This Senate compromise is beginning to smell

Posted on December 10th, 2009 by ecthompson

doctor patient 2The more I read on this compromise, the less I like it. It is like that stuff I used to get at the fair – cotton candy. It looks interesting. It tastes nice, but in the end it is mostly nothing but air.

From FDL:

I contacted Dr. Ida Hellander, Executive Director of Physicians for a National Health Program, to get her feedback on whether or not PNHP thought lowering the Medicare age to 55 was a good idea. I respect Ida and the PNHP folks a lot, and wanted to see what they thought.

Here is the PNHP Statement:

Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 only works if it is mandatory. Otherwise it becomes the place where all the sickest patients get dumped. That might be okay for the sick people since Medicare is often better and more secure than private coverage, but it would drive total health care costs (and premiums) up, not down.

I know Anthony Weiner is saying that lowering the eligibility “would perhaps get us on the path to a single payer model.” That would be the same Anthony Weiner who pulled his single payer amendment when asked by Leadership to do so, while Bart Stupak got waived through.

We don’t know what the restrictions on access to Medicare will be, so I question why anyone is out there promoting a pig in a poke.

Tags: Healthcare // View Comments

  • ecthompson
    Bob -

    I'm sorry that you had bad experience that doesn't mean that we can't make single payer work. Americans can make government work if we want to. The problem is that conservatives have been beating on government for 30 years and have underfunded the government. They then cry out that government doesn't work. Well, no duh! Conservative have underfunded the government so that it can't work well. They have made sure that the best and the brightest are hired out of government.

    Thanks for your comments.
  • ecthompson
    you are 100% right.
  • ecthompson
    Bob - 

    I'm sorry that you had bad experience that doesn't mean that we can't make single payer work.  Americans can make government work if we want to. The problem is that conservatives have been beating on government for 30 years and have underfunded the government. They then cry out that government doesn't work. Well, no duh! Conservative have underfunded the government so that it can't work well. They have made sure that the best and the brightest are hired out of government. 

    Thanks for your comments.
  • ecthompson
    you are 100% right.
  • libhomo
    If it wasn't for rampant political corruption, we would already have single payer healthcare.
  • libhomo
    If it wasn't for rampant political corruption, we would already have single payer healthcare.
  • Bob McCarty
    After reading your post, I feel compelled to point you and your readers to eight posts (with videos) that I published soon after "crashing" mdash and recording mdash all six of the single-payer power brokers who spoke during the opening session of the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference Nov. 14-15 in St. Louis. Watch those videos and read about the single-payer crowd here, and you'll know what to expect if single-payer becomes a reality. A frightening reality.
  • Bob McCarty
    After reading your post, I feel compelled to point you and your readers to eight posts (with videos) that I published soon after “crashing” — and recording — all six of the single-payer power brokers who spoke during the opening session of the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference Nov. 14-15 in St. Louis. Watch those videos and read about the single-payer crowd here, and you'll know what to expect if single-payer becomes a reality.  A frightening reality.
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