Posted on 06/18/2009 2:12:31 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- A universal health-care system based on the single-payer model appears to be a bridge too far for politically attuned President Barack Obama.
A single-payer system -- such as Medicare for everyone -- would solve the problem of out-of-control costs and would provide health care for all.
President Lyndon B. Johnson had the courage to weigh in with all his political clout to win passage of Medicare and Medicaid, star accomplishments of the Great Society.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt put all his chips on the table to win passage of the Social Security Act that makes the elderly more financially secure.
All around the world, governments have long made medical care available for their citizens. Why not us?
Obama clearly has no stomach for the political battle that any single-payer plan would ignite. So he’s endorsed a step that would allow the government to provide health insurance coverage -- not health care -- to eligible people. Such government-sponsored health insurance -- the so-called public plan option -- is now being considered in Congress as it writes health care reform legislation.
While the public plan option gets full consideration in Congress, the single-payer model -- such as universal Medicare -- has been unwelcome at the White House or on Capitol Hill. It’s too hot politically.
Even the public plan option faces a struggle. Believe it or not, opponents of the public plan option -- including many lawmakers beholden to the health insurance industry -- are still using the bugaboo "socialism" scare word in an effort to intimidate would-be supporters.
Obama said part of the fierce opposition to health care reform has been fueled "by some interest groups and lobbyists -- opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to, yes, socialize medicine."
He made it clear that his idea of health care reform would allow patients to choose their own doctors and keep their own health plans.
Somehow government bailouts have been more palatable for Wall Street plutocrats who happen to be broke and needy.
Obama -- apparently fearing to be labeled a liberal -- stressed in a speech to the AMA in Chicago this week that he does not favor socialized medicine. (We won’t ask him whether he favors government- financed public schools, libraries, roads and parks, just to name a few examples of socialism in our midst.)
Some 47 million Americans are uninsured -- many because some employers have dropped coverage in the economic downturn. Others lack insurance because pre-existing illnesses deny them access to private insurance. There also are millions with no way to pay for soaring health insurance payments because they have lost their jobs.
Nearly all Republicans and some moderate Democrats are opposed to any public plan option. These are the same lawmakers who receive many government-provided perks including health insurance coverage.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, exemplified the dominant Republican viewpoint on the public plan option when he wrote in the newspaper Politico that as many as 119 million Americans "would shift from private coverage for the government plan" if one were created.
The Obama administration scoffs, contending that such an option would increase competitiveness and lower private insurance costs.
In his remarks to the AMA, Obama warned against "scare tactics" and "fear mongering" by opponents of the public plan option, which the president said it should be available to those who have no health insurance.
Obama also told the AMA that a "public option is not your enemy, it is your friend." He rejected the "illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single payer system."
Obama should tear a page out of LBJ’s vote-getting manual and shame the heartless opponents. The health of all Americans is our business.
Wow, she really is delusional. She states that like it's established fact, and with no explanation of how that could be accomplished (i.e. because care beyond the fixed budget simply wouldn't be made available). Obviously, even with no change at all in the average care people receive, adding 47 million people to the roster would wildly increase total cost. And of course a significant chunk of those people are illegal aliens or people who just don't give a crap about their health.
Thank you for the eye wash.
Now if only I could cleanse my memory.
Oh, argh.
Can someone tell me why I asked to be on the HT ping list?
Pain... slowly... fading...
Yikes!!! Send THAT to N.Korea - case closed.
How can someone who covered government and politics for about 60 years still believe government can solve anything or save money by getting involved in something?
That’s the definition of “inability to learn”
Hospice for Helen.
Helen offers tons of claims with no evidence to support them. As such, it isn’t even worthy of a good editorial.
She ain’ no heart throb....
Heck, that’s heartburn!
Why won’t she just die already.
Camelot.
THIS IS GREAT EYE WASH!If people keep posting these Helen Thomas pictures I may have to reconsider my stance on Universal Health care....The repeated exposure to harmfull Helen Thomas pictures is damaging my retinas!!!! LOL
OK, that was pretty graphic...Thanks for ruining my dinner...
Wait...Check that...I “should” not have opened the thread...
See...No blame game here...Muh bad...
My dog is here barking un-controllably though...Poor little guy...
Shame on me!!!
Eyes that burn after viewing Helen Thomas should be encouraged to seek legal counsel by The Lawyers that represented Stevie Wonder and Ray Charels.
: )
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