81% of Democrats Support Single Payer, as well as 58% of all Americans

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/12/1469108/-81-of-Democrats-Support-Single-Payer-and-58-of-all-Americans

A reminder, given the discussion about Single Payer that Chelsea Clinton has given rise to:

From the Kaiser Health Tracking poll, December 2015:

When asked their opinion, nearly 6 in 10 Americans (58 percent) say they favor the idea of Medicare-for-all, including 34 percent who say they strongly favor it. This is compared to 34 percent who say they oppose it, including 25 percent who strongly oppose it. Opinions vary widely by political party identification, with 8 in 10 Democrats (81 percent) and 6 in 10 independents (60 percent) saying they favor the idea, while 63 percent of Republicans say they oppose it.

Hillary Clinton’s opposition to Single Payer, and it is worth Chelsea Clinton bemoaned the elimination of private insurance today, is a deeply minority position within the Democratic Party.

I have long thought Single Payer was a dividing line between third way types and liberals. The US spends an absurd amount of money on a corrupt system. Obamacare was an enormous improvement, but most in the party support the Medicare for all system that Sanders support.

[NobodyHere]

1. You'd think we could get at least one state to test drive single payer.

[eridani]

2. That is what will have to happen

After all, Canadian single payer was started by a single province, Saskatchewan.

[Enthusiast]

4. The insurance industry moochers don't want a test drive. They do not want single payer.

We really don't need a test drive drive anyway. We know it works all over Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We could pick one at random and it would be better than ours.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. It's a ballot referendum in Colorado this upcoming election.

Don't expect it to pass, though. Colorado is a deeply libertarian state, so, while they may have legalized marijuana they also hate gun control and taxes.

Hillary painted herself into a corner being against SP and for Australian style gun confiscation. Expect Colorado to go blood red if she is the nominee.

Assuming super-delegates aren't used to steal the nomination from Bernie, his better have a strong argument to show his policies won't significantly raise the tax burden on the middle class.

[pengu]

9. We don't need a test drive

Plenty of countries have already successfully test driven it. It needs to be implemented nationally, not on a patchwork state by state basis.

[renate]

25. you are SO right

The real-world evidence could not be clearer. In countries with single-payer health care, people don't postpone going to the doctor, they don't go into medical bankruptcy, families' futures aren't destroyed simply because a single cell goes rogue and turns into cancer.

I'm old enough to remember when America really was the best country in the world to live in. Now, unless you're rich, it's practically an embarrassment... not because we don't still have the potential to be awesome, but because that potential has been absolutely squandered.

[Enthusiast]

3. Kicked and recommended! This post should have a bazillion of recommendations!

[BeanMusical]

5. Kick and R

[Mbrow]

6. K&R

[KG]

7. it's too hard. not enough votes. why try. yada yada.

the dem party is led by morally corrupt political cowards.

[pengu]

10. "If it isn't easy, don't try"

I'm not really loving that as the party motto. Time for a change.

[neverforget]

17. "Trying is the first step towards failure"

Homer Simpson

[HughBeaumont]

18. There's people on DU that say it wouldn't be affordable even if it were possible.

Monthly.

But, you know, wars and money to the Kochs . . . blank checks, and all.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

11. Is there any advantage to single payer over medicare for all? n/t

[elias49]

12. I think they're pretty much the same thing.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

14. My understanding is that single payer...

...still has the insurance companies in the loop with the for profit companies making a percentage and their stockholders profiting from the care of pneumonia, AIDS and suffering. Maybe my thinking is skewed but that seems wrong to me.

[jeff47]

22. There's multiple ways to do single-payer.

They basically come down to three ways:

1) The UK system - Doctors work for the government, hospitals are owned by the government, and so on. When you are accessing (most) healthcare, you're getting a government service that is billed to the government.

2) The Switzerland system - Private insurers are required to insure everyone with a reasonable policy, paid by the government if the insured can't. Doctors and hospitals are private entities. When you are accessing all healthcare, you are getting a private service that is billed to a private entity.

3) The Canada and everyone else system - Public insurance for private doctors and hospitals. When you are accessing (most) healthcare, you are getting a private service that is billed to the government.

The two &quot most)" above are because elective procedures (ie. plastic surgery) are usually not covered.

Medicare already fits under #3. Medicare-for-all would just expand that.

[winter is coming]

13. "Single payer" is the concept. "Medicare for all" would be a likely vehicle, and

single payer is often referred to in those terms because people know what Medicare is.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

15. My preference is for a true socialized system.

The UK systems features a national tax that covers needed medical treatment. If we decide that medical care is a basic right and enforce coverage for all, how is it okay to then allow uninvolved investors to profit from it?

[winter is coming]

16. That would be my preference also, and should be part of the debate as we move to single payer. n/t

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

19. The insurance lobby is among the most powerful

They have no party preference and seek only allies from either side.
Anything a politician listens to from a group that stands to profit should be suspect.

[Doctor_J]

20. Obamacare improved the lives of some Americans without healthcare. It killed single payer

Insurance and pharmaceutical profits are through the roof, and will continue to rise. People like me, who work for small companies, are footing the bill. then there is the fact that you have to shop for new insurance every year, shop for a new physician every year, hope your insurer includes your physician, and wade through mounds of paperwork to make sure you are getting what you were promised.

the ACA made the insurance profiteers part of the government, and no amount of "tweaking" or "expanding" it will help. It will have to be undone.

[KG]

21. yeah, the 'uniquely american' solution. massive profits for corps at the expense of working class.

'it's the best we could hope for!' -

[eridani]

23. Bill Clinton: universal health coverage saves money

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-healthcare-clinton-idUSTRE7566U520110607

Former President Bill Clinton said the United States could save more than $1 trillion a year by adopting any other advanced nation's healthcare system.

He also said there are important advances included in President Obama's healthcare reforms and urged that it be improved upon rather than repealed.

"Our healthcare system has gotten all out of whack," Clinton said in a speech on Tuesday at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference, stressing the need to bring inflation in healthcare costs back in line with economic inflation.

Clinton said Canada and the European countries that have universal health coverage for their citizens spend a smaller percentage of their gross domestic product on healthcare than the United States does.

"Germany and France, with what is considered the most effective systems in the world in terms of universal coverage and quality of treatment, they spend 10 percent. Canada spends 10.5 percent," Clinton said.

"The United States spends 17.2 percent without having universal coverage," Clinton said.

[Recursion]

24. Single payer is one way of many to achieve universal health coverage

Again, I could throttle whoever spread the meme that "single payer" is the only way universal coverage can work.

[eridani]

26. No--the reason for using Canada as a model is that their provices are very much like--

--our states, with a great deal of local power. A system which does not attempt to change that has a greater chance of success. Canada got single payer for the whole country after it was implemented in just one province.

[Recursion]

27. Look at Kentucky and say that again with a straight face. (nt)

[eridani]

28. Fuck Kentucky. In the blue northwest, I don't want to wait for shitholes to catch up.

If, CA, OR and WA has a single health care system, other regious would be falling all over themselves to copy it.

[Recursion]

29. Oh, all that shit you Northwesterners keep talking about doing but not making happen?

I tell you what, when you actually do it, get back to us.

[eridani]

30. Isn't it nice that marriage equality and MJ legalization sdvocates refused--

--to pay attention to arguments like this?