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On 24 Oct 2018 at 19:23, Ralph Johansen via Marxism wrote: >>> Thoughts on single payer which, no less than Medicare, is at best a > way > station to what everyone deserves as birthright: adequate preventive > and > curative health assistance, at commensurate costs which do not > obscenely > enrich a few. In other words, it's an arrangement which if > implemented > still masks serious shortcomings. Present single payer schemes from > what > I see would not at all disturb the over all regime of the > pharmaceutical/medical complex in this country. ... Indeed! I strongly agree that the issue isn't simply financing the health care, and that single-payer would be simply one step forward, albeit a very important one. Back in 2007 I prepared a chart comparing four different things, * the present US system * Calif. and Mass. plans * national health care * socialist medicine. See. http://www.communistvoice.org/40cChart.html Being prepared before the ACA (Obamacare), it didn't include that. But it provided a framework that could deal with that as well. I prefaced it as follows: "A single-payer system of national health insurance would be a tremendous advance on the present system, but it still will not be socialist care. It will be subject to cost containment and budget-cutting, as all social benefits have been in the period of neo-liberal economic restructuring of the last few decades, and it will be important for the working class to insist that national health insurance is truly universal and covers all residents of this country, including the undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile the California and Massachusetts plans would funnel yet more money to private insurers, have a hard time finding the money to do so, continue the privatization of social services, and despite their promises, will not solve the problem of universal coverage." And I elaborted on this in such articles such as "What would socialist health care be like?" I contrasted a truly socialist system with capitalist medicine on such topics as -Universal coverage vs. private insurance -The limits of single-payer plans and national health care -It's still connected to profit -What is socialism? -Universality -Preventive care -Two-tier care -At the work place -Pollution -Elitism -Overmedicated. -Poverty -Workers must put their stamp on the health system See http://www.communistvoice.org/40cCompare.html -- Joseph Green --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
