Posted on 7 Comments

We need a single payer option

Health care reform is essential in this country. People are dying so that other people can put dollars in their wallets. That is wrong.

Kimberly Young, vibrant 22-year-old who was working at least two jobs in Oxford after graduating with a double major in December 2008, became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost. "That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor," Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate, said. [Source, Crooks and Liars, R.I.P. Kimi Young, 22, Another Casualty of Our For-Profit Deathcare System.]

7 thoughts on “We need a single payer option

  1. You conveniently left out the fact that she did seek care, and was misdiagnosed. Of course, that fact doesn’t support your argument, so I can see why you want to pretend it wasn’t there. A single payer system would not have changed this outcome.

    If you support single payer strongly enough to gloss over inconvenient facts, why do you support Obama care, which is not a single payer option, and does not include a single payer option? As Obama himself said today, and we know he never lies, the public option would be entirely supported by the premiums of the participants.

    If Kimi couldn’t afford insurance, then she couldn’t afford the public option of Obama care either.

    Unless of course, somebody isn’t telling the truth.

  2. Rich, what is your suggestion? Do we leave health care as is? Is our current system good enough?

    I didn’t gloss over any facts. The article says “didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost” and “eventually went to an urgent care facility in Hamilton where she was given pain medication and then sent home.” Perhaps had she gone initially, she’d be alive today or maybe not. But the fact is that she didn’t go because she was concerned about the cost. About 18 years ago I had a friend die similarly. She didn’t seek medical care until it was too late. When she finally went to the doctor they gave her 2 days to live. And 2 days later she died from a treatable condition.

    Call it single payer, call it public option, call it communism, I don’t care. Call it something different than what we have that helps prevent people’s suffering and I’ll support it.

  3. I hope these conservatives, who are my neighbors, fellow americans, and sometimes, my friends, never have to see how wrong they are about the health care debate.

    Just saying “ObamaCare” is insulting and misleading. I am pretty sure Obama has outlined the problems he’d like to see fixed and *maybe* a few possible solutions but has not written out an entire health care cure that you can totally say is completely his creation. I wish they’d stop saying it, it’s just annoying.

    I wonder how many of these conservatives have ever known any children raising money in a jar at a gas station for cancer treatments or much needed surgeries. The sad thing is, is that YOU KNOW they have had people they care for suffer because of lack of health care and a lot probably have themselves, yet somehow they have deluded themselves that they need to suffer at the hands of the insurance companies because it is right and natural for the poor man to get screwed by the rich and that’s just happy go lucky American capitalism. What’s even worse is that they call themselves Christians. I thought Jesus said to care for the sick and the poor? Am I wrong??

  4. Morgan- Let me get this straight, you want to take the insurance companies out of the question and replace it with the government who will make life and death decisions. You actually think the government will do a better job? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. “Let’s trust the government, they got our back!” (especially the democrats, who start the Vietnam war and started the Japanese-American camps back in WW2)

    Yeah, It’s a sad thing when 93% of americans have health insurance… So let’s just throw out that entire system and replace it with something brand new… Why don’t you just reform how insurance companies are run instead of taking it over? How about Tort reform to lower malpractice for doctors (depending on the location some doctors pay over $100,000 a year)? How about more competition among insurance companies? How about having some common sense because when it works for 9 out of 10 people then something must be working

    Don’t make this a religious issue. That has nothing to do with this.

    Oh I am sorry can the poor man not go to school? Can he not get education benefits from the government? I am pretty sure he can! In the capitalist society, the poor man can improve his position but he has to get off his lazy butt to do so! Sure they are sob stories out there but that is life. Everyone has their down points, their demons, but most of it comes from the freedom of choice given to us by the constitution and it is my choice to have an insurance company instead of the government making my choice for me. This whole reliance on government for everything is a joke. Should I rely on the government to tell me that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only one who shot JFK? I don’t think so…

    By the way I am not a conservative. I just know that we as a country can not afford something like this. We can not take on two wars and have a 10 trillion deficit and just keep spending more and more, especially when unemployment is at 10% and continuing to rise.

  5. Doug- No matter how much money a person has, one day they will die. Jim Henson(Muppet creator) died of toxic shock syndrome but felt he would get better and the man had millions at that point in his life. He was in good health but simply succumbed because he didn’t recognized that he had flu-like symptoms and felt like he would get better. No matter if you have insurance or not if you don’t go to the doctor when you are getting sick, you lower your chances of survival.

  6. Tom, for the uninsurable (poor, self-employed, small business, severe health issues, etc) like Kimi Young, they don’t feel going to the doctor is an option because of the cost. As a civilized, responsible society, should we cast them aside or provide them an option?

    And yes, I’d far rather have the government make life and death decisions than some suit with my policy in one hand, a balance sheet in the other, and a memo on his desk about Christmas bonuses.

  7. The government will look at you the same way and even worse than your insurance company will. If you don’t realize that, then you need to open your eyes.

    Well if you had health insurance BEFORE you got sick then you wouldn’t have to worry about severe health issues. For poor people, it’s call MEDICAID aka TennCare. Self-employed can get health care. Small businesses do have health care, I had when I worked for a small business.

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