Wow, check out this comment on existing U.S. single-payer system [View all]

[ProSense]

The comment is in response to Krugman's piece, posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022907399

My wife and I have single payer healthcare here in the States, and we love it. It cost $110/ month each, and after that, the only costs are for prescription meds, and the costs are negligible. No co-pays, no deductables, no caps, no pre-existing condition barriers. We select our doctors, which means suberb doctors in enlightened Seattle.

Are you interested? It is widely available, but you have to enter the system before you are around 30. It also provides a generous COLA protected pension, which starts when you retire, even at age 38.

Too good to be true? We are covered by Medicare and Tricare. Tricare is enabled by serving a minimum of 20 years of Military service. It has no connection with the VA. I retired as an Air Force colonel 33 years ago as a colonel, though Tricare benefits are identical for all ranks and grades. My wife and I both take Nexium. Cost for a 90 days supply? $3, and that includes the cost of mailing it to us. Unlike Medicare, Tricare can bargain for drug costs.

We have seen the future and it works. We believe that healthcare is a basic human right, and that our government is the ultimate employer when all else fails.

Am I a socialist? Not really, but I wouldn't dread it. I am an Eisenhower Republican, who will likely never vote for another Republican.

Today's Republicans hate Obamacare because they fear it will be a huge success. Dr. Krugman once again hits the nail on the head.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/krugman-the-obamacare-shock.html?comments#permid=23

The following was originally posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021160997

Where ‘Socialized Medicine’ Has a U.S. Foothold

By UWE E. REINHARDT

Last Friday’s exuberant celebration of Britain’s National Health Service during the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle, got me thinking about American attitudes about socialized medicine.

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I have found that one effective way I can stop N.H.S.-bashing dead in its track is to ask bashers this simple question: “Why don’t you like my son?” I posed that question to a congressman who had berated “socialized medicine” during a hearing on health insurance reform at which I testified.

In response to the stunned look this question invariably elicits, I go on: ”You see, our son is a retired captain of the U.S. Marine Corps. He is an American veteran. Remarkably, Americans of all political stripes have long reserved for our veterans the purest form of socialized medicine, the vast health system operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (generally known as the V.A. health system). If socialized medicine is as bad as so many on this side of the Atlantic claim, why have both political parties ruling this land deemed socialized medicine the best health system for military veterans? Or do they just not care about them?”

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Socialized medicine refers to systems that couple social health insurance with government-owned and operated health care facilities, such as Britain’s N.H.S. or the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, a still-appreciated legacy of British colonialism. Socialized medicine also typified the health systems operated by the former socialist countries in the Soviet orbit. Evidently, the V.A. health system perfectly fits the definition of socialized medicine.

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http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/where-socialized-medicine-has-a-u-s-foothold/

Improving Quality of Care: How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Care
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9100/index1.html

We Already Have a Popular Single-Payer Health Care System -- It's for Active Military and Veterans
http://www.alternet.org/story/141048/we_already_have_a_popular_single-payer_health_care_system_--_it's_for_active_military_and_veterans