“If this bill (Repeal and Replace) fails, there is
only one plan B. It will be a single payer system.”
Wall Street Journal, 3/16/17
My recent video rant against the healthcare insurance industry got 4300 hits, mostly from exposure on BuzzFeed. The original video is 17 minutes, so I made a three-minute summary:
Three-minute version:
Seventeen-minute version:
Main ideas:
- Healthcare (HC) is a right, not a privilege, and should be paid for through taxation.
- HC should not be a for-profit business.
- HC insurance companies make money for their shareholders by charging exorbitant premiums, then denying coverage for serious illness.
- Why do we put up with this? People are not rioting in the streets, or burning down the mansions of the HC insurance executives, because they have been brainwashed into thinking a good way to run this country is for those at the bottom and in the middle to shovel money into the bank accounts of the wealthiest 1% (reverse Robin Hood).
- Sarah Palin’s “death panels” are real, but they’re not in the government. They exist in the HC insurance companies.
- The current HC debate in Washington about repealing the ACA is insane. The HC insurance industry and their congressional lap dogs (Paul Ryan, etc.) are trying to convince us that choice is good, insurance companies losing money is bad, and that everyone should buy insurance. It even gets crazier with thinking like: “Why would young people buy insurance? They don’t need it. Is it right to force them to buy it? Why should men pay for OB/GYN expenses? Why should young people have to pay for the medical expenses of old people?”This is like saying, “Why should good drivers be forced to buy car insurance?”
- Republicans say, “Let the ‘free market’ sort this all out.” This is dog whistle for “Keep the 1% rolling in dough on their private desert islands.” When will we wake up?
They also go nuts over “forcing” people to buy insurance. Really? This happens all the time. It is illegal to drive a car without car insurance. You can’t get a mortgage for your house without fire insurance. Note to republicans: get over it.
- Many people are driven into poverty due to HC costs, especially later in life. Sixty percent of bankruptcies are due to healthcare cost, and most of those people have HC insurance!
- The whole concept of HC insurance is wrong. The entire HC insurance industry needs to be eliminated. Goodbye Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Aetna, Humana and the bunch of them.
To be clear, I am not against insurance per se.- Life insurance = good
- Home insurance = good
- Car insurance = good
- Healthcare insurance = bad and not necessary
- The solution is socialized medicine. The savings from eliminating huge advertising budgets, executive salaries, and shareholder dividends, alone, could bring down costs. Enough of this Ayn Rand “every man for himself” social Darwinism bullshit. Time for us to grow up and join other advanced nations and start taking care of each other. And, yes, the rich will have to give up some of their wealth to take care of the poor. If the elites refuse, watch out!
- Marie Antoinette: “Let them eat cake.” She lost her head.
- Leona Helmsley: “We do not pay taxes. Taxes are for the little people.” She is now rotting in hell.
- History shows us that when the super rich get super greedy, the peasants eventually raise up the tear it all down. Think: American Revolution; French Revolution; Russian Revolution. In the depths of the Great Depression, FDR imposed a 94% tax on the 1% to save capitalism and create The New Deal.If this kind of redistribution does not happen again, there will be tanks in the streets and a bloodbath. As soon as the Army and the police realize they, too, are being screwed, it is all over for the elites. Their gated communities will not protect them. Let’s find a political, and taxation solution. Let’s not have a complete meltdown.
- Under the new system, all Americans would be covered from birth to death by the national HC plan.Employers would no longer be involved. Why should they be? An unnecessary hassle for them. If I own a small business, why should I be responsible for my employees’ health insurance any more than for their car insurance or their home insurance?
- The simplest way to do all this is to reduce the eligibility age for Medicare to zero by using more of our tax dollars for socialized medicine—not for corporate welfare or more military spending. Bye-bye HC insurance industry!