To borrow a phrase from Ezra Klein, here's a simple, easy to understand chart of how health care would work if health care reform is passed. It's really not that hard to understand, and it's certainly much more specific than the Republican plan.
For your consideration (click for bigger version and fact sheet, pdf warning):
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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The Majority Leader keeps his job by making his fellow Democratic Senators happy, and keeping them from being put in an awkward position is job one.
However, wouldn't a comparison chart of single-payer be a great comparison to show how even simpler it is?
Instead of creating a new public insurance product from scratch. Couldn't Medicare be that product? Why not let people buy into Medicare as their public option? This could be done via premium or voluntary agreement to pay a higher tax rate? What if people under retirement age ticked a box on their tax form for Medicare and paid a higher tax rate to participate? Those who didn't want to don't have to pay the higher tax rate.
Why not let people choose Medicare? There is already a working bureaucracy in place to handle it, and it would bring in a whole lot of new younger customers to financially shore up the program.
While all of you are bickering over how cheaply you can get your Rogaine or Viagra and fighting over abortions and insurance for illegal aliens, there are MILLIONS of men, women and children who are American citizens, whose medical issues extend far beyond being fat, bald and...flat.
So long as there is not even the attempt to do something about the tens of millions of people living with, and the millions of children born with critical or chronic congenital defects, insurance reform so that you can get a free ankle sprained or cast for your broken foot is meaningless at best, and at worse insulting to those who need REAL MEDICAL care
Obama may have said it would be too big of a shock to go to a single payer system, and yet, millions of seniors have been moving from private insurance to Medicare for decades now. Can't be to much of a shock to them, right?
Medicare for everyone.
I agree. I thought the idea behind insurance was 1) I pay an insurance company money; 2) If nothing bad happens to me, they get to keep the money; 3) If something really bad DOES happen to me, then they give me much more money than I paid in to make it through the bad event.
But since insurance companies routinely refuse to ok treatment, and often completely deny payments to the very sick or those whom they can claim had pre-existing conditions, this really isn't insurance at all. It's not insurance if they get to keep the money if nothing bad happens to me, and also get to keep the money if something bad does happen to me.
Marches will be happening in cities across the country. We are a grass roots movement with no affiliation with any organizations, and certainly NO sponsorships from corporations.
http://www.march4healthcare.com/
Facebook: March for Healthcare group
Can't be there in person? We also have a virtual march:
http://www.march4healthcare.com/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=11