General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why exactly do poor and middle class Republicans hate "Obamacare"? [View all]Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who refused to let advocates for single-payer give testimony-- in fact, he had them arrested. Basically, he just listened to industry representatives and excluded the "little people" from the discussions. So I can understand how some people might have gotten their opinion about "Soviet-style health care".
"Opposition to single payer health care
Advocate groups attended a Senate Finance Committee meeting in May 2009 to protest their exclusion as well as statements by Baucus that "single payer was not an option on the table." Baucus later had eight protesters removed by police who arrested them for disrupting the hearing. Many of the single-payer advocates claimed it was a "pay to play" event.[43][44][45] A representative of the Business Roundtable, which includes 35 memberships of health maintenance organizations, health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, admitted that other countries, with lower health costs, and higher quality of care, such as those with single-payer systems, have a competitive advantage over the United States with its private system.[46]
"At the next meeting on health care reform of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus had five more doctors and nurses removed and arrested.[47][48][49]
"Baucus admitted a few weeks later in June 2009 that it was a mistake to rule out a single payer plan[50] because doing so alienated a large, vocal constituency and left President Barack Obamas proposal of a public health plan to compete with private insurers as the most liberal position.[50]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Baucus