we need single payer national health insurance to control costs. to get people out of our emergency rooms for illnesses treatable in doctors' offices.
This is the ignorance you keep spewing, but it doesn't stand up to logic. How do you figure cost will be controlled if the federal government is obliged to pay for your health care? Can you give me ANY example of something our government HAS to provide us with, which they do less expensively than it could be done in the private sector? Most corporations drool at the prospect of a government contract, because the money is very good... you can charge $500 for hammers and such... programs estimated to cost a billion dollars, end up costing a trillion dollars instead, but no big deal, right??? I mean, we somehow SAVE money this way, right???
And while you are lobbying for a "single payer" system, your buddies are coming up with stupid shit for the insurance carriers to pay for, left and right! It's like we are at a cafeteria-style restaurant, where everything on our tray is going to cost something... but liberals think they are at a goddamn smorgasbord, where they can pile up their plate with as much shit as they can, and it's all going to be done for free! You fucktards are insane!
Here's something you really need to try and understand, the government can't make people go to the doctor. Just like there are people now who won't go have a blood pressure screening or diagnostic procedure, there will still be people who will not go to a doctor, even if it's paid for. They will still wait until they are too sick to save, or have to go to an emergency room, or whatever! Changing to a "single payer" system will not change how people behave, it just changes who is obligated to pay.
Again, the example from earlier about the hospital bill and $50 Tylenol... there is a situation where you have a "single payer" system in action... the insurance company is the single payer in that case, the hospital knows the insurance company is obligated to cover 80% of the cost on the Tylenol, so they charge $50... your 20% share is $10, and the insurance company pays $40. But if we had a non-single-payer system, or a system whereby capitalism were allowed to prevail, I suspect competition might drive the price of Tylenol down. If the insurance didn't necessarily cover it, or the patient had other options made available for where to get their Tylenol, maybe the hospital would be forced to maintain some reasonable price for Tylenol? When the options are non-existent, and the hospital knows there is one entity who is obligated to pay, then they can charge whatever they want, and the obligated entity has to pay it, they are obligated... you mandated that. It didn't decrease anything about the cost, it actually drove the cost through the roof, but right now, you really don't care... this is about a political agenda, not saving on health care costs.