WATCH THIS. Dr. Marcia Angell has the high regard of Senator Bernie Sanders, who recently said, "I think we will try to get a hearing in the HELP Committee. I think the importance of the hearing is not that it will change minds but that the American people -- and Congress -- should hear the facts about the enormous waste and bureaucracy and profiteering associated with private health insurance. Not to deal with that is mind-blowing."
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Dr. Angell needs to emphasize a couple of important points:
1) The difference between
"socialized" and "single payer". Most people confuse the two. Socialized: nationalized, government-run, funded by taxes. Single-payer: private providers, public insurance, funded by premiums bought from the government. Complete choice of doctors or hospitals. Insurance is portable. No deductible, no pre-existing condition exclusions.
Insurance companies are capitalizing on this confusion to scare people with the idea of "government-run" health care. But the truth is that the private insurance companies are doing that right now and intervening to deny us care.
2)A government or public insurance plan does not have the costs of CEO salaries, shareholder dividends, advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions. Currently, private insurance companies are taking our insurance premium money and spending it on these things while denying us care.
3)Because many people are denied care or have huge deductibles in this country, they do not get the preventive care they need. The resulting catastrophic illnesses drive the costs up.
In a single payer system, everyone has access to care, so they are healthier and that drives costs down.
4) A single payer system does not preclude private insurance. People can still purchase supplementary private insurance to cover costs not included in the government plan.
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