Obamacare / Single Payer Heath Care

While I have been advocating for Single Payer Health Care for some time there was this bit of concern that I heard about how to keep the politics out of the system.  Since the idea of Single Payer is about a payment system not a health decision system I had not really put the emphasis on this particular question.  Well, there IS a response to this “problem” as framed by the person asking the question.

To make the system not a part of politics, repeal the separate system in place for Congress for THEIR health care.  When you look at what has been voted into place for our Representatives and Senators it looks like (if it quacks like a duck…) Single Payer Obamacare!!  Really!  Look closely and you will find that their retirement system looks a lot like Uncapped Social Security as well!!  If you take those perquisites away from them and put them into the SAME system that the rest of us have you will see the system suddenly work.  We did not vote these special treats into place… that is, “We, the People” had no say in putting this stuff in place. 

When the politicians are part of the same system then they will be consistently with us in solving any of the problems.

One of the idiotic things I had (may still have) to overcome is the misdirection from the Righties that Single Payer is about putting the government in CHARGE of your health care issues.  While it is nonsense on the surface of it to say that this is the way it works, it is hard to get past the layer of anti-SP that has been put out there.  If no one listens it is hard to have a discussion.  Currently the private health care companies (insurance companies) have a 35% expense ratio while Single Payer has been shown to have a 3% expense ratio.  The job within the private carrier that is the purse strings of the company is the functionary (a bureaucrat) who denies coverage for procedures that doctors’ show is necessary for the patient.  Additionally, the doctors’ practices pay additional people in their offices to “code” the procedures so that the insurance companies will pay for what needs to be done.  So, the wrong heads out there will fight against a bureaucrat in government helping to handle paying but ignore that profit is the incentive of the current system.  Hmmm, I wonder who would make the better decision?  In any case, in the Single Payer system it is not a “save money by denying coverage” system, it is a straightforward payment plan.

Putting the decision process back in the hands of the doctor and the patient has apparently gotten the Right up in arms against their own best interest.  The dialog of the Right is again in the echo chamber of repeating the lies about what the system would look like (how it would work) and it is difficult to get the attention of the low information voter.

The long and short of it is that putting Congress on our system would force them to create a fair system for all of us.