Dean: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Impose A Single-Payer On Everybody’
Dean: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Impose A Single-Payer On Everybody’
In an interview with ThinkProgress yesterday, Gov. Howard Dean laid out the principles that he thinks should guide the health care reform debate. Dean argued against a single-payer system, against an individual mandate, and for extending free health care to all Americans under the age of 25.
The former DNC Chairman advocated building upon the existing employer-based health care system by giving Americans the choice of keeping their existing insurance plan or enrolling in a new public option. “People hate the health care system, but they love their own doctor and they pretty much like the care they get,” he explained. “So what you cannot do is create some system that is going to scare people.”
Dean — who had expressed interest to the Obama White House in becoming HHS Secretary — argued that free choice and competition should be the cornerstones of health reform. “The brilliance of Barack Obama’s plan on the campaign trail was a) no one has to change if they like what they’ve got and b) if you want to, you could essentially buy into Medicare,” Dean said. If Obama enacts health reform that contains a public plan option, Dean predicted that Americans will choose it:
The American people will preferentially choose Medicare, but not all of them will choose Medicare. So we will have a hybrid system. Many more people will be in a public sector because it will probably be better for them. But they will only be in the public sector if they want to be, and they can get out of the public sector if they choose to try something different later on. That seems fair to me. I don’t think we should impose a single payer on everybody, but I do think we should give Americans the choice of having one if they like it. If it works for them, that’s what they’ll choose; if it doesn’t work for them, they’ll choose the private sector. But I don’t buy that the private sector has a right to compete and be more inefficient. I don’t think anybody has a right to serve people worse than somebody else just because they’re private sector.
Watch it:
On Thursday, the White House will convene a health care summit that will “include members of Congress and representatives of the health care and insurance industries.” Single-payer advocate Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is expected to attend. While Obama is busy rallying support for his health care agenda, a conservative patients rights group announced that it is mounting a $20 million misinformation campaign to stop it.
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What the hell is wrong with Dean?
Jesus f ucking christ…
March 4th, 2009 at 6:44 pmThe reich wingers are going to be holding a $20 million misinformation campaign to stop another choice in healthcare?
Brilliant! When Americans have a choice in paying $50/week or $1200/month for their current healthcare and realize the republicans are trying to stop them from having the choice of the free (or close to free) healthcare where their doctor doesn’t change, these republicans will be scratching their heads as to why they lost the 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 (and so on and so forth) elections!
Great idea, reich wing.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:47 pmWell, that’s disappointing. I don’t see why we have to have for-profit health care in order for us to see our own doctor. If all Americans were put on Medicare tomorrow, we would have single payer health care and I can see no reason why the government would care what doctor you went to see.
After this, maybe it’s a good thing that Dean didn’t get the HHS position.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:50 pmDean: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Impose A Single-Payer On Everybody’
Oh, yes. Let’s let the young, healthy folks buy their insurance on the open market for whatever bargain rate they can get below the gummint rate. And then when they get older or into health difficulties, they can just switch over to the gummint plan, which will have to accept them…..
I can see that working fine … for the private insurance companies.
Cheers,
March 4th, 2009 at 6:51 pmI have no idea what this guy is talking about….it sounds like he is proposing a system that allows rich folks to have their own cushy healthcare and the rest of us get Medicare…..
March 4th, 2009 at 6:52 pmDoctors won’t want to deal with low end Medicare fees. I don’t get it….I thought he was a progressive….gues not…
Dr. Dean is entitled to his opinion.
This comment:
“People hate the health care system, but they love their own doctor and they pretty much like the care they get,” is out of touch and way to simplistic.
The “health care system” includes hospitals and HMOs. I love my hospital. I hate my HMO.
Remember this. He is a medical Dr with a slanted view on health care. I’ve never met a Dr that understood heath care from a patients perspective. Period.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:52 pm… but I do think we should give Americans the choice of having one if they like it.
thank you.
baby steps and caution at this time…
…
good to see you out and about, howard!
March 4th, 2009 at 6:53 pmDean could not be more wrong.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:53 pmI would rather have the federal employees health insurance than Medicare.
Of course people need the choice of for-profit insurance with its 13-20% administrative fees/including profit. Customers love being turned down for pre-existing medical conditions or being arbitrarily dropped for “over utilization.”
Coverage gets weaker year to year, while prices escalate. If a Vermonter like Dean is vaciliating on real reform, what will U.S. Chamber sponsored Max Baucus push?
March 4th, 2009 at 6:54 pmBut they will only be in the public sector if they want to be, and they can get out of the public sector if they choose to try something different later on.
Ok, I’m taking a breath. This might be a workable approach. As long as being in Medicare doesn’t mean that the system will continue to starve doctors and hospitals to the point where they won’t take someone on Medicare.
But, this kind of a system could work because it would force the private for-profit health care system to totally reform or die. How many people are going to stay with for-profit health care systems if they can continue to discriminate, exclude numerous procedures and not allow the doctor to make a decision as to what care you need?
March 4th, 2009 at 6:56 pmHoward Dean is brilliant. This would be the perfect plan. You can opt into a government plan or you can purchase private insurance. Forced single payer will never work. People need to be convinced that the government plan would be a better choice.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:02 pmOne of the major problems with private health insurance for doctors is that each insurance company has different forms to fill out and the doctor has to make multiple requests to get paid. If the doctor makes one mistake on the insurance form, then the doctor gets rejected and has to start all over again. All this insurance work requires at least one full time employee.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:06 pmAll y’all may be correct, but I’m concerned that too many different terms, and too many different programs, will just confuse everything — and help the misinformation campaign do it’s job.
People are basically lazy. If it’s too difficult to understand, they’ll just want to keep what we’re doing — especially if they have halfway decent health insurance.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:06 pm#12, cats,
Excellent point. The industry needs some standardization regarding those issues. That cannot happen when private companies (HMOs) explicitly profit from this lack of standards.
Another reason for a single payer system.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:15 pmdisappointed in Dean.
Single payer can only work at a reasonable cost if the pool of payees is large enough…. all should contribute if it is going to work.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:21 pmThe problem with the American health care system is RepubliCon thieves under the guise of “for profit.” Remove the efficiency of single payer and nonprofit; and you have a failed system. The American economy will not survive without a mixed economy, including socialized medicine.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:25 pmOT: Anyone else sick of Nancy Skinner the one in Randi Rhodes old spot? I can not listen to her.
Besides Nova M dissolving and Second Thought taking it’s place, has anyone heard any other news on this or the whereabouts of Randi Rhodes?
March 4th, 2009 at 7:33 pmHealth insurance companies want to sell their mountains of data to the feds.
What industry exploded after No Child Left Behind? Educational testing.
The same stars are lining up for medical cost information. The problem is a billing database isn’t necessarily a clinical data set. Yet, insurance companies will push it as such.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:34 pmUnder 25?
So we give free health care to the healthiest people?
What about us old fogies who actually need it?
March 4th, 2009 at 7:35 pmWe need a single payer system for everybody. To hell with the high profits being made by insurance companies who strive to deny care to those who need it. Take that profit and insure everybody and create jobs in the “single payer” system. Of course a lot of insurance execs will be out of work, but they at least will have health care!
March 4th, 2009 at 7:42 pmHealthcare should be driven by altruism, not capitalism. If the only reason you became a doctor was to make a lot of money, then I don’t care how good you are or how sick I am, I don’t want you near me.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:45 pmIf people could just get past the whole Micheal Moore thing and watch Sicko, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
All anyone has to do is here Dick Nixon talking about HMO’s and how they were actually MEANT to provide LESS care and cost more, then no one would be arguing about whether the system is broken and what it needed.
We’d toss it out and build something on the European model.
See SICKO.
It will make you sick.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:50 pmHow would one “choose Medicare” exactly?
March 4th, 2009 at 8:07 pmAren’t there restrictions for qualifying for Medicare?
had enough Says:
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OT: Anyone else sick of Nancy Skinner the one in Randi Rhodes old spot? I can not listen to her.
Besides Nova M dissolving and Second Thought taking it’s place, has anyone heard any other news on this or the whereabouts of Randi Rhodes?
Totally agree. Rhodes obviously holds views no Troll can agree with completely, but I respected her guts and brains. Her replacement is pretty thin beer. No idea what happened to Randi on my Idaho affiliate.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:10 pm#15 had enough is correct.
Single payer is at it’s most efficient and effective with the largest pool. The healthy need to pay into the system to cover the not healthy. Everyone needs preventative care.
News flash to Dean – “the young” aren’t always healthy. Youth does not imply immunity. Age does not imply sickness.
The for-profit insurance system is a proven failure.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pmI don’t think we should impose a single Defense Department on everybody. If you can afford private a contracted militia (I hear Xe is not all that busy any more), then you should be able to exercise your constitutional freedom of choice.
;)
March 4th, 2009 at 8:14 pmSee Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent “The Moral-Hazard Myth.”
March 4th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Keltoi at Night Says:
had enough Says:
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OT: Anyone else sick of Nancy Skinner the one in Randi Rhodes old spot? I can not listen to her.
Besides Nova M dissolving and Second Thought taking it’s place, has anyone heard any other news on this or the whereabouts of Randi Rhodes?
Totally agree. Rhodes obviously holds views no Troll can agree with completely, but I respected her guts and brains. Her replacement is pretty thin beer. No idea what happened to Randi on my Idaho affiliate.
I thought the woman was just a fill-in while Randi was on vacation or something. Thin beer is a good description. Or gruel. I listened to her for an hour or so once and I was amazed at some of the truly dumbsh!t remarks and questions she offered. Pfui.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:20 pmgummitch Says:
I thought the woman was just a fill-in while Randi was on vacation or something.
Me too.
I wonder if Randi treats her producers/employers the way she treats her guests. She can be very harsh, even on a Progressive guest, at the first sign of disagreeing with her. She probably has great difficulty curbing her tongue. It is what makes her a fun host and one of the things that makes me enjoy her show (that and she is on during my commute home) but I’ll bet it wears thin quickly when you are signing her checks.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:29 pmI don’t know why everyone is complaining so much. A single-payer system, while probably being the best in the long term, is probably not feasible. If we start out with a public/private hybrid, with Medicare available for all, and private insurance also being out there, private insurance will slowly wither on the vine, as more and more people stick with Medicare.
Let’s get everyone covered first. Once everyone is covered, it will be much easier to get to a single payer system.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:45 pmIs Doctor Governor Howard Dean now working for the greedy corporate HMOs, Insurance companies and Pharmaceutical corporations?
Wake up and smell the stench of leftover corporate fascism, Dr. Gov. This is how single-payer not-for-profit universal health insurance works in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, England, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and elsewhere.
Universal single-payer, not-for-profit health insurance now!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:01 pmhad enough Says:
OT: Anyone else sick of Nancy Skinner ...
yes.
i stopped tuning in late last week… too many cons and idiocy…
March 4th, 2009 at 9:13 pmnot my idea of a learning entertaining experience.
oh, and i havent heard any randi news… would love some!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pmActually, a far more accurate (or at least more helpful) title for this post would be:
That he or anyone else isn’t wasting their time on Single-payer ought not to be surprising.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:49 pmSo it looks like Scream like a girl Dean has caved to the corporations. 38,000 Americans die every year (another 9/11 every month in deaths) and Dumbass Dean doesn’t see any real reason to change much of anything. Hard to believe this clown was actually in the running for president once.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:53 pmI agree with the other poster that the movie Sicko is a wake up call. I quoted a figure of 38,000 Americans dying each year (though I forgot to mention that their deaths are due to lack of health care). Another very moving documentary on this topic is a PBS show called POV (Point of View) Critical Condition. That is where I got the figure 38,000 Americans.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:06 pmWhat Howard Dean, and Obama for that matter, are protecting is Corporate America and their big salaries and bonuses. Employees for managed care get bonuses for denying claims. Denying care.
Look what they make by doing that -
http://www.aishealth.com/PressReleases/PR2007_0510.html
The salary and bonus paid to Cleve L. Killingsworth, chairman and chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, increased 26 percent last year even though the health insurer’s membership declined and its net income fell 49 percent.
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/02/28/blue_cross_ceos_pay_rose_26/
Here’s a list for what the CEOs at managed cares took home in salary, bonuses and unexercised stock options in 2000 — Tens of millions:
http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0109/0109.compmon.html
This is a scandal and it needs to end. Single-payer, universal health care is the way to go. What’s it going to take for citizens to stop putting up with this and take to the streets?
March 4th, 2009 at 10:10 pmThe problem with health care is it costs too much. Many of the things that make a modern society modern costs too much. That’s what is driving the country backwards. Since no one will lower their costs, there has to be a collapse. That will lower costs. Probably forever.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:12 pmPatrick says, “Let’s get everyone covered first. Once everyone is covered, it will be much easier to get to a single payer system.”
No, it won’t be. It’s been over 30 years since the last health care reform. Once anything gets through Congress, it stays that way for at least one generation. More often it remains in perpetuity, because everybody remembers how hard it was to get it done in the first place and it’s harder to get enough people interested in revisiting the legislation.
This is the time to get the health care that we want and that we need.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:18 pmFontsdelon says, “The problem with health care is it costs too much.”
A middleman (managed care companies) introjected itself into the relationship between doctors and their patients in order to get a piece of the health care dollar. Once they got in, they increased their own cut by denying claims. The medical professionals who are actually doing the work haven’t gotten raises in years. Doctors also have to pay the managed care companies an annual fee in order to get the managed care companies’ patient referrals.
Health care costs started skyrocketing when hospitals began doing sexy procedures on middle-aged white men — Coronary bypass surgery costs were passed on to other insureds. The Nadya Sulemons, saving extreme infants, costs millions and those costs were passed on to the other insureds. Every hospital had to have a CT-scan, but it was cost a fortune so procedures were invented and protocols were set for all kinds of medical problems so that the hospitals could pass on the costs to the insurance companies.
We all paid so that the privileged white middle aged men could get their arteries cleaned out, and infertile upper middle class white women could get pregnant.
There will be rationing one way or another, but as it stands now, it’s only the rich who get the preferential treatment.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:34 pmAs Dean gets older he gets stupid, what would you expect.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:59 pmOT: Anyone else sick of Nancy Skinner the one in Randi Rhodes old spot? I can not listen to her.
Besides Nova M dissolving and Second Thought taking it’s place, has anyone heard any other news on this or the whereabouts of Randi Rhodes?
Nova-M has filed bankruptcy, Second Thought has been locked out of it’s offices and Rhodes is on the ash heap of the whole failed idea of “progressive talk” Radio. There was some talk here a while back about the entire failure of lefty talk. It just doesn’t work.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:10 pmNot surprised by this.. It’s not like Obama wants single payer either.. We’ll never get real health care here might as well join the military and go die to shore up the opium crops..er.. I mean “fight for freedom”
March 5th, 2009 at 12:21 amThere was some talk here a while back about the entire failure of lefty talk. It just doesn’t work.
* Ed Shultz would tell a different story…. his show has been a success.
* Ray Taliaferro from http://www.kgo.com has been on for decades and with high ratings. Even thou kgo is not syndicated, Ray’s show is picked up on the internet nation wide and around the world (it is day time during his show) due to his popularity.
* Peter B Collins is now heard more frequently in the Pacific NW
* Thom Hartmann is going strong
* The Portland area station KPOJ620am, progressive talk, is growing in popularity as more and more are calling in nation wide while listening on the internet. I am sure that is true with many other local progressive stations.
In general both progressive and hate America righty talk have taken a hit due to the economy created by the Bush Crime Family. The difference is big money supports the show that delivers propaganda for their cause.
As for ratings – Rush’s ratings are high only because he competes against himself.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:23 amprogressive talk radio struggles — not because of lack of listeners but because of
i believe that — ever listen to Progressive talk? their commercials are a rare breed!
then here’s Think Progress’
March 5th, 2009 at 12:37 am“The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio”
It’s not like Obama wants single payer either.. We’ll never get real health care here might as well join the military …
He is working on it and it will take time. Mean while all sick uninsured take care of yourself and seek treatment from the ER if no other place is available. If you can not pay so be it. There are too many growing horror stories of unnecessary death due to lack of access to health care.
In Obama’s weekly radio address he made these statements last Saturday:
I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt. This budget keeps that promise, with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable health care for every American.
I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:59 am“the Hot Points,” writes: “What respectable business is going to send millions of dollars in ad revenue to people who bash the president, the country and the war on a constant basis? Not only that, but liberals never miss an opportunity to bash corporations as evil and crooked. Why the hell would big business support the enemy?”
Now it is the hate America righties bashing the president and country… they even want US to fail. I will bet Corporate America will not hesitate in continuing their monetary support towards the propaganda that benefits them.
And it is the multinational corporations that is killing America.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:24 amSpeaking for myself, Howard, go ahead and impose away.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:17 amFrom The CIA Website… Here’s a 2008 list of the life expectancies of all “communist” states with “socialized” healthcare…
Canada: males:78.65 females:83.81
March 5th, 2009 at 4:18 amFrance: males:77.68 females:84.23
Germany: males:76.11 females:82.26
Japan: male:78.73 females:85.59
Luxembourg: males:75.91 females:82.67
United Kingdom: males:76.37 females:81.46
Ireland: males:75.44 females:80.88
Lichtenstein: males:76.38 females:83.52
Netherlands: male:76.66 females: 81.98
Belgium: males:75.9 females:82.38
Spain: males:76.6 females:83.45
Norway: males:77.16 females:82.6
Sweden: males:78.49 female:83.13
Finland: males:75.31 females:82.46
Italy: males:77.13 female:83.2
Austria: male:76.46 female:82.41
Switzerland: males:77.91 female:83.71——————————————————————————–>The United States: males:75.29 females:81.13…..
Now I sure wish people would please stop repeating talking points that come from fear merchants like Rush and the wing nuts at Fight Obama News (Fox)
Something else to consider is that all goods manufactured in the U.S. are higher priced because the manufacturer passed on the cost of health insurance. I’ve been laid off 3 times. The last time was at Duracell batteries where I had worked for 16 years when they decided to open a plant in China. So indirectly, the high cost of healthcare has cost Americans their jobs and if we ever want anything manufactured in the U.S. to be competitively priced with goods manufactured elsewhere, we need single payer healtcare.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:21 amAl Gore Says:
Most likely because unlike ignorant brainwashed cretins like you liberals dont tune into a radio personality to have someone do their thinking for them.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:44 amWell AntiChrist I see you are breaking out the REALLY stupid very early today. Does it hurt to be as ignorant as you? So Japan and Canada are communist countries. Why do morons like you use words you dont understand? I guess because if you didnt you would never say ANYTHING. You do know you are astonishingly stupid dont you?
March 5th, 2009 at 10:46 amAntiChrist if you were being sarcastic, my appologies. It is early for me reading your post again I see I perhaps misread you.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:50 am#30 Patrick E:
The problem is that a system of universal health insurance that includes a mish-mash of private insurers will not work. It’s not economically feasible. If thousands of insurers are forced to accept everybody, including the sick, then their economics won’t work, even if healthy people are forced to buy insurance too. This is because their total risk pools won’t be large enough to sustain paying for actual care (much as it is now!).
The only way to create a system where the insurer actually pays up for actual health care is to have a large enough risk pool with everyone paying in (sick or not with the very poor being subsidized). The only way this works is with single payer.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pmSimple question, where does government, “free” health care work?
March 5th, 2009 at 7:40 pmDean is a disappointment to reform. In an attempt at seeming thoughtful and independent, he denigrates single-payer and offers nothing substantive in return. The private insurance paradigm is a failure and has proven unable to deliver universal health care, or control costs. We must de-commodify health care, take profit out of the system, and reform the delivery system. People don’t love their insurance companies, no matter how many times Dean or Shalala or others repeat this myth. They like their doctors (sometimes) and under a single-payer system, they’ll still be able to access them.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:46 pm