Socialized Medicine is the Standard for the Civilized World

[NiftyNiblick]

Legion doesn't want me to post on his "single payer" thread, so fuck him.

I don't know if Legion gets around much or not, but I do know this:

I've never met a Western European who would trade his/her healthcare system for ours.
Not one.
And I've met a pretty fair number of Western Europeans.

Especially the Brits. They don't have public payment of private services which is what we call "single payer."
They have actual public health services. The National Health Service.
That one feature alone--
despite their mediocre food compared to ours,
and their stupid "footy" (soccer) instead of baseball--

that one feature alone puts them light years ahead of us.

The United States are the most socially regressive developed country in Western Civilization.

 

[kudzu]

Legion doesn't want me to post on his "single payer" thread, so fuck him.

I don't know if Legion gets around much or not, but I do know this:

I've never met a Western European who would trade his/her healthcare system for ours.
Not one.
And I've met a pretty fair number of Western Europeans.

Especially the Brits. They don't have public payment of private services which is what we call "single payer."
They have actual public health services. The National Health Service.
That one feature alone--
despite their mediocre food compared to ours,
and their stupid "footy" (soccer) instead of baseball--

that one feature alone puts them light years ahead of us.

The United States are the most socially regressive developed country in Western Civilization.

Don't call it socialized medicine. It makes them crazy. The only socialized medicine in the US is the VA and it not only terrible, its the most expensive healthcare..

Private delivery-single payer does work very well.

 

[Cypress]

@ post 1.

I believe you would be actually amazed at how many rightwing message board posters are on Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare.
I suspect most of them you would have to drag kicking and screaming off their socialized medicine.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Since I first got on the Innernetz in the early 90s, I have met ppl from all over the world. I have yet to discuss healthcare delivery systems with any non-American who wanted to swap his/hers for what we have -- and that was before we have the jacked up mess that we have now.

Tomorrow I enter the world of "socialized medicine" -- my Medicare benefits start on August 1. I'll let you know how that works out. I have a feeling it's going to be a hell of a lot better than what we both had (as single ppl and as a married couple) in the last 10+ years.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

@ post 1.

I believe you would be actually amazed at how many rightwing message board posters are on Medicare or Medicaid.
I suspect most of them you would have to drag kicking and screaming of their socialized medicine.

I wouldn't be surprised at all. One of my husband's RWNJ kinfolk used to rage on FB about moochers and slackers and welfare queens -- while accepting unemployment benefits, SNAP, Medicaid, and whatever Illinois' version of welfare cash payments is. After his bennies ran out and he was forced to get a paying job, he ranted about the taxes being withheld from his paycheck to support those same moochers and slackers. We got screen shots. LOL

 

[Cypress]

Since I first got on the Innernetz in the early 90s, I have met ppl from all over the world. I have yet to discuss healthcare delivery systems with any non-American who wanted to swap his/hers for what we have -- and that was before we have the jacked up mess that we have now.

Tomorrow I enter the world of "socialized medicine" -- my Medicare benefits start on August 1. I'll let you know how that works out. I have a feeling it's going to be a hell of a lot better than what we both had (as single ppl and as a married couple) in the last 10+ years.

Welcome to Medicare! And thank you, LBJ!

I actually have never met an older person who wanted to give up their Medicaid in exchange for some private insurance on the free market. When you think about it, private insurance companies can't even make money on old people, absent some kind of government effort to subsidize it. That was how I believe LBJ got private insurance companies to accept Medicare.

 

[kudzu]

Since I first got on the Innernetz in the early 90s, I have met ppl from all over the world. I have yet to discuss healthcare delivery systems with any non-American who wanted to swap his/hers for what we have -- and that was before we have the jacked up mess that we have now.

Tomorrow I enter the world of "socialized medicine" -- my Medicare benefits start on August 1. I'll let you know how that works out. I have a feeling it's going to be a hell of a lot better than what we both had (as single ppl and as a married couple) in the last 10+ years.

Medicare is fine.. I have been on it for awhile.

 

[Cypress]

I wouldn't be surprised at all. One of my husband's RWNJ kinfolk used to rage on FB about moochers and slackers and welfare queens -- while accepting unemployment benefits, SNAP, Medicaid, and whatever Illinois' version of welfare cash payments is. After his bennies ran out and he was forced to get a paying job, he ranted about the taxes being withheld from his paycheck to support those same moochers and slackers. We got screen shots. LOL

What it really comes down to is that Reichwingers do not want underserving, "lazy" black people to use government funded services.
When you hear Republicans complain about Democratic voters voting "to get free stuff", that is exactly what they are talking about.

If you dig deep enough, it all comes down to racial resentment. And that is exactly the dynamic our corporate overlords have figured out how to play since the days of Bedtime for Bonzo.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

What it really comes down to is that Reichwingers do not want underserving, "lazy" black people to use government funded services.
When you hear Republicans complain about Democratic voters voting "to get free stuff", that is exactly what they are talking about.

If you dig deep enough, it all comes down to racial resentment. And that is exactly the dynamic our corporate overlords have figured out how to play since the days of Bedtime for Bonzo.

I know it has much to do with race. L.'s IRL and FB friends were like him -- rural white boys. They used to compare tips on his FB page about how to get a job, work the minimum required amount of time to qualify for unemployment, then contrive to get laid off! Yes, I have screenshots. In addition, because our last names are the same and he lived (for free) on my mother-in-law's property, the mail got mixed up when she went in a nursing home for dementia. We used to get L.'s mail at times -- including debt collectors wanting him to pay his cell phone bill, official State of Illinois Medicaid and Family Services letters, doctor's bills, etc. But all the time, they were bitching about all those "Chicago peeps" -- aka black ppl -- and how Obama was "giving them free stuff and we gotta fight for what we got."

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Medicare is fine.. I have been on it for awhile.

My late husband was as well. Despite his various medical issues and very expensive care, we never had much quibble about either the quality of care or the payment of the bills.

 

[Fentoine Lum]

@ post 1.

I believe you would be actually amazed at how many rightwing message board posters are on Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare.
I suspect most of them you would have to drag kicking and screaming off their socialized medicine.

Seems to be ok for the military we all love, admire and support.

 

[Cypress]

I know it has much to do with race. L.'s IRL and FB friends were like him -- rural white boys. They used to compare tips on his FB page about how to get a job, work the minimum required amount of time to qualify for unemployment, then contrive to get laid off! Yes, I have screenshots. In addition, because our last names are the same and he lived (for free) on my mother-in-law's property, the mail got mixed up when she went in a nursing home for dementia. We used to get L.'s mail at times -- including debt collectors wanting him to pay his cell phone bill, official State of Illinois Medicaid and Family Services letters, doctor's bills, etc. But all the time, they were bitching about all those "Chicago peeps" -- aka black ppl -- and how Obama was "giving them free stuff and we gotta fight for what we got."

Bingo. Well, there you go.
Resentment at the social welfare state all comes down to racial resentment, no matter how many policy papers CATO institute and National Review try to trot out.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Bingo. Well, there you go.
Resentment at the social welfare state all comes down to racial resentment, no matter how many policy papers CATO institute and National Review try to trot out.

The stupid thing was in L.'s case there was no need for resentment. I don't know about his hick friends, but L. has a four-year degree from the Univ. of Illinois in engineering mgmt., so it's not like he was unemployed except willfully.

 

[Fentoine Lum]

Bingo. Well, there you go.
Resentment at the social welfare state all comes down to racial resentment, no matter how many policy papers CATO institute and National Review try to trot out.

If we had taken the $21T the Pentagon cannot account for spending between 1998 and 2015, and had invested that in society instead, we might have had a much healthier society at this point. But I guess there ain't no money in that for the proper folk. Eight endless wars now and they still foment more.

 

[Cypress]

The stupid thing was in L.'s case there was no need for resentment. I don't know about his hick friends, but L. has a four-year degree from the Univ. of Illinois in engineering mgmt., so it's not like he was unemployed except willfully.

Crazy Trumpian times we live in.

I believe that was how FDR, Huey Long, and other progressive populists maintained popularity in the south. The jobs programs, the rural electrification, the social welfare programs, the infrastructure initiatives of the New Deal overwhelmingly benefited working class southern whites. It was only when LBJ extended the social welfare state in the 1960s to provide nominal benefit to people with brown skin that southern whites tossed their lot in with the GOP.

 

[Nordberg]

If we got universal healthcare we would eliminate the VA, Medicare, Medicaid and the money we pay to insurance companies. Other countries get universal coverage for half our price and have better overall healthcare. The money exists, but is misallocated. It would not have to cost us more . But the insurance companies, hospitals and doctors would want their cuts. Our health costs is what you get if you allow those making the money to set prices. They will demand the same money they are making now.