Most Support U.S. Guarantee of Health Plans

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A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

While the war in Iraq remains the overarching issue in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, access to affordable health care is at the top of the public’s domestic agenda, ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.

Only 24 percent said they were satisfied with President Bush’s handling of the health insurance issue, despite his recent initiatives, and 62 percent said the Democrats were more likely to improve the health care system.

Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs to guarantee health insurance for all, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts.

But the same divisions that doomed the last effort at creating universal health insurance, under the Clinton administration, are still apparent. Americans remain divided, largely along party lines, over whether the government should require everyone to participate in a national health care plan, and over whether the government would do a better job than the private insurance industry in providing coverage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02poll.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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1. Yet, where are the Dems as a party, in pushing this???

Why do the Dems HATE winning issues?

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2. Because they accept money from the insurance industry n/t

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4. Absolutely!

The insurance industry money is more important to them than our votes.

Says a lot, doesn't it?

How bad will it have to get before we pin 'em all the the wall and start DEMANDING UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE????

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3. Read the entire article

It's not that simple, for starters.

"John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate and former senator from North Carolina, recently unveiled his own attempt at a consensus plan, one that would require everyone to have insurance and require employers to provide it or pay into a fund that would do so. Nearly 4 in 10 said that was a good idea; nearly half said they were unsure."

People do support a system where everybody has health care. It's HOW we get there that people disagree on. Most people do not want to risk what they have now for situations like what we just saw with the VA. The Dem Party solutions vary from Kennedy's Medicare for All to Hillary's vague nothingness sometime in her second term.

As long as Hillary is afraid to take a real stand on a health care plan, the Democrats will continue to be hazy on the issue. This is just another reason Hillary cannot be our candidate.

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5. I truly believe the problem has to get much worse before it will get better

There are too many people who have decent (not gold-plated, but decent) health coverage and have NO idea of what it is like to be without.

I know a lot of people who have worked their entire careers at Fortune 500 companies, and although the premiums have gone up, they have absolutely no idea of what it is like to have to get coverage when you are not part of a group plan. These people will fight tooth and nail against a universal health plan because they are too afraid of giving up what they have.

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6. That's why I support subsidized insurance

I think it will take that step, and costs to continue to rise anyway, before people will accept that health care needs a regulated system.

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7. The country is bankrupt -- we can't afford to subsidize anything

But what is going to happen is that all of those people who work at Fortune 500 companies are going to find that their jobs are outsourced, and VOILA! they have no health insurance after their COBRA runs out (if they can afford COBRA). Or they will be laid off because they simply got too old (but not old enough for Medicare)and VOILA! they have no health insurance after their COBRA runs out.

Or they happen to retire and are eligible for a group retiree plan and then POOF! the company takes the plan away or jacks up the premiums so high they become affordable.

There are lots of people experiencing these scenarios today. I think we are getting to critical mass.
Another year or two of corporate outsourcing, layoffs, and benefit cuts and there will be sufficient enough numbers to demand change. And then these people will support Medicare for ALL.

So I think it will get worse -- but not for long before people demand change.

And remember -- California legislature passed SB 840 and Schwarzenegger vetoed it. They came really close. Kuehl just re-introduced SB 840.

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8. Oregon voted it down - twice

Voters didn't pass single payer a few years ago, and didn't even pass a constitutional amendment making health care a right. We do have low income subsidized insurance though, and have had it for a long time. We just need more funding. It's going to require the 50 year old boomers to hit medicare age before the system gets broken enough to require mass change. Too many people will die in those 15 years. Why not go with subsidized insurance in the mean time, in order to save lives.

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9. No, the 50 year old boomers will get his with this long before they are Medicare eligible

I would suggest catching this if you can -- or watch the site to see if the video is posted.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml

Net: the country is bankrupt. There is no funding. This was all planned by the Repugs. They ran up the debt -- huge tax cuts for the wealthy during a war, gave sweetheart contracts to their cronies with no oversight, and passed a Medicare prescription bill that we can't afford.

The crisis is closer than you think.

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10. Then the country can't afford single payer either n/t

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11. I know this sounds ghoulish, and I'm not happy that I feel this way,

but I'm beginning to look forward to all that taking place as you have predicted.

Why? Simply because we, as a nation, have become so hard and harsh that we mostly can't care about others until we, our very selves, are in the same shoes.

I never thought I'd see this country become this cold and uncaring.

So, let everyone get to the point of suffering badly, and have to relearn what it means to be human.