On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses how the dysfunctional U.S. health care system can be fixed with Dr. Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician and leading advocate for a single-payer system. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the soaring cost of health care.
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Dr Flowers is right, Bernie Sanders was right. The rest of the whole developed world is right. Republicans and many Democrats are so wrong. Pay attention to progressives and the Green Party. We don’t need an America of the 1850s. Let’s go !
That would be the socialist reformers. No thanks. Its not free btw.
However there is a better way under the current Medicaid program by way of less tax breaks to the middle and upper class to pay for it. The best way to make it competitive is that the government own and operate it and request contractor bids by insurance carriers to drive the costs down. Just like they do everything else.
50 Pinkies Why did you add in that it is not free? We understand that. Universal Healthcare works and capitalism is a failure to most young people.
Not doing it that way must have been bought and paid for. Obamacare was just coming in when I left the States. It would have improved things slightly to cover office visits and prescriptions for the same $360 a month. The improvement was accepting pre-existing conditions as covered. My sister had a severe pancreatitis attack. These can be fatal. I had to literally wrestle her into my car to get her to go to the hospital because once diagnosed, medical insurance would have been cost prohibitive even though she had a higher than average income. This is anecdotal yet makes me confident that high numbers of people die in the US every day because of the corrupt influence of HMO lobbyists and their paid politicians.
PnPrailroad I would like to interject for a moment I want you to look at the economic strength of the average working family in those countries and tell me that socialist plans actually work
Reilly Woods-murphy NZer here … they work. Granted there are waiting lists for certain procedures, but healthcare is a right here still.
In a country that spends 670 billion on defense,it’s people have no free health care,that is shameful.Love the show and the guests.
free health care, are you saying the doctors work for free. There is no such thing as free,
Nobody is saying doctor’s should work for free. Do police officers work for free? When was the last time you paid your police bill?
+Dennis S
That is a silly argument and been proven so many times,the vast majority of countries have a free Health Care Services payed for out of taxes and it is alot cheaper than the U.S. system,which puts profit before people.
It’s actually a trillion. The US government hides military expenditures in other department budgets.
Militarism and our empire is hollowing the country out.
http://www.pogo.org/straus/issues/defense-budget/2016/americas-1-trillion-national-security-budget.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
+Leopold Crayons
Didn’t Eisenhower warn about the Military Complex?
socialism for all. get ready to give the govt 75% of ur paycheck. no thanks.
I’d like to know your thoughts on why you’d rather pay say $5,000 in health insurance costs out of your own pocket annually versus paying a healthcare tax of say $1,000 out of your income annually? Wouldn’t you rather not spend the extra $4,000 if you didn’t have to? sites referenced: 1) single-payer proposal: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jan/13/how-much-would-bernie-sanders-health-care-plan-cos/ 2) Kaiser insurance employer benefits survey: http://kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2015-summary-of-findings/
Part of your insurance premium that you pay to your insurance provider is in effect helping to pay the costs of other people’s insurance who are also under the same insurance provider. It’s one of the reasons why you are paying such a high cost, because there are many people involved in providing healthcare to you directly: doctors, specialists, technicians, administrative staff, billing staff, accountants, and everyone all the way up the chain to the Board of Directors for the insurance company. So there is already a degree of “socialism” that you are against. You have every right to make an argument, but I wanted to offer some insight beyond the position you take. It’s harder for the human mind to look past a long-accepted personal ideology (such as “socialism” being a Cold War era idea for “BAD” with zero beneficial aspects.)
+Ioana Ariu yes, but not full socialism. I like my money. And I don’t want to share anymore of it, I already have to retire in my late 70s because the age keeps going up because we care more about illegals then our own.
Single-Payer Healthcare now and cut the profiteering crap!
#todonaldtrump
#ToMargaretFlowers
how would you like to have type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes, or some other life threatening chronic disease that requires continous medication that you can’t afford because the cost of the medications & health insurance has skyrocketed in the past 20 years? I would wish this on no one, even the ignorant people who argue against medicare for all.
Great information and great show Chris!
Yes thanks
I hope it doesn’t take 5 years, Margaret!
Simply put, medical care, and prisons for that matter, should NEVER be a profit making business. This practice is a filthy, vulturous and IMMORAL undertaking. I also find it very interesting that so many of the lawmakers who push this sort of thing call themselves Christians.
More diversions…While the Arctic Ocean is 50 degrees warmer, right now, in February! Arctic Oceans has winds of up to 90 mph, and waves are over 100 feet high, in some areas! Ice is spleen. LIke slush. When summertime arrives? Methane sinks, with possible trillions of tons of methane? Could collapse. Forget years, or months? We’ll be counting weeks…before our demise! There are solutions. Not one country’s leader? Cares to implement any solution.
I hear that we have about 3 years left!
While we spent a TRILLION annually (Including Nuclear armaments and other hidden fees ) in keeping a Military Empire, there will be no money for Medicare for all.
Make health, not war!
10:30 In 2013, due to not having enough money for insurance despite having a PT job I put off getting checked for a scab that was taking longer than normal to heal. It turned out it was skin cancer (basil cell). The removal was the size of a quarter on my temple, far larger than the scab. I now have a scar for life to remind me of *corporate greed*.
US healthcare before Obamacare, every dollar you spent was split as follows, 25 cents went to Insurance company, 25 cents to the lawyers, 25 cents to government, leaving 25 cents of every dollar going to the healthcare provider. Under Obamacare that dollar worth of healthcare now cost 1.50 , with insurance companies getting 50 cents, government 50 cents, lawyers 25 cents, and finally a quarter going to your healthcare provider.
The solution is not more government, we need to get the insurance companies, government and lawyers out of the healthcare business, let the people pay a fair competitive price directly to the Doctor. When your car needs an oil change or new tires, you don’t pay for it through your insurance company, same should be true for a doctor visit.
Dennis S People will stop going to the doctor because off the cost. They will put off care so long they will require drastically more intervention to fix their problems. Diabetics instead of seeing a Dr regularly and taking medication will put things off until they require amputations and/or go blind, then they end up on disability and you have to pay for them for the rest of your life.
People with infectious diseases will put off treatment and the diseases will spread catching more and more people. People you love, your co-workers, will be sicker. Even if you go to a doctor your neighbors won’t and they will make you sick.
Productivity will go down. Death and disability will go up.
Keeping the population healthy is much cheaper for everyone, including business, including the military, including you.
So are you suggesting that you force people to see a doctor, how does that work. You cannot force good health habits on people
+Dennis S No. But you can set up a system that keeps people out because of lack of funds.
THANK YOU BOTH!
Indeed…Everybody Knows.
Meanwhile, Norway has had single payer for over 100 years. No, that’s not a typo. https://www.google.com/amp/s/truecostblog.com/2009/08/09/countries-with-universal-healthcare-by-date/amp/?client=safari
Wouldn’t need to raise taxes for a single payer system. Taxes don’t and can’t fund the government. The government spends first then taxes.
Profit-driven health care is entirely unethical.
Rep Dems both get health care these two party’s aren’t going to help us.Corp 1% need to go
Outstanding!!! What a Goddess. The Sacred Feminine rises. She is our only chance for survival as a species…