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No. The only opposition is coming from Red State Democrats (who got voted out anyway, ironically), and neo-Confederates in the GOP (overwhelming majority of the GOP)
They don't want to do what makes sense, which is medicare for everyone because they are beholden to Wall Street and the donor class. Consider these figures:
30% of all healthcare dollars are spent on administrative overhead due to insurance.
8% is doctors salaries / paychecks. We pay the insurance companies three times what we pay the guys who are providing our care.
16% was on drugs, so we pay insurance almost double what we pay for our medications ( and those drug companies are making a fat profit as well)
What value do the insurance companies add to patient care?
I'm going to start a thread on this with more figures, but check this out: United Healthcare had 46.49 Billion dollars in revenue last year. 7.24 billion was profit. The rest was salaries and other overhead, and claims paid.
And this is why we don't have national healthcare.
The undertaker likes it when a lot of people pass away.
The seller of wheelchairs likes it when people become unable to walk.
Those are the basics.
See - the difference is easy. We favor corporate profits over EVERYTHING. Only by predatory (expensive) health care can these companies make BILLIONS of dollars. A universal system has to be reasonable - sure, people can make money, but they can't make "crazy" money. One health care executive retired with almost a BILLION dollar total pension payout. That money comes from you and I. Rick Scott, as CEO of United Health, defrauded the US Government (you and I) for billions. You can't do that and have reasonable universal health care.
There are two other major issues.
1. The 3 trillion we spend on health care adds to GDP and economic activity. That means - to economists, etc - it looks GOOD, even though it is extracted from us.
2. Part of our system involves transfering money from the middle class and poor to the wealthy. Here is how it is done.
The government pays 2/3 of ALL health care costs. Therefore, we can state that health care costs create the Federal Debt, which has to be paid back by future generations. BUT, the money spent (borrowed and spent) makes CEO's and corporations wealthy NOW. They don't care that your kids are going to have to pay back the money later.
Your mistake is in thinking that America is "for the people". It is most certainly not. It is for the corporations and for the rich and powerful...who scheme on how to take more and more of "our" money and resources and steer it to their pockets (they own the companies, the stock, etc. and also get tax breaks like were in the recent Trump health care proposals).
I hate to sound like George Carlin...but the real truth is "they" could care less about you and I. They want you just educated enough to get up and go to work for the least money possible each day and not ask questions.
"They" have a Big Club, and to quote George C again, you and I ain't in it.
Dems had the chance in '09, what happened?
They did whatever they wanted to anyway above the protestations of most Americans.
Everyone opposed Medicare when LBJ was president. He rammed it through anyway, and now the GOP base are totally in love with Medicare that they'll fight you tooth and nail to keep it.
1. Too many freeloaders who pay nothing and expect others to pay.
2. Fraud. It already consumes a large portion of medicare funding.
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