Healthcare in the USA
It's a fact that other Western democracies have single-payer socialized healthcare systems that are both higher in quality and lower in price than the healthcare "system" in the United States. By "quality" I'm referring to widely accepted standards of healthcare quality, such as infant mortality rate, life expectancy, disease control, etc. So I ask, who could possibly be against higher quality and lower price? Seriously.
If we can't do this in the United States, I ask why not? What magical potion do other Western countries have that we don't? Why can't we get this done? Are they better or smarter than us?
Any opinions I hear on this subject, and I've heard more than I care to, seem to neglect the simple truth that others are already enjoying a healthcare system Americans can only dream of. It's not a pie-in-the-sky goal here.
I understand the Conservative fear of change, even if I disagree with it. But fearing change when something is so fundamentally broken isn't fear anymore. It's batshit, kool-aid-drinking, moon-howling insane. Repeating the same ineffective actions and thinking the outcome will change is, in fact, the definition of insanity.
And if you think, "I have great healthcare already, why would I want to change?" then you're probably in Congress and already on a single-payer government-run system. I know Canadians who have been through major health issues and let me tell you, the worst of their public healthcare system is better than the best private, for-profit system available in the U.S.
Update: After re-reading this, the accusations of insanity are a little over the top and a little out of character for me. But I wrote 'em, so I'll leave 'em there, damn the torpedoes. I do have one other observation though. I see a number of healthy rich and middle class people coming out against single-payer insurance, many claiming that they are happy with their current healthcare options. But I've yet to see one poor or uninsured person coming out against single-payer. What we have here is a class struggle within a fundamental moral disagreement.
