McCain, Healthcare and the Financial Industry

Via DDay at Digby's place, Josh Marshall at TPM, kos at his place and last, but not least Krugman at the NYT comes this brilliant statement from John McCain that should make any sane person decide that he really isn't competent to be President.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Now, I know that this was written before the events of the last couple weeks but anyone with a fucking clue has known that the financial system has been on the verge of melting down for some time now.

I can't wait to see how they walk this one back.

John McCain ... Not Ready To Lead

A possibly suprising answer to Michelle Malkin

I know that I am going to have to spend the rest of the day scrubbing the comments for this but ...

Michelle Malkin asks who deserves Government Subsidized Health insurance?

That is such an easy one to answer that I have to do it.

No One. Not one person.

What every single person living in a country as rich as the US does deserve is single payer tax funded healthcare. These are not the same things. Why would anyone want to pay insurance companies to act as a middleman?

Just my thought on this one.

Atrios has this exactly right

The only reason to have an individual mandate plan instead of a sign everyone up and pay for it out of taxes plan is... actually, I can't think of one at all.

Go Read

A thought or two on Universal Health Care

I keep wracking my brain trying to figure out why anyone would be against universal single payer health care and I honestly cannot figure out one rational reason why.

Here are some of the things that I have heard ...

1. People would go to the Doctor too much. This one is just stupid on its face since I know of not one person that voluntarily goes to the doctor just for fun. Now clearly there are psychologically unbalanced folks that would use going to the doctor as a means of getting out of the house and getting attention but does anyone seriously think that this is a real problem?
   
2. It is too expensive. Again, stupid on its face since if you look at Medicare the overhead rate is far less than it is in any private plan. There is no reason to think that this would be different. This is besides the simple fact that there would be no profit built into the system
3. There would be rationing of services. There already is.
4. It would be "socialism". Big Fucking Deal! Grow up and realize that we don't live in the wild west. We all rely on each other in this society.
   

Rachel Maddow is .. well .. wow!

Rachel Maddow makes Pat Buchanan’s head explode as she easily exposes the underbelly of conservative politics. If you’re poor and need help—you’re socialist scum—and screw your kids too.

Go watch this absolutely stunning takedown over at Crooks and Liars

William Kristol Proves He Has No Soul

Further to my earlier posts on SCHIP... From Crooks and Liars

We’ve joked that Weekly Standard Editor/PNAC signatory/Fox News Contributer William “The Bloody” Kristol is a soulless vampire, but he obviously wants to leave no doubt in our mind.

Listen to him on the subject of the SCHIP Amendment:

From whence he goes on to say (among other things)

you can do two ways: expand government insurance or make it easier for families to buy private insurance. Republicans want to try to make it easier through the tax code for families to get private insurance; Democrats want to expand government insurance. I think it’s a good philosophical fight for Republicans, if they can explain the issue well enough that the Democrats can’t simply get away with demagoguery

Just wondering if it would be considered demagoguery to point out that every single healthcare system in the world is LESS EXPENSIVE than the US system and that one of the major reasons for that is the built-in overhead of marketing and profit for the insurance companies?

And don't even bother trying to bring up "well it is the best system in the world". The overall results are below most industrialized nations even if you just consider the broadest measure, average life span.

Wrong Choice on Healthcare

The usually astute folks at TPM don't have this one quite right.

The real choice is whether there is going to be universal single payer healthcare or if there is still going to be the possibility of going bankrupt from health care costs. As long as there is a profit motive built into the system there will be some folks that will fall through the cracks.

The rule should be "if you get sick, you get healthcare". And further, if this is a tax-payer funded program there is actually incentive to have good preventative care programs because there is only one possible place that the funds come from. It is simply not in the interest of a profit-minded company to encourage preventative care, especially for children, because they can easily make the calculation that a certain percentage of the folks that they are paying for now will not be on their books by the time the BIG outlays come later in life.

Now, how hard is that?

SCHIP -- No Winner

I have to respectfully disagree with the characterization of this in the headline at Swampland.
No one wins from this. Not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not Bush and not the kids.

If this gets vetoed and the veto sticks EVERYONE involved should be ashamed of themselves for not making it work!

I do not understand how anyone with a soul could have voted against this bill. And yes Dennis Kucinich I am looking at you when I say that. It isn't a perfect bill .. so what .. it is a damn sight better than what the alternative is.

I do not understand for the life of me why there is any debate in this country that there needs to be some form of basic universal single payer health care. I live in the insurance capital of the country and you know what .. i don't give a damn that it might cost a job or two here. This is one of those times where the right thing to do just stares you in the face and all you have to do is say "yes let's do that"

Can someone explain to me why this is hard?