Posted on 03/17/2017 6:48:34 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) is looking at a Canadian style single payer system.
It’s the second time in a month that Manchin has told constituents that he’s looking at a Medicare for all system to replace an unraveling Obamneycare.
Manchin has been clear that he will vote against the emerging Trumpcare/Ryancare that will balloon the ranks of the uninsured from 30 million under Obamneycare to 50 million.
A single payer system would leave zero people uninsured.
Under single payer, every citizen gets a birth certificate and a Medicare card at birth.
The United States pays per capita more than two and a half times more than industrialized countries with single payer systems.
At a town hall meeting in Martinsburg, West Virginia today, more than 200 people jammed the Robert Byrd Science Center.
Almost a quarter of the twenty or so questioners called on Manchin to get behind single payer.
HR 676 – the single payer bill in the House – has 65 co-sponsors. No Senator has introduced a similar bill in the Senate.
And by their reactions to single payer questions, the majority in the room wanted Manchin to sponsor a single payer bill in the Senate.
“I’m studying the whole Canadian system,” Manchin told Dr. Catherine Feaga of Shepherdstown, West Virginia after Dr. Feaga asked Manchin a question about the single payer system. “The Canadian system has better results longevity-wise, more wellness. But boy I tell you one thing. They make you toe the line. They don’t give you everything you want. They don’t give it to you when you want it.”
“Neither does our system,” one person yelled.
“It’s much different what we have today,” Manchin said. “In Canada, if you abuse it, you lose it. They are not going to let you come every day to a doctor.”
“They don’t let you come every day to a doctor here,” yelled another attendee.
“We are open to all of these things,” Manchin responded.
When a citizen challenged Manchin about his corporate contributions affecting how he votes, Manchin said – “money doesn’t affect how I vote.”
“But you have taken close to $300,000 from the pharmaceutical industry and $200,000 from the insurance industry over your career in the Senate,” the questioner said. “Maybe that is the reason why you haven’t introduced a single payer bill in the Senate.”
“Bernie Sanders hasn’t introduced it in the Senate either – why hasn’t Bernie introduced it?” Manchin shot back.
“I don’t know enough about single payer,” Manchin said. “But I’ll say this – I want the same quality of life that Canada has. I want the same longevity.”
When Manchin questioned whether a single payer system would cost more than what we are paying now, Lynn Yellott responded that according to a Commonwealth Fund study, 95 percent of Americans would pay less money than they do now – in terms of co-pays, deductibles and insurance premiums.
“I provided your staff last week with a financial analysis of HR 676,” Yellott told Manchin after Manchin said – “I don’t know enough about single payer.”
“I hope that you will take a close look at it,” Yellott told Manchin.
The session ended with questions from two citizens who spoke in favor of a single payer system.
“The German health care system took me in — everybody had coverage, no matter what their background, how much money they made,” said one man who identified himself as a veteran. “And it was effective. Everyone was in the system.”
“I’m open to everything and anything,” Manchin said.
The last questioner told Manchin that he should take some of the money he has taken from the pharmaceutical industry and “build us a long-term opiate treatment facility in Martinsburg.”
“We need some of that money you got from the pharmaceutical industry and build us a long term treatment facility,” the man said, who identified himself as a heroin survivor. “Write the check right now and build us a rehab facility. We know you’ve got the money. You took it from the pharmaceutical industry.”
Politicians “studying” SP appreciate how it works for the governing elite and how it secures more poor folks’ votes while it makes more folks poor.
Americans, at least pre-obamacare, got two and a half times as much and two and a half times better medical care. Eliminate the government from Medicine and Insurance and in a couple of years the USA will have almost all of the world’s best physicians and will be doing a booming business in treatment of foreigners as well as being more available to all Americans than any government “assisted” or controlled system could possibly and certainly more and better than the SP systems now in effect.
England and Canada’s systems deliberately delay many critical and necessary services until a probably calculated portion of the applicants have died of their problems in order to save money.
I believe they also count things differently.
I had a similar experience with my knee. I was in rehab by the end of the next week and at home three days later with the exercise equipment. After much experience of such things- broke leg or knee four times and one knee replaced- I do most of my own rehab. I did need the knee machine, though.
When you are fighting Cancer and or other deadly stuff, daily visits are almost mandatory. Get a clue!!!
Sounds like you had a pretty good (if not very good) experience.The point I was trying to make in my post is that I,an ordinary middle class American,had to wait about 2 weeks to get a treatment that Canadians wait 6 months for....if they're lucky!
Single Payer would negate all the economic good his other changes would do. It must raise taxes sharply. It will be called Premiums but taxes are taxes no matter what you call them.
The left don’t need no stinkin’Constitution!
I live in western NY, and Canadians come here for their healthcare because they can’t get scheduled for serious operations needed ASAP for many months - or they can’t get appointments at all. Horrible system.
No he did not. I researched it extensively, early in this campaign cycle since it would have been a deal breaker for me.
What he said years before this campaign is that single payer had worked in Scotland because it is a sparsely populated country with very few medical infrastructure or demand to encourage private investment. He said there might have been a time that single payer would have been a solution in America but that was many years ago when America was less developed.
That was an opinion of a man who was a private citizen and many years ago. Since then he has become much more sophisticated about healthcare delivery and costs but even then he believed single payer was wrong for America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.