Single-Payer!!!

The ONLY way I am in support of having my employer-based health care coverage taxed is to support a single-payer health system... Wait, if single-payer exists, we won't NEED employer provided health care! Let me explain...

I just finished listening to Bill Moyer's latest Journal, in which he examined the single-payer idea of health care. You can listen for yourself or just read my summary (with comments!) below.

• People argue against health care that it should not be a right, but that begs the question should it be for profit?
• Some would argue that the current system is working and we shouldn't mess with it. I disagree. So do other people more informed than me. The New Yorker has an excellent article that says public or private won't solve it either way.
• Is it a good thing that in our country we have UPDATE: insured people who go bankrupt because of medical bills? All that says is if you get sick, you are screwed. That seems really stupid to me in our modern society.
• Dr. Sidney Wolfe claims that $400 billion dollars are wasted every year on excessive administrative costs. Holy crap! He also says that we can save $4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years if we simply do away with the health care industry. That's a lot more than the $2 trillion the leaders of the health care industry 'promised' to voluntarily reduce after meeting with Obama a couple of weeks ago.
• Listening to leaders say they will voluntarily reduce cost carries about as much credibility as listening to past GM management say they will turn the company around. How'd that go? We have heard the health care industry say they will voluntarily reduce cost in the 70's and early 90's, only to see costs go up and not down. This industry is more similar to Wallstreet than you might think.
• We need to look north to our Canadian neighbors and model our system on theirs.
• Socialized medicine is used as a scare tactic. But aren't our libraries socialized? Are those evil?
• Senator Baucus, who leads the Senate Finance committee has been against single-payer from the start, and he is the leading Democrat receiving campaign contributions from the health care industry. He is starting to come around, but even Obama opposes completely changing the entire system. That's a shame.
• Why do congresspeople seem to be for sale? Because of the lure of money for campaign contributions followed by lobbying positions after public service. This is the entire reason.
• Look how quickly Wallstreet was able to get it's bailout money.
• Paul Krugman is thinking that since Medicare is such a mess, why not look at a well-run government health care program, the VA?
• Some say that a new system would limit choice. I can tell you from my experience that our current system limits choice. You can't use an HMO Dr. if you are on a PPO plan without paying more out of pocket. Why would you choose to do that? Why should you have to do that?
• America is the ONLY industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care. That is a true shame. What kind of legacy are we leaving to our kids if we allow that to continue?
• Changing the system now would be too "disruptive". Disruption and I would say Revolution, is a healthy thing every now and then. Einstein says that the true sign of an insane person is someone who does the same thing over and over and expects a different outcome. Isn't that what our current system keeps doing?
• The fear of having a public option alongside with a private option is that the public option will become a dumping ground for the private options to pass along all the sick people to. This would increase the cost of the public plan, making it unable to compete with the private plans. The whole point of having a public plan alongside a private plan is to increase competition and lower costs, which this tactic could nullify.
• Most Doctors support a universal health care.
• One argument against universal health care is that it would cost to much. It only costs too much when you compare it to our current system. Canada's plan is cheaper, so is Taiwan's system
• Canada recently voted Tommy Douglas as their greatest leader in the history of the country. Mr. Douglas was responsible for the Canadian national health insurance program. THAT is the kind of legacy I want to leave to my son.