Single Payer Health Care-The Only Option

Leave it to Bill Moyers to be the voice of sanity in an otherwise insane discussion about healthcare reform.

A recent report showing the majority of bankruptcies in America are healthcare related (and most of those people have healthcare insurance) should be causing Americans to demand that our Congress Critters take a serious look at single payer as the only real way to reform healthcare. But it’s just not happening, and Obama and the Congress have been bought and paid for by the insurance and healthcare industries.

Howie Klein has a rundown of all the money that the people who are blocking real reform in health care have received from the health care industry.

Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $4,026,933)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $2,833,731)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $2,758,468)

And when you just go right to Big Insurance, the non-presidential candidates who got the biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators who have been tasked with the job of killing single-payer:

Ben Nelson (DLC-NE- $1,196,799)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $1,184,113)
Joe Lieberman (DLC- CT- $1,036,302)
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $1,035,530)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY- $981,400)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $929,207)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $884,724)

The water-carriers for the health insurance industry (see list above) have managed to mischaracterize the plan as “socialized medicine,” and convince us that we do not want “government bureaucrats” running our healthcare (never mind that these members of Congress have their very own government run, “socialized,” health insurance, and they are doing very well…and not willing to share).

I have written about this before, and just don’t understand why we think we’re better off having an insurance company bureaucrat make our healthcare decisions.It’s important to remember that, as publicly traded companies, insurance companies do NOT have any obligation to keep you healthy or get you well when you get sick. Their one and only LEGAL obligation is to increase shareholder value, and they don’t accomplish that goal by paying your healthcare bills. They do it by finding ways to NOT pay your healthcare bills. So wise-up America. If we want to have a well functioning single-payer option we can. It’s just something we have to demand of our leaders.

But back to Bill Moyers:

Health care reform is coming. Both Congress and President Obama have made it a top priority, and many expect a bill by the fall. Now comes the tricky part — designing and funding a plan. President Obama has outlined broad goals, several competing plans have been introduced in the Congress, and the Republican party recently introduced its own plan.

But Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Sidney Wolfe tell Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL that President Obama isn’t considering a popular plan — single-payer. In a recent town-hall meeting in New Mexico, President Obama said switching to single-payer would be too disruptive.

The term “single-payer” generally means a system in which rather than having private, for-profit insurance companies, the government runs one large non-profit insurance organization. That organization pays all the doctor, drug and hospital bills — it is the “single-payer” of all medical bills. In most single-payer plans, every American would be enrolled and would pay into the fund through taxes…

I know this video is 30 minutes long, but it’s a small investment to make for your future physical and financial well-being.