Bruce A. Dixon, Black Agenda Report, 22 July 2009
Candidate Barack Obama told us to judge his first term by whether he delivers quality affordable health care for all Americans, including nearly fifty million uninsured. So why does his proposal not cover the uninsured till 2013, after the next presidential election when Medicare took only 11 months to cover its first 40 million seniors? Why are corporate media pretending that no opinions exist to Obama’s left? And why has the public option part of the Obama health care plan shrunk from covering 130 million to only 10 million, with 16 million left uninsured altogether?
I think I’m coming around to the single-payer system. It solves the issue of “forcing” people to sign up for health care. Everyone will have it automatically. It solves the issue of access. All will have access not only to Emergency rooms, but to doctors and hospitals, as well. In the end, we are all in this together, I think. Compromise is not always the answer or the way to go. I think I’m coming around to the Medicare-for-all option more and more. We would do it like Switzerland, keeping the insurance companies out front to sell and coordinate things. But behind that, all doctors, hospitals, etc. are paid by the federal government. This would make health care a right in the United States. More and more, it seems like the way to go. It is simple! It can work!