I am sure the mainstream media will report this CBO data with all the import and gravity they accord to stories that reflect negatively public health care.
Like when AP runs the following piece, and Yahoo! promotes it to "Top Stories" on their news site, if only in the interest of providing BOTH SIDES and to counterbalance the overwhelmingly pro-public option bias of the media:
Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer Sat Jul 4, 2:28 pm ET
LONDON - As President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the American health care system, the role of government is at the heart of the debate. In Europe, free, state-run health care is a given.
The concept has been enshrined in Europe for generations. Health systems are built so inclusive that even illegal immigrants are entitled to free treatment beyond just emergency care. Europeans have some of the world's best hospitals and have made great strides in fighting problems like obesity and heart disease.
Ugh, coverage like this always makes me *so* pissed off! Every one of my friends from a country with Universal Health Care is always so fuckin' appalled at our standard of care in this country. It's kinda ridiculous to cover in this way.
The story by "MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer" gets even better at the URL. She goes on about how people have "needlessly died" in many European countries, from their systems. Thankfully we do not have that problem here.
The goal of this kind of reportage seems to be to frighten the US public into preserving things the way they are.
Oh internet...I figure this has got to work on the really gullible or the really elderly, or some combination thereof. And then I wonder "do these people even *use* the internet?"
After all, every other advanced country offers universal coverage, while spending much less on health care than we do. For example, the French health care system covers everyone, offers excellent care and costs barely more than half as much per person as our system.
I LOVE THIS, especially because I am so sick of Americans whining about how much France taxes in order to make this happen (I could care less, I'll pay whatever to help my countrymen) and now I can be like SHUT IT, BITCH, IT DON'T COST THAT MUCH.
The budget office says that all this would cost $597 billion over the next decade. But that doesn’t include the cost of insuring the poor and near-poor, whom HELP suggests covering via an expansion of Medicaid (which is outside the committee’s jurisdiction). Add in the cost of this expansion, and we’re probably looking at between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion.
There are a number of ways to look at this number, but maybe the best is to point out that it’s less than 4 percent of the $33 trillion the U.S. government predicts we’ll spend on health care over the next decade.
This should be all that needs to be said. Seriously.
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Like when AP runs the following piece, and Yahoo! promotes it to "Top Stories" on their news site, if only in the interest of providing BOTH SIDES and to counterbalance the overwhelmingly pro-public option bias of the media:
Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
Sat Jul 4, 2:28 pm ET
LONDON - As President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the American health care system, the role of government is at the heart of the debate. In Europe, free, state-run health care is a given.
The concept has been enshrined in Europe for generations. Health systems are built so inclusive that even illegal immigrants are entitled to free treatment beyond just emergency care. Europeans have some of the world's best hospitals and have made great strides in fighting problems like obesity and heart disease.
But the system is far from perfect.
[...]
It's ( ... )
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The goal of this kind of reportage seems to be to frighten the US public into preserving things the way they are.
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I LOVE THIS, especially because I am so sick of Americans whining about how much France taxes in order to make this happen (I could care less, I'll pay whatever to help my countrymen) and now I can be like SHUT IT, BITCH, IT DON'T COST THAT MUCH.
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There are a number of ways to look at this number, but maybe the best is to point out that it’s less than 4 percent of the $33 trillion the U.S. government predicts we’ll spend on health care over the next decade.
This should be all that needs to be said. Seriously.
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