Comments on: Yes, Obama Campaigned on a Public Option

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:00:31 +0000

yes, that’s basically how all the other countries [except us] — france, japan, switzerland, canada, younameit — keep health care affordable: the govt imposes hefty price controls. and the providers [and insurers, if present] are almost entirely non-profit.

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:56:13 +0000

“a) a lucid explanation of why our healthcare (NOT insurance) costs are so much higher than comparable countries’?” –

In France, which has the best health care in the world and universal health coverage, the government (taxpayers) pays for about 70 percent of a person’s medical care (the rest being paid out of pocket or through private health insurance). Costs are held in check by the government, which sets how much a doctor or a dentist can charge (with some exceptions), how much hospitals can charge, the price of drugs, etc.

I would guess that it’s these cost controls — and a completely different philosophy towards life and the value of money — that enables the French government to cover everyone while spending only slightly more per capita on health than the U.S. government — $3,139 compared to $3,076, according to the latest WHO statistics. In fact, the U.S. government spends a higher percent of its budget on health care than France – 19.3 percent compared to 16.7 for the French government, which nevertheless pays 79.7 percent of all healthcare expenditures of its citizens compared to 45.8 for the U.S. government. And still, despite spending so relatively little, France manages to have more doctors and double the number of hospital beds per capita than the U.S.

And, I would add, French doctors, along with everyone else, live pretty well.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:15:37 +0000

But we’re not talking about socialized medicine in the sense of making health care providers government salarymen and women. Outside of the UK and Canada, they’re not; they are independent professionals

canada does NOT have socialized medicine.

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:37:55 +0000

It’s not going to be easy to walk that one back without completely demoralizing the base and potentially suppressing 2010 turnout just like the passage of NAFTA did in ~~2004~~ 1994.

Thank you!

The Big Myth of 1994 is that The Dems Were Punished For Being Too Liberal. The problem, as Jane points out, is that Clinton started beating up on the base from Day One and expected them to take it with a smile.

By: Jeff Kaye

Jeff Kaye — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:50:56 +0000

He means “disruptive” to the bloated insurance companies, and to the rest of the greedy ancillary companies that feed off of the health care industry, who may fear greater control or preemption.

By: Jyrinx

Jyrinx — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:37:16 +0000

Ooh! Yes, that wins.

By: pmorlan

pmorlan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:33:36 +0000

Humana doesn’t own hospitals. They sold off their hospitals in the early 1990s. They are a health insurance company.

By: pmorlan

pmorlan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:30:47 +0000

And of course preventive detention is not too radical for Obama.

By: Blub

Blub — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:47:51 +0000

I gotta say that I kind of like MoveOn’s spin in their petition campaign.

“Pass President Obama’s plan, including a strong public health insurance option.”

Basically, they seem to be taking the tack that they are free to interpret what the president said in their own way, and they’re insisting that he really meant to say that he wants progressives to demand a strong PO. Positive spin. And they’re going to act accordingly. Works for me.

By: masslib

masslib — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:42:11 +0000

My point is I’m not particularly impressed with passing the plan the insurers largely drew up in 2007.