Common Dreams has a great story here about
New York which of course is my state.
"Single Payer Success in New York as Medicare-for-All Bill Passes State Assembly."
The New York State Assembly is leading the way with
the only kind of health care bill that will put
people before profits.
So... uh... Here's what they say
The New York Health Act would afford
all state residents access to
comprehensive in patient and outpatient care,
primary and preventative care,
prescription drugs, behavioral health services, laboratory testing, and rehabilitative care,
as well as dental, vision, and hearing coverage. Wow!
There would be no premiums, deductibles, or co pays;
the plan would be funded through progressively raised taxes,
including a surcharge that would be split 80/20
between employers and employees.
As Salon's Amanda Marcotte wrote earlier this month,
the legislation's lead sponsor,
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, says
"almost all New Yorkers would pay less than they currently do
because they would be able to replace their current plans
with this more affordable state based plan."
Furthermore, Marcotte reported:
Gerald Friendman, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, agreed.
In 2015 he wrote an analysis of the proposed bill and concluded that
a single-payer system would save money across the board
by reducing health care spending.
"One advantage is that a single payer plan
will allow providers to economize on the costs of handling the billing
and insurance related expenses," Friedman argued.
Previous incarnations of the bill have passed the lower chamber multiple times,
only to not be picked up for consideration by the state Senate.
This time it could be different.
Now they say that because they're only two votes short of it passing
and apparently there's a few elections or special elections that are gonna happen where
the person who's the overwhelming favorite is in favor of the bill.
So... it might happen soon dog.
I mean New York passed, albeit, a flawed bill
but it's a free college bill.
4 year free college bill.
And it might lead the way on single payer here as well
I know California is very close as well.
National Nurses United doing a fantastic job there.
Um...
I think it's great.
And by the way I would immediately you know
stop buying this shitty private insurance I have.
I've explained to you guys my problem
One time they didn't... I had the bill on autopay
they didn't fucking deduct it at the right time and I like
lost insurance there was a lapse in the insur... what the fu...
If I... what happened if I had a heart attack or some shit in this gap?
What then?
Up, up you go bankrupt. What are you gonna do?
What the fuck is that?
And through no fault of my own it's on fucking autopay
it's supposed to deduct every time on that date
and it didn't... uh whoops insurance gone.
What is this bullshit?
And then I love the
oh pay me every month and then when something happens it's cool
but you gotta cover the first like five grand.
Then why the fuck am I paying you?
What is this?
So it's just oh I'm so tired of the
rapacious for profit private health insurance middlemen, they're sharks.
I don't need them. Why do I need you?
I pay you to maybe cover me when something happens when...
No we should have a single payer healthcare system.
It comes directly out of your taxes.
It's such a no brainer man.
And they said "Oh, no deductibles, no copays, no premiums, no nothing."
Taxes raised a little bit on the wealthiest
and boom everybody gets their coverage.
You can't beat it.
Now here's the only potential downside
We saw this happen in I think it was Vermont.
Vermont passed a single payer system and there was so much pressure
from big pharma and the private health insurance companies, and the medical companies that...
they buckled.
The governor...and they were like oh, never mind we're not doing this.
What the... what do you mean?
We can't... we can't do it.
Because my guess is
the big companies that have a stranglehold all across the country and on the federal government
they said look if you do that, then we'll just jack up your prices.
We'll just make you pay double... triple what other people pay for medicine,
we'll make you pay more for you know whatever, everything
So we're just not gonna let you do it,
we're just gonna prevent you from doing it.
So you could run into that roadblock as well
but if California goes and New York goes I mean some...
Those are powerhouse states economically.
I mean if they go and it's successful
it's a matter of time until all the blue states get it done.
I'm in favor of two different ways of doing it:
You could, at a federal level,
either say we're gonna do a... you know
a national health insurance system medicare for all system
Or what you could do is
you could mandate by law that each individual state
sets up their own... um... single payer healthcare system
So you have 50 smaller single payer systems
as well as one large single payer system
I'm fine with either one of those
You want... so they often talk about bipartisanship and negotiation.
There's a compromise that progressives can be fine with
because you're still getting a single payer system.
So... you know they say "Well, no we needed to compromise down to a public option
then from the public option to Mitt Romney's plan,
an individual mandate plan
which keeps the for profit private healthcare companies in control."
No that's a compromise I am not in favor of.
What I am in favor of is:
Okay you don't want to do a giant national singe payer system, fine.
Let's have a law that says each individual state
has to set up their own single payer system
That would be fine by me
that's a compromise I can get behind I'm in favor of either one
But New York is having some initiative here
along with California and hopefully it really passes in
one state or the other or both
and then it's a domino effect.