Reports: Passing Universal Healthcare Could Kill The GOP

Barack Obama's selection of Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary, as well as "health reform czar," signals that the incoming president is serious about passing comprehensive healthcare reform. Over at the think tank Cato, Michael Cannon warns that blocking any such legislation is vital for the GOP's survival (h/t Kos):

Ditto Baucus' health plan. And Kennedy's. And Wyden's.

Why? Norman Markowitz, a contributing editor at PoliticalAffairs.net (motto: "Marxist Thought Online"), makes an interesting point about how making citizens dependent on the government for their medical care can change the fates of political parties:

A "single payer" national health system - known as "socialized medicine" in the rest of the developed world - should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need. Britain serves as an important political lesson for strategists. After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party...

James Pethokoukis, at U.S. News and World Report, draws the same conclusion as Cannon does from Markowitz's analysis of how universal healthcare changed the political dynamic in Britain:

The GOP strategist had been joking about the upcoming presidential election and giving his humorous assessments of the candidates. Then he suddenly cut out the schtick and got scary serious. "Let me tell you something, if Democrats take the White House and pass a big-government healthcare plan, that's it. Game over. Government will dominate the economy like it does in Europe. Conservatives will spend the rest of their lives trying to turn things around and they will fail..."

...Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of "Marxist thought," puts it: "After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party when health care, social welfare, education and pro-working class policies were enacted by labor-supported governments."

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

Comments

[MrRex]

The sooner universal health care, the better for America!!!!
We don't need the Republican party as it has morphed- into a backward-thinking, hate-mongering, Fox News-watching collection of misfits.

[Jazzcomedian]

I suggest we pass universal healthcare here, and disconnect the selfish, useless GOP's life support.

[2lib4oh]

Two "hits" in one: getting rid of the selfish, unpatriotic GOP and getting universal health care.

[Jazzcomedian]

I'm an American and a permanent resident of Australia which has universal healthcare. With a fluctuating income, having universal healthcare was a Godsend. Whether I made a lot of money, or didn't make a dime, I didn't fear getting sick, and knew that I could get the best care, and not have to go to an emergency room and wait for eight hours, as I would over here if uninsured.

For those hardcore Republicans who automatically decry any type of socialism, Australia is a capitalist country that until the current global crisis had 17 straight years of growth, a booming stockmarket, unemployment of 4.2%, an affluent lifestyle, and twelve straight years of a large budget surplus--which they use to help their people. A single parent, male or female, gets a monthly stipend from the government even if they work because Australian studies showed that women, and children of divorce are the most prone to falling below the poverty line--which results in larger societal problems down the line.

I know a lovely Australian single mother who had married an American, moved to N.Y. and had a baby. The guy flaked, and she returned to Melbourne. She told me there was absolutely no way that she and her son could've survived in N.Y., without her "turning tricks". In Melbourne, she works two jobs, gets her stipend, and raises her lovely son with some dignity. We need to mix some socialism with our capitalism. It's more humane.

[truthynesslover]

Most republicans arent "humane",they dont see the humanity in others and have an Ive got mine screw the rest mentality.Even if they dont have theirs they cant stand anyone getting something from the government i.e. socialism.Most are mean spirited,selfish greedy stupid people.See "joe the plumber"as a perfect example,their hero!

[helonias]

Our Repubs are not "you treat me as you treat the least of you" kind of christians

[onenvrnos]

Variety is always best :-)

[BillZBubb]

Articles like this are silly. Universal Health care won't kill the Republican party any more than it killed the Tories in England. They still manage to win quite a few elections--mnay of them in fact AFTER England established universal care.

Similar opinions were floated after Social Security was passed. Ditto for Medicare. Yet Republicans still won elections.

The right wing, like certain household insect pests, always lives to mess up another time.

[Hawka]

Generally speaking though I think it'll put them on the back-foot and marginalize them from the political spectrum entirely if it does pass. Of course they'll find a way to survive, but for the most part if the new agenda passes then they'll have to accept it and add it to their own, making most of their talking points impotent.

[stillfresh]

I've always thought that universal single-payer health care would improve the lives of ALL Americans by ridding our country of the cruelty of private insurers. Only to find out that universal single-payer health care would improve the lives of all Americans by ridding our lives of the GOP.

I feel healthier already!

[SunshineDaydream]

great comment!! lol

[HFR]

Great to see the USA stepping into the modern world with a public health system, is there any chance of a step into the 21st century with a conversion to the metric system, working in that old almost prehistoric foot and inch must be terrible for you all?

[wdw102]

no not at all a chance........in medical or scientific matters the metric system is currently being used.....

[Europeanguy]

america wants us all to go to FEET and INCHES LOL

Yeah, as if that will happen. LOL

It will happen when we have an insane health care system that you have now or when hell freeze over whatever comes first.

[degenerate1991]

Actually, most actual work (military, science, etc.) gets done in metric. The most significant government function done in standard is the speed limit signs.

[quiviran]

Actually, I predict that the GOPs attempts to block Universal Health Care will be the actual end of the GOP. People will finally just be fed up.

[wdw102]

you just keep believing that one......46% is not going anywhere

[SunshineDaydream]

wd40 - that is 46% of voters on election day, not 46% of american's. lol

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Republican Party has hit a new low.

Just 34 percent of Americans in a Gallup Poll released Thursday say they have a favorable view of the party, down 40 percent from a month ago, before the election.

What’s worse: 61 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.

According to Gallup, that unfavorable rating is the highest the polling organization has recorded for the GOP since the measure was established in 1992.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/20/poll-gop-image-goes-from-bad-to-worse/
--------------------------------------------------

thaaat's gotta hurt

[wdw102]

voters are the only American opinions that count or that i care about at all......

[Danny]

I don't care about the survival of the GOP. They were STUPID to make this one of their "talking points". We know that the rest of the world, not just the "industrialized" world, operates on universal, single-payer health care, happily. Their CEOs don't make as much money, but the citizens get to survive, and/or not bankrupt themselves with health care costs. This has been a long time coming (since the 1940s), but the time is NOW. A.t l.o.n.g l.a.st.!

[Europeanguy]

Many Americans think the rest of the world is socialistic.

Amazingly Americans don't mind working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs to make ends meet and get 2 crappy weeks a year vacation in which they can barely afford to travel the world.

Us socialist of even modest means travel all over the world learning other cultures.

That is why someone with an EU passport is welcomed with a smile. Can't say the same as someone with a USA passport. I have both but haven't used my USA passport in 10 years.

WE also look at people in other countries are business partners and not someone we need to bomb,

Thats why the world would much rather do business with us than the USA.

[VegetableMan]

"Amazingly Americans don't mind working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs to make ends meet and get 2 crappy weeks a year vacation in which they can barely afford to travel the world."

that's one of hte dumbest statements i've ever read here.

OF COURSE WE MIND IT! but the pigs who runs this country have done everything in their power to keep us working 2 jobs.

get off your high horse, euroguy, and cut the attitude. that's why we think you're an arrogant bunch of wonks.

[degenerate1991]

Hey, that's why 3% of the world's population (USA) does 25% of the world's economic activity, right?

[wdw102]

i guess we will have to see

[GlenRast]

I guess caring about people who need medical care doesn't jive with the GOP's version of Christianity. I wonder if the GOP Evangelicals can produce a teaching of Jesus to back themselves. Interesting 'moral superiority'. War, execution, torture and abandonment of the sick.

[wdw102]

i voted for mccain.......so why are you spewing that religious crap in my direction

[Hawka]

Because its what you sleep with when you did.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Hmmm... Palin the creationist was on the ticket too, pal.

[Greg285]

Try as they might, Universal Health care will pass and be implemented in America, which is a good thing as majority of the country (Main street) wants this. The GOP will attempt to block it and will fail because Lieberman will vote with the Dems, thumbing his finger is their face (If he wants to keep his chairmanship)...The GOP is DEAD, they just know it.....

[wdw102]

really 46% of the population is dead......wow

[SunshineDaydream]

wd40 - 46% of american's are not against healthcare. lmao

[wdw102]

then they should have voted bo........stinks just as bad as socialized medicine

[lysistrata]

Just to make one thing clear: all right of center conservative parties in Europe support national health care weather you call it socialized, national, universal or whatever, they all support health care for all. They all exist in spite of national health care.

The Cato type should inform himself better.

[wdw102]

good thing europe has no say at all here

[Europeanguy]

Good thing we don't really want anything to do with you. but we like it when you buy our hi tech and well made products.

[lysistrata]

A little knowledge would not hurt, would go a long way.

[Solex]

Too bad for sheeple like you, and the world in general, they don't. Too bad for most of the world, your nation, and those idiots in the right-wing think tanks, have an influence on everybody and everything else; Canada, for one, might be better off.

[VorpalAuroch]

No, he's completely correct. In any other country, the US Democratic party would be the conservative party. If we do pass single-payer healthcare in the US of A. the Republican party WILL die, and (eventually) the Dems will splinter off a new, further-left party after people get tired of an effectively one-party state.

[degenerate1991]

The CATO institute is a libertarian-leaning institute; their biggest fear would be a socialistic (relatively) GOP. They would classify "conservative" parties in Europe as conservative in name only.

[Justeesh]

stop.......using.........ellipses...................incorrectly...............................................

[Reaganwater]

............But it was Fun Fun Fun until my punctilious-pontificating-punctuation-scold took my key-bird away ..........................................!

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

Not to be a pain in the keister, but it's ellipsis, not ellipses. Ellipses are ovals.

[SunshineDaydream]

ellipses is the plural of ellipsis

[lysistrata]

So the survival of the GOP is more important than the health care of millions of people?

Maybe the GOP does not understand, if they block Obama's health care plane they will not survive. The people have spoken, they voted for the Democrats to get health care like all the other developed nations and many developing nations have.

Are the people so dumb to reward the Republicans for blocking universal health care?

What do the Republicans have to offer? More of the same?

[HappyIdiot51]

Nope. They have no plan.

[SunshineDaydream]

they lose the ability to block if (when) franken and martin win

[jayceee]

It really saddens me to read things like, "I don't want to pay for your health care." What happens if you were suddenly unable to work and lost your health care benefits?

I'm an RN in Vancouver, Canada. I work on a Cardiac Surgery unit. When someone needs open heart surgery, or a heart transplant. They get one. They don't pay a cent more than the maximum of $54/month that we pay for health coverage. Can you imagine? Getting something like a heart transplant, and not having to worry about bankrupting your family? Being able to concentrate on getting well without all those extra worries?

After an open heart surgery (like a bypass), if you need further assistance upon discharge, the social worker (each unit at my hospital employs a social worker) will work with you to obtain it. They will arrange for someone to come to your home a few times a week to clean, or make meals for you. If you need further rehabilitation, but cannot stay in hospital because you are no longer a cardiac patient, the social worker finds a placement for you. No charge.

Our post-transplant patients who live very far away are provided with an apartment to stay in while they're still in that weekly heart biopsy phase of the recovery period.

Our system isn't perfect at all. There are still long wait lists for stuff like knee replacements.

[HappyIdiot51]

The saddest part of your message is "You are on your own." That is a losing message all the way around.

[JessWonderin]

Thank you for the insight . . . we are so used to watching 40% of our bankrupcies due to medical expenses become just another "Health Care Benefit" . . .

[wdw102]

so they do have recourse

[pfrogger]

As a fellow Canadian I agree. Although I currently live in the United States, I often think back to the many benefits of Canada over the US. Healthcare is one of them.
Every civilized country in the world has a modern healthcare system except for the US. Most people would disagree. But I ask how modern can healthcare be if there are people in the most "advanced" country in the world who are ineligible for healthcare.

"no society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means."
— Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear, p100

But idealism aside, as that doesn't sway the ones in power, there is the realistic factor favoring changing the healthcare system in the US. As a doctor, I have seen numerous patients who have come to the ER when their condition became life threatening. Classic example is hypertension, which if left untreated has the potential to damage almost every single organ system. This is easily prevented with daily medications at about a dollar a day via standard generic med. So 365 a year. 3650 every 10 years. a little over 10000 over 30 years. But with the current system: ambulance 500-1000, ER 500+ (this can get into the thousands of dollars depending on the intervention), and then for life threatening conditions the typical "million dollar work-up".

part 1

[pfrogger]

cont ->

Maybe not a million dollars, but definitely and easily +100 thousand and sometimes more than a million. Why? Because we have no idea initially what is wrong with them. And the hypertension is not so specific that it goes after just 1 organ system. Usually it's a mix. And tracking it down is tricky. On top of that, because they didn't have healthcare, there is absolutely no recent medical information and no preventative maintenance. They are a complete mystery.
So there's 30K over 30 years or 100k+ easily one time. Added to that is the significant impairment of quality of life and social productivity over those 30 years. Give them a little pill cheaply or let them waste away slowly over 30 years with the consequence of a worse life, medically speaking.
Any questions?
Oh ya, "Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem" http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtmll). Check out the site, it has some interesting facts.

part 2

[pfrogger]

http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

"68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance"

"Retiring elderly couples will need $200,000 in savings just to pay for the most basic medical coverage"

According to a recent report, the United States has $480 billion in excess spending each year in comparison to Western European nations that have universal health insurance coverage. The costs are mainly associated with excess administrative costs and poorer quality of care"
"The United States spends six times more per capita on the administration of the health care system than its peer Western European nations"

[MIVOTE]

"...should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need." So right wing repubs will block so they can gain or regain any power? WTF??? DESPERATELY NEED is the operative word here.