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Could Someone Explain This — Why Now?
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Could Someone Explain This

The entire Democratic leadership, from the White House down, would starve in a Tijuana market. They don’t even understand the most basic steps in negotiations. If you are going to buy anything in most of the world, you need to know how to haggle, or what you get will be less than worthless.

They need to be locked away for a week with a couple of grandmothers from a colonia to learn how it’s done, or at least with some seasoned labor negotiators to learn the basics.

You want Medicare-for-all? You start with the British National Health Service, and then negotiate down to single-payer.

If these wimps negotiated a labor contract, we would have slavery reintroduced in this country. They really suck.

10 comments

1 hipparchia { 06.24.09 at 4:45 pm }

The first thing you do is look carefully at the British ‘Nationalised’ Health Service and then try anything as far away from it as possible.

the american system is about as far away as you can get from the british system, so how come you haven’t packed up and moved here yet?
.-= ´s last blog ..The House health care deform bill =-.

2 Bryan { 06.24.09 at 5:08 pm }

Mr. Duff, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a group that opposes any public plan, tells us that nearly half [49.6%] of the personal bankruptcies in the United States were the result of the medical bills of people with health insurance. Another 12% were caused by the medical bills of people without health insurance.

You only think your system is bad because you have never experienced ours.

3 Comrade Kevin { 06.24.09 at 8:32 pm }

Often when serious mistakes are made in a prior attempt (that is, the Clinton health care snafu) there’s a large tendency to overcompensate. The Clinton attempt failed, in large part, because there was too much haggling and saber-rattling at the beginning. In an attempt to be conciliatory, they do seem a little weak.
.-= ´s last blog ..I Was Made To Love Magic =-.

4 Bryan { 06.24.09 at 8:49 pm }

Clinton didn’t have the current majorities in both houses and 3 out 4 people polled backing a single-payer plan. The health insurance industry wasn’t nearly as nasty to policy holders in the early 1990s as they are today, and health insurance was much more available, and affordable. It was a tough sell.

It isn’t a tough sell today, so there is no reason to give away the farm before the serious negotiations begin. This looks like amateur hour, not a professional operation.

5 hipparchia { 06.24.09 at 9:46 pm }

It isn’t a tough sell today

bingo.
.-= ´s last blog ..The House health care deform bill =-.

6 Bryan { 06.24.09 at 9:52 pm }

Why is it so hard giving voters what they overwhelmingly want?

It is past time for a real liberal party in the US.

7 hipparchia { 06.24.09 at 10:00 pm }

Why is it so hard giving voters what they overwhelmingly want?

because we the voters don’t have enough $$ to buy a better [or maybe worse] class of politicians?

It is past time for a real liberal party in the US.

that’s the truth. i wonder if we can buy one somewhere. 😈
.-= ´s last blog ..The House health care deform bill =-.

8 Badtux { 06.25.09 at 5:47 pm }

You ARE aware that we have health care rationing here in America too, right? Except our bizarre health care rationing puts a rich woman who “needs” a face lift in front of a poor kid who needs a heart transplant. Since when was a face lift more medically important than a heart transplant?

Medical need, not how rich the patient is, should determine who gets health care. We need to put doctors, not accountants, in charge. The current U.S. system that is chewing up 16% of US GDP and has 20% uninsured is unsustainable. “Let Them [the uninsured] Eat Cake” is not a viable long-term policy. Just ask Marie Antoinette about that one.

– Badtux the History Penguin
.-= ´s last blog ..Thought for the day =-.

9 Steve Bates { 06.25.09 at 7:19 pm }

“… had I been in my 20s… – David Duff

Oh, good grief, Mr. Duff. With few exceptions, 20-something-year-olds don’t need extensive medical care. Try evaluating our system from the viewpoint of someone who is, say, your age, which is, if I recall, just shy of 70. Do you come to any different conclusions? no? then you aren’t smelling the stench emanating from our system that your 20-year-old self claims to be so fond of.

There are none so blind as those who will not sniff.

10 Bryan { 06.25.09 at 9:02 pm }

The cost of health insurance in the US is one of, if not they biggest drag on small businesses and entrepreneurs. If you can’t get or afford health insurance, you can’t grow your business. When all of the capital you are trying to amass to expand is eaten up every year by the increases in health insurance, you are trapped in a death spiral.

Health insurance costs are the reason many large corporation have been fleeing the US, and a major reason for the auto industry meltdown.