{"id":8569,"date":"2006-09-26T10:40:51","date_gmt":"2006-09-26T14:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8569.html"},"modified":"2006-09-26T10:40:51","modified_gmt":"2006-09-26T14:40:51","slug":"americans-clearly-want-a-system-that-guarantees-health-care-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/americans-clearly-want-a-system-that-guarantees-health-care-for-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Americans clearly want a system that guarantees health care for everyone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of these days, one of these studies<\/a> will lead political leaders to seize a national policy opportunity.<\/p>\n

So what do Americans want when it comes to health care? Two things, according to a citizens group created by Congress: protection for all from high medical expenses and guaranteed coverage for specific checkups and treatments.<\/p>\n

The group’s call for universal health benefits will be delivered to President Bush on Monday. But, in many ways, the recommendations clash with Bush’s stance that consumers should bear more responsibility for their initial medical expenses.<\/p>\n

“Americans clearly want a system that guarantees health care for everyone,” said the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, whose 15 members represent consumers, the disabled, business, organized labor and health care providers. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt also is a member.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This wasn’t just some random poll. The Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, created by Congress, heard from 6,650 people at 84 meetings around the country over 18 months, and solicited 14,000 responses online. The bottom line: the vast majority of Americans want the polar opposite of what Bush wants in a health-care system. Indeed, let’s not forget that as far as the president is concerned<\/a>, Americans are already over<\/em>-insured.
\n
\nNevertheless, given the media’s characterizations of the group’s report, it certainly sounds<\/i> like people are open to a single-payer system. Maybe someone could offer them one?<\/p>\n

To quote something Ezra said<\/a> a month ago in a slightly different context, a “savvy politician could make some great gains by tapping into” the anxiety Americans feel about the existing health-care system.<\/p>\n

I completely agree. Between the data showing Americans (including the middle class) can’t afford<\/a> the status quo, and additional data showing that the vast majority of Americans already believe<\/a> the government should spend far more on health care, while individual families should spend far less, a single-payer message is likely to land on fertile soil — if only someone would bring it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of these days, one of these studies will lead political leaders to seize a national policy opportunity. So what do Americans want when it comes to health care? Two things, according to a citizens group created by Congress: protection for all from high medical expenses and guaranteed coverage for specific checkups and treatments. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}