The #1 complaint about the Canadian health care system is the very long wait for service. A move to M4A must include mechanisms to insure we can handle the workload.

Even without such a move we need to improve wait times which are only marginally better than Canada’s at significantly higher cost and with marginally less good health outcomes. Our health care system is, simply put, incredibly bad. In cost, quality, and access we are failing across the board and have been doing so for decades.

Comparatively huge fees for comparable services stay in place here despite competition

Not really, because outside of insurance plans there is basically no competition. It next to impossible to get price lists for anything, your insurance restricts your options of where to go anyway, and ‘who’s the cheapest cancer doctor’ tends to not be people’s first question for reasons of life and death. Maybe it should be. Maybe Americans simply value life too highly. Maybe we should be thinking of our lives in terms of asset v liability and approach our health care that way. Is it better for your kids for your family to go bankrupt or to lose a parent? I have no faith that we’ll get any fixes done. Pretty sure that this is just our reality now, along with the inevitable of mass shootings/right wing terrorism never resulting in any political change.

Possibly the most underrated superstar in NBA history.

Not if you ever saw him play…. his stats are mind numbing

Without getting technical, a friend of mine is touting newer nuclear power as a real and safe option. I haven’t looked into it deeply but I wouldn’t be so quick to cross nuclear off the list of options.

The GND o philes won’t allow nuclear…..

Bob Petit was a badass who would have been great in any era.

Possibly the most underrated superstar in NBA history.

When Congress abolished slavery after the passage of the 13th amendment the American South, and national economy by extension, stood to lose a major engine of economic growth.

While it’s difficult to ignore the moral difference between slavery and a broken health care system, your analogy is an excellent one if taken from the economic impact perspective. I have no moral objection to M4A but am looking for viable economic alternatives. If I am not mistaken, the economic impact of the dismantling of slavery was to send the South into multi-generational economic tailspin. That is my exact fear, on a national level.

@bobneptune

The problem with the GND is they give no alternative as to how to generate the power needed to run an industrial society. …try building a new reactor here and see where the GND-o-philes come down.

Without getting technical, a friend of mine is touting newer nuclear power as a real and safe option. I haven’t looked into it deeply but I wouldn’t be so quick to cross nuclear off the list of options.

@JK47

Incrementalism is really the only way forward because of the way our political system is set up.

Bingo!

Some responses… (1/2)
@Silky

If single payer M4A would disincentivize people from becoming doctors, then why is there no doctor shortage in any of the European countries with single payer? I highly doubt it actually disincentivizes these career choices

@Grocer

In order to be a doctor you have to be AMA certified. The AMA artificially limits the number of new docs they certify. They’ve got a quota to keep pay as high as possible. It’s not a shortage of capable or willing people.

I’ll take these two together. I was curious and did some research. There is something to this. This, and economic incentives would need to be addressed to maintain the prestige of being a doctor, nurse or other health care professional. Great points.

The #1 complaint about the Canadian health care system is the very long wait for service. A move to M4A must include mechanisms to insure we can handle the workload.

@Z-man

I’m for single payer with a private out-of-pocket option….I would also like to see a continued expansion of PAs and NPs delivering most non-invasive health care.

The private insurance option is essentially what ACA is except that it isn’t single payer. ACA aligns with my centrist approach because it lessens the impact on our economy and still promotes good capitalist objectives.