It's time. In fact, it's past time. For decades now, the United States has been the only industrialized nation to fail to provide it's citizens with some form of universal, affordable healthcare. The results speak for themselves: the highest prices for healthcare and health insurance in the world, tens of millions of people unable to even afford healthcare, and millions more with healthcare being seen as too high risk, or disqualified from affordable care because of "pre-existing conditions." It's beyond just a national embarrassment, but outright a national disgrace. No country with such a system in place has ever gotten rid of it in favor of the American model, yet we keep trying to tinker with ours. Let's just adopt the kind of system that literally every other industrialized nation has, and put this horribly divisive issue behind us already.
Pathetic. On every level, truly pathetic. We always have the money for stupid wars that are costly on every level, financially and on a human cost. Plus, they make the world not just hate us, but absolutely loathe us and our arrogance. But putting some money, even a small percentage of all that money that goes towards the military industrial complex, to use doing something that benefits citizens, and which has demonstrably worked well in plenty of other industrialized nations around the world? Why, that's un-American, right? No wonder the rest of the world is laughing at us.
It reminds me of a comment by someone during the 2016 presidential election, supposedly a progressive who, nevertheless, thought of Bernie Sanders and his proposals as "pie in the sky," with a particular emphasis on his apparently radical healthcare program. It annoys me when Americans in general are opposed to such a healthcare system, but especially when people who would identify themselves are progressives scoff and suggest that such a system is unrealistic and unworkable, when literally every single other industrialized nation in the world has such a system in place. What's more: not one of them has scrapped that system in favor of the for-profit healthcare system that we have here in the United States. They see how Americans have the highest prices for medical care, health insurance, and drugs, and they see how tens of millions of people cannot afford healthcare coverage, and tens of millions more are under-insured and are told they are too high risk with "preexisting conditions," and they understandably want no part of it. They are paying more attention, and are analyzing the inadequacies of the American approach on this issue in a more honest and objective manner than most Americans seem capable of doing, and our system is, understandably, left wanting by way of comparison.
So, I decided to add a post in answer to that individual here, and have added it here. Meanwhile, here is a link from 2016 showing how mainstream Democrats, particularly Hillary supporters, joined big pharma and the Colorado Republicans in defeating a measure that would have become the first statewide single-payer healthcare system.
Some progressives! Always with these people, it is about how such a system cannot possibly work, even though it works pretty damn well in, again, every other industrialized nation in the world. And then, we Bernie Sanders supporters are supposed to forget all of that, and forget about how Hillary cheated during the primary, and just support her as the "real progressive." What a joke!
Establishment Dems Fight to Defeat 'Medicare-for-All' in Colorado Pro-Clinton Democrats join Big Pharma and state Republicans in fighting to defeat first-in-the-nation ballot measure for statewide single-payer plan by Nika Knight, staff writer, May 20, 2016:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/20/establishment-dems-fight-defeat-medicare-all-colorado
Establishment Dems Fight to Defeat 'Medicare-for-All' in Colorado Pro-Clinton Democrats join Big Pharma and state Republicans in fighting to defeat first-in-the-nation ballot measure for statewide single-payer plan by Nika Knight, staff writer, May 20, 2016:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/20/establishment-dems-fight-defeat-medicare-all-colorado
It reminds me of a comment by someone during the 2016 presidential election, supposedly a progressive who, nevertheless, thought of Bernie Sanders and his proposals as "pie in the sky," with a particular emphasis on his apparently radical healthcare program. It annoys me when Americans in general are opposed to such a healthcare system, but especially when people who would identify themselves are progressives scoff and suggest that such a system is unrealistic and unworkable, when literally every single other industrialized nation in the world has such a system in place. What's more: not one of them has scrapped that system in favor of the for-profit healthcare system that we have here in the United States. They see how Americans have the highest prices for medical care, health insurance, and drugs, and they see how tens of millions of people cannot afford healthcare coverage, and tens of millions more are under-insured and are told they are too high risk with "preexisting conditions," and they understandably want no part of it. They are paying more attention, and are analyzing the inadequacies of the American approach on this issue in a more honest and objective manner than most Americans seem capable of doing, and our system is, understandably, left wanting by way of comparison.
So, I decided to add a post in answer to that individual here, and have added it here. Meanwhile, here is a link from 2016 showing how mainstream Democrats, particularly Hillary supporters, joined big pharma and the Colorado Republicans in defeating a measure that would have become the first statewide single-payer healthcare system.
Some progressives! Always with these people, it is about how such a system cannot possibly work, even though it works pretty damn well in, again, every other industrialized nation in the world. And then, we Bernie Sanders supporters are supposed to forget all of that, and forget about how Hillary cheated during the primary, and just support her as the "real progressive." What a joke!
Establishment Dems Fight to Defeat 'Medicare-for-All' in Colorado Pro-Clinton Democrats join Big Pharma and state Republicans in fighting to defeat first-in-the-nation ballot measure for statewide single-payer plan by Nika Knight, staff writer, May 20, 2016:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/20/establishment-dems-fight-defeat-medicare-all-colorado
Recent Comments on the Health Care Debate - Originally Published on Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Recently, I noticed on the Charbor Chronicles Facebook account that someone, a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton, continually kept posting negative things about Bernie Sanders. Initially, I kind of just scoffed and kept scrolling down.
Earlier today, however, I noticed something by this individual about Sanders, and in the comments section, he labeled the health care system reforms proposed by Sanders as laughable.
This is one issue (environmentalism being the other) where I think that Americans in the mainstream of politics, both to the left and to the right, just get it wrong.
I decided to respond, which really is not like me. Getting into arguments online with people I do not know all that well is not my thing, although there certainly are a lot of such arguments to be found everywhere on the web. But the whole "laughable" thing just bugged me a little too much to simply let it go, and I decided to go ahead and respond, since what seems to me to be "laughable" is that the United States remains the only industrialized nation in the world to have a for profit healthcare system instead of one that actually works for citizens.
So, it seemed like something worth sharing here, as anyone who follows this blog regularly, or who knows me personally, understands that this is one of the major issues that really burns me about the United States and it's sorry political state at this moment. Here are my comments in response to this individual's post:
"Unnamed, not to sound confrontational, but how is Bernie's health care plan "laughable" when every other industrialized country in the world has something similar, and most of these work better, even far better, than our own for profit healthcare system here in America? It would be one thing if it was completely untested, but it is not. In fact, the United States stands as the only nation in the world that does not have a system like that in place, and it fails Americans as a result. Prices are too often ridiculous, and on this particular issue, the rest of the world scoffs at the for profit healthcare system here in the United States. Those other countries are democratic and have free access to information, yet after decades, not one has chosen to scrap their system in favor of ours. Yet, every election cycle, it is one of the biggest issues here in America. Maybe if some of the people who dismiss such a system as "Pie in the sky rainbows unicorns and fairy dust" actually bothered to look past our own borders to see that we can actually learn something from what other countries are doing, we might be a better country for it.
"Or maybe we can just remain ugly Americans who feel too stuck up to learn from anyone else. Yes, we can continue to have the whole world laugh at our political system and wonder why we never learn as a country. I never understood the automatic assumption by far too many Americans, both to the right and clearly, as we see here, to the left, that everything we do, in every regard, is systematically the standard bearer that the whole world should unquestioningly follow. Have none of you met anyone in your lives who have paid outrageous medical bills? And if so, did the thought ever occur that we deserve better than this?"
Establishment Dems Fight to Defeat 'Medicare-for-All' in Colorado Pro-Clinton Democrats join Big Pharma and state Republicans in fighting to defeat first-in-the-nation ballot measure for statewide single-payer plan by Nika Knight, staff writer, May 20, 2016:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/20/establishment-dems-fight-defeat-medicare-all-colorado
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