@edg I believe there will also be enrollees of medicaid expansion that will lose coverage. Also the CBO estimate is losses thru 2026.

There are about 12.5 million Obamacare insured through the federal and state exchanges as of February 2017. Enrollment was down from 2016 and is expected to flatline or decrease in coming years.

So how exactly will 24 million be kicked off because of the Republican plan? Or roughly twice as many as are actually enrolled?

@Linda Wood

That's a very sound question.

in population as Minnesota, I don't understand why Minnesota can't just study Finland's program and work from there. Why can't our states have healthcare programs similar to the many countries with similar populations and/or resources?

If our Federal government is too unwieldy, why not start with the states?

@Linda Wood

          I doubt Nebraska could ever care for its own. Oregon might be able to do it, but California most likely will be able to do it. Arizona is similar to Oregon so maybe it, like Oregon, might just make it work. A big factor is the size of population as well as the distribution of resources.

          If we opt for a roll your own system then there will be the haves and the have nots, the pattern of such will be determined by which states can and choose to fund such a program..

in population as Minnesota, I don't understand why Minnesota can't just study Finland's program and work from there. Why can't our states have healthcare programs similar to the many countries with similar populations and/or resources?

If our Federal government is too unwieldy, why not start with the states?

@Linda Wood Local, county and state government is no piece of cake to impact, but it is easier than trying to impact the federal government from Maine or Minnesota. At the same time, we need to be trying to figure out ways to work with others on issues on a non-partisan partisan basis. Forget platforms.

Take one issue, like clean elections, that means a lot to you and that Republicans, Democrats, Greens and indies in your city or town can all get behind. Then, go for it. Learn about it. Spread the word. Get petitions signed. Hammer people in your city hall and state house.

At the same time, your neighbor and her friends might be passionate about car emissions. Encourage her to do the same with her issue.

in population as Minnesota, I don't understand why Minnesota can't just study Finland's program and work from there. Why can't our states have healthcare programs similar to the many countries with similar populations and/or resources?

If our Federal government is too unwieldy, why not start with the states?

@doh1304 @PriceRip

...of Health Insurance Corporations, must add up to quite a sum, especially if you consider taxpayer funded emergency room visits. Surely that would help states fund single payer. If states join together on this, it would be even easier. If the Feds take away the right for states to do that because it would ruin the golden extortion scam, we the people, with help from the states, could start our own, non-extorting, nationwide health insurance cooperative.

Minnesota pays Minnesota's and federal tax.
Besides, repealing the ACA also repeals the Sanders Amendment, allowing states to implement single payer. You ca bet that the Rs will outlaw single payer if a state tried.

#2

          I doubt Nebraska could ever care for its own. Oregon might be able to do it, but California most likely will be able to do it. Arizona is similar to Oregon so maybe it, like Oregon, might just make it work. A big factor is the size of population as well as the distribution of resources.

          If we opt for a roll your own system then there will be the haves and the have nots, the pattern of such will be determined by which states can and choose to fund such a program..

@eyo
He is very much a Party product, so I would be very leery of any program he promotes.

I don't want single-payer anymore mainly because of Big Brother and the ACA template for Health Centers, but go on. I won't fight it. I know they help others, but I won't use it unless emergency.

Newsom to pitch universal health care as California governor’s race grows crowded

Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is drafting a health care plan for California that he plans to unveil as a core component of his gubernatorial run, based in part on the universal health care program he signed into law when he was mayor of San Francisco.

Newsom, seen as a strong contender in the increasingly crowded field of candidates vying to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018, is staking out an ambitious plan to rein in rising health care costs, expand universal access to people across the state regardless of income or immigration status, and preserve coverage for the estimated 5 million Californians who risk losing their insurance under President Donald Trump’s changes.

“I think we can learn a lot for the state of California from what we did with Healthy San Francisco,” Newsom said in an interview. “We had the resourcefulness, the resources, and the boldness and audacity to try something new. It’s not necessarily something that can be adopted in all 58 counties, but it can be adopted .... where the majority of California’s population is.”
...

Healthy San Francisco is an oxymoron, unless you're a bubble-head like Newsom. I'm sure there's a building full of people who looked at some "data" for a long time while ignoring the poor and homeless all over their place. Good luck.

@riverlover it was a "hairline fracture" probably, I don't know because I couldn't afford to follow-up after the $600 set of pictures. I just stayed off of it, wrapped it, applied heat and ice, all the steps I remembered from physical therapy, now posted all over the world wide web pretty much.

The technician looked at the x-ray order from my doctor and asked me, "why does she want a picture of your ankle when it is your foot that hurts?", and I was like ~shrug~ I don't know. So he took three views trying to capture as much as possible. Ten days later I got a letter from doc that said something like, "Inconclusive, please return for another x-ray if it still hurts after six weeks. kthxbye" I had to pay the hospital $600 out-of-pocket because the Health Center had no X-Ray facilities I guess, not covered by Medicare.

That is "Legacy Medicare" as I know, the single-payer is called CMS. Once, there was a series of fake charges on my CMS bill, it used to come only every three months, now I think it is more often, not sure. Anyway, I tried to get it sorted out and couldn't, even calling the fraud department. They kept asking me to prove it wasn't me who needed the services, even though I never lived in L.A. or had cancer, so why would I need the labs and meds charged like that? Oh well. I think they paid it, I couldn't do anything more to stop it.

Peace

I was in gown and hairnet and asked for my $60 copay. Wrote a check. There will be more that NYS Empire Plan (state employee) will demand of copays. Maybe only two more surgeries this year?

My foot is casted (not The Boot) and actually feels more stable; so far resisting -codones. Snowing here, 12+ inches forecast for today. And I have toes sticking out of the cast. No idea what the surgical site looks like; daughter NP to-be says must be sutures,little skin cover on top of foot. Hidden. One 325mg aspirin (had to buy on the way home) to reduce clot risks.

One week until I turn 64. That alone is enough to be depressing, but I am still alive!

@detroitmechworks Less Monsanto more jobs, that's how I see it in California anyway. Go back to mowing, not spraying poison all over everything, thanks CalTrans! Our local water department sprays defoliant along the river path as soon as the grass starts growing. The grass turns orange as it bolts in to death, so it is not really "silent spring", pretty noisy.

Anyway, this just happened: Court Dismisses Monsanto Challenge to California Cancer Chemicals List

March 13, 2017
A California state court judge has rejected chemical maker Monsanto’s legal challenge to an important provision of Proposition 65, the 1986 voter initiative that requires California’s Governor to maintain a public list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer. Monsanto was seeking to prevent California from adding glyphosate, the herbicide found in the company’s Roundup products, to the state’s cancer list. On Friday, March 10, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan ruled that none of Monsanto’s attacks on the provision were viable and dismissed the case.

“Monsanto may prefer to keep glyphosate off the Prop 65 list, but that does not empower them to override the choice of California's voters,” said Selena Kyle, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

As the court recognized in its order, “the voters determined that there should be a list of cancer-causing chemicals and substances.” The court also found that “there does not appear to be any chance that Monsanto or [its co-plaintiffs] can amend their complaints to state valid claims under any of the theories they can rely upon.”

Prop. 65 required labeling carcinogenics, I voted for it. Now there are warnings on practically everything sold in California (it seems), and now RoundUp. Finally!

Most people ignore the warnings though, because what else is there to buy? Not much. Still, it is better than nothing, and every now and again someone else wakes up and stops the insanity. Keep going.

Peace

Single Payer is weak sauce that still allows bullshit nickel and diming, increasing costs and lowering the quality of care in the name of profit.

I want a National Health Service.

I want MORE commons in the US. More Libraries, Free Colleges, Free Health Care, and an expansion of the Food Stamp Program which specifically attempts to undercut and hobble Monsanto and their ilk.

Sorry Dems, but I have found out I can get out and Walk faster than taking your clown car.

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks The English system is better than ours, but one doctor can deny you treatment and you're screwed. I prefer to pick my own doctors, not have Civil Servant assigned to me. And I spent half my life in Civil Service. it's like hiring your own lawyer or take pot luck with a public defender. I've seen good public defenders (not great) but also stupid rotten public defenders.

Single Payer is weak sauce that still allows bullshit nickel and diming, increasing costs and lowering the quality of care in the name of profit.

I want a National Health Service.

I want MORE commons in the US. More Libraries, Free Colleges, Free Health Care, and an expansion of the Food Stamp Program which specifically attempts to undercut and hobble Monsanto and their ilk.

Sorry Dems, but I have found out I can get out and Walk faster than taking your clown car.

@detroitmechworks If you combine single payer with the controls on drug pricing implemented by every other industrial country in the world you might get something you like. We wouldn't even have to write the damned thing. We could pull one working for another country off the shelf.

My concern with national health is I understand you frequently get the doctor available. I put a lot of effort into selecting a GP. She knows me. She will notice a change. When she decides I need a specialist she doesn't tell me to make an appointment with somebody on a list. She gives one or two names to her staff and they make the appointment. She also asks what I thought of the specialist the next time she sees me.

Pick your GP as though your life depended on it. It does.

Single Payer is weak sauce that still allows bullshit nickel and diming, increasing costs and lowering the quality of care in the name of profit.

I want a National Health Service.

I want MORE commons in the US. More Libraries, Free Colleges, Free Health Care, and an expansion of the Food Stamp Program which specifically attempts to undercut and hobble Monsanto and their ilk.

Sorry Dems, but I have found out I can get out and Walk faster than taking your clown car.

@RantingRooster great comment, thanks. Piling on.

Peace

will not stop until there is blood in the streets.

The most important healthcare metric no one is discussing, is healthcare outcomes, which of course the US ranks dead (no pun intended) last among all industrialized nations. The one percent have no shame, nor concern, nor any humanity left for those that can't "afford" the basic necessities to survive.

You, me and many of us here certainly would like, prefer, a peaceful revolution, but then again, we have some humanity left, we actually care about other people not in our immediate family. But recent history has PROVED, and current events certainly verify, our so called represenatives don't give a shit. They have pensions and healthcare, for life, paid for with our fucking money!

Remember what the wicked witch of the left said during the campaign, "Single payer healthcare will never, ever happen".

Gee, they have all the healthcare they could want or need, while the rest of scrimp, save and slave away, fuck, even take out loans to pay for. If you're the CEO of Goldman Sachs, you don't fear Cancer, as he has said, simply because you can afford any doctor from anywhere on this planet, you can afford any treatment, experimental or otherwise, while the rest of us only have two choices, poison A (chemo) or poison B (radiation). WTF!

How many lines have to be crossed?

Bernie's political revolution was nothing more than a way to suck the air out of the oppisition. A way to disfuse the anger welling up in the population, distract us from real, positive change.

When Bernie first announced his presidential run, and was interviewed on the boob tube, when asked if he would support the democratic nominee if it was't him, he said he would. THAT should have been a wake up call that his campaign was nothing but bullshit. And as things have turned out, he certainly did support the bitch that cheated him (i.e us), and he continues to do. He might voice opposition, but his voice is but a drop in the ocean of pultocrats in the services of the oligarchy that truly run this country. Hell, even Bernie supports the MIC, because to him, it's a "jobs" program.

I would rather re-direct much of that money for Green jobs, as well as our space program, which in a way, would be green jobs. I would rather make peace with other nations so we don't need to spend the vast majority of our tax dollars on war, but advanced healthcare and truly curing disease, not merely creating new and impoved revenues streams, so a tiny few can have more than any god. I would rather stop the tyranny of the US "spreading Democracy" and eliminate the root causes of so called terrorism, endless bombing of countries that don't threaten us nor attack us.

Too many people in this country can't wait 4 more years or even 2 more years. They will be homeless, in jail, or dead by then. I would not be surprised if we haven't been nuked by then. We are only kidding ourselves, thinking, believing Bernie or anyone else is going to swoop in and save us. We must save ourselves, or a good lot of us are going to die. And for what? So the gluttonous can have more?

Fuck, we are dying by the hundreds of thousands right fucking now, our fucking healthcare system is the 3rd leading cause of death of our fellow citizens. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! An average of 22 veterans are committing suicide a day, even self immolating themselves to draw attention to this epidemic of death, complete and utter lack of humanity, yet no one even bats an eye, because no one knows about it.

On a more peaceful note, let's occupy hospitals all across this country and overwhelm the system. Everyone go to the emergency room and demand care, and send the bill to your represenatives and simply refuse to pay. Who cares if your credit score gets fucked? Why do you need credit any way, to buy more shit we don't need from the very people that would have us in debt for the rest of our lives? A new car today costs as much as a fucking house did twenty years ago! Does anyone ever question why that is?

Why is it only our houses appreciate in value whem everything else loses half it's value once it rolls off the show room floor? No one seems to ask that question? Fuck, my rent, before I was forced to move, went up $300 a month over 3 years. Why? What value did I receive for that increase? No one asks that question, only accept some bullshit from people like Paul (lets have more asset bubbles) Krugman!

Another essay here says "They hate us because we are assholes", we're suing a nation we bombed back to the stone age, and the asshole that planned that bombing campaign like's Killary. WTF? They don't hate because we're assholes, certainly a good reason to be sure, but, truly, they hate us because we are cowards, unwilling to over turn this cart of sour (gmo) apples.

We are being attacked from every quarter, our lives and livelihoods are being destroyed, our environment eviserated, our future extinguished, and for what? So these dirt bags can have more "summer homes" they don't need? To have more money than god? To have infinately more power over our very lives? WTF!

I'm not saying overthrow the "government", which is merely a concept, I'm saying, specifically overthrow the men and women in government that have wiped their asses with our constitution, as flawed as it is. It is these people that are sticking the knife in our backs and slowly twisting it to bleed us dry of life, liberty and our pursuit of happiness. Fuck, the only people I know that are happy, is the fucking one percent, and those that serve them.

It is these men and women in our government, and the oligarchy that help them get elected, they need to feel the heat of death or abject poverty, as we feel every god damn day, or nothing will change, except, it's only getting worse, as the election of the Orange monster with tiny hands is proving in real time before our very eyes.

While some have a decent job and decent healthcare, you don't feel the pain the vast majority of us feel. The question is, do you have any humanity left for the rest of us? Do you really care enough, to stand with us? If you don't, while it doesn't mean you are against us, it means you had better not get in the way, or you too will suffer the same fate as the rest of these inhuman assholes that have enslaved us with debt and fear, crushed our hopes and dreams, destroyed our freedom, locked us up in cages like fucking wild dogs, as they did to the protestors at the #NODAPL protest camp.

The only way we are going to avoid a very violent and deadly revolution, it to shut the system down and throw out these inhuman fucks. Locking arms and singing kumbya isn't working anymore, what little humanity the 1% had, no longer exists.

(Morning rant over, be back later hopefully, I'm going to the emergency room!)

RR

@earthling1 I am down with simple living like you describe, but my actions seem wasted where I live. Yeah, I sold my car and take the bus, but in the meantime my neighbor bought an F250 diesel truck for his daily commute. That goes with my house neighbors from Laos who have never seen an SUV they didn't like. I'm grateful for their giant Escalade that sits below my deck though, I have it in mind in case of fire in my stairwell. I will hop on to the roof and jump, it's only about four feet and I am pretty light now. hah!

I did spend twelve years indentured servitude working for next to nothing while the land owners upgraded their solar and landscaping with my rent money. Not to mention all the poopy diapers I changed, school pickups and drop-offs, plumbing repairs, and electric, and IT work, and delivery services, I'm not incapable I'm just older now. I helped them build businesses, and manage lines, and all kinds of stuff. When their son was ready for college, they were done with me so kicked me to the curb as rental market was exploding off the charts. It's a cold world when it's your friends. Democrat friends, heh!

Peace

Cut up your cards. Deal in cash only. By local if possible with small businesses. Badmouth corporations everywhere you go. Stop consuming just to keep up with the Joneses. Reuse, refurbish, or recycle. Grow your own vegetables or join a co-op. Make your next car all electric. Don't buy a hybrid. Conserve water and electric by using both wisely. Walk, bicycle, or use public transportation whenever possible. Don't support churches that don't support America.
These are things anybody can do all by themselves. Collectively, it would be devastating to the powers that be. IMHO.
Thanks for a great rant.