Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/20/sick-america.html
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But what about my precious choice? MY PRECIOUS CHOICE? If I want to die in a shootout with Pinkertons sent by Humana to seize my house to pay off my medical bill – well buddy, that’s true freedom.
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I am 100% for Medicare for all, full stop. I must say though, that last night’s Dem debate was a sobering reminder for me that even if we win Medicare for all, the fight to keep it whole, fair, open and accessible will be forever. I mean, the Tories constant attacks on the NHS make this blindingly apparent all the time. It sent a special chill down my spine, though when Warren pivoted a question about trans rights to talking about how Medicare for All would mean that trans people get the medical coverage they deserve. It made me imagine Republican congresspeople attacking coverage for LGBTQ+, immigrants and minorities very starkly. To be fair, private insurance corporations are run by some heartless fucks who remove and refuse coverage for all their own fucked-up reasons, but having Louie Gohmert contributing to discussions of care and coverage does frighten me. Then again, of course, it means having good people fighting against those cuts in full view. Fuel for the never-ending battle, not a reason to surrender.
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" Medicare for All would cut most Americans’ taxes, creating the biggest American take-home pay raise in a generation"
Or it won’t
One or the other…
Which do you think?
Either a new government program will be essentially free and give lots of people more money for the same level of service… or, it won’t.
RTFA much?
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Very true, and I totally agree, but I wish one of the candidates would spend some time talking about how they’re going to deal with the million or so employees (not to mention overpaid CEOs) who will be laid off because the paperwork they do will no longer be needed. Also, what will happen to the billions of dollars in health care industry stock held by all our pension and mutual funds, which will lose most of it’s value if we convert to a rational Medicare for all system. Those are big roadblocks, and those people and that money are going to put up a ferocious fight unless they’re taken care of somehow.
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Hopefully if America straightens out its mess, predatory US health insurers will stop trying to fuck over the rest of the world into their image. In Canada, between the industry lobbyists, and the ideology and “model legislation” pushed across the border, it’s a constant struggle. (Ford in Ontario and Kenney in Alberta are in the Defund and Disrupt part of the cycle that ends with private tier healthcare to “fix” the problems that they created.)
That won’t solve all the UK Tories’ problems, but it’d be a start.
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That would mean having an informed opinion, which runs in direct opposition to successful shitposting.
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I actually don’t see this as a problem. Health insurance companies are already diversifying their businesses, and there are many ways for them to stay in some kind of related insurance activity. And if some do go out of business, there are many other insurance companies of various kinds that may hire the former health-insurance employees.
Just as buggy whip manufacturers didn’t all end up in the gutter starving, but rather went into related leather goods. Or, more accurately, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10digi.html
Also, isn’t “creative destruction” one of the hallmarks of a vibrant capitalist economy? Companies get outdated and go in and out of business all the time.
As for investors, haven’t you been listening to all those chamber-of-commerce style speeches where “risk takers” are lauded as the spine of the nation? Well, it is sometimes forgotten that “risk” means you might lose money.
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in depth… but I just don’t believe it. Maybe I’m too old/experienced to understand.
Sheesh! That got dark quickly.
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Well, one of the things they will do is become federal contractors for all the paperwork and administration that universal Medicare needs done.
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Or they can be absorbed into other insurance fields? Or into private medical offices to deal with the new medicare for all system? Or they can get a credit to go back to school for new training?
No one gives a shit about workers when a factory moves over seas! But now, so much pearl clutching over M4A killing an incredibly predatory industry that regularly fucks people over to the point of actually killing them. Fucking priorities people!
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Health insurance won’t disappear. There are lots of things that Medicare for All won’t pay for. If you want a more private room, coverage for loss of income while you’re sick, equipment or therapy not covered, etc.
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Stop it!! If you keep publishing facts and stuff like this, how will we ever keep up the “we, the richest nation on Earth, could never afford that which every other western democracy has found a way to afford?” It is just abhorrent, I say!! (firmly and truly /s)
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It will be a better level of service because you won’t have to deal with an insurance company that doesn’t want to pay for anything. Plus more people will receive preventative care.
And obviously it won’t be free but it will be less expensive over all than what we are paying now. Whether you are paying more or less depends on whether you are paying less than your fair share now or more.
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Are you stupid, or just a liar?
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But the corporations! I’d wager many of these paper pushers you’re so concerned about are off-shore anyway. Those that are here can find jobs elsewhere - like maybe for the government processing Medicare paperwork from the hundreds of millions on the program. And the CEOs that make hundreds of millions of dollars every year will be fine.
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When the method of operations changes, some examples - (I’m not going to take the time to look up each company’s layoff levels, but I know Enron had 29,000 employees)
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But cutting most of America’s taxes and creating a take home pay raise is not in the agenda of the uppermost wealthy. Shifting all tax burdens on working people and siphoning off their assets is.
Why have a functioning healthcare system/reasonable access to education/housing/retirement when you can put middle class people into a state of debt slavery?
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