So once again the milquetoast Dems that we’ve elected are taking something that is wanted, hell needed by a huge part of the population and squashing it.
Universal healthcare- “it’s too expensive”.
All I can say is- wevs dudes. You haven’t done your fucking homework.
We are spending 16% of GDP on healthcare now. We will be spending 20% in less than 10 years. Our nearest rival in amount of healthcare spending is Switzerland- at 11% (and Switzerland is one of the late comers to universal healthcare, that’s why they are about 3% higher than countries who have had universal healthcare for decades).
Unless we reign in spending on healthcare now, there will be no way to do it in the future. And that means we need politicians to grow the spines we elected them for, stand up to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and institute universal healthcare now. Not later.
And we need somethings that make well funded politicians quiver in their boots. We need real universal healthcare, with everybody on it. Yes- it must be compulsory. You may not need healthcare now, and you don’t want to pay for it. But I can guarantee that at some point in you life, you will have to go to the doctor. It is unfair to everyone else if you get to opt out of the system and then burden it when you’re most expensive. Not just unfair- it breaks the system.
The pols are also going to have institute caps on medical costs and make participation in a national system a requirement for practicing medicine. We have seen, with dental programs for the poor, that if you don’t require participation then you don’t have anyone participate. Perhaps we throw the industry a bone with more student loan forgiveness?
And, maybe the most scary thing, caps on drug costs.
And for the whiners, the “We’ll have to wait forever for appointments” people, the “I don;t want the government picking my doctor” people, I suggest you watch this:
The PBS Series- Sick Around the World. It goes through five capitalist democracies and their health care programs. It’s worth watching the whole thing to dispel all those myths about the horrors of socialized medicine.
Part 1
Links for the rest