We need to keep up the pressure (update)

I’ve been supporting a single-payer plan for the last several months. I am convinced that this healthcare debate has become overly complex and confusing. The complexity has been injected into healthcare reform in order to fake out, confuse and frustrate the American people. There’s no reason why we have to have healthcare exchanges. It is just like healthcare savings accounts. Having healthcare savings accounts is simply a way for you to pay more and to assume more risk. (If you want to save money, open a savings account or invest in mutual funds or stocks or dig a hole in your backyard and stuff the money in there.)

Think about this — single-payer would pay for your basic healthcare needs and would include dental and mental health. You can choose your own doctor and your own hospital. Everyone is covered. Such a system should cost somewhere around $2.5 trillion, which is $300 billion more than we spent in 2007.

How can we afford this? We figured out how to put a man on the moon and pay for it. We figured out how to start a war of convenience and not pay for it. There are a hundred different ways we can pay for this and not burden everyone. Reverse the Bush tax cuts. We can place a tax on sodas and fast foods since they contribute so heavily to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. By taking private insurance out of the equation we save hundreds of billions of dollars. Most estimates are somewhere around $150 billion. Then, because of decreased overhead, the system becomes more efficient. (I know that Republicans keep telling us that business is more efficient, but what business is efficient at is billing the government more money and milking us.)

No matter what version of healthcare reform you believe in, we need to continue to press our congressmen. Do you have your congressmen on speed dial? Call his/hers office as often as possible. Simply state your name, where you live and that you support healthcare reform — strong public option or single-payer. They have to hear from us all the time.

Update: I got an enormous amount of love from Jack and Jill Politics. I really appreciate it.