Rand Paul compares nationalized health care to forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union

[SueEllenRules!]

Rand Paul Just Compared Nationalized Health Care To 'The Gulag'
U.S. senator said nationalized healthcare is like forced labor camps.

• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made an argument on Tuesday that sounded a whole lot like support for a nationalized health insurance system. But when “OutFront” host Erin Burnett called him on it, Rand not only backtracked, he compared national health care to forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union.
• Paul said buying insurance as an individual was expensive, but suggested allowing individuals to join group policies to “get a way out of that individual conundrum.” A “big group” he said, had the “leverage to demand” more complete coverage at lower prices.
• “So why not go for the biggest group of all and just have insurance for everybody?” Burnett asked.
• “Socialism’s not a good idea,” Paul responded. “Socialism’s an utter failure.”
• He then pointed out the problems in Venezuela, a socialist nation that is currently suffering an economic collapse.
• “But you did just make a great argument for nationalized health care,” Burnett said. “You said ‘the bigger the group, the lower the cost,’ so all I’m taking is your argument to its logical conclusion.”
• Paul wanted nothing to do with that one.
• “I was talking about voluntary groups,” he said. “Not the gulag.”

Rand Paul Just Compared Nationalized Health Care To 'The Gulag' - HuffPost
https://apple.news/ACcyECHcbRvuCOZ0XO1TwuA

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Warren Buffett Makes The Case For Single-Payer Health Care
One government insurer would be "more effective" at controlling costs, the billionaire says.

• Billionaire investor Warren Buffett expressed support for adopting a single-payer health care system on Monday, arguing that it would likely do a better job of controlling runaway costs.
• In an interview on “PBS NewsHour,” host Judy Woodruff asked Buffett, a longtime Democratic donor, how the United States should address the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
• Buffett qualified his comments by claiming that health care policy was “way outside [his] circle of competence.”
• “With my limited knowledge, I think that [single payer] probably is the best system,” Buffett said.
• Buffett’s support for a single-payer health care system, in which one government insurer covers the entire country, was based on the current system’s failure to keep rising health care costs in check. He noted that health care costs have risen exponentially as a share of the economy in the past four decades, holding back the competitiveness of U.S. businesses far more than taxes have.
• “In almost every field of American business, it pays to bring down costs,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of people involved in the medical, the whole ― just the way the ecosystem works ― that there is no incentive to bring down costs.”
• A single-payer system would likely “be more effective” at reducing those costs, he concluded.
• There is abundant evidence to back up Buffett’s argument. Medicare, a single-payer system for America’s seniors and disabled workers, has a far better record of containing costs than do private insurers. Among other reasons, that’s because Medicare does not need to fund a marketing budget or compensate shareholders and executives.
• The United States, virtually alone among developed nations without a universal single-payer system, has by far the world’s highest per-person health care costs ― and based on many key criteria, it nonetheless has worse outcomes.
• Buffett, chairman and CEO of the conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway, had already voiced support for single payer in May. His deputy, Republican Charlie Munger, had earlier supported single payer.
• But the comments from the investor nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha are drawing more attention this time around thanks to their timing.
• Senate Republicans have been struggling to obtain majority support for their Obamacare repeal bill, particularly after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its analysis Monday estimating that the bill would result in 22 million fewer people having health insurance over the next 10 years. On Tuesday, amid rising defections, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) canceled plans for a vote to advance the legislation until after the July 4 recess.
• With the prospect of Obamacare repeal looming, however, rank-and-file Democrats are warming to the idea of single-payer health insurance. Fifty-two percent of Democrats now support it, compared with 43 percent in January and 33 percent as recently as 2014, according to a Pew Research survey that came out last week.
• For their part, Democratic leaders in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have yet to take up the single-payer mantle. (In May, Pelosi said that she supports the policy in principle but that individual states should take it up first, because the American public is not yet comfortable with the idea.)
• The party’s progressive titans are starting to come around, however. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave her most full-throated remarks to date endorsing single payer on Tuesday, calling on her fellow Democrats to embrace the cause. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has long advocated for a “Medicare for all” system and has announced plans to unveil legislation for it in the Senate. A companion bill in the House that has already been introduced has the support of a majority of the House Democratic Caucus.

Warren Buffett Makes The Case For Single-Payer Health Care - HuffPost
https://apple.news/ACSjd7716S5eEPO8Gm8JBvQ

 

[Frank Underwood]

• “Socialism’s not a good idea,” Paul responded. “Socialism’s an utter failure.”

Yes, because police, fire departments, public schools, public roads, the postal system, etc. have all been an "utter failure." Funny how they never mention these things or the military in relation to socialism.

• For their part, Democratic leaders in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have yet to take up the single-payer mantle. (In May, Pelosi said that she supports the policy in principle but that individual states should take it up first, because the American public is not yet comfortable with the idea.)

Pelosi is full of shit, and is an example of why I hate corporate Democrats as much as Republicans. Polls show the majority of Americans are ready for single payer healthcare. But then you get corporatists like Pelosi saying Obamacare is to the left of medicare for all, which is incredibly false. Medicare for all covers everybody, while Obamacare left 29 million people uninsured. Which plan is more leftist again? For those struggling to afford their premiums, Obama's solution was to budget better by cutting down on your cable and cell phone bills. That's literally a Republican talking point he was using. We couldn't even get the public option, while Obama conveniently received $20 million from the healthcare industry in 2008. Dianne Feinstein and Hillary Clinton are also prominent Democrats who reject single payer while receiving money from the healthcare industry.

See the pattern here? Pelosi said "It isn't helpful to tinkle all over the Affordable Care Act right now," even though it paved the way for Trumpcare. The ACA had previously been the healthcare plan supported by Republicans, so Obama's implementation of it forced Republicans to move further right. Thus, their new plan practically doubles the number of uninsured, removes protections for pre-existing conditions, and guts Medicaid.

The moderate wing is killing the Democratic Party. The party needs more leaders like Warren and Sanders.

 

[Frank Underwood]

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