Medicare for all by Bernie Sanders
 

Hey Folks,
I just got an email from Senator Sanders. He is going to be introducing legislation in the next couple of weeks to create a single payer medicare insurance program for all. I am not quite sure what to think of this. I don't know how it will work, but it may appeal to the repeal and replace crowd,


I know I am kind of sweating the upcoming changes. I have one prescription that cost about $5k per month. No insurance means no meds. I'll likely end up in wheel chair or bed ridden within 5 years.

If he had come up with this instead of the impractical promises during the campaign, he might have had a better chance.

No changes are upcoming in the foreseeable future, least of all any introduced by Bernie Sanders. No Sanders idea will appeal to the 'repeal and replace' crowd.

To be frank Sanders pushed back single payer much further by running against Clinton in 2016. So I tend to scoff at anything he says right now.

No Republican Senate is going to pass single payer anytime soon. The only chance is that in 2018 both Houses go Democrat and they pass it and Trump signs it because he has not had any sort of legislative success. That is a very long shot. But possible I imagine. Other than that the USA must look toward 2020.

I thought about Houston and was sad that the poorer people in the crisis would have been better covered under the Medicaid expansion had the Texas government accepted the roll out.

Sorry about your medical issues. $5000k a month is a lot. I hope everything works out ok for you.

Senator Harris from my state has come out in support of single payer.
Whether Americans will elect her President is another issue. I will vote for her is she is the nominee of the Democratic party.

I don't like lefty populists much more than I like right-wingjob populists.

Making promises one can't keep to get votes kept me from supporting Bernie

It's too bad Trump voters didn't feel the same.

I expect there are some significant and common cognitive challenges in that cohort.

They all do it. Some are just more blatant than others.

This isn't "practical" either. Just ask the folks in Cali, whose legislature punted on a similar proposal because of the anticipated costs, and no way to pay for it.

It works fine all over Europe. Americans just need to decide that they need to pay for a decent health care system more than they need to pay foe ridiculous shit like 11 active aircraft carrier battle groups.

I'm sure the European political elite often quietly that their lucky stars that they don't need to make large military expenditures so they can use some of the savings to deliver adequately controlled and rationed health care.

EIB/FOX gasbag jibberish. And, not surprisingly, this comment doesn't make any fucking sense.

We really don't need to be making such colossal military expenditures either. But, so many of our fellow Americans are such frightened, xenophobic pussies they have to have a military three times what's necessary and a loaded gun in every room, every vehicle and on their person at all times.

Land of the brave my ass.

Active US aircraft carrier strike groups...11. Commissioned and battle ready US aircraft carriers...20.

Country with the next largest fleet of active carrier strike groups is India...2. Countries with the next largest number of commissioned and battle ready aircraft carriers...France and Japan with 4. Those countries have one active aircraft carrier group each.

I feel so much more safe and secure knowing that we have a carrier strike group at the ready, protecting each of our 11 coastlines.

And Americans believe we are militarily vulnerable because of Barack Obama...and we can't afford universal Medicare. The country is fucked in the head.

Russia only has one carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, and it is an absolute piece of shit.

The vessel is powered by steam turbines and turbo-pressurized boilers that are so unreliable that it is accompanied by a large ocean-going tug whenever it deploys, in case it breaks down.

Flaws in the water piping system mean it freezes during winter. To prevent pipes bursting, the water is turned off to most of the cabins and half the latrines do no work.

Mr Roberts, a former Royal Navy officer, said: “There’s nothing more depressing for a naval captain when he leaves home waters than to be escorted by a tug because even your commander in chief thinks you are going to break down.”

One sailor was killed when a fire started on board the ship during a visit to Turkey in 2009. The ship also spilled hundreds of tons of oil in the Irish Sea during a refuelling accident the same year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...ical-problems/

But we need 11 active carrier strike groups to deal with our biggest worry...the fucking Russians. The estimated cost to run a Nimitz class carrier strike group is a bit over $2.5 million/day...a bit under $1 billion/year. That's $11 billion/year for our carrier force, plus whatever the expenses are to keep the other 9 commissioned aircraft carriers battle ready 365 days a year. But that's peanuts as a strike group built around a new Gerald R. Ford class carrier has been estimated to cost as much as $7 million/day...$2.5 billion/year. And the Pentagon, of course would like to have all the old Nimitz class flat tops, replaced with Ford class.

Just in case.

I am pretty sure we could drastically reduce our military, but other countries would need to increase theirs if that happened. I am pretty sure we are considered the world police and also pretty sure that other countries are happy to let us spend our money to maintain that status. They might call us paranoid warmongerers, but they don't seem to have issues with being allied to us, knowing that we will be there to spend our money to keep them from being a target. This allows them to spend much less on their military and afford such things as universal healthcare. I would be quite content if we did a massive downsize and worried about our own country and let the rest of the world fend for itself. Ain't gonna happen, but its a nice thought.

It is not about Russia.

What is not about Russia?

11 strike groups and 20 battle ready carriers in parallel with health care.