Health Insurance: we pay for a Cadillac, we get a Pinto

[Blue State Blues]

The United States pays more than any other country for health care. We pay more.

We pay enough for every person in this country to receive the so-called Cadillac of health care.

We pay enough for every person in this country to have no fear that an illness will send them into poverty because they have no insurance.

We pay enough for every person in the country to have no fear that a job lost will also mean health insurance lost.

We pay enough for every person in this country to have no fear that their insurance will be rescinded if they become ill.

We pay enough for every person in this country to have no fear that an illness or accident might leave them with a pre-existing condition.

We pay enough for every person in this country to seek the very best of care and to get it without delay or rationing.

We pay enough for every patient in every hospital to need to think only about getting well without the fear of the hospital's bill.

And yet, as a nation, we consider this kind of basic health security a luxury.

A luxury that every other developed nation already provides its citizens (and most of them freely extend to anyone within their borders).

We pay enough for every person in the country to have the Cadillac of health care, and yet most of us fortunate enough to have coverage at all, have something that better resembles a Pinto.

In the health care reform debate, the most effective, most efficient, best solutions to our national crisis were never on the table. There was no discussion of a National Health Service, no discussion of a Single-Payer system, and no real discussion of a strictly regulated non-profit but private insurance solution.

Even the solution I advocate, Medicare for All, is a compromise from a true Single-Payer system. And the Public Option is the most anemic of compromises even after all of the energy we have had to put into saving it.

At best, the bill working through Congress now amounts to a detailing job for the Pinto.

It is not enough.

The money is there. We are already spending the money. What we lack is the political will. That must change.

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Reference:

According to single-payer supporter Dr. David Himmelstein, if we're willing to keep spending at our current levels, we could cover everybody with no co-payment, no-deductible, first-dollar coverage with no rationing. However, if we wanted to cut our budget by 50 percent, "we'd have to have some waiting lines."

Watch the video or read the transcript here.

[JVS]

1. that's because for some reason we feel it's necessary to buy the insurerers cars along the way

[MNDemNY]

2. Shut up and enjoy your damned pinto!!!

Have you absolutely no compassion??? You know folks at the insurance giants work hard for their money. All you want to do is deprive them of their well earned bonuses. And what of the little children who dream of growing up and having a good career denying pinto drivers health care??? You never think of them, do you. SELFISH ASSHOLE.

[Blue State Blues]

3. yeah, but there's this thing about the gas tank ...

this kind of, um, basic design flaw.

[MNDemNY]

4. Only if you get rear-ended. Do not get rear-ended.

sheesh.

[Blue State Blues]

5. ok, but, well, it's also just kind of, um, ugly.

and not ugly in a good way like a Gremlin.

[MNDemNY]

6. It looks just fine, from inside my Hummer.

[Blue State Blues]

8. see if the Pinto is so great ... why don't you drive one, too?

[MNDemNY]

10. Great for YOU, for me, not so much.

[Blue State Blues]

19. Oh, well, ok, then. And thanks for not running me over with your Hummer ... yet.

[MNDemNY]

20. Just keep off my roads.

[Blue State Blues]

22. Um, not to be a bother, but the roads are public. Socialized, even.

[MNDemNY]

23. Commie.

[Blue State Blues]

26. I'm not a Red -- that's just rust. Seems the Pinto needs a paint job, too.

[debbierlus]

7. And, they want to TAX plans that actually provide benefits

I so hate this political system, I truly do.

[Blue State Blues]

9. that provision truly baffles me

it seems as though its only purpose is to alienate unions.

[slipslidingaway]

11. knr - September/October 1977 Issue - Pinto Madness

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto-madness

Exactly!

"In the health care reform debate, the most effective, most efficient, best solutions to our national crisis were never on the table. There was no discussion of a National Health Service, no discussion of a Single-Payer system, and no real discussion of a strictly regulated non-profit but private insurance solution."

[Blue State Blues]

14. thanks for the link

I'd not read that article at the time. Still riveting.

[slipslidingaway]

18. YW...I read it at the time. n/t

[laughingliberal]

12. One of the few things said by Ross Perot with which I agreed...

Speaking of health care: You paid for a Cadillac and got a Pinto.

One other on NAFTA, I'm sure we all remember:

The giant sucking sound...

[Blue State Blues]

15. Oh now I've got to go look that up

I didn't know Perot ever said anything of the kind. At the time, I tried to listen to him as little as possible. Little did I know that one day 43 would make Perot seem the most insightful and elegant orator by comparison.

[Jack Sprat]

13. The ruling plutocracy demands its profits.

This land's not made for you and me. This land was made for Poppy Bush. That's why he is so irritated that the serfs have ONE cable network that makes a case on their behalf.

[Cleita]

16. We aren't even getting a Pinto. At least a Pinto

runs half the time. We are getting a bicycle with one of the wheels missing. It's worthless and doesn't work.

[Blue State Blues]

17. or we have a Pinto in the garage

it's just fine as long as we don't have to go anywhere.

[dflprincess]

21. The problem with Pintos is that they have a tendency to burst into flames

which is why they must be kept in the garage and not used.

[Fumesucker]

24. What? You can't ride an ad-hoc unicycle?

Shame on you for neglecting to learn this vital skill..

I really hope I don't need to put a sarcasm tag on this.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

25. K&R