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The discussion is moot for at least 3 1/2 years. If the country wants single payer healthcare, voters have to elect a majority Dem House, Dem Senate and a Progressive President again. A Republican president wouldn't sign such a bill and a Republican House or Senate would never propose such a bill.
What's become clear from this year's health care debate is that the people will not tolerate any system that covers LESS than Obamacare. So any reform will start from that baseline.
Look at the revolts by Republican constituencies in townhalls this year.
People want pre-existing conditions covered, period. That is now non-negotiable. We will never move to a free market system.
I don't think we will go full-on single payer. People are also too distrustful of government and the health insurance industry is too powerful. I do think we can move toward a multi-payer system similar to what France or Germany have.
As for single-payer, it's pretty much the only sensible basis for a national health care system -- which is why do many successful systems in fact feature it. It doesn't need to cover 100% of everything to be successful. There is plenty of room at the margins for private, profit-based insurance programs.
I kind of like that thought.
The chance for Free Market has passed. It will never happen. Passing the ACA meant that the government will always be responsible for a health care plan. Forever. The ACA must be replaced by something else or the people will scream like hell - even if they don't understand the issues.
I'm pretty conservative, having never voted for a Democrat. But the more this debate about health care goes on, and the more divisive it becomes the more I lean toward Single Payer.
The penalty we will pay - and I don't think it's really much of a penalty - is that health care advances will just about stop. The profits made by some healthcare companies will be replaced by government inefficiency.
So we have gone about as far as we will ever go, and I'm OK with that. We have the best health care in the world. Wealthy people from other countries come here for health care; some Americans are attracted to other countries for specific health care treatments, but they are sometime disappointed with the results.
We have the most expensive, but one of the worst overall health care systems in the developed world. We have routinely ranked last or very near it in the simple matter of preventing amenable deaths.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listener2307
Wealthy people from other countries come here for health care...
They come not so much for the healthcare, as for the Taj Mahal-like facilities of upper-tier concierge medicine.
And look what a mess they are both in currently! Total mis-management and constant threats of them going dry.
All political scare tactics coming from the right-wing. These are people whom we should simply ignore.
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