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Democracy Under Assault
Theopolitics, Incivility and Violence on the Right

Michele Swenson

Walker Stapleton is Wrong - Single Payer is NOT "government takeover of healthcare"

July 9, 2018

Michele Swenson

Colorado gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton is among Republicans who characterize single payer health insurance as a "government takeover of healthcare” or "socialized medicine." Social insurance is "socialized" by definition - each insurance provides coverage for a group of individuals who pay premiums to belong to the same "risk pool" – the larger the risk pool, the more economically sustainable and the lower the premiums.

Health insurance is not to be confused with health care delivery, which is not socialized in the U.S. (except the VA model). Generally, U.S.health care, including original Medicare, is obtained from any private or public provider. Only the original Medicare single-payer model offers full choice of public and private providers. Whereas, the U.S. model of multiple private insurers continually shrink their provider networks in order to cut costs, thereby, limiting provider choices.

Faux "Health Reform" shifts cost and risk to the insured

Republicans' vaunted plan to "repeal and replace" the ACA has gone nowhere, because there is "no there there" – no proposal for sustainable policy; only a disjointed set of proposals such as state block grants, to decrease benefits and shift ever more risk and cost to the insured, while prioritizing greater profits for corporate insurers.

Health care does not even merit mention on Stapleton's website. He has stated a preference for taking his young children when sick to a "Community Health Clinic"in a supermarket, where the cost is a "$10-$15 copay" rather than a "six or seven times" higher cost billed by an insurance company. Clinics have a place, but not as access to comprehensive health care. Acknowledging that too many Coloradans pay "more for health insurance than for their mortgages," Stapleton does not propose a means to access health care for the many who are left hanging out to dry.

Multiple Commercial Insurances vs. Actuarially-Sound Single-Risk-Pool Health Insurance

Republicans promote "free-market" health care in the form of multiple commercial insurances, including "high-risk" and reinsurance pools - all small risk pools that drive up premium costs. A "public option" or "Medicare buy-in" proposed by some Democrats also represent additional small risk pools operating in a sea of multi-payer private insurances.

Note: A state-proposed single-payer plan also equates to a relatively small risk pool insurance. Only a single large risk pool at the federal level can leverage the economy of scale to provide comprehensive universal health insurance, negotiate bulk medicine rates, and utilize global budgets.

Ultimately, multiple-payer insurances represent an inefficient, fragmented, dysfunctional model that minimizes coverage, while maximizing premiums, deductibles, co-pays and corporate profits. Commercial insurance middlemen practicing "denial management" delay and deny health care to benefit their bottom line. Not uncommonly, commercial insurances have slashed membership numbers in order to increase profits, as <a href=" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/04/aetna-forcing-600000-plus_n_380130.html"target="_blank>Aetna</a> did in 2009, forcing 600,000-plus members from its rolls to boost profits, placing shareholders' interests above the insured.

Advocating that health insurance be relegated to states in the form of limited Medicaid block grants, <a href="http://www.cpr.org/news/story/out-of-the-gate-governor-candidates-stapleton-and-polis-start-making-their-case"target="_blank> Stapleton</a> has vowed to fight the expansion of Medicaid. Nevertheless, all areas of the economy do better when all people have access to health care. The benefits of Medicaid expansion have been reported in states like Colorado, where reduction of uncompensated care has <a href="https://familiesusa.org/product/medicaid-expansion-and-rural-hospital-closures"target="_blank> stabilized rural economies</a> especially, contributing to job growth and permitting hospitals and clinics to remain open.

Stapleton calls for "catastrophic" health insurance for the young, who are ostensibly healthy. Rather than providing single risk pool coverage according to need, covered by progressive payment, the gamble is that the young won't require health care, meriting only catastrophic insurance that too often includes prohibitive copays and deductibles that lead to medical bankruptcy.

Single Risk Pool Insurance: Heatlh care as a right, not a commodity

Based on actuarially sound insurance principles, a single large risk pool public national health insurance based on improved Medicare for all, is the most fiscally sound, sustainable health insurance model, providing the ultimate diversification of risk, while lowering premiums and overall costs and covering everyone for all necessary health care.

Original Medicare's overhead costs amount to 1 to 2 percent, contrasted with average 20 percent overhead of U.S. private insurances, which siphon 31 percent of each health care dollar for administrative costs. Dozens of studies over decades have demonstrated <a href="http://www.pnhp.org/sites/default/files/Funding%20HR%20676_Friedman_7.31.13_proofed.pdf"target="_blank> savings over $400 billion annually</a> with single payer health insurance, enough to cover the uninsured and supplement the underinsured.

Reminder to Mr. Stapleton: Of the five health reform plans evaluated by the Colorado 208 Commission report in 2008, only one plan was found to save costs and cover everyone - the <a href="http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/january/evaluation-of-colorado-blue-ribbon-commission-for-health-care-reform-final-recomme"target="_blank> Single Payer Plan</a> was evaluated to save the state almost $1.4 billion annually, with savings shared across all segments of the economy.

When addressing health insurance reform, too many state and congressional leaders remain in thrall to their corporate funders, even as they supersede the good of the people. Rather than moving toward improved, expanded Medicare for all, many in Washington have moved to privatized Medicare Advantage plans that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers and intended to increase private insurance profits.

Government-of-the-Highest-Bidder

Walker Stapleton is Wrong - Single Payer is NOT "government takeover of healthcare" Colorado gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton is among Republicans who characterize single payer health insurance as a "government takeover of healthcare” or "socialized medicine." Social insurance is "socialized" by definition - each insurance

Washington, Media & Lloyd Blankfein Corporate Elite to the People: "Let Them Eat Cat Food." The budget deficit narrative continues to facilitate evermore wealth transfer upward, even as corporate media and CEOs fail to relate to people with less than $250,000 income, the newly-defined "middle class."

Tyranny of Plutocracy: Holding People Hostage Over a Fiscal & Climate Cliff Corporate plutocrats who have bought government write policy to benefit their bottom lines, even as the people and the planet pay for their greed.

Debate This: False Deficit Narrative Perpetuates Wealth Redistribution Upward Washington consensus holds that $4 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthy over the previous decade will be paid for by spending cuts affecting the working/poor over the next decade, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Clean, Sustainable Energy vs. Fracking Colorado The "Halliburton Loophole," inserted into energy legislation by former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney in 2005, created an unprecedented oil and gas industry exemption from 8 federal health and safety laws, including the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

Republicans (& Some Democrats): Killing Medicare to "Save It" Washington & Corporate media have embraced the deficit narrative, prioritizing reducing the deficit over creating jobs, and slashing entitlements over fair taxation of the rich, resulting in a $4 trillion wealth shift upward.

Two-Party Economic Betrayal of Working Class: The Need for a Progressive Grassroots Campaign Washington is broken, purposefully derailed by big-money, accelerating the growing disparity of wealth and the destruction of democracy, disenfranchising the masses.

Washington Disconnect Perpetuates Wealth Shift Upward Washington dialogue is misdirected toward deficit reduction, instead of job creation, portending a worsening economy and unemployment.

Obama dealing away Democratic Party principles, complicit with Republican race t A historical perspective of manipulation of U.S. economy and the faux deficit crisis to shift wealth upward.

America held hostage to two-party failure: government of, by and for the corporations" There is no correlation between those who have driven the U.S. economic crisis and those required to pay the price. The fake deficit ceiling crisis provides cover to shift evermore wealth upward while cutting domestic programs and wages.

The Great Wealth Shift Upwards: Corporatists' War on the Working Class "Balancing the budget" and "deficit reduction" are code for shifting benefits of government spending to corporations and Wall St., away from workers, as corporatism has steadily gained dominance and subverted democracy...

The Urgency of Toxic Coal Ash Regulation and The Move to Clean Energy Toxic coal ash remains unregulated two years after the largest U.S. industrial spill. 7 EPA hearings in September 2010 take testimony requesting strong federal regulation. European countries lead U.S. in conversion to safer clean energy.

"Counterfeit Public Option Holds Americans Hostage to Inflationary Private Insurance Costs Contrary to promised competition, so-called 'Public Option' will likely be run by private insurane companies.

'Public Option' a Shadow of Its Original Intent - Dr. Marcia Angell Advises Optional Medicare Buy-In The 'public option' has been effectively neutered. Legislators should adopt optional Medicare buy-in as the health care reform public option.

The Tyranny of Wall St.-Run Health Care: No CEO Left Behind Health insurance bureaucrats make multi-millions by prioritizing stakeholders over policy holders and dropping the higher risk.

Blue Dogs Should Demand CBO Report of Single Payer Savings 'Blue Dog' Democrats expressing concern for deficit reduction should demand the Congressional Budget Office report on the substantial savings with a single-payer system -- estimated at $400 billion annually.

Bizarro World of Health Care Reform: Standing Language On Its Head The health care reform debate has been short-circuited and distorted by corporate interests, exacerbated by failure of media to question corrupted language.

Democrats Start With Compromise on Health Care Reform Rather than make the best case for Health Care Reform, Democrats started the reform debate with a poorly defined compromise position.

Dems & Repubs on Health Care: 'Love a Lobbyist' K Street lobbyists continue to wield inordinate financial influence over Congress, and remain at the center of discussions regarding health care reform.

'Sick Around the World': Contrasting U.S. Health Care with 5 Other Capitalist Countries Documentary by journalist T.R. Reid contrasts U.S. profit-centered health insurance with health care in Japan, Great Britain, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland, where they spend half as much and have better health outcomes.

Corporate Profit Continues to Define Health Care Reform & the U.S. Race to the Bottom Corporate framing prevails in the health care reform debate, as the profit-first insurance-pharmaceutical industrial complex holds the megabucks and the megaphone.

Frequently Asked Questions about Single-Payer Health Care Contrasted with the current "Free-Market" health care model only a Single-Payer model of "public payer, private provider" offers comprehensive coverage & true choice of providers and hospitals, as well as cost-savings for all, including businesses.

Why Not a 'Bailout' That Restructures Health Care to Benefit All? Real health care reform would provide immediate economic relief for all - for families, individuals, and small and large businesses. General Motors is not alone in carrying a large burden of rising health costs for retirees - city, state and federal

Like Wall Street, Current Health Care Policy Privatizes Profit and Socializes Risk The U.S. network of over 1200 private for-profit health insurances is fragmented and cost-ineffective, resulting in greater costs and risks shifted to families and individuals as out-of-pocket costs rise and coverage declines.

The New Gilded Age: Survival-of-the-Fittest Capitalism Generates Bad Policy
e.g., Medicare Prescription Drug Reform Grover Norquist and other architects of the K-Street Project, defunding the left, and tax cuts for the rich are key actors of the New Gilded Age in America.

Losing Democracy in Inches Efforts by conservatives to privatize all public services, eliminate taxes and create economic chaos in order to usher in a U.S. theocracy.

U.S. Health Care Reform -- Corporatize or Nationalize? The drive to privatize for profit Medicare, Medicaid, and all health care. Government-of-the-highest bidder ushers in the medical-industrial complex.

Unsurance: Growing numbers of underinsured in the U.S. Corporatized health care, driven by private insurance companies numbering over 1200 in the U.S., are abandoning the insurance principle of shared risk in favor of individualized risk that increases health and financial risk.

Big Lobbies Control U.S. Health Care Insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies hold U.S. hostage -- the unsuccessful attempt in Minnesota to regulate health insurance

The illusion of 'free-market' health care Proponents of privatizing everything for profit, ignore the failure of the market place to control health care costs, as profit-centered health insurances game the system to inflate their bottom line at the expense of health care access.

Why commercial health insurance no longer works Profit is a perverse incentive for health care - insuring the healthy and denying those who need care as 'pre-existing conditions.'

January 15, 2008 Report on long wait lines at U.S. Emergency Rooms Constrasted with other industrialized nations with overall better health outcomes, NPR reports on particularly long wait lines for health care at U.S. emergency rooms.

Needed: The political will to overcome the influence of the insurance lobby in order to achieve meaningful health care reform Just as the insurance lobby wrote Medicare Part D, prescription drug reform with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated profits to benefit their bottom line, so, too, do they continue to write the script for U.S. health care reform.

U.S. Conference of Mayors passes resolution in support of national health care, HR 676 Read the resolution overwhelmingly adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors at their annual meeting June 20-24, 2008

Failure of U.S. profit-centered health insurance The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that treats health as a commodity, and operates its health system like a car dealership

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Democracy Under Assault Theopolitics, Incivility and Violence on the Right

Government-of-the-Highest-Bidder

Democracy Under Assault
Theopolitics, Incivility and Violence on the Right