On Medicare anniversary, lawmakers tout inevitability of single payer, The Raw Story, July 31, 2010, by Sahil Kapur, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
A trio of progressives in Congress invoked the 45th birthday of Medicare Friday to call for a national single payer health insurance system, predicting it’s “inevitable” if Americans want lower costs.
“It has never been more important to have a strong movement behind Medicare for All,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and John Conyers (D-MI) in a letter addressed to “friends of health care for all.”
The trio, all of whom have sponsored single payer bills, argued that cost controls are insufficient in the health reform law enacted March and claimed the growing need to save money would galvanize support for such a system.
“As we honor Medicare’s 45th birthday today, I am proud to say that the movement for Medicare for All remains strong and vibrant,” Kucinich said.
While various lawmakers have endorsed single payer proposals, it remains far out of the reach of Congress due to the prevalence of anti-government public sentiments and the political influence of the private insurance industry, which would be torn down.
The Affordable Care And Patient Protection Act, enacted by President Barack Obama in March, is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to cover nearly all Americans and reduce the deficit. It has no new public insurance programs.
Although Sanders, Kucinich and Conyers all voted for the new law, they said in the letter that it “does not adequately contain costs” for Americans.
“In my view, the single-payer approach is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country,” said Sanders.
A Commonwealth Fund report last month found that Americans spend roughly twice as much on medical costs than residents of other industrialized nations yet the US system lags in areas of quality, efficiency and equity.
Sanders and Kucinich have led on pushing for national or state-based single payer programs in the Senate and House respectively, but have failed to garner the necessary support.
According to reports, Medicare, a single payer system for the elderly in America, has lower overhead costs and higher satisfaction rates than private insurance on average.
The White House and Democratic National Committee on Friday proclaimed their commitment to sustaining and strengthening Medicare.
“We believe Medicare for All is inevitable in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is up to all of us to determine when the inevitable becomes reality.”
Plea for Help from a Liberal Politics Website Owner
Note by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: I am disabled myself, and though I want to get a job and reenter the work force, I cannot because if I did drop my disability, they would sell my father’s home out from under me to pay my father’s nursing home bills. It is a REAL SHAME in this country, that after everything is said and done in our lives, as elderly people, when we need assistance from a nursing facility, that private enterprise is going to rip you off for everything you have to pay for that. Nursing care in our declining years should be absolutely free, provided by the government.
A kind friend wrote me a note I want to share with you. She said: I understand exactly where you are coming from about the need to be on and stay on disability. There are easily hundreds, if not thousands, of folks in the United States who fit the scenario you describe. This does not make you or anyone else a government leach, as some would say. Nor does it make them inferior people. We have so many idiots out there who take the proposition of being a country which takes care of it’s own as some kind of threat to the dignity and quality of our country. Yet, looking at countries like Denmark, etc, who take care of their own — they have no homeless. Not any. America calls itself a “Christian” nation. Yet the way people who receive any help from our government are run down in churches in the communities around me — you’d never guess there was anything “Christian” around us.
The way they worship the Bush administrations, without prejudice — is so non-Christian! The way they worship the Reagans, Reagan philosophy, etc. is with a worship that is almost evil. No two administrations in the history of the United States can compare in the way these two took aim directly at those who cannot help themselves. None. It is like living and working in “Stepford Land.” They believe things beyond reason and don’t even try to “balance the account” purse’ with any common sense.
At the end of Christ’s ministry in the New Testament, He said, “I give you a new commandment . . . love your brother.” “Love your brother” is never mentioned, while people who receive any help from the government are lazy, sponges of some kind. The same bible they preach from said God told Adam that upon leaving the Garden of Eden he “mankind” would earn their living by the sweat of their brow. When you see how depressed, defeated, and shamed a person who cannot work is — it almost appears that mankind is born with a strong inborn desire to be productive and provide for themselves. No human being I ever met who was unable to provide for themselves has ever sat and said they don’t want to work. Not one. When people cannot work, whether for reasons you describe, either medically, or because of situations like you have with your father, and having to lose everything he ever owned and worked all their life for — or choose to take the steps you have to take to keep property and/or savings they spent their whole life to secure — doing things as you and your family are doing is the best choice you have, if not the only choice.
Paul Evans: How true. How unchristian of us as a nation that we do not really take care of our own. At the end of his life here on earth, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. Three times Jesus, said, after hearing Peter protest his love, “Feed my sheep.” It’s in the first three Gospels. Isn’t that what “loving your neighbor as yourself” is supposed to be all about?
I am in fact looking to supplement my government minimum disability by working from home. Please visit the Hire Paul Evans! page if you might be interested in hiring me. I type 75 wpm, can program in 3 languages well, and am familiar in using other programming languages, I am familiar with the Office programs and I have edited 12 books. If your computer is acting up I can do a very creditable job at Computer Repair anywhere in Northeast Ohio, at prices less than what is usually charged. I need somebody to step up to the plate so that I can make my way in this world. I also have a nice (if aging) car and would be interested in any reasonable job in the Akron – Canton – Mansfield – Medina area. Please feel encouraged to email me if you are interested. ~ Paul Evans
*****
We’re Counting on YOU! Please share Evans Liberal Politics with friends! While we enjoy a certain level of popularity on the web, in order for us to keep bringing you the latest in liberal news and politics, we really need you to SHARE Evans Liberal Politics with your friends and contacts. Please help us out — we bring you the latest in liberal and progressive news and politics just to share the truth and promote liberalism. Can you help us today?
Please consider making a $5 or $10 donation to Evans Liberal Politics. We bring you the news and all things liberal for free out of love of people and liberalism, but a fellow has to eat! The button to donate via PayPal is located at the top right of every page, and your kind help is greatly appreciated.
*****
To make a Word or .pdf document of an article, or share or email it, simply load the individual article by clicking the dark blue title at the very top, or use the icons beneath the article.
We’re Counting on You!
Tell Your Friends About Evans Liberal Politics!
Listen to 152 Rock and Pop Hits!
#1 Rated by Google
