Let the Talks Commence

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Well, my gentle snowflakes, if there was ever any doubt in your minds, be at ease.

Senator Mitch McConnell has sent a letter to President Obama stating,

• “Forcing free market plans to compete with these government-run programs would create an unlevel playing field and inevitably doom true competition...Ultimately, we would be left with a single government-run program controlling all of the market."
  

I guess the poor Republicans have become so flabbergasted they are reduced to actually telling the truth.

Just a few points:

1. If the free market plans are so good, why do they need protecting?
2. McConnell seems to be conceding that a single-payer, government run system would be more efficient than the free market plans and thereby put the free market plans out of business. (This would be a bad thing?)
3. If it is "true competition" that Sen McConnell is seeking, the big insurance companies should be able to run Medicare-for-All right out of business, IF the insurance companies are truly better, more efficient, better received and liked by the customers (that's us, folks).
4. McConnell and his fellow signers--Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Orrin Hatch of Utah--certainly do seem to be entering into these negotiations/planning sessions with open minds, don't they?

Oh, boy. Just gotta' love 'em.

There is a ray of light in this otherwise dark, dark tunnel. Team Obama has said they will have single-payer advocates at the meeting.

Medicare-For-All.

Yippee! A Single-Payer System

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Boy, oh boy! I almost couldn't find anything good to post today. (Following my newly found self-promise to only feed the wolf of "compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love." See yesterday's post.)

But here it is. John Conyers plans to introduce his universal health-care legislation today.

Hurray!!!!!!!

• The bill, which will again be H.R. 676, is one of the more elegant to be introduced in the House, clocking in at just a few pages.
• The plan is simple: everyone is eligible for a version of Medicare under a new U.S. National Health Insurance Program.
• The program would effectively put private insurers out of business. What to do with all those employees? Hire them, says Conyers' bill.
• "The Program shall provide that clerical, administrative, and billing personnel in insurance companies, doctors offices, hospitals, nursing facilities, and other facilities whose jobs are eliminated due to reduced administration (1) should have first priority in retraining and job placement in the new system; and (2) shall be eligible to receive 2 years of unemployment benefits."

Simple, straightforward, elegant in its simplicity. Here is the full text of the bill--click-able from the table of contents to each portion of the bill. Oh, it is a beautiful thing.

What is not to like?

Single Payer System

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For anyone interested, Huffington Post has a very interesting article comparing the US market for health care vs five other capitalist countries who have designed health care systems.

• True health care reform for all could contribute significantly to U.S. economic recovery and provide immediate relief to ... taxpayers. The ability to access health care would alleviate a huge burden for those reeling under the weight of home foreclosures and job losses.
• [There are] numerous federal and state studies (now more than 20) that have demonstrated billions of dollars of savings with a single-payer model of health care reform that could provide comprehensive coverage for all.
• It is [the] insurance industry that has sucked the U.S. health care system dry by placing profits before health care, and gaming the system with tactics of bait-and-switch, denial and abrupt cancellation of coverage, inadequate disclosure, deceptive marketing, promotion of evermore limited benefit policies at increasing cost, restricted choice of providers, while creating the accelerating annual $20 billion industry of "Denial Management."
• 50% of U.S. personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills.
• Taiwan has the least administrative costs of all countries (2%), as providers bill the government directly. Information technology plus a smart card with each person's medical history facilitate health care.
  

Since insurance companies can only make money if they refuse to pay for services, what ever made anyone think they could be part of any rational system to deliver health care?

With any luck at all, the health insurance companies will follow Georgie-Boy into the shadows--the deep, deep shadows.
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