Saturday, March 25, 2017

Single Payer 101, Not Tomorrow or Next Year, Right Now!


What Does Single-Payer Healthcare Cost?


The United States spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other developed nation. However, study after study has shown that Healthcare in America lags behind most of these same developed nations. So, what makes America different?

At the top of the list, America is the only nation in the world who does not guarantee healthcare to all its citizens. Unlike, Canada, Great Britain, France, and others. In the United States, healthcare is a for profit business opportunity.

While Obamacare was a step forward it's not perfect and far from it. Because of many factors under Obamacare insurance is still expensive and becoming more unaffordable every day to the point it should be renamed the "Unaffordable Healthcare Act."

Single Payer Explained.



Bernie Sanders made this a focal point of his 2016 campaign and became a major point of contention within the Democratic Party. Just like anything in this world "Single Payer" may have some problems but the benefits and opportunities of Single Payer have way more pluses than minuses.

Single Payer By Definition

Single-payer healthcare is a system in which the state, rather than private insurers, pays for healthcare costs. ... The term "single-payer" thus describes the funding mechanism, referring to health care financed by a single public body from a single fund, not the type of delivery or for whom physicians work. [Wiki]
With single payer, there is some contrast to the dreaded " Socialized Medicine" term. Unlike socialized medicine where the government owns the hospitals, medical practices, and runs the delivery systems a single payer system would be a wonderful compromise. Under the single payer system, you would have public funds used to provide private delivery of care. This is a concept of single payer that is often misunderstood and why it's often times associated with socialized medicine.

The term Medicare and Medicaid for all is a more accurate description of a "Single Payer System." It would function as an expansion to both those already in place healthcare systems. Millions of people over 65 and millions more of our nation's poor and disabled depend on these systems right now. It's our view here in the House of Public Discourse that a single payer system would not be hard to implement in the practical but in the political, that's another ordeal altogether.

The single payer system would function as a national healthcare system. Every 300 million and growing Americans would have an insurance card. Even more, you would be able to go to any doctor or hospital you choose and would have a full range of benefits from the day you're born until the day you die. With no more co-pays to boot.

In fact, it's accurate to say we have single payer and socialized medicine to some degree already in America in the form of Medicare and Medicaid and socialized medicine in the form of the Veterans Administration. That's why implementing single-payer for all would not be hard to install but for the political football that surrounds this issue.

Single Payer 101, Not Tomorrow or Next Year, Right Now!

Single Payer has proven to be an efficient healthcare system along with its big brother Socialized Medicine. Canadians love their socialized medicine system. [See Source]

The most important thing in our [House of Public Discourse] view is if someone is ill and they want to see a doctor the first thing that registers in their minds is " Do I have enough money to pay for it?" With a single payer system, this dilemma would not be a factor in the equation.

No co-pays, deductibles, and medical bankruptcy which is not only common in America the situation is getting worse and if the Republicans get their wish it will be common as Apple pie and Baseball. In Europe, there is no such thing as medical bankruptcy. For anybody, in America, to have to file bankruptcy because of their medical bills is not only embarrassing it's immoral. The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in America is getting sick.


Christina LaMontagne
Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 2 million people this year—making health care the No. 1 cause of such filings, and outpace bankruptcies due to credit-card bills or unpaid mortgages, according to new data. And even having health insurance doesn't buffer consumers against financial hardship.
The findings are from NerdWallet Health, a division of the price-comparison website. It analyzed data from the U.S. Census, Centers for Disease Control, the federal court system and the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that promotes access, quality and efficiency in the health-care system.
"A lot of Americans are struggling with medical bills," said NerdWallet Health Vice President Christina LaMontagne.
 The real question is how much longer can " We the People" live with this current bloated costly and inefficient system with years of documented data that show there are much better systems that would benefit every single American citizen, How Long?

How Do We Transition from Current System to A Single Payer System?

The first thing we must do is address the current problem we have with a for-profit corporation and Republican legislatures trying to privatize Medicare. There have already been some holes dug to do so.  There should be no space or room for any for-profit corporation to be allowed near our Medicare and Medicaid systems and any attempt to privatize it should be met with the strongest civil disobedience we can muster.

There have been bills proposed by Sen. John Conyers (D-MI) and Bernie Sanders both have gone nowhere thus far. There is no doubt that the challenges we face getting a single-payer system are not that it would be hard to implement but for the money and influence peddling that now exists in our governance.

The role of money in politics must be addressed before even thinking about this transition. There are untold millions paid out to politicians by the healthcare lobby, "Big Pharma," and other special interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce.  

Bottom-line before any transition can be accomplished we must get big money out of politics. It's our view in the House of Public Discourse that new regulatory provisions should be enacted to corral the out of control lobbying that goes on inside the beltway.

No matter what your view on Bernie Sanders maybe nowadays we all must admit his 2016 presidential campaign awaken many Americans to this major malfunction in our society and he deserves credit for doing so.

A "Single-Payer System" no matter the negative chatter from the right and left establishments makes good common sense. And, we pull no punches Hillary Clinton was dead wrong in her opposition to single payer and now that Trump and the Republican's attempt to replace Obamacare has failed and there is a strong voice calling for a single payer system she once again has evolved or flip-flopped on this issue. We make this point because it was not just the Republicans that have created obstacles for the single payer system.

There have been some transition plans bandied about one being to simply reduce the age requirement for Medicare. Others have suggested that single payer is implemented into Obamacare as the public option which quite frankly should have never been negotiated out of the "Affordable Healthcare Act" in the first place. Obama and the Democrats had control of both houses of Congress and it was the biggest blunder in the whole process.

Our research in the House of Public Discourse has found that no plan for the transition presented thus far touches on the economic benefits of the single payer system. Right now, the "Public Option" may be the best way to transition opposed to just throwing the switch. However, the enormity of the cost saving that would be realized by transitioning to a single payer system cannot be understated on American's three-trillion dollar healthcare bill. The healthcare bill is one of if not the biggest drain on or economy and what is sad it does not have to be that way.

In Closing, American's need to organize, protest, litigate, and push your local and state politicians for a National Healthcare Plan. That would integrate Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Care all into one pipeline. Also, and if not before Progressives living in Progressives states need to get the lead out and pester your local and state representatives that we need a Single Payer Healthcare approach, not tomorrow or next year, but, Right Now!

From 2014 Senator Bernie Sanders


Written By: Johnny Hill

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