The Quiet Politicians and Silly Children
There are about 29 million uninsured Americans. Americans who are at risk for medical bankruptcy each time someone almost t-bones them in an intersection. Americans who might be forced to work while undergoing cancer treatments because they cannot afford to take time off. Americans who have had the unfortunate luck of being born with a chronic illness that they cannot afford to treat. Americans for whom our health care system is a fantastical nightmare that plagues them.
Further, having insurance isn't the same thing has having healthcare; affordability becomes the next hurdle. After all, what good is having health insurance if you can't adequately access it without paying a $13,000 deductible? Having insurance doesn't guarantee you access to the health care system. Having insurance for those who can't afford to use it only really means that you have another monthly bill to calculate into your budget less you face penalties from the IRS (#ThanksObama).
Millions of Americans are plagued by financial anxiety and haunted by medical uncertainties. Feet a little swollen tonight? Hope it's not hypertension. That odd sore throat that doesn't seem to go away? God, that better not be cancer. Tightness in your chest? That better just be panic because you can't afford a heart attack. This worry and anxiety, itself, can make you sick. Millions of Americans are simply damned.
Damned if they have the luxury of accessing health insurance but not the luxury of health care. Damned if they can't afford either. Its no wonder why Americans routinely cite health care as one of the issues they'd like to see solved by our 1%ers sitting atop their golden thrones on Capitol Hill (one member earns an average of the combined income of 18 US households).
And let me be clear. I do not want to hear about Trumpcare unless you're prepared to talk about Single Payer. All of these problems exist under President Obama's Affordable Care Act. All of them. So when Hillary Clinton came forward with a solution to fix health care and that solution just turned out to be incrementally tweaking the Affordable Care Act? It's no wonder why she lost. Fuck. That. Bullshit. I am not interested.
Alternatively, the sewer bacteria colony known as Donald Trump campaigned on a simple idea: universal health care. “I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now,” he said. Con artistry, aside, it was a statement that inspired hope and unity. And it's statements like this that help explain his win.
Statistically speaking, Trump supporters were less healthy than Clinton supporters. Hillary Clinton supporters, simply put, were less haunted by medical uncertainties than Donald Trump voters. Clinton voters had the luxury of supporting incremental health care tweaks to the Affordable Care Act whereas many Donald Trump supporters didn't. Physicians in counties that voted for Trump by +40% see higher rates of patients with hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and depression and anxiety. These diseases can cost thousands of dollars a year to treat with insurance.
In fact, most Americans support a single payer health care system regardless of political affiliation. Thus, when the orange-stained presidential nominee came forward advocating for universal health care, people wanted to believe. So, why in the hell do the Democrats champion keeping the health care plan that continues to hurt millions of Americans? Why does the Democratic leadership like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton oppose single payer? For the same reason why Republicans do: they're paid handsomely to oppose it. They're ideologically opposed to it.
During this election cycle, I heard a lot of horseshit from Democrats in defense of incremental policy changes. Silly people with silly opinions would furrow their brows and sternly explain that Democrats do want this thing they campaign against but they have to do it incrementally. Like stealth health care snail ninjas. "It's all part of a plan," they'd say. "You young kids just want everything overnight."
But these are silly people with silly opinions.
The reality is that single payer has been a popular, widely supported policy for decades among the voters. It's the politicians who wear a $12,000 jacket to give a speech on income inequality, who don't know how many houses they own, and who receive hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose single payer that refuse to support it.
And this isn't an argument about "building Rome in a day," as those silly people like to interject. No one here assumes that single payer will be passed in a day. This isn't the argument being made and any attempts to frame it as such are dishonest liars who lie.
The problem here is that Democrats don't champion single payer. When was the last time they held a sit-in for the millions of uninsured under the Affordable Care Act? When was the last time a Democrat tried to filibuster for single payer? How many speeches and press circuits have Democrats dedicated to investigating Trump? How many speeches and press circuits have they dedicated to advocating for single payer?
Democrats like to pretend that the reason we can't talk about single payer is because the legislative support isn't there which should highlight two problems for you:
Further, having insurance isn't the same thing has having healthcare; affordability becomes the next hurdle. After all, what good is having health insurance if you can't adequately access it without paying a $13,000 deductible? Having insurance doesn't guarantee you access to the health care system. Having insurance for those who can't afford to use it only really means that you have another monthly bill to calculate into your budget less you face penalties from the IRS (#ThanksObama).
Millions of Americans are plagued by financial anxiety and haunted by medical uncertainties. Feet a little swollen tonight? Hope it's not hypertension. That odd sore throat that doesn't seem to go away? God, that better not be cancer. Tightness in your chest? That better just be panic because you can't afford a heart attack. This worry and anxiety, itself, can make you sick. Millions of Americans are simply damned.
Damned if they have the luxury of accessing health insurance but not the luxury of health care. Damned if they can't afford either. Its no wonder why Americans routinely cite health care as one of the issues they'd like to see solved by our 1%ers sitting atop their golden thrones on Capitol Hill (one member earns an average of the combined income of 18 US households).
And let me be clear. I do not want to hear about Trumpcare unless you're prepared to talk about Single Payer. All of these problems exist under President Obama's Affordable Care Act. All of them. So when Hillary Clinton came forward with a solution to fix health care and that solution just turned out to be incrementally tweaking the Affordable Care Act? It's no wonder why she lost. Fuck. That. Bullshit. I am not interested.
Alternatively, the sewer bacteria colony known as Donald Trump campaigned on a simple idea: universal health care. “I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now,” he said. Con artistry, aside, it was a statement that inspired hope and unity. And it's statements like this that help explain his win.
Statistically speaking, Trump supporters were less healthy than Clinton supporters. Hillary Clinton supporters, simply put, were less haunted by medical uncertainties than Donald Trump voters. Clinton voters had the luxury of supporting incremental health care tweaks to the Affordable Care Act whereas many Donald Trump supporters didn't. Physicians in counties that voted for Trump by +40% see higher rates of patients with hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and depression and anxiety. These diseases can cost thousands of dollars a year to treat with insurance.
In fact, most Americans support a single payer health care system regardless of political affiliation. Thus, when the orange-stained presidential nominee came forward advocating for universal health care, people wanted to believe. So, why in the hell do the Democrats champion keeping the health care plan that continues to hurt millions of Americans? Why does the Democratic leadership like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton oppose single payer? For the same reason why Republicans do: they're paid handsomely to oppose it. They're ideologically opposed to it.
During this election cycle, I heard a lot of horseshit from Democrats in defense of incremental policy changes. Silly people with silly opinions would furrow their brows and sternly explain that Democrats do want this thing they campaign against but they have to do it incrementally. Like stealth health care snail ninjas. "It's all part of a plan," they'd say. "You young kids just want everything overnight."
But these are silly people with silly opinions.
The reality is that single payer has been a popular, widely supported policy for decades among the voters. It's the politicians who wear a $12,000 jacket to give a speech on income inequality, who don't know how many houses they own, and who receive hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose single payer that refuse to support it.
And this isn't an argument about "building Rome in a day," as those silly people like to interject. No one here assumes that single payer will be passed in a day. This isn't the argument being made and any attempts to frame it as such are dishonest liars who lie.
The problem here is that Democrats don't champion single payer. When was the last time they held a sit-in for the millions of uninsured under the Affordable Care Act? When was the last time a Democrat tried to filibuster for single payer? How many speeches and press circuits have Democrats dedicated to investigating Trump? How many speeches and press circuits have they dedicated to advocating for single payer?
Democrats like to pretend that the reason we can't talk about single payer is because the legislative support isn't there which should highlight two problems for you:
- Your representatives don't support something that the majority of Americans do (so primary their goddamn asses out of a job)
- Not having the political power to pass legislation surrounding abortion rights and gun control hasn't stopped them from advocating their policies.
The Democrats have tried to win with an uninspiring, unpopular message carried forth by party elites who somehow managed to escape the painful economic conditions that keep us awake at night. As a result, they continue to lose elections in humiliating fashions against the GOP clown car of candidates.
That's assuming that the Democrats have even bothered to put forth a message that isn't, "this Republican is a boogeyman," and, "RUSSIA!"
The Democrats aren't interested in representing you any more than the Republicans are. Each side is trying to sell you stale, broken ideas from uninspiring wet mops they pretend are politicians. Knowing that isn't enough, they try to scare you into voting. Republicans foam rabidly at the mouth at Obama trying to steal guns while muttering, "... Benghazi..." isn't very different than Democrats foaming rabidly at the mouth at Trump while muttering "Putin."
At the end of the day, the Benghazi investigation that you paid for didn't make you wealthier much like the Democrats who are trying to distract you with the next Red Scare isn't going to make you wealthier. It's all political theater designed to con you out of your vote and out of your right to be represented.
To me, single payer is the ONLY solution.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely. Single payer needs to be the path forward and until Democrats start championing it, it will optically appear like they're siding against their base.
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