Issues Under Fire: Universal/Single-Payer Healthcare - Time for Debate is Now
Now that world leaders and other attendees of the U.N. General Assembly are winding down visits to New York to return to their home countries, we thought we'd get a jump on next week by triggering the upcoming debate over how to deliver healthcare in America today. And why not? The time for single-payer healthcare has come. The American people are being awakened at an amazing rate. They know the truth and they're spreading the word. Universal Healthcare is a right they'll no longer be denied. Check this out.
Over the years, most Americans have been the victims of misinformation and disinformation about why they should fear and reject the concept of universal healthcare. They've been told universal healthcare is socialized medicine and socialized medicine, by its very nature, is bad for your health. Many have been convinced that the government would ration your care and decide what services your doctor would be authorized to offer. But when the average American takes the time to compare the Affordable Healthcare Act's 10 Essential Health Benefits against anything the GOP is currently proposing, most agree the ACA, even with all its flaws, is superior by anyone's measure.
For those who need reminding, the 10 Essential Benefits include Ambulatory Patient Services, Prescription Drugs, Emergency Care, Mental Health Services, Hospitalization, Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services, Preventive and Wellness Services, Laboratory Services, Pediatric Care and Maternity and Newborn Care. When you add in guarantees against annual and lifetime caps, as well as protections against being exclude from coverage due to preexisting conditions, and you've got a healthcare plan worth fighting for. Anything less is no longer acceptable. Whether America considers itself great or exceptional, it should be able to deliver what lesser nations have.
The Affordable Healthcare Act, with its 10 Essential Health Benefits is what universal/single-payer healthcare in all other industrialized nations looks like and it's working just fine. Perhaps the ACA, aka Obama-care, could be made to work as well as it does in Europe and Canada, but we all know it's being sabotaged by forces loyal to the insurance industry. In every universal healthcare delivery model we studied, the cost for services and prescription drugs were lower and the outcomes are better. That's just a fact. So the question to be answered is, how much longer can so-called moderate Democrats get away with telling their constituents universal/single-payer healthcare is not possible, viable or practical?
Bottom line: As Hillary Clinton travels the nation on her book tour to blame the Russians, James Comey, sexism and misogyny, Wikileaks and Bernie Sanders for HER loss, one has to wonder, if she'd embraced the universal/single-payer healthcare concept, could she have been the first female President of the United States? Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton talked about universal/single-payer healthcare as though it was no more than a socialists' wet dream. And that should be a lesson to anyone planning a run for the White House in 2020. For Progressives, Independents and thinking Democrats, Healthcare is the latest political litmus test. Podcast below.
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