Healthcare is not a right

[Aquila]

Single payer would unshackle businesses from having to provide insurance plans for employees. Saving them far more than they would see in any tax increase. It would unshackle businesses to focus 100% on doing what they do best.... making money.

This is what Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and others have discovered. This is one reason why the top 5 countries corporations like to locate to and do business in are.... those dastardly socialist nations with universal health insurance. The private business market doesn't have to shoulder the cost of providing it. In addition, the corporate tax rates are often lower in those countries. Add the two together and you have a recipe for a booming economy. There's no need to tax corporations so much when tax laws actually collect from corporations. This allows the corporate tax to remain low enough to draw in businesses from as far as your eyes can see.

The American dream is still alive... the problem is... America lost it to chase after crony-capitalism and rip-off schemes that only leave the entire nation limping.

[Aquila]

Here's another good article expressing much of the same that I've been trying to explain:

Health Care Reform in the U.S.

Arguments for a Single-Payer System
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=577


July 28, 2006

Public Citizen’s Health Research Group submitted the following statement to the Citizens’ Health Care Group as part of a two-year federally mandated and funded process that produced The Health Report to the American People as well as Interim Recommendations on which they requested comments.

We are gratified that the recent efforts at tapping into public opinion reveal significant agreement on key issues in health care:

-An overwhelming majority (96.8 percent) of the persons attending the community meetings felt that the health care system is in crisis or constitutes a major problem;
-Over 94 percent thought that affordable health care should be part of national public policy; and
-When faced with different priorities competing for public spending, respondents ranked “Guaranteeing that all Americans have health coverage/insurance” as the highest. Similarly, when asked to evaluate different proposals for expanding access to care, respondents ranked “Create a national health insurance program, financed by taxpayers, in which all Americans would get their insurance” as the highest.

Given the emerging consensus on health care reform, we are surprised and extremely disappointed that the Interim Recommendations of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group did not address the issue of payment under a national health program. Yet many of those who took part in the town meetings or submitted comments to the Working Group advocated for a single payer, and, among the 1,814 respondents who expressed a desire for a “single health care system,” fully 46 percent recommended a single payer system.

Public Citizen supports single payer, universal health care. The rationale for single payer has become increasingly compelling right now, when U.S. businesses are feeling the pinch of rising health care costs, the number of uninsured continues to rise, the nation is losing its comparative advantage in world markets, hospitals are eager to shed the burden of their “bad debt and charity” pool, and consumers are increasingly baffled by an array of insurers who offer confusion in the guise of “choice.”

The main argument in favor of a single payer is that such a system is the only way we can realistically afford to end the dangerous, embarrassing, and worsening situation wherein about 45 million people in this country lack health insurance and millions more are seriously uninsured. In addition there are a number of practical reasons for having a single payer; these are summarized below.

Single Payer is good for business.

Single Payer will enhance the comparative position of the U.S. in the global market.

Single Payer builds on the existing experience.

Single Payer has significantly lower administrative costs.

Single Payer facilitates quality control.

Single Payer gives the government greater leverage to control costs.

Single Payer promotes greater accountability to the public.

Single Payer fosters transparency in coverage decisions.

*For specific details on the points above, see the article at the link provided.

[Aquila]

Another one....

The Conservative Case for Single Payer Health Reform
By Dr. Joe Jarvis for Utah Healthcare Initiative Blog –
https://www.healthcare-now.org/blog/...health-reform/

Recently, Charles Krauthammer, conservative Washington Post commentator and Fox News analyst, who is also a physician, spoke to an audience of mostly physicians in San Antonio (find coverage of the speech in the San Antonio press here). Excerpts:

“If President Barack Obama’s health care reform act is fully implemented over the next two years, it will evolve into a Canadian-style single-payer system that will forever change the social contract between Americans and their government, a nationally syndicated columnist and physician predicts.
“It will change the country. If it is not repealed, we will be a different country when ‘Obamacare’ is fully implemented,” Krauthammer said in an interview after speaking Thursday to a receptive crowd of mostly physicians and other health care professionals at a breakfast sponsored by the San Antonio Medical Foundation.
The Affordable Care Act, which passed in March 2010 without Republican support, was touted as a way to extend coverage to most uninsured Americans, and to offer it at an affordable price to those who have trouble buying it now, such as the poor, the self-employed, and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
The centerpiece of the plan is a requirement for everyone without health coverage to buy a policy or pay a fine.
Krauthammer predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court, which is set to deliberate the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act this month, will overturn the that provision of the law.
“The individual mandate (to buy health insurance) is a fairly radical step in the final expansion of the power of the federal government, which would then leave it in a position where it would be very hard to find any constitutional grounds — if you don’t overturn this — for ever denying the federal government the power to do anything it wants,” Krauthammer said.
“We’re spending perhaps $1 out of every $4 on unnecessary treatments, referrals and tests that everyone knows are unnecessary,” he said. “And Obamacare did nothing to reform it.”
In his speech, Krauthammer predicted the complexity of the law eventually would doom it to failure, which would lead to a single-payer system within a decade.
“This is a new reform that when it kicks in within a couple of years will make the practice of medicine a nightmare,” he said. “If it’s not repealed, I guarantee you that within a decade we will have a single-payer system. And if I had to choose between Obamacare and a Canadian or British system, I’d choose the single-payer system. At least it would be rational.”

My comment:

It’s clear from his comments that Dr. Krauthammer wishes that Obama-care would be repealed and that the nation would not go down the pathway towards single payer health system reform. However, he directly states that given a choice between Obama-care and single payer, he would choose single payer, because ‘at least it would be rational’. What does a conservative like Krauthammer see in single payer health system reform that is rational? I feel qualified to answer that question, since I am both a conservative (I received the Republican nomination twice for legislative races in Salt Lake City) and a long time support of single payer health system reform.

First, and foremost from a conservative viewpoint, single payer health system reform is fiscally responsible. Unlike the ‘Affordable’ Care Act, a single payer approach to health system financing is financially sustainable. Nearly all of the unfunded future debt due to entitlements currently stacked up against the federal government is medical debt. The last count for that debt which I have seen is $60 trillion, more than the present day value of all assets owned in the US. Single payer health system reform can reduce the cost of health care by $1 trillion/year, nearly all of which can go to relieving the tax burden. By the time today’s kindergartners are Medicare eligible, a single payer style payment mechanism for American health care would have eliminated the federal deficit.

Second, and integral to cost control, single payer health system reform has the capability to eliminate the poor quality care due to unnecessary treatments. Eliminating the multiple, confusing payment schemes for health services also eliminates the perverse incentives inherent in those schemes. The health insurance business model induces provider behaviors which are contrary to good patient care. In contrast, single payer health financing focuses providers on best practices for patient care. It is, as Krauthammer notes, the most rational method of paying for health care.

Third, single payer health system reform can (and should) be implemented at the state level, preserving the appropriate balance between national and local governing.

I disagree with Dr. Krauthammer. Obama-care does not make single payer health system reform inevitable. If we Americans want a health system that is optimal quality and therefore lowest cost, we will have to do the heavy political lifting necessary to intentionally rid our health system of corporate welfare, clearing the decks for a rational payment mechanism which cherishes patient care above profits. It’s the most conservative way forward for our health care system.

[Aquila]

I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat. Join us in supporting Single Payer. It isn't about party. It's about America.

[Amanah]

thank you Aquila, very informative and interesting reading.

[Aquila]

I found it to be interesting. Most people only know what the talking heads tell them about the American push for Single Payer. After looking at all the plans on the table, it's the only one that makes real sense. Obamacare is a nightmare. And the GOP's plan right now is nothing but a more streamlined and more calloused Obamacare. Both are nightmares. Single Payer is the only plan that is simple, common sense, and actually doable without creating a health care plan that... drops millions from having health care. LOL

The only one's who really don't like it are... the multi-billion dollar insurance industry and the parasitic pharmaceutical companies.

And they've proven to have enough money to sway Congressmen and voters with misinformation and fear to keep their stranglehold on our nation. We can beat them. We will beat them. And we will be better for it. And the sick in America will never have to fear not being able to pay for a procedure, medication, or treatment again.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,

The sick have a right to live, and therefore, they have right to healthcare. Healthcare isn't a commodity like buying a car, buying a boat, buying a house, buying a deck, or buying a camper. Healthcare is a matter of life or death. If healthcare is a commodity like these, then we've put a dollar sign on human life. Allowing those who can afford it to live... and leaving those who can't to die.

We didn't put a man on the moon by thinking small. We were willing to dream BIG. We will not be defeated. We will win. This will happen. And those for it will be on the winning and morally bold and heroic side of history.

We simply have to take a stand and fight for it.

[Aquila]

After all, who would be able to look the mother of a sick and dying son in the eyes and tell her that he doesn't have a right to a regimen of expensive treatments, simply because neither he nor she can afford it?

I wouldn't do it. I'd be lucky if she didn't rip my face off. lol

The answer is obvious. Every American has a right to healthcare. No one who values human life and desires to sooth human suffering can deny this.

[n david]

Originally Posted by Aquila

I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat. Join us in supporting Single Payer. It isn't about party. It's about America.

[Jito463]

Originally Posted by Aquila

No, it couldn't be mandated. You're right. But states who chose not to play would have to go it on their own, losing federal funds that they currently take advantage of.

Where do you think the federal government gets those funds? From the very states you're saying should be denied funding, because they don't want to go along with this abomination of an idea.

Having said that, I think no state should receive federal funding, and the taxes from the federal government should be reduced to reflect that. Using federal funds in this manner (such as you've just advocated) is simply another way for the federal government to try and control the states. The founders meant for it to be the other way around, we the people and the states were intended to control the federal government.

[Jito463]

Originally Posted by Aquila

After all, who would be able to look the mother of a sick and dying son in the eyes and tell her that he doesn't have a right to a regimen of expensive treatments, simply because neither he nor she can afford it?

Instead, you'd rather that people be forced to pay for the medicine under threat of jail time. Because that's what the IRS threatens if you don't pay your taxes, which is the primary source of money for what you're proposing. Is that "Christian"? To threaten people with jail if they don't pay for someone else's treatment?