Health ? @ Change.gov: How is Single-Payer faring?

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Thursday January 01, 2009 · 8:18 PM PST

2009/01/01 · 20:18

Over at Change.gov they are taking questions - a LOT of questions. Being interested in the healthcare issue (fortunately you can filter the questions by issue) and a single-payer supporter I thought it might be interesting to see how many questions were pointedly of a single-payer bent.

Before the statistics police arrest me, let me state that this is a completely informal study. Hopefully somebody might be inspired to get a little more scientific about it, I simply don't have the background.

But let's see what I did find, shall we?

tegrat

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Saturday December 20, 2008 · 10:45 AM PST

2008/12/20 · 10:45

HHS secretary nominee (and, perhaps more critically, head of Obama's new White House Office of Health Reform) Tom Daschle is putatively an expert on healthcare issues. Why? He wrote a book! "Critical" is not a big hit with readers, apparently, especially those who are a bit more well-informed. OK, I haven't read the whole thing (I've read plenty of others concerning this issue), but I have an acquaintance who has and is not very impressed with the breadth of his discourse, in particular, the short shrift given to single-payer as an effective solution to the financing of healthcare.

Let's see what our HHS nominee had to say on this critical issue, shall we?

tegrat

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Thursday December 04, 2008 · 10:20 AM PST

2008/12/04 · 10:20

We Americans have a fiercely independent streak (try the google with "uniquely American solution", it's fun!). Even our ~~adversaries~~ fellow Americans over at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) have a take on this phrase. Sometimes it serves our best interests, other times it causes us to fall flat on our faces. Is healthcare reform one of these instances?

This diary entry represents a bit of a departure for me. I try to throw light on concrete issues in the area of single-payer healthcare financing to bring this idea more squarely in front of my fellow Kossacks for discussion and edification (mine and yours). Consider this to be an open thread on a much more speculative plane.

tegrat

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Monday December 01, 2008 · 2:56 PM PST

2008/12/01 · 14:56

Many - I would say a large majority - in the progressive community are supporters of single-payer healthcare financing, and for some of them (myself included) nothing but a nearly pure and unadulterated single-payer system is a viable solution to our current healthcare financing mess.

Others consider themselves to be realists, pragmatists, politically astute, or for whatever reason believe that single-payer, although highly desirable, is a pipe dream at this point in time. The main arguments are that some reform is better than nothing in that at least more people will have coverage, and that the insurance industry is just too powerful to cut out of the picture. It is then suggested that there is some way to fashion a reformed system for financing healthcare that pits private insurers against a public insurance system in such a way that a single-payer system will naturally, over time, evolve and we will have a de facto single-payer system.

Starting with such an "evolving" system is most likely a very bad idea. Why?

tegrat

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Sunday November 23, 2008 · 11:13 AM PST

2008/11/23 · 11:13

I have seen the terms "universal healthcare" and "single-payer healthcare" bandied about with respect to the much anticipated healthcare reform everyone is hoping to be high on the incoming administration's agenda. I am sure a certain number of Kossacks find this terminology confusing and unfamiliar to the point of discomfort, perhaps even averting their eyes from what might otherwise be interesting stuff.

At least some people are no doubt asking themselves "what the hell is single-payer????"

Let's find out, shall we?

tegrat

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Saturday November 15, 2008 · 12:51 PM PST

2008/11/15 · 12:51

There are many plans for health care finance reform floating around lately, most recently the much-ballyhooed Baucus plan, outlined here in his whitepaper, along with Obama's, McCain's, Wyden's, Kennedy's, and others (HR676 is actual legislation). Noticeably absent from these plans is any sort of fiscal analysis. This is understandable, since there is not much meat on those bones (Wyden's has a fairly weak endorsement from the CBO).

Based upon the existing fiscal analysis of SB840 (brief summary pdf), the California Health Insurance Reliability Act (which passed the legislature and was vetoed by governor Schwarzenneger twice) I would like to run some numbers using a real-life situation which illustrates how single-payer is fleshed out in reality, should that day come.

Follow me as we convert Bell-Everman, Inc., a small Californian design and manufacturing firm, from a private insurance benefit plan to single-payer.

tegrat

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Wednesday November 12, 2008 · 10:35 AM PST

2008/11/12 · 10:35

As I have belly-ached about before, there is a serious and dangerous disconnect in the progressive community between the single-payer advocates and the "incrementalists". What is the source of this disconnect? I think a lot of it has to to with a vague notion of "what's possible" vs a more easily defined "what's best". More importantly, what is a possible way to help bridge this divide, or at least a doable step towards getting a better grasp on the best way forward for a more unified movement?

How about finding out what the public really wants?

Poll

22 votes Show Results

I favor

22 votes Vote Now!

I favor

polling the public preference for health care finance reform

12 votes

the above even if we have to raise the money to conduct it

9 votes

staying the course!

1 vote

Regulating Health Insurers: Some Low-Hanging Fruit [update]

tegrat

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Friday October 17, 2008 · 11:27 PM PDT

2008/10/17 · 23:27

I was sitting in the company "library" a few days ago when a copy of the WSJ caught my eye, some story about something techy or other. As I was leafing through this particular section ("Lifestyles" I believe) of this fine newspaper (except for the letters and editorials - gak!), lo and behold, a full page color ad for - Aetna! Wow, they must have dropped a bit of coin for that. I wonder how much?

You might not believe the answer. Suffice it to say that there's a lot of private insurer's money that has somehow wound up, not as health care, but as ink on dead trees.

Full disclosure: I'm a single-payer advocate, and as such have little interest in the regulation of private health insurers other than to get rid of them altogether. They are the problem, not the solution (regulated or not).

But it is certainly worth investigating exactly how much of our dough they are wasting telling us how brilliant they are, isn't it?

Poll

25 votes Show Results

Private health insurer's should

25 votes Vote Now!

Private health insurer's should

suspend all advertising immediately to save US (hopefully) money

5 votes

advertise more to let us know about their wonderful products

1 vote

something else

1 vote

just go away

18 votes

Why Competition Doesn't Work for Health Insurance

tegrat

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Tuesday October 14, 2008 · 10:41 PM PDT

2008/10/14 · 22:41

One of the most confusing aspects of health care reform is the idea that competition amongst private insurers should lead to lower prices, more insured people, and more coverage since these are all things that would presumably attract new customers and retain existing customers - a real winner - on paper. I am quite sure that it stumps people when they hear someone arguing this point (it used to stump me), and in fact I am convinced that more than a few accept it as actually being true, although they may still smell a rat.

To help us all understand at a little deeper level and in a way which will stick in our memory why this is not the case, and can never be the case, I invite you to journey with me on a little thought experiment.

Poll

16 votes Show Results

This was

16 votes Vote Now!

This was

helpful

11 votes

confusing

0 votes

a waste of time

1 vote

ok but nothing new to see here

4 votes

Can We Reconcile Health Care for America Now?

tegrat

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Thursday September 18, 2008 · 11:52 PM PDT

2008/09/18 · 23:52

We in the progressive community, or at least those of us concerned with the issue of health care financing - which I hope is all of us - have an enormous disconnect at the moment. As smart people with great ideas, we would like to think that we can provide a unified message regarding the issue of health care financing with maybe a little quibble here and there. In reality there are essentially two divergent messages. Everyone is in agreement that private insurance as we know it is a failure in providing access to health care in any way that anyone might consider to be efficient, equitable, comprehensive, or universal (or palatable, for that matter). The disagreement centers around one key issue: WTF do you do with the private insurers?
One camp says: get rid of them, they serve no useful purpose.
The other camp says: keep them in play, we can't get rid of them (except maybe death by 1000 cuts through regulation) because they are too powerful
Full disclosure: I'm solidly in the first camp - and I've subversively paraphrased the message of the second camp.

Poll

8 votes Show Results

Imagine

8 votes Vote Now!

Imagine

your current health insurance, with no denial of coverage for any reason whatsoever, full dental care, mental care, vision care (including eyeglasses), hearing aids, chiropractic, acupuncture, diagnostic imaging, durable medical equipment, rehab, preventi

8 votes

your current health plan, if you like it

0 votes

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Health ? @ Change.gov: How is Single-Payer faring?

Daschle on Single-Payer: Demonizers Win!

Healthcare Reform: Is "Uniquely American" Killing Us?

Mixed Private/Public Healthcare Financing = Bad Idea

What the Hell is Single-Payer, Anyway?

Single-Payer by the Numbers

Let's Conduct a Poll on Healthcare Finance Reform

Regulating Health Insurers: Some Low-Hanging Fruit [update]

Why Competition Doesn't Work for Health Insurance

Can We Reconcile Health Care for America Now?