A friend of mine showed this to me...

[msfledermaus]

It's a concise, simple and funny explanation for why we need single-payer health insurance. I'd been arguing these points over and over and over with various people, and now I can just say, "Shut up and watch the stick people!"

Comments

[darkknight9.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with a single payer system per se, but I dod have a problem or two with the movie.

1. Fire insurance? Every homeowner is currently paying for there own fire insurance through a homeowners policy. If they want to make the comparison they also need to realize that water treatment, police, and fire services have not been run by the feds in many, many moons. There fun by local municipalities that might get a pittance from federal funds, but the vast majority of the monies they receive are from local property taxes. And hooooo boy do I know that sting. The last property tax bill I paid for a two bedroom house on a city lot in Hudson, WI was $3000. Yeah, it makes peeps in MN feel good about themselves because they dont pay nearly as much, but damn the water in Hudson was pretty good.

2. Administrative costs can seem very low for health care (medicare) dollars spent. The figure of two to three percent is only half right though. Every year medicare (which I'm on Hospital Plan right now) Spends more money than it takes in from taxes. The remainder of that money has to come from the HI Trust fund thats currently set up to help pay for medicare costs. Problem: no matter how much your spending on admin costs, if you withdraw more money from a trust fund than you fill it with its going to run out eventually. Thats bad. But thats the system we have (and that if I live to see January of next year will be able to sign up for the Medical Plan) We can have a single payer system, but if we dont fix the one that folks are using right now to be solvent first, it makes our example of trying to sell it look kinda poo poo.

3. We've got a thorough mistrust of our .gov and everyone knows private insurance folks are trying *really hard to get bigger golf courses in their backyards. I dont know if there's a single entity out there that could handle it professionally that we could trust. The guy who buys a $16k umbrella stand, or the organization that subcontracts for $65 toilet seats.

I just want to be well. :)

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Fire insurance? Every homeowner is currently paying for there own fire insurance through a homeowners policy.

The on-screen text at the start of that part said "fire fighting insurance, really." They were talking about a hypothetical policy that covers extinguishing of house fires.

[darkknight9.livejournal.com]

Which is ok, provided they also point out the fact that property owners *are paying a fire fighting insurance policy to their local municipality. :)

And personally, if there is never a need for them all year, I think they should be allowed to have more than just one pancake breakfast at the firestation every year. *Those* are damn fine pancakes. And I don't even really like pancakes all that much....

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

Exactly.
And I'm pretty sure two heads isn't covered.