Advocates for a single payer health care system in California got a smack in the chops last week when four Democratic state senators abstained from voting on SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act. Under California law the bill can be brought up again through “Reconsideration”, and another vote is expected on Tuesday, January 31st.
There are many who think the refusal of Obama and the Dem Party leadership to fight for a public option in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was the single biggest factor that led to the shellacking we got in November 2010, and I share that view.
Now Democrats in California are poised to make the same mistake as we head toward November 2012. And given the size of California and the scrutiny they’ll be under from progressives all over the country, next Tuesdays vote might well have national ramifications.
You can almost hear Peter, Paul and Mary singing, with a slight change in lyrics. ” Where have all the Democrats gone, long time passing…….. when will they ever learn, when will they eeeever learn.”
Amen and amen. Vermont will lead the way in this with a real single-payer system based on the VA system.
I was at Starbucks the other day hanging out with some guys I see there every week and we got onto the subject of healthcare in America. I raised the point,
“We don’t have a healthcare debate in America, we have a health insurance debate in America.”
One of the guys used to sell insurance wholesale to companies and he agreed. I then asked him,
“As an insurance expert, isn’t it fair to say that the lowest cost insurance comes from the largest possible pool of individuals? I mean, shouldn’t we be advocating for the largest pools of people possible?”
“Yes,” her replied, “that is the way insurance works.”
“Then why,” I wondered, “why don’t we follow the other industrialized nations and implement a single-payer system? Not a UK national healthcare system, mind you, but a single-payer system where wasteful competition between insurance companies is eliminated and hospitals and doctors can streamline their administrative practices to a single system.”
“That’s why I got out of the business,” he said. “I was tired of working in a system that was so fundamentally broken.”
Interesting times we’re living in.
Phil,
Double Amen to you too.
I think it might be worthwhile for the Save Badgercare Coalition to think about morphing into the Badgercare For All Coalition. The best way to save it is to make it available to everyone.