Julia Conley,  Staff Writer  -  Common Dreams Stephan: I see endless nonsense spewing out of MAGAt Republican mouths about how universal birthright single-payer healthcare is socialist or communist. When you hear, see, or read someone saying that the first thing to know is they have no idea what communism or socialism actually is. The second thing to know is that based on objectively verifiable social outcome data what they are saying is crap. As I have said again, and again, universal birthright single payer healthcare, based on the facts is the best and cheapest way to go. Given who Trump is appointing and working with I predict we will go the opposite direction, and that healthcare is going to get more expensive and less successful. Read this and weep. We are in for a very bad four years concerning healthcare Two of the United States’ most outspoken critics of the for-profit health system welcomed billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s criticism of the country’s sky-high healthcare spending—and suggested that Musk, a potential Cabinet member in the incoming Trump administration, join the call for Medicare for All. A social media post by Musk drew the attention of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who reintroduced legislation to expand Medicare coverage to every American last year and have long called for the for-profit healthcare system to be replaced by a government-run program, or single-payer system, like those in every other wealthy country in the world. “Shouldn’t the American people be getting getting their money’s worth?” asked Musk, posting a graph from the nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation that showed how per capita administrative healthcare costs in the U.S. reached $1,055 in 2020—hundreds of dollars more than countries including Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “Yes,” said Sanders, repeating statistics he has frequently shared while condemning the country’s $4.5 trillion health system in which private, for-profit health insurance companies increasingly refuse to [...]

View Entire Post