no insurance, no copays, no prescription costs, no other payments required. Instead, we pay 2-3 times as much while people in Australia (and other advanced countries) have measurably better health outcomes and live longer.
This sounds like a great plan. While I understand the historical underpinnings connecting health insurance to employment, I have always found its persistence long after WW2 to be a pernicious anomaly. So I welcome some form of single-payer healthcare that severs the employment connection permanently.
However, I have a feeling that some of the doctors supporting such a change will be in for a bit of a rude awakening once the government starts cramming down reimbursements (which is already a problem with Medicare). Hopefully, doctors can make up the difference in volume and lower administrative costs. Not sure what all the health insurance carrier employees are going to do for jobs, but at least they will have health coverage while they look for work.
That’s right! It’s all the fault of the Lamestream Media!
On the other hand, I’ll bet a lot more than 2,000 doctors would prefer single-payer, as long as they got a fair deal. 2,000 are just the ones who knew about the editorial ahead of time, and signed it. Your family doctor has a full-time staffer, maybe several, who do nothing but negotiate with insurance companies. I think they would prefer not to.
The doctors point to the failings in Obamacare – namely, that it is still expensive, especially for low-income Americans, and it allows private insurers to cream off enormous profits…
Low-income Americans are usually eligible for Medicaid, especially in states that took the expansion. I’ve tried selling Obamacare, but it’s too hard to find anybody who qualifies. Out of the first 20 clients I talked to, probably 18 qualified for Medicaid. I signed them up as a community service, but I don’t get paid a dime for that.
As for enormous profits, they are limited. Before, they were not limited. Do not blame the ACA.
I think of the ACA less as a “failure” (since it’s still better than the situation we had before) than as an “insufficient improvement.”
A little too little, a little too late, but lets carry this endorsement as fuel for the fire that will have to smolder for a year or two before roaring back.
Dude, BB has had lots of Bernie articles. More than Hillary articles, for sure! Maybe less than Trump, but I bet the ratio is better than in most blogs that cover (some) election news.
Way less than tRump but lets face it, the GOP implosion is such good trainwreck material which makes it good stuff.
It isn’t we don’t like Bernie but hey look this stuff you already agree with and probably know about which is cool but you are not gonna read more than the head line and say yay vs. OMG Republican monkey poo flinging circus show.
I think most people who were or are generally supportive of Obamacare agreed even back when it was being designed that a single-payer system is what we really needed but knew it would never happen.
I imagine that malpractice insurance and litigation would significantly change under a government model (i.e., it’s difficult to sue the federal government).
I had a doctor who loves fighting with them, which is why I initially liked her. But I saw her bill for services not performed, so I stopped seeing her because medical fraud (no matter how small) doesn’t sit well with me.
It is actually not that difficult to sue the federal government – as long as you have its permission to do so. US Court of Claims.
Waitaminute!
According to all of the right-wing talking heads, Canadians hate their healthcare!
This must be part of the Leftie/Jewish/Hollywood/Media plot.
I was vetting the Cuba-Israel space elevator and political jam, but then I also want to be insurable; just leave the drum sets behind, I mean. #2stateLuSaulLu
Do most John Does in hospitals still need medical assistance?!
More seriously, I absolutely L.O.V.E. the NHS and feel sorry for people who live in countries like the USA who have such rubbish systems in comparison.
On a related note, I have always assumed that the name Obamacare would backfire on the GOP when those whom it benefited came to love it, and so associate those warm fuzzy feelings with the Democrats.
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